Lat's '19 Screw Stereo build

[The Car Stereo Company]

Well I literally ordered the MTI stuff back in April. Everything else I already owned for several years. Hence the weird mash up of Hybrid Audio Tech, Hertz and different years of Zapco stuff lol.. Some of my stuff is from 2013. So who knows... they might crap out on me?

I don't know how long this will hold me over for. I'll most likely "clean" this up down the road. EI, 2x 6ch amps, 10+ ch DSP, matching brand speakers, and maybe a JL W7 in the center counsel. Maybe even a 6 1/2 and tweet in the center channel. So much room for activities in there and fun to experiment lol.

suggestion.... dont run a center channel. no definitive left and right if you add a center channel

 

[Hush Car Audio]

suggestion.... dont run a center channel. no definitive left and right if you add a center channel

True for the most part but at a few auto conventions there are a few companies that have release a true DSP solution for center channel options. I'll send you a PM on it so we can discuss.

 

[Guy]

I have played with a center speaker using subtraction, narrow high and low pass filters, etc. different things I’ve seen folks do around the web.

Not the same as using the virtual mixing some of the DSPs.

My observations...

You can achieve a more fixed center point in terms of vocals high and in front of you for relatively more positions within the cab.

The downside... is that you lose the spaciousness of sound. The ability to pick out instruments across a stage becomes a lot harder and you produce more of a wall of sound as opposed to a concert hall.

Those are just my observations doing it manually.

I’ve not heard any of the virtual centers from a DSP to see how they would compare.

It’s a very hot topic all over the world though that’s for sure. There are definitely some folks who run them in various ways. I had an SUV with a factory installed Bowers and Wilkens that did a good job with a center mounted, forward facing horn tweeter and had various virtualizations with it.

Hush, what sort of DSP options are out there now?

 

[lateralis]

So the Raptor is the 1st vehicle that I've owned that came stock with a center ch. All my previous systems have been your normal run of the mill 3 way active fronts. My Zapco DSP's have 31 band graphic eq per ch and have the ability to designate center ch speakers. I've never used it before so this was the perfect opportunity to see how it does. If I like it than I might mess around with it more down the road. If not it's not really any sweat off my back since I didn't have to buy anything extra as I already had all the stuff from previous builds.

I don't think a majority of people will bother with the center ch since in a sense it creates a ton more work and system requirements to pull it off. Most DSP's are 8ch and for my setup you need at least 10ch.

Ch 1-2 Tweeters
Ch 3-4 Mids
Ch 5-6 Mid Bass
Ch 7-8 Rear
Ch 9 Center
CH 10 Sub

This will give you equipment limitations. In my case I'm using 2x 8ch DSP's to handle everything since I already have them. I'd prefer a single DSP but I'm not dropping the coin for one until I see if it's even worth it for later on. You also have to think about amp requirements with this too since it will be an odd number of ch's not counting the subwoofer. It seems ridiculous to run an extra amp for a single speaker or leave and empty ch as it just drives overall system cost up for something that would provide minimal gain. My layout though looks like this:

CH 1-2 Tweets = DSP1 & 6CH amp
CH 3-4 Mids = DSP1 & 6CH amp
CH 5-6 Mid Bass = DSP1 & 6CH amp
CH 7-8 Center = DSP 1 & 4CH amp (using 2x 3" mids in the center)
CH 9-10 Rear = DSP 2 & 4Ch amp
Ch 11-12 Sub = DSP2 & Mono amp

Again I already own a crap ton of stuff from previous cars so it makes it easy for me to piece this thing together. I'm positive I could run just the 3way active front with no rears or center and be perfectly happy with the setup, but I got the stuff might as well try!

 

[Guy]

Most of the fun is experimenting with sound and equipment to see how it interacts with your particular accoustic environment. You should play with it and see what sounds to your liking. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. It matters what your musical tastes are.

 

[robbys3m3]

Nice! Looking great. I have some hertz and older zapco stuff in the garage im gonna use in my 2010. Do you know if you can still source the zapco software from the older amps?

 

[The Car Stereo Company]

the helix, arc and mosconi all use a similar "program" that they tweak and call their own. They have all been shown not to work as well as a dolby based processor but those cost money. Alpine has/had a unit that used a dolby up mixer and when set up correctly worked pretty good. But there is a bit of voodoo involved. basically center channel speaker setups are really not for a vehicle environment. i will never use one and all the sq competitions we judge, we dont see them

 

[lateralis]

Nice! Looking great. I have some hertz and older zapco stuff in the garage im gonna use in my 2010. Do you know if you can still source the zapco software from the older amps?

I'm not sure what you got but they should have it here under legacy. https://www.zapco.com/download

I'm guessing some OG DC Series amps? If so than they definitely have it since it falls under the same category as my DSP-Z8III.

 

[lateralis]

Amp rack and sub box are now in. Rack kicked my ass getting it in there with the seats, but it fits.... with some hammering... There's some metal ridges on the back of the seats that I had to smash down to get the seats to work normally. I still need to populate all the fuses and run 2 lines for the smaller fuse distro block, but that's minor details.

As you can see I mounted the 2nd DSP and the mono amp to the bottom of the sub box. This worked really well since they were the exact height of the gap provided by the MTI box. Also got pretty lucky with where the power for the mono amp comes in as it pretty much lines up with the gap between the folding bench seats. I set it all up so I can still take the box out pretty easily and would only loose the subs and rear speakers if I needed the extra space.

As for the MTI box it self. It is nice, but I wasn't expecting it to stick out as far as it does. It extends about 1 1/4" past the bench seat. I guess this is a function of that fact that you can get these things to hold the 13.5" JL TW5 subs so it's kind of like a 1 size fits all. Makes me really glad I got the bottom of the barrel one and didn't get all the fancy upgrades. Anyone sitting back there is going to kick the crap out of it, and I would shit a brick if someone ripped the leather or scratched up some beauty panel or something.

 

[Guy]

You should be really proud of yourself. You did a really nice, neat, professional installation. I’m super impressed with your attention to detail and as someone who has done a lot of this kind of thing.... I know how much time and patience it takes to
Make it look that way.