Wiring Advice for ICE

[manojgautham]

Hi,

I wanted to post some queries with regards to wiring Kindly help me with it. I recently upgraded by Amp and I feel I am missing the surround I use to have earlier. The clarity and loudness has surely increased. My setup is as follows.

Sony HU
Normal 4" speaker in front - Pioneer
Rear Co axials - Pioneer
Sub - Sony - 12"
Blaupunkt - Amp - 4 Channel (2channels to rear Co-ax & 2 channels bridged to Sub)

My earlier setup was the front speakers were connected from HU directly. Rear from amp to Co-Ax & Front from amp to Sub. I felt this arrangement gave me better surround.

My existing setup is Front speaker still direct from HU. Rear for amp to Sub & Front from amp to Co ax. I feel my front and rear speakers are sounding at the same time and hence I am not getting surround effect.

Please let me know if this is just my phsychological feeling or do I move to the earlier setup...

Thanks in advance,

Manoj

[Xmax]

I dont understand what you mean by surround effect.

1. Maybe you can try getting your rear speakers out of phase by reversing the polarity of one speaker.

But IMHO the setup with sound sweet if you have your sound stage towards the front of the car. you just need enough rear fill to get the live feel. when you go to a live show you dont turn your back toward the stage and similar you wouldnt want the Image of your of the instruments and the singer appearing from behind.

[Xmax]

Also check the setting for HPF, LPF on your head unit as well as the amplifier if they are available.

[DerAlte]

Yes, Manoj, it is a psychological feeling only! In your earlier setup, the sound from the rear speakers was making you aware of another dimension (rear) giving you the illusion of "being surrounded by music", since quite obviously the rears were playing louder than the front. [As compared to the sound form the front speakers, the sound from the rears has an infinitesimal lag due longer distance to your ears. This gives the feeling / illusion of surround. Real surround does it by actually playing back sound recorded by rear microphones during recording].

Now, since the fronts are playing louder, you missing that feeling. Even in the current setup, you can get that old feeling back by tuning the amp in such a way that the rear is always louder than the front. Just don't increase volume so much that the HU output (rear) gets distorted like phata bans.

Normally one relies only on the front speakers when sitting in the front seats, hence rears are tuned just less than front. But hey, if you want it otherwise, you will get it - there are no rules other than YOUR ears getting what YOU want to hear. Cheers!

[manojgautham]

Thanks for your advice. Maybe it is phsychological. Anyway I am thinking of doing some wiring myself. Let me put it back to the old set up and see if get any difference. Will post my comments after that.

Yes there is LPF, HPF & Flat switch for both front and rear. What do you advice for the sub & for the co ax (my tweeters are also connected to my amp along with the co ax). Also let me know what frequencies need to be set if I switch on LPF or HPF.

[navin]

Originally Posted by manojgautham

Normal 4" speaker in front - Pioneer
Rear Co axials - Pioneer
Sub - Sony - 12"
Blaupunkt - Amp - 4 Channel
My earlier setup was the front speakers were connected from HU directly. Rear from amp to Co-Ax & Front from amp to Sub.
My existing setup is Front speaker still direct from HU. Rear for amp to Sub & Front from amp to Co ax. I feel my front and rear speakers are sounding at the same time and hence I am not getting surround effect.

make sure that only the "rear" channel of the amp is in bridge mode and that the rear speakers are in phase.

[manojgautham]

Originally Posted by navin

make sure that only the "rear" channel of the amp is in bridge mode and that the rear speakers are in phase.

Navin Sir,

Can you please explain. My current setup is Rear from Amp is bridged to Sub and Front from amp is connected to 2 co axials in the rear. Are you saying I should not change this?

[badboyscad]

Gurus,

I just need some quick clarification

There is already a HU+4 speaker combo running well in my alto. Now, i just want to add a carputer without disturbing the existing setup.I just want both the HU and the Carputer to be functional.

Note: when the Carputer is ON, the HU will remain OFF and when HU is ON, the carputer+amplifier will remain OFF.

Will this wiring schema work without any problems.

[DerAlte]

Errr... this is not going to work. Unless one switches off power completely to the HU, the amp section is still going to be powered, and 2 amps cannot be connected in parallel to feed one speaker.

The conventional way of doing what you want to do is to:
* Connect the Car PC to the Aux-in of the HU
* Connect the Pre-out of the HU to the 4-ch amp
* Connect the amp to the speakers
* Switch to Aux-in when you want to listen to the output of the Car PC
(The HU is going to be on when the Car PC is playing, but I don't think you intended to go green and save energy in this setup. Since the amp will be driving the speakers, if there is a setting to switch the HU internal amp off, you can do that)

The conventional setup is going to cost you the same as what you intended:
* Amp
* Speaker wires to wire the speaker to the amp
* RCA cable from Car PC to HU
* RCA cables from HU to amp (you would have to use it anyhow in your scheme to connect Car PC to amp)
* Power cables to the amp

An additional advantage of the conventional setup would be that even the HU output will sound better going through the external amp.