K1 said:Hi guys,
As the audiophile I am -I want to have the same balanced and clean sound as I am used to from my high-end home hifi system into my E46. I know that I can not get the exactly same high-end sound in my car or any other car. But I want come as close as possible to my home high end system. I wanted to know exactly what the E46 cockpit was doing the original sound signal from the speakers. What I did was to install a Real Time Analyzer (RTA) on my laptop and thereafter watched on the laptop what was really going on in the E46 cockpit. My reaction to what I saw was 1 - :yikes: 2 -3 - :banghead: 4 - :tsk: 5 -
6 -
7 - :bawling:.
What I saw was disturbing (see enclosed image) -the E46 cockpit or any car cockpit a asume, was totaly messing up with the sound. Now I know why even the world famous high end maker Mark Levinson needed equalizers in their notorious and very very expensive high end Lexus car system (http://www.marklevinsonlexus.com). When I saw the reading from the RTA in my car (see enclosed image) -I said to myself -ok K1, maybe now you why even a Mark Levinson system can not operate well under those condition without the help of an equalizer.
This lead me to want to correct the sound in the E46 cockpit so that it comes closer the reference sound. I can say that -just the small corrections I have made so far has been gone a long way -since I now know where, what and how much I should adjust my equalizer.
If anyone is interested in this project :dunno:-let me know and I will provide a step by step guide on how to correct the sound in the E46 cockpit.
Otherwise I will just continue with the project by myself and will not bother you guys with it on the board.
If you are interested on the other hand -you will need:
- a headunit with an equalizer (the tone control in the stock BMW headunit would most likely not be precise enough).
- a laptop with internal or external mic., internal or external speakers and with a cdrom.
- RTA software (the one I use can be downloaded for free on the internet, I can provide you with the link)
K1 said:Hi guys,
If you are interested on the other hand -you will need:
- a laptop with internal or external mic., internal or external speakers and with a cdrom.
-
Before we jump to conclusion, none of us knows what K1 has installed in terms of audio analyzing hardware and software on his laptop, nor do we know his background...Cut him some slack eh? At least he's being very professional and courteous in his presentation of his facts. We don't want another repeat of the clear coat disaster. :dunno:DougDogs said:
Wait just a minute....you call yourself an audiophile, and believe any of these tests can be preformed with the internal microphone on your laptop. :thumbdwn::banghead:
Where did you get your "audiophile" education??? working at radio shack maybe???:banghead:
edit: sorry, I did not notice you are from Denmark...maybe you stocked shelves at musicladen, probably never heard of radio shack.
I have been listening to high end hifi systems since 1992. My system at home is mainly made up by Accuphase (http://www.accuphase.com/ind_eng.htm) amplifiers, Accuphase, a cd-player, MIT terminator 2 (http://www.mitcables.com) speaker cables (which was by the way bought at Stereoexchange on Broadway (NY,NY) not very far away from radio shack by the wayDougDogs said:
Wait just a minute....you call yourself an audiophile, and believe any of these tests can be preformed with the internal microphone on your laptop. :thumbdwn::banghead:
Where did you get your "audiophile" education??? working at radio shack maybe???:banghead:
edit: sorry, I did not notice you are from Denmark...maybe you stocked shelves at musicladen, probably never heard of radio shack.
Ok, Ok, when I posted this last night, I was very pissed off at what my town just did to my driveway and street,The HACK said:
Before we jump to conclusion, none of us knows what K1 has installed in terms of audio analyzing hardware and software on his laptop, nor do we know his background...Cut him some slack eh? At least he's being very professional and courteous in his presentation of his facts. We don't want another repeat of the clear coat disaster. :dunno:
I'd be interested in what he has to find out and say about our systems.
