dsp tune, thoughts on time alignment off??

[slater]

So after having my 24 tacoma DSP system installed for a few months now & got to listen to it...
focal k2 power 3way & coaxial in the rear, arc Blackbird & knighthawk, 1 jl 12tw3 d4
Went back to the tuner / installer,
My observation, I felt there was too much sound at the front center, sounded loud, flat, couldn't hear rich fullness from the door 6.5's
Also mentioned needed to take the nipples off the amps & let the power poor, which he did, the sub amp was turned down & had room for a substantial increase.
So he agreed it needed some tweeks, really livened it up for the better...
Way more balanced to my ears & sounds substantially richer, fuller, all the sound isnt coming from the center dash like a dsp is designed to do, to an extent.

He mentioned something that Im questioning if I did the right thing, I know there is know wrong but this is abit different.
He said theres a setting that turns off time alignment & it widens the from sound stage, not so much in your face & center.
My son & I both listened to it on & off multiple times & thought it sounded better off.


Sucks that you can have so many different tunes & its not always one right & others wrong...

Sounds good, still get movement between various instruments & what not, not sure what ill be missing by leaving it "off"???
Am I selling myself short by doing so?

Make sense to anybody that actually knows what theyre doing, unlike me...

He wasnt pushing for it but he mentioned with a controller, he can add multiple tunes, just at the moment feels like just more crap to have to mess with?

So does anyone run there dsp system like this, or is it better to find more balance & leave it on?
hopefully I get some feed back, thanks...

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[nauc 10+ year member]

id just run the fronts, tune it by ear. when it sounds good, youre done

who cares what others say. your money, your ears

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

Every ear is different. What sounds good to one may not sound good to another. I ran Kenwood head units for the longest time and they offer different adjustments to "raise" the sound stage or "widen" the sound stage. What I found and didn't find until I ran the RF 360.3 DSP was that all those things are tricks to make you think it sounds better. It is my opinion that if you stick with the DSP only for each speaker (crossover, level, EQ, distance) and use a calibrated mic to find the dips and peaks so you can level them off, you will have the best "sound". I never ran rear fill with a DSP.

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

So after having my 24 tacoma DSP system installed for a few months now & got to listen to it...
focal k2 power 3way & coaxial in the rear, arc Blackbird & knighthawk, 1 jl 12tw3 d4
Went back to the tuner / installer,
My observation, I felt there was too much sound at the front center, sounded loud, flat, couldn't hear rich fullness from the door 6.5's
Also mentioned needed to take the nipples off the amps & let the power poor, which he did, the sub amp was turned down & had room for a substantial increase.
So he agreed it needed some tweeks, really livened it up for the better...
Way more balanced to my ears & sounds substantially richer, fuller, all the sound isnt coming from the center dash like a dsp is designed to do, to an extent.

He mentioned something that Im questioning if I did the right thing, I know there is know wrong but this is abit different.
He said theres a setting that turns off time alignment & it widens the from sound stage, not so much in your face & center.
My son & I both listened to it on & off multiple times & thought it sounded better off.


Sucks that you can have so many different tunes & its not always one right & others wrong...

Sounds good, still get movement between various instruments & what not, not sure what ill be missing by leaving it "off"???
Am I selling myself short by doing so?

Make sense to anybody that actually knows what theyre doing, unlike me...

He wasnt pushing for it but he mentioned with a controller, he can add multiple tunes, just at the moment feels like just more crap to have to mess with?

So does anyone run there dsp system like this, or is it better to find more balance & leave it on?
hopefully I get some feed back, thanks...

Sounds like he tuned for flat SQ type of sound, which is going to sound flat. With a proper SQ tune, you shouldn't notice the sub or the 6.5s. You really shouldn't notice the location of any of the drivers.

Most people won't like that; there's a reason Bose sells more headphones to consumers than Audio Technica. Most listeners are going to prefer a greatly exaggerated sub stage, they want to hear the speakers they paid for as opposed to the speakers disappearing into the sound stage.

Turning off the time alignment will result in an unstable sound stage and ruin the center stage.

 

[slater]

Sounds like he tuned for flat SQ type of sound, which is going to sound flat. With a proper SQ tune, you shouldn't notice the sub or the 6.5s. You really shouldn't notice the location of any of the drivers.

Most people won't like that; there's a reason Bose sells more headphones to consumers than Audio Technica. Most listeners are going to prefer a greatly exaggerated sub stage, they want to hear the speakers they paid for as opposed to the speakers disappearing into the sound stage.

Turning off the time alignment will result in an unstable sound stage and ruin the center stage.

The first tune I didnt notice the sound from individual speakers, did hear the movement but everything blended as it should done the front center.
So ide say was tuned correctly, just not what im use to. it was just one big giant speaker down the center, but can hear the movement when song produced it.
As you stated, I didnt notice the 6.5's, it all blended together smoothly...
Was clean & balanced but not wowed by my ear, I want the exaggeration,
Wanted to hear the door speakers as makes things fuller / richer sounding...
Think I like the separation so you can actually hear the individual components.

Sub has a control dial so I control bass.

But yes, turned off time alignment widened the front stage so center is not in your face, sounds more similar to a system w/o dsp, but you can totally still hear the movement from various speakers...
He tweeked it so regardless if time alignment was off or on, it sounds way better than the initial tune, substantially better to my liking.
But I can go either way on the time alignment, thats why I figured ide ask here.
Might be a cheesy move & counter productive if you have a dsp.

He just said, listed to it like this, will widen the front stage so the center isnt all right there in your face & sound more like your traditional non dsp system, the doors will be more pronounced...


If any of this makes sense, trying to explain as best as I can.

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

you might go to a car show or different shops and ask if you can listen to different cars. to get ideas of whats possible