Best bet for time alignment?

[jluv 10+ year member]

well time alignment when done properly, is made to improve the soundstage for one particular seat in the car. I think that's what req meant, just having the speakers aligned properly and not using time-alignment gives a more even soundstage for all seats

Exactly. My Alpine has time correction, but I've never used it. I have at least one passenger in my Explorer about half the time I drive it. A lot of times these people will be especially interested in hearing my setup (non-audiophiles who simply want to hear one of their favorite songs on a better-than-stock system). I figure if I adjusted the time alignment to center around the dirver seat, then it would be that much further out of whack for any passenger(s). This thread has got me thinking though. The Alpine seems easy enough to adjust, so I could memorize the perfect settings for my seat, and then set it back to zero for when I have passengers, or even shift it to the passenger seat for a quick demo as needed. Now I have something new to fool around with tonight, lol.

 

[headless 10+ year member]

Exactly. My Alpine has time correction, but I've never used it. I have at least one passenger in my Explorer about half the time I drive it. A lot of times these people will be especially interested in hearing my setup (non-audiophiles who simply want to hear one of their favorite songs on a better-than-stock system). I figure if I adjusted the time alignment to center around the dirver seat, then it would be that much further out of whack for any passenger(s). This thread has got me thinking though. The Alpine seems easy enough to adjust, so I could memorize the perfect settings for my seat, and then set it back to zero for when I have passengers, or even shift it to the passenger seat for a quick demo as needed. Now I have something new to fool around with tonight, lol.

The obvious solution is presets for different T/A settings. My CD8454 for example has 5 preset modes that save crossover settings, PEQ settings and time alignment settings. I have various presets for bass amounts, time alignment settings and crossover configurations. One of those is my standard x-over setup with bass tuned to the 'normal' level and time alignment inverted from the driver side so my passenger gets the correct time alignment. People get very confused when i switch it mid-track, i get strange looks like "what'd you do, it sounds louder or something but you didn't touch the volume". Getting time alignment set up in my car changed the way i considered 'good sounding' audio entirely for the first time since i heard a real subwoofer setup in a car.