K1, first, please see above appology, second I do not condider myself an audiophile, I just enjoy clean sound. In younger years I had the pleasure of working together with Claire Brothers Sound, Maryland Sound, as well as other smaller companys across America and Europe when touring with bands like MeatLoaf, J Geils Band, Asia, Southside Johnny, Loverboy, Bay City Rollers, and other bands.K1 said:
I have been listening to high end hifi systems since 1992. My system at home is mainly made up by Accuphase (http://www.accuphase.com/ind_eng.htm) amplifiers, Accuphase, a cd-player, MIT terminator 2 (http://www.mitcables.com) speaker cables (which was by the way bought at Stereoexchange on Broadway (NY,NY) not very far away from radio shack by the way, Infinity Modulus speaker system http://oellerer.net/infinity_classics/Modulus/body_modulus.html, Kimber (http://www.kimber.com/) audio cables. In total the system would if bought new cost at least cost $21.000. Maybe that is not audiophile enough for some of you guys:dunno:
HELL YEAH BAY CITY ROLLERSDougDogs said:In younger years I had the pleasure of working together with Claire Brothers Sound, Maryland Sound, as well as other smaller companys across America and Europe when touring with bands like MeatLoaf, J Geils Band, Asia, Southside Johnny, Loverboy, Bay City Rollers , and other bands.
I have it on an older Denon "DP" turntable (I think it's discontinued now) and I have 2 Stanton cartriges I exchange depending on the age of the vinyl, and how much acoustical feedback I want to tolerate.EugieBaange said:Black Widow? Ooooo.... impressive :thumbup:
Back when I used to follow the audio rags more than I do now, I remember reading the reviews.
What TT do you have it in?
I accept your apology. I totally agree with you that a standard built in microphone on a laptop suffers from noise made by the operating system and noise made by the hard disk spin. Therefore a good external microphone would better. This noise is there and can be seen easily in the RTA readout.DougDogs said:
K1, first, please see above appology, second I do not condider myself an audiophile, I just enjoy clean sound. In younger years I had the pleasure of working together with Claire Brothers Sound, Maryland Sound, as well as other smaller companys across America and Europe when touring with bands like MeatLoaf, J Geils Band, Asia, Southside Johnny, Loverboy, Bay City Rollers, and other bands.
At home I have three different seperates systems in my house. (living room, bedroom, and basement) I am mostly a fan of Yamaha, Phase Linear, and Denon. To my insurance company, my record collection alone is valued at over 15,000 dollars, and my tone arm alone cost me close to 2500 dollars 12 years ago (Black Widow tone arm)
Maybe, because my systems and collection pales by comparison to a friend of mine's ( a member of the E-street band) I don't think I'm an audiophile, my wife just thinks I have a "problem"![]()
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little<>< said:Do you have the "Business CD" or the HK upgrade?
When I perform the analysis I use the highest sampling rate that the RTA software allows me -which is 96000 Hz (see enclosed image). I will get more into this -when I kick off the guide latter today or Friday.little<>< said:Your audio card can be an Achilles heel as well. An old internal SB16 set at 8 bit, and a 16000 kHz sampling rate will not give the same results as a modern 24 bit, 96000 kHz with an external mic preamp.
K1 said:
I am slowly upgrading my stock non-HK system. Currently my is made up by the following components:
Headunit - Pioneer DEH-P 5100RB radio/cd player (eventually I will go for one of the top Alpine headunits with many line outs) (http://www.pioneer-eur.com)
Minidisk Changer - Pioneer 6 MD minidisc changer (installed in the glove compartment)
Speakers front - Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 (http://www.infinitysystems.com/caraudio/products.asp)
Speakers rear - stock non HK speakers
Amplifier - 4 channel Alpine MRV-F340 (http://ecominet2.alpine-usa.com/pls...340&p_category=40&p_subcategory=120&p_main=10)
Subwoofer - Infinity Baslink 250 watts RMS (installed in the trunk). (http://www.infinitysystems.com/caraudio/products.asp)
That's it...
When I perform the analysis I use the highest sampling rate that the RTA software allows me -which is 96000 Hz (see enclosed image). I will get more into this -when I kick off the guide latter today or Friday.
Kaz said:And sound-off pros have shown that a flat full-spectrum RTA curve in a car doesn't necessarily sound 'good' to people.