Changing all the speakers in a B&O sportback car
12-14-2020, 11:01 PM
#381
AudiWorld Super User
Thread Starter
The other problem that a few folks have reported is the fact that the B&O amp is constantly adjusting the DSP based on the overhead mic. That is great in theory, if implemented correctly. In practice however, it leave a lot to be desired. Which will explain why a lot of people are disabling the mic in VCDS, to stop the B&O from mucking about.
12-14-2020, 11:06 PM
#382
AudiWorld Uber User
The other problem that a few folks have reported is the fact that the B&O amp is constantly adjusting the DSP based on the overhead mic. That is great in theory, if implemented correctly. In practice however, it leave a lot to be desired. Which will explain why a lot of people are disabling the mic in VCDS, to stop the B&O from mucking about.
12-15-2020, 01:12 PM
#383
AudiWorld Senior Member
The other problem that a few folks have reported is the fact that the B&O amp is constantly adjusting the DSP based on the overhead mic. That is great in theory, if implemented correctly. In practice however, it leave a lot to be desired. Which will explain why a lot of people are disabling the mic in VCDS, to stop the B&O from mucking about.
12-15-2020, 01:36 PM
#384
AudiWorld Senior Member
1. My only real gripe about it is that it applies some DSP functions to the various channels, some of which make no sense at all, and I can't change or disable them.
2. I'm running Definitive bipolar supertowers at home myself,
3. but almost every room of my house has speakers that I made myself in it. I'm nearly finished with these too. Just need to finish routing the cosmetic rings around the port and woofer out of purple heart.
Yeah, as a person that really just wants to hear the music as the artist/composer intended ... at first I was keeping them set to Focus=ALL and off/bare-minimums.
But as I fiddle more, a little of each sounds pretty good. So, trying Focus=ALL, 25%, and Minimum.
2. Wow. Definitive Technology is high-end gear in my book. Nice to find people that actually appreciate good speakers.
I figured I was doing good to get a matched set/series (timbre ?) , with good reviews and rubber-surrounds.
3. That's pretty cool. I've never built a speaker ... but I have had nice-speakers that blew a driver (went shorted or open) and I fixed them with new (properly sourced/spec-ed) drivers. One was a large JBL-Center and the other was a Infinity Sub-Woofer. Both still work and in our work-out room (aka gaming room)
12-15-2020, 08:22 PM
#386
AudiWorld Uber User
1. If I'm understanding correctly, I think you might be referring to Focus, Surround, and 3D-Effect.
Yeah, as a person that really just wants to hear the music as the artist/composer intended ... at first I was keeping them set to Focus=ALL and off/bare-minimums.
But as I fiddle more, a little of each sounds pretty good. So, trying Focus=ALL, 25%, and Minimum.
2. Wow. Definitive Technology is high-end gear in my book. Nice to find people that actually appreciate good speakers.
I figured I was doing good to get a matched set/series (timbre ?) , with good reviews and rubber-surrounds.
3. That's pretty cool. I've never built a speaker ... but I have had nice-speakers that blew a driver (went shorted or open) and I fixed them with new (properly sourced/spec-ed) drivers. One was a large JBL-Center and the other was a Infinity Sub-Woofer. Both still work and in our work-out room (aka gaming room)
Yeah, as a person that really just wants to hear the music as the artist/composer intended ... at first I was keeping them set to Focus=ALL and off/bare-minimums.
But as I fiddle more, a little of each sounds pretty good. So, trying Focus=ALL, 25%, and Minimum.
2. Wow. Definitive Technology is high-end gear in my book. Nice to find people that actually appreciate good speakers.
I figured I was doing good to get a matched set/series (timbre ?) , with good reviews and rubber-surrounds.
3. That's pretty cool. I've never built a speaker ... but I have had nice-speakers that blew a driver (went shorted or open) and I fixed them with new (properly sourced/spec-ed) drivers. One was a large JBL-Center and the other was a Infinity Sub-Woofer. Both still work and in our work-out room (aka gaming room)
2. Those polks are just fine speakers. The most important thing in selecting a home speaker is, if it makes you happy to listen to them. Timbre matching is really nice in a surround sound system but it's also deadly when one speaker eventually wears out and then you have to replace the whole set. I bought those definitives as a full set with center, rears, and rear center and they are ohhh 16 years old now. But I worry one day I'll be on the hook to lay down for another serious set of speakers. The thing is though, when I bought them, I loved them more than any other speaker in the store. I took a bunch of my CDs in the store with me (remember this is 2004) and I found many speakers that played something I really liked, but those definitive speakers played everything I like the way I like it. Polk loves the warm speaker sound and they are very good at it, and have been for literally decades.
3. If you want to get into speaker building as a hobby, Parts express has lots of great kits ranging from bookshelf through floor standing speakers and even subwoofers. They Overnight Sensation and C-Note kits are both exceptionally good bookshelf speakers and quite reasonably priced. From there you can learn about what the components do and how they go together and before you know it, you're trying to figure out what obscure corner of your property yet still doesn't have any speakers in it.
