Alcav5,

Which shop did the install? Was it one in Stamford, CT?

 

Yup, why?.. I am a fragile neurotic soul, pls be sensitive.

3 way morels btw..

Some of this info has been helpful. I am waiting for the installers to set up another tuning session with me... I hope it works

 

Alcav5,

Sorry. I didn't mean to trigger your neurosis. It's just that when I saw the components installed, particularly the Morels (you probably had the door insert modified to accommodate the larger speaker) it triggered an estimate that the same shop had given me. The price was steep, but when I heard a demo in their 996TT (The Raven) I was quite impressed. I still plan to do the audio upgrade, but will wait until after some performance mods: exhaust and K24/18s from EPL.

For what it's worth, my current system is also very bright in the high range and is missing a lot of midrange. I had hoped that the 6.25" Morels would fix that problem. I have an Alpine IVA-D310 and added the Alpine PXA-H510. In my experience, the PXA-H510 greatly improved sound quality, particularly when listening at low volume. I agree with what others have said...Have someone in the know spend quality time with you, adjusting your system to your preferences. I'm curious to hear how it all turns out and best of luck.

 

I like 4" mids because they are nice and crisp. It's the way I like to hear music which is very subjective.

If I were to do a sound system today I would two-three sets of 4" mids and tweets, 2 8" subs and one 12" sub on different amps modulated to about 80-100 and 40-50 hz respectively.

 

Anyone have any experience with the sub box that sits in the passenger footwell? Its fiberglass and holds on 10". I can't remember who sells it but I was wanting to use something like that in my build and a nice 3 way setup. Good luck with yours, I think component choice is good, just a matter of getting it set up.

 

The Installer is going to change set up from active cross over to passive which will enable them to feed the rear speakers(coaxials) off of the 6ch audison amp rather than feeding the rears off of the h/u. This should help even out all speakers without adding ANOTHER sep amp for the rears. After that no further tuning could be done, would have to just use the h/u's controls. We shall see...

 

Alcav,

You can tune/adjust the front, rear and sub channels on the Audison amp and it makes a big difference in sound (highs, lows, etc.). I sat in the car and had someone turn the adjustments on the amp, while I listened to music in the car. We did front, rear and sub channels. Once completed, the sound was dramatically improved from the original settings. We were specifically able to tune the rear fill speakers to develop a very good sound.

 

We made some adjustments, yes I could hear differences but very time consuming, and almost like smelling too many bottles of perfume(for my wife of course) I started to lose focus on what sound I really wanted to hear - It actually became annoying. Since this p-car has 8 spkrs and a sub we decided that we probably needed to amp the rears same as the fronts instead of using the h/u(only the doors & dashes were amp'd & sep lone amp for the sub). Sooo changing audison to passive cross -over allows use to use the amp for the 8 spkrs. In the end, an even "surround" sound might be the sound I was/am looking for. I will listen to it next week.

Thanks for opining
Al

 

Hey Al,

I'm not happy with my OEM sound system and was considering a new set up. Please let me know how yours turns out (either with a final post or a PM) because I'm interested and live in your neck of the woods so would be interested in hearing who you recommend... Thanks.

Gary

 

Will do. I should know next week.
Al

 

I installed a very similar system in my 993 and experienced the same problem with a hollow mid-range. I had an Audison sub placed under the passenger seat, new door speakers (Focal?), Twin JL Subs in the rear (8's), Alpine head unit with IPod, etc, and The install was done by Car Audio Innovations in Sacramento, CA. I am also an audiophile (meaning I have spent way too much money on my home system) but for me it is all about the realism and energy of the music.

A few thoughts:

1) With high end home audio you must "break in"components and even cables for anywhere between 20-100 hours before they attain their full range and character. This also held true for my Porsche system: after listening for a couple of months, the components broke in and the mids improved.

2) Once the system ws broken in I had to re-equalize everything to get it to sound better.

3) Alpine mids suck: Alpine has a great reputation but the volatages at their output stages are low forcing the installer to crank up the gain on the amp (which adds distortion). The upshot: you might want to finda new head unit. There are lots of great ones out there for under $500.

4) Don't judge anything using MP3s. Use CDs. The compression algorithm for MP3 is super-lossy and their sound quality is terrible on any system. I use them because I can get a lot of music in my car cheaply.

As a side note, I would highly recommend Car Audio Innovations (no connection). The quality of the install was flawless and they have great sub boxes especially fitted for Carreras. The service was also excellent.

 

Hey Ice-
Nothing personal but I find it pretty much impossible to believe the human ear can hear any discernible difference due to "breaking in cabling" in an automobile, especially a two seat sports car. Or....you have the best ear and the heaviest Porsche ever made from the tons of dynamat used.....

 

Hi Manager: no offense taken, I totally agree with your point but I don't believe it was the cabling that broke in on the Porsche. I was indicating that in my home system, I notice a difference between interconnects, speaker wires etc.

In the P-Car, I believe it was the electronics and the speakers that broke in allowing the system to realize its full potential. My only point to the OP was that he might want to give it a bit of time before he tries to tinker with the system in an effort to improve the midbass. In my case, I definitely had the same problem and noticed an improvement as the system wore in.

-ICE

 

I've read on a couple occasions that a system/components need to break in. I don't know, maybe it makes some sense.
I'm not an audiophile and I was seeking help from those out there and in the end I am pleased with the responses. Thanks everyone.

I have my car back for a couple of days now and it def sounds better - I can hear the rears along with the front. The installer switched it from an active to passive crossover etc etc.. There is more of a Surround Sound quality to it. Except the highs are still too high and on a few songs the high was so much so the words became inaudible - however lasted only a second, but noticeable nevertheless. Maybe over time this will subside. If I were a true audiophile maybe I would be amping every speaker & the sub woofer separately then spend 40 hours tuning it. I'm not there (yet?) so right now I am fairly happy and content. I do truly like the Alpine, screen and functionality. I love getting Sirius now and have bluetooth and nav. that I can actually use. All I need now is to figure out how to get my phone to sync only my hot list and not my whole contact list..
Allen