Car Stereo Stuff

[Pneumatic]

Another thread got me to wondering if any other MURCers are into car stereo stuff. Here's my set up:

2001 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer.
Alpine sound/video system with DVD (Dolby Digital), VCR, 8 disc changer, 2 screens, sub, etc, etc. I can watch either medium on either screen at the same time, or one movie on both. It can either be pumped through the system, or into the infra red headphones (good for not listening to Little Mermaid for the 1000th time). This pic has a DVD playing in the front (through the system) and a VCR tape playing in the back (through the wireless headphones)

[cbman]

Yeah.. I am into it.

But I don't own a car... but I saw some cool stuff once.

Maybe when I get a better job and a good car and lots of money I will post a few pictures... but until then I will just daydream whilst sitting at a stupid book binding machine for hours upon hours.

Sigh... I hope my foray into owning my own business pays off.

Good luck to me.

[KvHagedorn]

We sell the Eclipse stuff at our store, and it's very nice. The screen pops out just like that one you've got in front there. Personally (and this is just me), I would rather invest in home equipment. If I had the extra cash to lose when some bozo breaks in and steals it all, I would probably get some seriously nice car stereo stuff, but I doubt I'd get video up front. Long ago I worked at a pizza place and one of the delivery drivers used to blast outta the parking lot every run with his head turned to the TV in the seat next to him. One night when he took off out of the parking lot another car T-boned him at about 45MPH.. totaled the car, but he was OK. That was the end of his in-car TV watching though.

For the back seat, it'd be wonderful.. I bet your girls are far less bored during long trips.

[SteveC]

Kindness & KvHagedorn - in my country it's illegal for a tv screen to be visible to the driver at speeds over 3MPH if I remember correctly.

My car's not really big enough to do what you've done Kindness!, although I've thought about it MANY a time.

Check http://www.steve-cooper.co.uk/car.htm for what I've done so far.

I'm after a small (4-5") LCD screen if anyone knows where I can get one. It needs to accept either a VGA or Composite (or S-Video) input though. Anyone got any ideas?

[Guru]

Cut holes in the parcel shelf and fitted 2 Kenwood 160Watt 6x9 speakers.

Hope you are not planing on competing with this car!

[SteveC]

Originally posted by Guru


Hope you are not planing on competing with this car!

Err no - however these two speakers sound a hell of a lot better than supposedly much more powerful no-name ones I've blown in the past.

One of my friends has 2 1 Kilowatt speakers in the boot of his car though

[Guru]

Originally posted by SteveC


Err no - however these two speakers sound a hell of a lot better than supposedly much more powerful no-name ones I've blown in the past.

One of my friends has 2 1 Kilowatt speakers in the boot of his car though

I did not mean that the speekers are "bad"! It's just that by installing speekers in the rear (espesialy 6x9's) you are (this is hard for me to explain in English ) "removing" (filtering out) the bass from the sub and it's a hell of a lot harder to position the sound right! Are you planing on adding a DSP unit? If you realy want the car to "sound" great I recomend puting your money on a desent front system and "isolating" your car using for example noice killer!

EDIT:I'm sure there are a couple of guys here that could explain this bether then me!

Could ask my friend for a bether explanation. (Ranked 3rd in Pro 300W in Finland last year The ****ole has Pioner as his sponsor)

[Gurm]

You know what cracks me up? That the guys at the car stereo shop want to sell you wire thicker than a human wrist for your car.

They claim it's "needed" to pump out the volume you want without interference.

I pointed out to the guy that with standard speaker wire, my parents' 1000-Watt PA system puts out sound so pure it'll make you weep, at volumes loud enough to be heard a mile away. He didn't really have a good comeback.

- Gurm

[KvHagedorn]

Jason, of course he didn't have a comeback for that. Car stereo and the professional arena type systems are totally different fields, and I'm sure he was clueless about PA systems. And anyway, it's a ridiculous comparison. PA speakers are made for maximum volume, and therefore are very sensitive. A tiny amount of power will get you huge volumes there, and you are using huge amps in those systems anyway. What gauge wire are you using?

There's no excuse for using smaller than 16 gauge speaker wire, unless you just can't hide it. In that case, 18 gauge would be minimum, for up to about 20 feet or so. The problem is, when you use longer runs of small gauge wire you add impedance to the system, which screws up the sound. It's not LOUDNESS that matters here, but sound QUALITY. Yes, he was probably ignorant of that, and was just saying loudness. Bigger is usually better though, so he wasn't leading you astray there. In a car, good 16 gauge should be sufficient. 14 gauge could become unwieldy in such tight spaces, for mids and highs.

If you guys were talking about power wire, then yes, you need a pretty thick wire for a high powered system. 4 gauge is not uncommon. And the ground wire needs to be the same thickness.

[Gurm]

No no, you misunderstand.

He was trying to sell me like 1 gauge. I use 12 for my subs, and 16/14 at home for the stereo. But this stuff was the diameter of a half-dollar.

Other great lies:

"Time Compensated Wire"... the idea is that the highs and lows travel in "different parts of the wire". As if electricity really were like water. Anyway, supposedly the highs travel faster than the lows. But... they also tend to travel at the outside of the wire. So... if the center of the wire is straight, and the outside is wrapped, you have successfully "lengthened" the distance the highs must travel, and "shortened" the distance the lows must travel.

Questions to ask:

1. Wouldn't the wrap have to be different for different distances?

2. Doesn't it all get twisted and crimped at the ends anyway?

3. Who thought up this bullshit?

- Gurm

[KvHagedorn]

How do electrical currents behave in wire? Sounds like a question for Mike, so I'll defer to him there. Here's a good link on cable theory from Audioquest, though. .

http://www.audioquest.com/theory/cable_theory.html

btw, the guy must have been trying to sell you power wire.. for speakers? That's nuts. He's an idiot.

[Wombat]

You can check out this article: http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/...es/23down.html

Or just read www.monstercable.com for tons of bogus claims. And check the math, half the time they have your sound running through the wires at speeds faster than that of light.

[Liquid Snake]

I skimmed the NYTimes article. Basically about the arguement you find in high-end audio (cheap cables vs. expensive ones).

A few quotes:
"Cables are a highly lucrative item that may account for a modest percentage of sales but a greater percentage of profit."

"The scientific record is unclear. So far no research paper contending to prove or disprove the value of fancy wires has been accepted by the leading industry publication, The Journal of the Audio Engineering Society"

"We say we are starting with a 12 WAG zip cord, and we position a technician behind each speaker to change the cables out. The technicians hold up fancy-looking cables before they disappear behind the speakers. The critics debate the sound characteristics of each wire. They describe huge changes and they say, 'Oh my God, John, tell me you can hear that difference,' Mr. Dunlavy said. The trick is the technicians never actually change the cables, he said, adding, 'It's the placebo effect.'"

[Beezer]

Nice looking setup Kindness I just got a 2001 F150 that looks a lot like the inside of your rig -- minus the video stuff. I don't think I can have the video because of my moon/sun roof being right there. My boys were not too happy about that decision
So far I just have the music system that came with the truck (6 CD changer/cassette), but it sounds ok for now. I do plan to upgrade in a year or so.

[Pneumatic]

Beezer, I love those trucks. If we didn't have to have a kid hauler that's what I would be driving! I like trucks that look like they have a little attitude without being a total off road monster truck. Nice ride!