Thread: 2006 MazdaSpeed 6 Audio Test Lab

Originally Posted by RedGTiVR6

looks good!

is that your dog in the back seat?

Thanks

LOL, I didn't even notice him. Ya Jimmy must have jumped in there when I was messing around in the garage. He doesn't like it when I leave so he jumps in the car whenever he thinks I'm leaving.

i love the techy/future look of your amp rack (the heatsinks and the barbones pcboard).

looks good

Originally Posted by scott_fx

i love the techy/future look of your amp rack (the heatsinks and the barbones pcboard).

Cool thanks! When people see it they aren't quite sure what they are looking at. Most of what you see in the computer is the soundcard folded over the motherboard. I'm glad audiotrak gave it a geeky sort of industrial look high end look too. The combine that with super old amps some people can't recognize and its future meets oldschool.

Originally Posted by Dennis5587

looks good

Your is coming along too. Sad to hear your troubles with your amp but at least you got the behringer piece to play with.

Update:

I FINALLY stopped being scared and switched over to all software audio processing using the ASIO method.I was having problems with my H701 acting really strange on me as if the settings were drifting. In the mornings it sounded one way, and then at night it sounded completely different. I gave up and it gave me an excuse to activate my software plugins.

All I can say is WOW. I was pretty pleased with the H701 originally, but now that I have been playing with the VST plugins I'm not looking back. It's noticable better than the H701. I'm sure the soudncard analog outs have somethign to do with this as well. I had to readjust my gains to compensate for the lower output voltage, but I have ZERO noise/hiss. The only issue I have is turn on pop ( which is very bad at the moment) and volume control. Using a rotary encoder tied to a mouse controlling Roadrunners volume, it doesn't have the necessary resolution to adjust smoothly. I tired changing the voltable.ini but it acts screwy. I'm hoping somebody has an answer to this in the RR forum since I asked.

I need to get my pop fixed ASAP, but for now I'm going ot manually turn my amps on by putting a switch inline with the turn on wire, but it will still turn off ok with ignition if I forget. I'm probably going to fix it forever with the Fusion Brain as it will also resolve my factory button integration issue.

Whew! That's a lot of updates.

what an update. I don't think i've ever heard anyone switch from the H701 to software. I'm glad it's all working out great for you. (thats one thing i really need to look into more).

What all do you plan to do with your Fusion Brain?

Originally Posted by sporty_drew

what an update. I don't think i've ever heard anyone switch from the H701 to software. I'm glad it's all working out great for you. (thats one thing i really need to look into more).

What all do you plan to do with your Fusion Brain?

I ways back in my worklog I started to wire up directly to the front panel buttons on my factory radio. Origianlly I was goign to use a USB gamepad or keyboard controller, but it won't work the way I need it to. So I looked intot he Fusion brain and it has 10 analog inputs that I can interface with my buttons. Originally I needed 12 button capability but I can live with 10. So, I can connect things like track up/down, ff,rw, load, CD,media,sat to it and use them to control Roadrunner. It will also act as my amplifier delay turn on since i have a pop I need to get rid of. And last if it ever gets developed, better volume control. I might use it to turn on/off fans and such too to use it to it's full ability.

The software plugins and such are not easy to get working at first, but with the right soundcard it's pretty damn cool. It looks like Audiotrak is going to be producing more of it's Prodigy 7.1Hifi cards again and that card really makes it easier when using ASIO and VST plugins because of it's Directwire feature. Plus the sound quality of the card is pretty good-better than any of the Audigy cards I have used.

hows the processor load? is the pc still responsive & does everything it used to well? flash skins? video's? multitasking?... enquiring minds want to know!!

Originally Posted by turbocad6

hows the processor load? is the pc still responsive & does everything it used to well? flash skins? video's? multitasking?... enquiring minds want to know!!

I haven't loaded in the EQ's yet, but they didn;t seem to impact the load as much as allocator. Preliminary tests showed it was peaking at around 50% with the EQ's. My 45 minute drive in this morning everything was working fabulous. Road runner didn't slow down one bit. I'm using the simplistque v1 skin. I'll try out GPS today too and see if it still runs full speed ahead. Last is DVD/video but I need to figure out the delay since I think my latency settings are set at about 1024ms on my soundcard.

Hibernation takes a little longer-it seems it hang a bit but I'm just happy it comes out of hibernation ok. The turn on thump is dangerous though. I need to protect my tweeters ASAP. First thing on my list for the weekend.

As far as sound comparisons between this and the H701, midbass is tighter and much more defined, midrange is more netral sounding which is nice because 1-2Khz was really ripping my head off with the alpine. I still need to adjust my highs a bit more because they don't seem right yet, but they are a bit smoother than the alpine was. I translated the exact crossover settings and TA from my alpine to this and I ahd to tweak it a bit. I heard rumors taht the H701 isn't as accurate on its filters as one would think, which might explain why I had to tweak it a bit. Once I take it out of my car, I plan on testing to see if that is really true.

Originally Posted by durwood

I ways back in my worklog I started to wire up directly to the front panel buttons on my factory radio. Origianlly I was goign to use a USB gamepad or keyboard controller, but it won't work the way I need it to. So I looked intot he Fusion brain and it has 10 analog inputs that I can interface with my buttons. Originally I needed 12 button capability but I can live with 10. So, I can connect things like track up/down, ff,rw, load, CD,media,sat to it and use them to control Roadrunner. It will also act as my amplifier delay turn on since i have a pop I need to get rid of. And last if it ever gets developed, better volume control. I might use it to turn on/off fans and such too to use it to it's full ability.

The software plugins and such are not easy to get working at first, but with the right soundcard it's pretty damn cool. It looks like Audiotrak is going to be producing more of it's Prodigy 7.1Hifi cards again and that card really makes it easier when using ASIO and VST plugins because of it's Directwire feature. Plus the sound quality of the card is pretty good-better than any of the Audigy cards I have used.

Sounds cool. I love how versatile the Fusion Brain is, and making skins for it is a breeze. I'll look into those sound cards. And thanks for the cpu load info. I was wondering how it was.