Hey guys a couple of weeks ago I bought a pioneer headunit with time alignment features, and now I would like to set it up correctly. I know there are DVD's out there to setup home theater systems, but are there any CD's that do the same thing for car audio?

 

I think there is a program called "pink noise" or something like that.... but that is for professional jobs where the equipment can really handle the small adjustments. You should not need a CD.... most time align settings are done by running come calculations of the different speaker distances from the focus of the soundstage. I will see if I can't find a like somewhere....

Time-aligning in the S is not that big of an issue (more so in large SUV's where the rear stage is so far behind the front). If you are running rear's (SPODS), you may want to delay those a few MS..... Checkout Alpine's site, they have manuals for their head units, if you select one that has the time align features (9833 is one), it has the formula's you will need.

John

 

Time alignment is usually done by taking physical measurements of how far the individual speakers are from the listeners ear(s). You then delay the nearest speakers to be the same acoustical distance to your ears as the farthest speakers. This optimizes the soundstage for ONLY one listening position in the car (usually the driver), and makes the other listening position(s) suffer. You shouldn't need a test CD.

Sound travels at approximately 1130 feet per second. Another way of saying this is it takes about 0.88 milliseconds for sound to travel 1 foot. If the left side set of speakers is 1 foot closer to your ear than the right side set, you would delay the left side by 0.88 milliseconds.

The CD deck manual you have should give you some basic idea of how to address the time alignment features it has. If it's just a simple "listening position" type deal, it probably won't give you any actual time alignment adjustments.

One of the problems you will face with the "S" is that the midrange drivers and tweeters in the doors are not mounted very close together...this makes time alignment challenging. You may need to average the distance of the drivers for each door to get close.

 

thanks guys for you help. I guess I will have to keep on trying to get it right by ear

 

pink noise is mainly used to set up equalizers. use a test CD, something with a center stage. FYI, higher freq(short waves) travel at a faster rate than lower freq(long waves). I think you're better off TAing for the tweeters than the midbass.

IASCA SQ CD, EMMA, USACI SQ CD, Alpine F1 test CD, Autosound...list goes on and on. I got want you need to setup TA. You basicaly need something with a solid center stage.

Where you located? i can help you tune.

Edit: I always setup by ear... vehicles have reflections that throw off measurements. Measurement is great for setting base, then fine tuning by ear.

Which Pioneer did you buy?