5 replies to this topic

[Pyroay]

Has anyone had much experience playing with DSP's.

I have a pioneer (a few years old now) and have found it to be one of the best pieces of equipment. It has a digital 31 band eq (which i don't use because of the relitavely large q, instead i have a seperate EQ), fully adjustable crossovers, for sub, mid and high with adjustable slope 6,12,18. Also time alignment a cool spectrum analyser and heaps more.

I am just wondering why i don't see or hear of many of them out there. (Alpine make one too)

I have heard one guy say they introduce noise?

What are peoples thoughts??

[T-Bro]

lots of people have EQ's and time alignment on their headunits these days, as the technology is cheaper and its becoming more of a common thing.

not alot of talk about them because, i suspect, setting up an EQ and TA takes some work and experimentation and your average P plater has no time for such things when there are those cute dolphins to look at haha

anyway, TA is an invaluable technology for stereo setups and something more people should look into, as are the built in EQ's which let you tune the system from your seat.

tuning is a vitally important part of finishing a system off, but it takes time and experience and thats why you dont hear alot of talk about it - thats my theory anyway!

[pwoida]

Any extra component in the signal path will introduce noise.

[T-Bro]

technically this is correct, i know with my dolby prologic II setup that it adds a slight noise floor due to the processor working away. but in practical terms, what u have to ask yourself is, is the trade-off worthwhile?

ie, if TA or an EQ or a decoder, adds some noise, is the benefit that item provides more pleasuarable than the noise? in my case with DPLII, i find the tradeoff is quite worthwile. with time alignment, same thing, the control it gives you over lateral imaging is spectacular compared to any noise introduced. also with equalisers, while it is easy to use an EQ to mess up a system, when done right it provides linearity and blending that makes the 'polluted' signal worthwhile.

so its handy to look at things on a practical level, also not forgeting that we're dealing with a mobile environment that in itself is noisy and hostile

[rheetard]

wanna sell me that pioneer dsp??

[Pyroay]

Not really keen to sell as my entire system now revolves around it. But worth trying to get your hands on one. It can do so much and one great advantage is that everything is adjustable from the head unit mounted end menaing you can listen to the system and change eq, time allignment and all crossover points while in your seat. It is interesting to hear the difference.

There is a very very faint sort of shhhhhhh sound it introduces when driven to it's maximum but i don't drive it that hard. I have plenty of headroom on my amps and can run my front stage with 200rms while still using DSP at only half or 2/3rds.

Mind you like everything it is great for fine tunning and playing with settings and crossovers etc.... but will not make up for poor speaker placement or other faults in the first place.

I would be really keen to have a magazine or something review this unit and make comments. Also unlike some critisims of other pioneer equipment it is quite simple to use.