Alpine PXE-H660 Audio PRocessor with an EpicenterPlus Bass Processor?

[Boss T-Dot]

Is it necessary? Can it be done?

Answers to my own questions:

Are BOTH these processors "necessary"? None of these upgrades are "necessary", really! LoL! Only food, clothing shelter and good peeps are necessary. BUT, I'm a music-junkie and to me, constantly striving for better sound and better music is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!

Can it be done? I'm sure that, most people on this site will tell me that ANYTHING is possible.

So, here are the facts:

1. My ride: 2010 Chrysler 300 Limited

2. My sound: OEM 6-speaker Boston Acoustics premium audio system.

3. My current upgrade: Boston G312-44 sub in a sealed enclosure, powered by a Boston GTA-500M Amp with OEM touchscreen head-unit.

4. My next upgrade: Adding an Audiocontrol Epicenter Plus bass signal processor with bass restoration.

5. My upcoming project(s): Adding an Alpine PXE-H660 Audio Processor with Boston Amp(s) to replace the OEM amp but keeping the OEM speakers, which f--kin ROCK and wouldn't be worth the $$ to replace (in my opinion).

I need advice from y'all!

Is the Alpine processor "enough" for clear, pure, artist-intended bass, or would you also go with the EpicenterPlus? Will the Alpine "restore" lost bass from older recordings at all?

Also, the EpicenterPlus manual specifies that their unit MUST be installed AFTER the EQ and BEFORE the crossover. Since the Alpine has both a 7-channel 3-band parametric equalizer AND an internal crossover, where the hell do I hook it up? Before or after the Alpine?? No mention of any other processors or pre-amps in the Alpine manual!

T-T-Y'all-L

Click to read more...

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

I haven't tried an Epicenter or a similar product, but my impression from reading about the technology is it's mostly for the fun factor of extra bass than functioning to improve sound quality. You could probably install the Epicenter between the H660 and the amp. I just use a small boost centered around 20 Hz on my 7998's parametric EQ to help my sealed sub on the bottom end.

 

[Jroo 10+ year member]

I would hold off on the epicenter and get the alpine set correctly first. Cant speak specifically for the 660 but I know some of the other alpine processors were known to strip away some bass if not set up certain ways. Especially when using the auto eq functions on some of them. If I remember some turned the bass setting off on their sub amp, let the alpine process and then went back in and turn the sub stuff back up or on. The people I see using epicenter now are just using it for fun factor or trying to crank the hell out of their subs. I would say you really dont need it.

 

[Boss T-Dot]

If I remember some turned the bass setting off on their sub amp, let the alpine process and then went back in and turn the sub stuff back up or on.

So, by "turning off the bass setting on their sub amp", do you mean turning down the gain control to nothing? What does this do to the auto-eq levels and the auto-timing? Won't it mess up the bass signals coming from the processor?

I chose not to bo with the epicenter anyway. My main interest was to eliminate the factory-limited bass (roll-off), so I am going with the Audiocontrol LC2i with AccuBASS.

 

[Boss T-Dot]

...it's mostly for the fun factor of extra bass than functioning to improve sound quality.

But isn't that the job of lower-end "bass-boosters" or "bass-magnifiers"? Wouldn't restoring lost bass from compressed audio files and lower-tech older recordings enhance sound quality? You don't have to push your sub(s) to the limit when using a bass-restorer. "Fun-factor" can be achieved simply by boosting the levels and driving your subs hard, i.e. with the aforementioned magnifiers, but restoration seems to me to mean something above and beyond simply blowing your ear-drums, hijacking your lung-function and rattling your guts. No?

http://www.audiocontrol.com/t34/5249/247234/Special-Processors/The-Bass-Bandit.html

 

[Boss T-Dot]

BTW, I'm not a physicist or a sound-engineer, but I studied music for years and my understanding of the Epicenter is this: the restoration processor works on the principle that "lost" sub-bass frequencies are still present in the form of the upper resonant tone clusters they produced during the actual performance, but lost due to recording. Their "product" harmonics are still present as higher sub-bass and bass frequencies and the processor reads these frequencies and then reconstructs the original "source" frequencies.

To me, this means the sound quality is "restored" in the sub-bass bands. What are your thoughts?

Harmonic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Helmholtz resonance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hermann von Helmholtz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Boss T-Dot]

Harmonics and bass restoration aside, does anyone know what happens when you use both a remote bass dial connected to the sub AND a remote bass level controller on a sound processor (bass restorer, eq or pre-amp)? Which one is more important, controlling the bass at the amp or at the processor?

Basically, I'm wondering which remote controller is more important and which one is redundant?

 

[Jroo 10+ year member]

I think you guys are correct about the epicenter. You really supposed to use them on old recording were the bass might have been lost due to a crap copy or the source. I basically was putting back in the bass lost due to the recording. On almost every new format, CD,IPOD you really shouldnt have this issue. What you see now is guys basically trying to juice up the bass sounds. I also thought a bunch of people had killed some equipment using epicenters.

 

[Boss T-Dot]

You really supposed to use them on old recording were the bass might have been lost due to a crap copy or the source.

Ya man....imagine this: it's June 28th, 1975; Ivor Wynn Stadium, Hamilton, Ontario: Pink Floyd's final stop on their North American tour. The event was so memorable, so life-changing, that my father never stops relating the feeling to anyone who even brings up the band (with its original membership...Waters et al.). He said that the sound-levels were so loud that the virtually un-attenuated waves were enjoyed by listeners sitting on the Hamilton Mountain's ledge nearly 1.5km from the stadium!! My dad said that his seat vibrated with the bass! The concert caused such an uproar and controversy that afterwards the conservative business "community" rallied to have such "hippie" concerts banned from Hamilton altogether. A TRUE HISTORICAL EVENT IN MUSIC!!

Recordings of the event still exist, but do you think that the actual sound could possibly have been accurately-recorded? NEVER. Even with studio cuts, genius bands and artists from the 60s and 70s can never be heard as they intended to be heard. Thanks to digital remastering and bass reconstruction, however, we can get a better idea and approximate the sound that was once produced in those historical performances.

Bass is VERY important for music. Whether it's the drum&bass of Massive Attack, the heavy beats of Dr. Dre or DJ Green Lantern, the overwhelming synthesized sub-bass sounds of Pink Floyd or the low-end countersubjects of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, without the low-end, music tends to be dry and lifeless. I would say that, in general, music that lacks great bass lines is music that lacks great power over the emotions. Every great composer understood this and every audiophile can appreciate it.

So, if yo trunk got BASS, it wouldn't hurt to get a "restorer"!

 

[Boss T-Dot]

We bringin' the sprinkalerz out, even when there's a drought....

...we got BASS!