You might be shocked at how good of a speaker you can build for not that much money. Or you can break the bank too. If there's a pandemic and you have lots of time on your hands, well it might be both! Working with those components will also make you pretty angry about consumer product quality. About a year ago my son asked for an alarm clock to wake him up in the morning (he was 6 then) and I noticed he was starting to get into music. I shopped some alarm clocks and didn't like what I saw (or rather heard) so I said screw it, I'm just going to make him one. Alarm Clock | Parts Express Project Gallery It plays solidly down to 50hz and the AMT tweeter puts a new definition on the word "crisp". Only real problem is the midrange gets a little muddy if listening to music with heavy bass above 90dB, but that's expected with long throw woofers. My son loves it. My daughter loved it too and soon I found she was in his room all the time listening to music so then I had to build her a speaker. My wife wanted something she could do up with a bit more artistic flare and not an alarm clock and I came up with this: Charlotte?s Speaker | Parts Express Project Gallery It won't play quite as deep and it's a larger bass reflex design but it's silky smooth and with warm vocals. Both are run with Amazon Echo dots and I had to sign up for the family plan on Amazon music because the kids and wife all wanted to play different music at the same time. Sometimes they change each other's music as a joke.
12-16-2020, 08:00 AM
#387
Club AutoUnion
1. It's more than just the focus effect, which is mainly just fader and balance controls so I don't have any beef with them, or the terrible 3D effect which you CAN turn off. I was thinking more of the DSP crossover points, some of which are bat**** crazy. But I wish I could change them to match the speakers I'm putting in the car for even better sound quality.
2. Those polks are just fine speakers. The most important thing in selecting a home speaker is, if it makes you happy to listen to them. Timbre matching is really nice in a surround sound system but it's also deadly when one speaker eventually wears out and then you have to replace the whole set. I bought those definitives as a full set with center, rears, and rear center and they are ohhh 16 years old now. But I worry one day I'll be on the hook to lay down for another serious set of speakers. The thing is though, when I bought them, I loved them more than any other speaker in the store. I took a bunch of my CDs in the store with me (remember this is 2004) and I found many speakers that played something I really liked, but those definitive speakers played everything I like the way I like it. Polk loves the warm speaker sound and they are very good at it, and have been for literally decades.
3. If you want to get into speaker building as a hobby, Parts express has lots of great kits ranging from bookshelf through floor standing speakers and even subwoofers. They Overnight Sensation and C-Note kits are both exceptionally good bookshelf speakers and quite reasonably priced. From there you can learn about what the components do and how they go together and before you know it, you're trying to figure out what obscure corner of your property yet still doesn't have any speakers in it. You might be shocked at how good of a speaker you can build for not that much money. Or you can break the bank too. If there's a pandemic and you have lots of time on your hands, well it might be both! Working with those components will also make you pretty angry about consumer product quality. About a year ago my son asked for an alarm clock to wake him up in the morning (he was 6 then) and I noticed he was starting to get into music. I shopped some alarm clocks and didn't like what I saw (or rather heard) so I said screw it, I'm just going to make him one. Alarm Clock | Parts Express Project Gallery It plays solidly down to 50hz and the AMT tweeter puts a new definition on the word "crisp". Only real problem is the midrange gets a little muddy if listening to music with heavy bass above 90dB, but that's expected with long throw woofers. My son loves it. My daughter loved it too and soon I found she was in his room all the time listening to music so then I had to build her a speaker. My wife wanted something she could do up with a bit more artistic flare and not an alarm clock and I came up with this: Charlotte?s Speaker | Parts Express Project Gallery It won't play quite as deep and it's a larger bass reflex design but it's silky smooth and with warm vocals. Both are run with Amazon Echo dots and I had to sign up for the family plan on Amazon music because the kids and wife all wanted to play different music at the same time. Sometimes they change each other's music as a joke.
2. Those polks are just fine speakers. The most important thing in selecting a home speaker is, if it makes you happy to listen to them. Timbre matching is really nice in a surround sound system but it's also deadly when one speaker eventually wears out and then you have to replace the whole set. I bought those definitives as a full set with center, rears, and rear center and they are ohhh 16 years old now. But I worry one day I'll be on the hook to lay down for another serious set of speakers. The thing is though, when I bought them, I loved them more than any other speaker in the store. I took a bunch of my CDs in the store with me (remember this is 2004) and I found many speakers that played something I really liked, but those definitive speakers played everything I like the way I like it. Polk loves the warm speaker sound and they are very good at it, and have been for literally decades.
3. If you want to get into speaker building as a hobby, Parts express has lots of great kits ranging from bookshelf through floor standing speakers and even subwoofers. They Overnight Sensation and C-Note kits are both exceptionally good bookshelf speakers and quite reasonably priced. From there you can learn about what the components do and how they go together and before you know it, you're trying to figure out what obscure corner of your property yet still doesn't have any speakers in it.
