You’re driving your car and you put on your favorite song, where is the singer’s voice? Are the vocals centered on your dashboard? Are your speakers conveying the original mix engineers’ design?
If you know audio, or have researched upgrading your car stereo, you’ve probably heard the words imaging and staging. What does this mean and why should you care?
During the recording process, music is recorded and played back utilizing 2 channels of audio, left and right. When Recording Engineers set up a band, they arrange them in a stage configuration: musicians on the left are panned to the left speaker, same for the right. When something is recorded equally in the left and right side it will be heard in the center -dubbed the “phantom center“. Engineers place the most important sounds in the center: vocals, snare drum, kick drum, bass guitar etc, while other instruments are panned to the left and right to help create a sense of space.
For this phantom center to work, the listener must form an equilateral triangle with the two speakers. The distance from the listener to each speaker is the same as the distance speaker to speaker.
This is easily achievable at home, but a car is a different beast:
- We drive on the left
- Speaker placement is based on limited space availability
- Reflective surfaces surround us
If your car is lacking a center speaker, we can still create this “phantom center” with the addition of a DSP. Modern car DSP’s feature time alignments, which allow us to delay the signal from the left speaker so it arrives at the same time as the right. The next thing to consider is that because we sit close to the left side, it will be louder, causing the center image to be left of center. We fix this by turning down the level of the front left speaker(s) until it sounds like the center is centered.
Using these techniques, we can create the true sense of space recorded by the Audio Engineer, bringing your favorite music to life.
Have questions about DSPs and tuning? Give us a call!
Custom A Pillars and Sail Panels
Upgrading your factory setup with a 3-way is possible with custom A pillars or sail panels. We use a variety of methods, sometimes including fiberglass construction, to create new speaker locations. A 3-way setup can dramatically change your musical experience by allowing for a greater spectrum of sound coverage. Custom work varies in price, depending on intensity. Contact Matt for a closer estimate.
Why DSP?
With the advancement of car audio technology in newer vehicles, Digital Sound Processors (DSPs) have become a must for quality audio upgrades.
DSPs use specialized software to take the signals from the amplifier or head unit and mix the levels to create a center image. (Imagine the band playing on your dashboard). This imaging is relatively easy to create in a room, or at a desk, but a multitude of factors in the vehicle setting make this imaging impossible to achieve without the proper equipment.
If you’re looking for phenomenal sound, a DSP can help.
Why Sound Treatment?
Whether to control road noise or to maximize speaker impact, sound treatment will provide the cleanest sound from your system. Treatment takes care of resonating door panels, rattling clips, and essentially seals off the door to create an enclosure for the speakers, providing much higher output.
All of our speaker installs include minimal coverage. The following levels take it further.
3 levels of Sound treatment:
Level 1 :
Includes 2 sheets Hollow Point butyl and aluminum material (12″ x 24″), 1 set Stinger Fastrings, material for custom speaker adapters and baffles
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Custom built speaker adapter/baffle
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strategically placed Hollow Point butyl and aluminum material
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Stinger fastrings (foam rings that seal the door against the speakers and keep the sound flowing in the right direction)
Level 2 :
Includes 1 Hollow Point Door Kit, 2 sets Stinger Fast Rings, 4 sheets Ballistics 3 in 1 Foam, material for custom speaker adapters and baffles
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Inner door skin covered with Ballistic 3 in 1 foam material
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Outer door skin covered with Hollow Point butyl and aluminum material
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Custom built speaker adapter/baffle
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Stinger fastrings (foam rings that seal the door against the speakers and keep the sound flowing in the right direction)
Level 3:
Includes 2 boxes of Ballistic 3 in 1 foam (each box contains 6 Pieces 18″ x 16″ Material), 2 sets of Stinger Fastrings, materials for custom removable cavity covers, material for custom speaker adapters and baffles
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Inner and Outer door skins covered with Ballistic 3 in 1 foam
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Custom cavity sealing including nut-serts for easy access
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Custom built speaker adapter/baffle
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Stinger fastrings (foam rings that seal the door against the speakers and keep the sound flowing in the right direction)
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Strategically placed foam bricks for extra absorption
Sound treatment cannot erase ALL outside noise or panel rattling,
but he difference between no sound treatment and each level is noticeable.
With every package, we will send you pics of the treatment so you can be confident that we have addressed the problem areas.
Our complete lineup of SQ products will satisfy every need
Helix German Car HIFI
Proudly made in Germany,
the Helix lineup provides award winning Sound Quality amplifiers and
Digital Sound Processors (DSPs) for the automotive audiophile.
audiofrog, designed in California for audiophiles everywhere
Audiofrog’s car audio lineup is designed to provide a lifetime of excellent sound. Engineered by long-time audio pro, Andy Wehmeyer, these speakers have been perfected to provide the best sound quality money can buy.
The GS60 Midrange Loudspeaker consists of an abs and fiberglass vented basket, copper voice coil, and a parabolic propylene cone for flatter high frequency response.
This speaker offers a surprising amount of mid-bass for it’s small size. Ask for a demo of Matt’s Tacoma to see for yourself.
Call today for help designing your new system!
Check out audiofrog’s site for more information
Match products offer plug and play solutions for BMW and Mercedes vehicles. Speakers and amplifiers fit in factory locations, allowing for easy upgrades.
Match Plug and Play car HiFi
Designed to fit in factory locations, with vehicle specific adaptors.
A great way to upgrade your sound without major fabrication.
Fits many european vehicles such as BMW, Mercedes, and Mini.
Ask to hear Lisa’s Mini for a demo!
Check out Match’s site for vehicle coverage
Brax High-End Car HiFi made in Germany
The automotive setting is not ideal for clean audio, with lots of reverberation, angles, and speaker locations, but Brax DSP can change all of that. Brax’s true pursuit is audiophile quality sound.
Brax Matrix Loud Speaker Series offers state-of-the-art sound quality. Made to convert the highest amplifier signal into sound with no compression. High quality materials are mixed to create the “Micro-sphere” coating, giving the diaphragm unequaled precision.
Ballistics Tri-layer Foam
Ballistic’s Tri-layer sound damping material is a light-weight, elastomeric, butyl, aluminum constrianed-layer and foam vibrational damper. The mat easily conforms to sheet metal and other hard substrates
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Coverage: 12² Ft (1.11M²) Total
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6 Pieces 18″ x 16″ Material (457.2mm x 406.4mm)
For more details on Ballistics sound damping material, check out Ballistics 2019 CES display video
Hollow Point Door Kit
Ballistic Hollow Point is a unique butyl rubber composite with an aluminum constraining layer for vibration damping
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Material – 6 Pieces – 12″ x 24″ (305mm x 609mm)
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Coverage – 12² Ft (1.11M²) Total
Stinger Fast Rings
The RoadKill Fast Rings kit increases speaker output, improves the projection of the audio into the car cabin and reduces unwanted rear reflections that can degrade the sound.
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Sold in pairs
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Gasket for speaker mounting to the baffle plate surface
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Middle ring to mount around the outer edge of the speaker
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Circular foam pad goes behind the speaker to absorb unwanted reflections on hard surfaces, such as inside a car door