On 18 July 1996, the mourning police blotter reflected the arrest of a 
gentleman found with ladies underwear worn on his head, try to sleep in a
waste basket in the corner of Hillary's bedroom. When he awoke he screamed:
 > Well ideally, you should not be able to directly locate the speakers 
 > (particularly the tweeters).  The center image should typically hover 
about 
 > eye-level over the dash.  It doesn't necessarily have to extend out to the 
 > front bumper, but I suppoe it could.
 > It's difficult if not impossible to get a sound stage as precise as you 
 > depict above, in the car environment... mainly because there is no center 
 > "listening position" in which the listener can position himself exactly 
 > between the speakers.  Such judgements are generally made from the 
driver's 
 > seat, so the trick is in shifting the imaging such that it's "right" from 
 > that position.
       OK, that makes sense. But just the geometric considerations make such 
imaging a near impossibility. I would think the most one could hope for is 
making the speakers disappear. Even though bass is Omnidirectional, in a 
vehicle one is always aware that it is coming from the rear, regardless of 
what tricks you use to try redirecting it up and off the wind screen/shield. 
When cranked up, the bass beats you from behind more than it beats on your 
legs and chest, thereby giving it direction, and negating all other effort to 
establish the soundstage out front. 
       I have seen many of the comp cars, vans and trucks. They all seem to 
suffer from this shortcoming. So, for the sake of the hobby, everyone 
overlooks it and continues to march. 
       I can think of very few environments more difficult than inside and on 
the extreme left side and forward of a small sealed chamber with the 
requirement that bass only come from underneath or behind you, to try to set 
up an image and soundstage. I have heard some pretty fantastic systems that 
have somehow managed to overcome this seemingly impossible situation (but at 
great expense), with the exception of the directional bass and sub-bass. 
Cheers, John
 
--- AdeptXBBS v1.07g (Registered)
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** A related thread FOLLOWS this message.

FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 183 AUDIO         Ref: DBR22299 Date: 07/22/96
From: MICHAEL SUHM                                          Time: 02:38am
\/To: JOHN ALLEN                                          (Read 4 times)
Subj: R: Re: CAR AUDIO

JA>       OK, that makes sense. But just the geometric considerations make 
JA>imaging a near impossibility. I would think the most one could hope for 
JA>making the speakers disappear. Even though bass is Omnidirectional, in a
JA>vehicle one is always aware that it is coming from the rear, regardless 
JA>what tricks you use to try redirecting it up and off the wind screen/shi
JA>When cranked up, the bass beats you from behind more than it beats on yo
JA>legs and chest, thereby giving it direction, and negating all other effo
JA>establish the soundstage out front.
-
And that folks, is one of the challenges that makes car audio
interesting to those of us who care about quality sound.
-
Mike
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FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 183 AUDIO         Ref: DBM00027 Date: 07/17/96
From: JOHN JEWELL                                           Time: 07:39pm
\/To: SEAN DUNBAR                                         (Read 4 times)
Subj: Re: CAR AUDIO

SD> Mine sound EXCELLENT, and the crossovers seem to be pretty good quality 
too
SD> I think I got a bad one tweeter though; one of mine blew about 3 weeks 
afte
SD> I got it :(  Not sure if I just pushed too much power to it (I have no 
idea
SD> how much power they're rated for; I had about 25W RMS going to them) or 
if 
SD> was just a bad one.  But I sent it in to get a new one...
I know they're not as expensive as the stuff I really want(Boston Proseries 
)
Hmm... It's not like you had to keep sending them in on a continuous cycle 
though, so.... they can't be too bad.. 
--- GEcho 1.00
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