You might be shocked at how good of a speaker you can build for not that much money. Or you can break the bank too. If there's a pandemic and you have lots of time on your hands, well it might be both! Working with those components will also make you pretty angry about consumer product quality. About a year ago my son asked for an alarm clock to wake him up in the morning (he was 6 then) and I noticed he was starting to get into music. I shopped some alarm clocks and didn't like what I saw (or rather heard) so I said screw it, I'm just going to make him one. Alarm Clock | Parts Express Project Gallery It plays solidly down to 50hz and the AMT tweeter puts a new definition on the word "crisp". Only real problem is the midrange gets a little muddy if listening to music with heavy bass above 90dB, but that's expected with long throw woofers. My son loves it. My daughter loved it too and soon I found she was in his room all the time listening to music so then I had to build her a speaker. My wife wanted something she could do up with a bit more artistic flare and not an alarm clock and I came up with this: Charlotte?s Speaker | Parts Express Project Gallery It won't play quite as deep and it's a larger bass reflex design but it's silky smooth and with warm vocals. Both are run with Amazon Echo dots and I had to sign up for the family plan on Amazon music because the kids and wife all wanted to play different music at the same time. Sometimes they change each other's music as a joke.
12-16-2020, 09:44 AM
#388
AudiWorld Uber User
A lot of speaker building projects also tend to be woodworking projects. The community attracts a lot of artistic level craftsmen too. I usually suggest staying off the audiophile purist boards as they attract annoying people who go to crap on your designs instead of contributing something useful. I'm not on the level of building something like my Def Tech speakers so I don't even worry about uber high end designs. Speaker building always involves compromises. Making a home speaker has options to push compromises in several directions to get closer to your goal, but car speakers have to accept compromises with a chainsaw. Speaker building is a great teacher towards what things you can change and what things you have to accept. Pretty soon you get to a point where small improvements require ridiculous amounts of work and cost.
Lastly a theme I've been harping on all along, build something you like because you are going to listen to it. Every time I've chased the audiophile goal of a pure flat speaker, it was just that. Flat. Those big walnut speakers above may look simple but they are the most complex thing I've ever worked on and in the end they sounded very flat. I've been tweaking the crossovers and tuning here and there and only just recently gotten a sound I was pretty happy with out of them. Like a person's taste in wine, different people perceive sound in different ways. It's often not a case of "I'm right and you are wrong" its a case of I prefer Zinfandel and you prefer Merlot". Both situations can be ideal for their respective consumers and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
12-16-2020, 09:46 AM
#389
AudiWorld Senior Member
1. It's more than just the focus effect, which is mainly just fader and balance controls so I don't have any beef with them, or the terrible 3D effect which you CAN turn off. I was thinking more of the DSP crossover points, some of which are bat**** crazy. But I wish I could change them to match the speakers I'm putting in the car for even better sound quality.
2. Those polks are just fine speakers.
2. Those polks are just fine speakers.
Yeah, adjustable cross-overs would be nice. That sounds similar to Audyssey. You could replace speakers and then re-run the calibration procedure.
Right, 3D-Effect might not be better ... just "different". Like a traditional EQ, to make certain parts of music sound more-defined ... it often involves removing sounds in the mid-range. Thing is, it's these sounds that often add richness to the music. One good thing about it ... it does seem to add life to lame 128k-MP3 (when you have no better rip of that track).
2. Thanks. Good to hear you think so.
Last edited by Tesla1856; 12-16-2020 at 10:00 AM.
12-16-2020, 09:58 AM
#390
AudiWorld Senior Member
3. If you want to get into speaker building as a hobby, Parts express has lots of great kits ranging from bookshelf through floor standing speakers and even subwoofers. They Overnight Sensation and C-Note kits are both exceptionally good bookshelf speakers and quite reasonably priced. From there you can learn about what the components do and how they go together and before you know it, you're trying to figure out what obscure corner of your property yet still doesn't have any speakers in it.
You might be shocked at how good of a speaker you can build for not that much money. Or you can break the bank too. If there's a pandemic and you have lots of time on your hands, well it might be both! Working with those components will also make you pretty angry about consumer product quality. About a year ago my son asked for an alarm clock to wake him up in the morning (he was 6 then) and I noticed he was starting to get into music. I shopped some alarm clocks and didn't like what I saw (or rather heard) so I said screw it, I'm just going to make him one. Alarm Clock | Parts Express Project Gallery It plays solidly down to 50hz and the AMT tweeter puts a new definition on the word "crisp". Only real problem is the midrange gets a little muddy if listening to music with heavy bass above 90dB, but that's expected with long throw woofers. My son loves it. My daughter loved it too and soon I found she was in his room all the time listening to music so then I had to build her a speaker. My wife wanted something she could do up with a bit more artistic flare and not an alarm clock and I came up with this: Charlotte?s Speaker | Parts Express Project Gallery It won't play quite as deep and it's a larger bass reflex design but it's silky smooth and with warm vocals. Both are run with Amazon Echo dots and I had to sign up for the family plan on Amazon music because the kids and wife all wanted to play different music at the same time. Sometimes they change each other's music as a joke.Yeah, not happy with "single-stream music limit" on Amazon Prime. They really should allow at least 2-3 concurrent streams on base subscription.
Amazon dropped their cloud-based MP3 storage/play service ... so I found MyPod Skill and files play from Google-Drive.
If you don't mind, I would like to chat more about Alexa, Echos, and music in the home. Do you have a forum account at AVS (AV-Science) or similar ?