iv just got my new speakers, pods, and active crossover all running and it sounds great.
i tried out my alpine test cds and when the staging track come up, it wasnt quite right.

on the highway one cd, its got the guy talking on the stereo mic. left, left center, center and so on as he walks from one side to the other. for the first encounter, is just a left, right, center.

center just sounds like its accross the whole dash. i cant really point to where it is. center left and center right are better.

i remember listening to a sq aimed car [holden monaro, late model], and when it was a center vocal it sounded like it was center... on the first encounter cd.
he was also running a center front speaker [in the roof]. is this the fix it option? i have the room for a 4" center on the dash but would require cutting the dash [big no no for an alfa], unless i found a shallow speaker [2"~].

where is the cener channel obtained? is it a head unit option?

That's Damo's Monaro. There is a few options. Alpine make a number of centre channels. From DIN sized units, to surface mount ones.

centre channels can work IF executed properly. ideally, you need:
*good quality speaker, say from the same series as your front L/R, and of decent size (at least 4")
*centre channel output from your HU or processor
*equalisation
*time correction

it's just as important to be able to tune the centre channel as it is the other channels.

alternatively, play around with the angles of your tweeters. you could also try changing the phase of one of the tweeters to see if that makes a difference (swap the +/- wires around).

jazig. pm me and we can have a play with ur stereo. how does that sound?

There should be no need for a centre channel to achieve a good centre image,

centre channels are generally bandaids for poorly designed SQ Systems, and adding a centre channel means you need upmixers to convert the 2 channel signal into 3 or more channels. Which will equal a loss in overall sound quality in the end. To some this setup, the sound may be desirable, but it isn't a true SQ Setup.

To achieve a proper centre stage, tweeter and midrange alignment makes a big difference, also midbass alignment, depending if you have 2 or 3 ways.

Generally speaking, to achieve a perfect central image you need the speakers left and right to be equal distances from the driver, since this is pretty much impossible, you can turn to things like time alignment and equalization.

Since your running active, I'll assume you have separated time alignments, and x/over functions,

your tweeters and mids idealy should be equal distances to your head, IE: the distance in CM to the centre of the tweeter to your head, should be the equal distance of the centre of the midrange/midbass to your head (depending if they are 2/3 ways, the midrange is more important than midbass in 3 ways)

A common SQ setup of the past is to use placements such as the kick panels for mids and tweeters because they are longer distances away, especially on the drivers side, (from the driver) this increases sound stage width and depth, and also improves the placement of the centre image.

the image can be adjusted with minor attenuations of tweeters and mids separately, (left/right) but time alignment can sometimes be more effective.

if even with good time alignment, you still suffer a bloated or fuzzy centre image, one or more of your speakers could be out of phase, try playing will all the different phases of each speaker. The other thing that can happen, is if one of the mids or tweeters plays a slightly different freq or has a different resonance to the other, this will cause a fuzzy centre image also, which means you'll need to do separated Equalizing.

Generally tweeters and midranges will need to be on axis for premium detail and clarity, but sometimes this can be at the expense of soundstage width and centre image locality. however i find on axis once the centre image is located, it's stability is much better. Midbass position can effect the stability of the centre image also, and playing with on/off axis and it's equalization can help to stabilize and locate the centre image.

I generally just sit in the car with the stereo image test on repeat, and just keep fiddling till i get results.
once you get the right results you'll be amazed how good your music sounds..

let me know if you need any specific pointers.
Juls

thanks for the replies.

teg - damo's monaro, correct, has he finfished it yet? last time i seen it everthing ran and he need the boot covered and tune it all.

can i come up to bendigo for a BBQ and watch the operations too ..........zion

hey,

ur more than welcome to come up and listen to my system. i go listen to others systems pretty often. im going to melbourne tomorrow to check out another system.

if ur in bendigo or want to organise something, send us a pm.

if you have the flexibility of adjustment, then TA on the midbass can get a better centre image.
the BEST way is to position the speakers correctly.

cool

Yep, its all done. It came up pretty well. It had a final tune a couple weeks back. Sounds very nice.

I think he is back next week from his holidays.

zion, come down and bring gorilla nutztoo man...

me and steve are gonna meet up today...


pm me for details if you havent already got them...

why not just meet at lake werroona [spelling], theyve got bbq's an all that.

That's a good idea, I could be up for that.

hey i didnt see this post till now ,,, dang ........zion