Quote:
Originally Posted by solidONE
@ soundman98 how long have you been running the dayton dsp? Seems a few people have had it go out on them after some use.
Going along with the idea of spending a few bux extra for the DSP, if the signal processing function of a headunit works just as well, why bother with the extra redundant adjustments with an external unit? Is he sound quality superior with these DSP's vs your average or higher end head units? |
i haven't had any issues with mine, but i'm just a sample size of one.
i can only speak of the pioneer versions i've got experience with, but i know the kenwood versions have almost identical specifications on paper. i wouldn't count alpines IMprint version as a hu option, as that requires an external processor to make function--IMprint actually drove me to building a full-active car pc back before pioneer and kenwood came out with full active versions of head unit...
anyways, overall the dsp has the same features on paper. but my experience is that it does all of those things better. with a more infinite array of adjustment options.
my first and primary issue with full active with the pioneer is an extremely limited crossover selection. from the manual:
Low LPF: 25—31.5—40—50—63—80—100—125—160—200—250 (Hz)
Mid HPF: 25—31.5—40—50—63—80—100—125—160—200—250 (Hz)
Mid LPF: 1.25k—1.6k—2k—2.5k—3.15k—4k—5k—6.3k—8k—10k—12.5k(H z)
HighHPF: 1.25k—1.6k—2k—2.5k—3.15k—4k—5k—6.3k—8k—10k—12.5k(H z)
alternatively, running it in non-network mode, the front/rear speakers can be set to the following high pass crossovers:
50—63—80—100—125—160—200 (Hz)
for most people, this is fine. in the car, the speakers are fine with those limitations. but i'm not most people. the truck runs
these for the mid/tweeters.. they are not happy at 200hz. they buzz. they needed to be ran at 400hz high pass, with a slightly steeper 18/db curve. the dsp allowed me to tailor this to suit the exact issues and correct for it.
the second issue that was also contributed to the first issue is that hu eq is a singular eq. any setting is applied globally to all speakers. so despite a 200 hz, 12db/oct high pass, the +2 eq bump i added at 50hz and 80hz for the door speakers(which handled it perfectly fine) also affected how much my mids buzzed, but it also affects the sub, which doesn't need that bass boost. with the dsp, each set of linked pairs of outputs has it's own parametric(adjustable frequency) eq that is unaffected by any other speaker. so my door speakers get a bump, but my mids get a flat signal.
the dsp also played a critical role in my tinkering when setting up the trucks sub.
i'm using a (horrible, terrible, no-good) sound stream usb10p 'underseat subwoofer' due to space constraints and my own curiosity in new equipment that promise things that deny physics. the dsp made what was a hunk of of electrical components into something that has been faked into sorta working. it required a 35hz/24db hp, 74hz/12db lp and some very dramatic eq-ing to further dump any frequency under 35hz, or above 75hz, but +6db to any frequency from 40hz to 65hz. if i hadn't gone with the dsp before getting the sub, it wouldn't have lasted a week before i built a burning effigy out of it to publicly mock sound stream.
with my pioneer, i've never gotten time alignment to work great. every time i try it, i get headaches from the psychoacoustics, and the sound becomes very noticeably processed and tinny. but i've never tried to align it automatically. sometimes it starts sounding right, but the headache indicates that it's literally because my brain is working too hard to make it sound right...
the dsp offers a few different ways to tune the time alignment, where the hu only offers 'inch' measurements. i'm using it right now to delay the sub to make it better blend using the millisecond delay version.