Help please! Sorry about the long post. I used to know a bit about ICE, but that was ten years ago and things seem to have moved on just a bit Whatever happended to bass and treble *****

Now upgrading my ICE and looking at a Kenwood Music Keg with 20Gb hard drive. This is very new kit (so I'm told) and the spec is sensational - holds about 400 CDs "at standard MP3 compression" with trick search/select functions What's MP3 compression and is there any loss of sound quality?

Suggestions for a improving my sound also welcome. I think it is very good but would like to nail the vocals to the front-centre more firmly.

I have 2x MB Quart two-way jobbies in the front foot-wells in angled custom pods, and 2x on the rear shelf. Mid-range speakers are about 7in with separate tweaters and fancy adjustable cross-overs in the boot. Don't recall the model numbers but they were were bloody expensive. Driven by an old 4x 75w Pioneer amp.

How about sticking a centre speaker on the dash (Pro-logic style) firing off the windscreen or is that a stoopid idea? Or a couple more tweaters on the left/right dash or in/on the doors?

Two MB Quart 10in subs in separate sealed boxes in the boot, fed by a old Pioneer 400w amp.

Amps are gonna go - they weigh a ton and no doubt gobble gallons of power. Was thinking of Genesis replacements? Could use a bit more oomph without cranking it right up. Upgrade to 12in subs? Any recommendations, sealed or ported? Engine mods are not making the car any quieter!

Head unit is Kenwood 2-838W with 4x 50w built in.

Too many questions! Very many thanks in advance

Cheers,

Richard.

Edited to add car is UK00

[Edited by Hoppy - 2/1/2003 10:16:57 PM]

[Edited by Hoppy - 2/1/2003 10:32:03 PM]

 

Richard
there ar a few good amps for sale on scoobynet.

 

[biased as I'm the Dension distributor]
Hoppy, before you go spending a fortune importing a Phatbox from the US, check out the Dension range of hard disk-based in-car mp3 players. Feel free to ping me for more info.

Cheers

Lee.
[/biased...etc]

 

Thanks, Lee, but I'm not importing anything nor spending a fortune. It's ex-demo stock.

Any other advice welcomed, biased or not

Richard.

 

Fair dos! I think that if you're a Kenwood user and can live with the constraints of:

1) smallish HD capacity
2) navigation via an index-based system using a single-line head unit display

and the price is right, then it's worth going for.

Music Keg/Phatnoise build quality's pretty good. The question in my mind is the usability of the SSA interface and the work involved using PMM.

 

I like the phatbox solution, but the navigation and display is limited to your standard head unit display, hence is perfectly integrated but at the expense of ease of navigation...

 

BTT and thanks for the replies

What's the BEST front speaker layout for optimum imaging in a UK00 Impreza?

Cheers,

Richard.

 

Si, thanks. Some good info there that I'll use.

But what is the best location for front speakers to get optimum imaging? Do I need more than two tweaters?

Cheers,

Richard.

 

For coherent imaging, you want as few point sources for music as possible...

There is no 100% right answer for every different type of speaker, but mine work well on the triangles behind the door mirrors... However, they're designed with a controlled dispersion in mind (allegedly) and so should image quite well anywhere.

Kickpanel builds were, and are, popular but are a pain in the Impreza with all the wiring looms and connectors down there.

Long flying leads and blu-tak is your friend when working on imaging!
Cheers,
Nick.

 

Thanks Nick. I've got a pretty good idea of where I'm going now

Cheers,

Richard.

 

personally, but then i'm completely biased as i have some, go for the focals in the front. I've always wanted a pair for ages and now i've got some polyglass in the front (i don't know why i didn' buy the polykevlars) because of the definition, especially with vocals. what you do need however, if you are to upgrade the fronts, is a quality amplifier or you may as well not bother. the cheaper ones boast high power ratings, but ideally you need sq and spl...

At the moment i have a 4 channel Phoenix Gold running the fronts and sub (bridged) and this is the kind of amp (equally genesis, soundstream, phase linear (well the older ones) that''l do them justice. You've probably noticed the amp is for sale, so if you're after a bit of quality volume through a single footprint solution, it might be worth having a look?

i would keep to a single sub and seal the enclosure - it'll have more puch and definition and take up less room, either the focal, jl (w6/7) or aliante honeycombe subs are top notch stuff.

I would only consider a centre speaker if you are to create a 5 way surround sound multimedia/movie setup - otherwise it'll ruin the image up front.

MP3 is a compressed, lossy format that is less sq than cd, but better in theory than minidisc. It does depend though, on the original recording made; if you're downloading the original track may not be recorded brilliantly. I've actually got an mp3 head unit in the scoob and these days i tend to just play cds from the hu and the changer because of the qulaity and volume differences of mp3.

hope this helps!!

cheers

[Edited by Si.t - 2/5/2003 8:09:39 PM]