time delay correctly applied, finally

Hi kids! Well, I finally got off my duff, and sat down to apply some TD to my system, and I must say, it sounds as good (in the driver's seat, anyway) as my system in my house. Below is the screenshot af the applied TDs. I know it looks a bit weird, but the outputs are 1, 3, and 5 to the driver door, and 2, 4, and 6 to the passenger door. Output 2 is the furthest driver from me, so all the others are delayed to match IT'S arrival time. Output 5 is the driver's tweeter, and the closest, so it has the longest delay, as you can see.Can you say IMAGING!?! Heads up, in the extreme. Bob, I'll have to drive this thing over there soon... You won't believe it!It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

lol I have no idea what this means

I use the ol' standby solution to time domain issues...do a gangsta lean on the center armrest.   lolBuild the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

1: If the image above doesn't look nice, or is not easy to read, here's a link to see it bigger, in a new window. 2: Yes, that's the Alto piece. I always KNEW it was a nice, powerful piece of gear, but GEEZ... when I went poking around in there, I found things I had no IDEA it would do! Now, when I get the OTHER one in place for the SUB! WOOHOO! Yeah, it'll sound good... And I still haven't even touched on the EQ capabilities yet! Because I chose very nice drivers for the doors, I probably wont need much EQing if any at all, but the other one will be all EQ duties, most likely... gonna BFI those woofers into a flat curve! We all know the car is a TERRIBLE place to try to get flat bass... 3: azn, the ideal speaker array is one that is a point source, producing ALL frequencies from the same point. Difficult if not impossible to do ANYWHERE, let alone in a car, the next best source is a vertical line - a "line source", also difficult if not impossible to implement in a car. What the time delay does then, is acoustically "moves" the drivers away from my ears, so that all of the sounds being produced arrive at my ears at the same time. The drivers, while not being moved physically, are receiving a slightly delayed signal to play, so my brain "thinks" they are all exactly the same distance away from my ears. This electrically produces a "line source" in my doors. The passengers woofer, it is the furthest driver away from me, so it needs no delay, and that can be the reference sound source. The passengers midrange is about 3.5 inches closer (than the woofer) to my ear, so it received enough delay to make it about 150mm "further away" from my ear than it actually is. The passengers tweeter is about 5 inches closer to my ear (than the woofer), so it received enough delay to make it 193mm "further away"... And so on. Is that a little better? If you need more, just ask, we'll be happy to explain. 4: "Gangsta lean". Funny stuff! I used to do that too, but my doctor said it was bad for my back! It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

After using time delay, I wouldn't buy a head unit that didn't at least let you adjust the basic four channels. I just wish I had control of my door tweets separate from my woofers. Looks good. (But what is this the control panel from... And where can I get one? )'96 Mazda Miata

The time delay in a deck (as you have discovered) will only allow TD to an entire CORNER, it can't be used to individually TD each driver in an array, you need a device like I am using for that. It happens to be the Alto USC-Pro (you'll actually have to click on that item in the list... I hate frames...) The control panel you are seeing is from the software installed on the PC which is used to set and control the unit. I will tell you, in your present setup, you will not be able to use ANY external signal processors, as you only have 2 channels of amplification. My system, for example, right now has 6, with 2 more to come for the subs.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Yeah, I know I'd need to separately amplify all my speakers to do that, it's just a cool little device that's right up my alley. Still, four channel time delay sure beats none at all. Really turns the music from background noise to something that actually has a presence. Neat how it even takes the temperature into account when doing the delays. Now, what would be really trick is if it had an ambient temp sensor on the unit that adjusted the time delays according to the temperature in the car. '96 Mazda Miata

Ahh I see what you are talking about now...pretty nifty My friend has an Alpine deck with a Time Alignment thing and wants me to set it for him, it is exactly like what you are describing but only controls 4 channles...but I have no clue how lol

Page 17 in this manual has a good explanation. Basically you want the speaker furthest from you sitting in the driver's seat to have no delay, and then every speaker closer to have a delay set so that the sound coming from them gets to you at the same time as that farthest speaker. It has calculations too for milliseconds. ">&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[218A80359A29924B952108F2E6318D6C">">&Component=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[8322E7CCE8CF514284908057180D9DA1">">">My Alpine Manual'96 Mazda Miata