Slayerx
10+ year member
CarAudio.com Elite
twat?
Slayerx
OP
FlexnInLa
10+ year member
Huggin Them Nuts!
- Thread Starter
- #62
Again, my background in home audio is a lot stronger than my background in car audio. I've mentioned this before. My last home setup... I had probably around 4000.00 in, and would probably cost 40,000.00 to duplicate with "modern" equipment. Just like in car audio, there is old school home audio, and that was my preference. It also generally doesn't command the price that "old school" car audio does.
That said, I chased a lot of audio snake oil. Mostly affordabable DIY type stuff that was exactly like high dollar snake oil folks were selling.
I found TWO things that actually helped. One was a very heavy piece of granite under my turntable, that was already self isolated, and sitting on a very solid mount into studs in the wall. I could hear the difference, and so could pretty much everybody else who listened.
The second, and by far the most dramatic, was the addition of weight on top of my CD source unit. It did nothing for a CD source that retails for around 2k, but it made a 39.00 source unit with about 5 dollars worth of DIY mods sound better than the 2k CD source... which quickly was sold.
Point is, don't buy snake oil.
That said, I chased a lot of audio snake oil. Mostly affordabable DIY type stuff that was exactly like high dollar snake oil folks were selling.
I found TWO things that actually helped. One was a very heavy piece of granite under my turntable, that was already self isolated, and sitting on a very solid mount into studs in the wall. I could hear the difference, and so could pretty much everybody else who listened.
The second, and by far the most dramatic, was the addition of weight on top of my CD source unit. It did nothing for a CD source that retails for around 2k, but it made a 39.00 source unit with about 5 dollars worth of DIY mods sound better than the 2k CD source... which quickly was sold.
Point is, don't buy snake oil.
Slayerx
10+ year member
CarAudio.com Elite
I remember when the old ps1 lids would wear out and you had to put something on top to make it recognize that the lid was closed.
OP
FlexnInLa
10+ year member
Huggin Them Nuts!
- Thread Starter
- #65
Same. In the case of audio, my suspicion is that the added weight stabilized the rotating mass of the CD. I assume the cheap DVD player sounded as good as the mid-range CD player because I would think a DVD player would require a more "accurate" read than a CD. I could be way off base, but I know it worked, and the difference was fairly dramatic.
The mods I mentioned I can't remember exactly what they were, but just required clipping a couple of components out and soldering new ones in. Nothing exotic or expensive by any means.
OP
FlexnInLa
10+ year member
Huggin Them Nuts!
- Thread Starter
- #67
You also had to do something similar to do the disk swap to play burned games. If I remember right you had to keep the "flag" closed so it didn't know you opened the lid to put the burned disk in after it initialized with a legit disk. Ahhhh the good old days! My son still has my PS1 and PS2 lol
There isn't an amplifier on the market that does not alter the signal in some way, shape, or form. Hence, you cannot avoid some sort of processing. Instead, you have to compensate for this via an EQ and keep the amplifier well within its limits.
The paradox in this is that you can tell the difference when amplifiers are used as intended, however they cannot be distinguished from one another when all variables are isolated from the experiment. Those variables are what make expensive amplifiers expensive and cheap amplifiers cheap. Amplifiers all clip and any processing used by the owner will be for compensating for the environment, crossover freq, driver peaks, listen tastes, etc. and not to nullify whatever witchcraft is going on in their amp.
The RC $10,000 challenge is a trick and anyone who uses processing to compensate for what might be going on inside the amp instead of what's going on in the listening environment is a moron. Purchasing a clean & accurate EQ in order to make your cheap amp sound like a good one kinda defeats the point in buying a cheap amp in the first place. And when I say cheap I mean cheap...inexpensive is something else.
The paradox in this is that you can tell the difference when amplifiers are used as intended, however they cannot be distinguished from one another when all variables are isolated from the experiment. Those variables are what make expensive amplifiers expensive and cheap amplifiers cheap. Amplifiers all clip and any processing used by the owner will be for compensating for the environment, crossover freq, driver peaks, listen tastes, etc. and not to nullify whatever witchcraft is going on in their amp.
The RC $10,000 challenge is a trick and anyone who uses processing to compensate for what might be going on inside the amp instead of what's going on in the listening environment is a moron. Purchasing a clean & accurate EQ in order to make your cheap amp sound like a good one kinda defeats the point in buying a cheap amp in the first place. And when I say cheap I mean cheap...inexpensive is something else.
I am going to say that as long as you are talking about 12 volt amplifiers going in a noisy car with reflections, refractions, and other extraneous variables beyond one's control, many companies will use hype and BS to sell their products. No matter how one slices it or dices it, a high end amplifier that costs two to three times more than a competently designed lower cost unit will NOT sound two to three times better after taking all the other vehicle variables into consideration. Furthermore, if you can tell a huge difference between two amplifiers playing unclipped at the same output level, something is wrong. A true amplifier's purpose is to take the signal and amplify it NOT color it causing one to tell a difference.
srb
10+ year member
Senior VIP Member
I am not *** experienced as most people on this forum, however I would like to contribute whatever experience i have on this subject. About a month ago i bought a JL 300/2 from a pawn shop. The RCA input on one side ended up being a bit lose so I had to take it back, but I got to play with it for a little while. It was replacing an old Depth Charge 4004. Both me and my girl friend (in the car with me) noticed that the JL sounded much, much clearer than the Dept Charge. Take from that what you will.
Ahh, but you must be careful because differences in power are way easier to discern than true differences in the actual sound of amplifiers. From 2007 to 2009, I learned that power was key to get the sound I wanted in a vehicle. It was only recently that I decided that I was tired of dedicating 1/3 of my trunk to amplifiers, so now I look for the most power I can get in a package that fits under the driver and passenger seats or somewhere else out of the way. I may make an exception in my new car or I may be listing a huge for sale ad. I'll revisit that topic in May after my part-time accounting practice winds down.
srb
10+ year member
Senior VIP Member
That is very true, however I had the gain of the JL way down, maybe a fifth of the way up, because my speakers where only rated for 80 watts rms. Where as I had the Depth Charge at about a 3rd of the way up. I know, it's a terribly imprecise way of measuring, but I don't think the difference in power between the amps was great enough to make such a difference in sound.
Bettr n' Revrse
5,000+ posts
I do what I want
I feel as though dropping a little extra cash on an amp obviously isn't going to get you any difference but if step up to the plate and are dropping a few grand on very nice stuff ya you probably will... How much though is the thing...
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