5.1 sourround in car?

[andrewson00]

is there any 5.1 support amplifier for car audio?

 

[rjstyles]

You have 2 channel , 4 channel and 5 channel amps available for car audio. In all these years of my experience with ICE and having seen various installs haven't heard of a 4/5 channel setup with a .1 suffix.

Check my thread on the scorpio setup.

 

[theironhorse]

well yes and no..

hopefully not available in india...

but yes 5.1 kinda setup for ICE is available.. and will be expensive...

 

[matbhuvi]

Here you go..for multichannel music in car.

I have seen 5.1 setups. You can go for such, if you are planning to use it mainly for movies with DTS/Dolby tracks. For music, stereo gives the best staging and instrument separation.

 

[Ajay Kamath]

I have installed dozens of 5.1 setups in cars with either DVD as source or a carputer or both. Nearly all car amplifiers are power amplifiers and they do not play any role in the surround decoding or processing as is the case with home receivers. So it is not necessary to have a "5.1 amplifier".

Here's one of my installs.

 

[Moviela]

Nearly all car amplifiers are power amplifiers and they do not play any role in the surround decoding or processing as is the case with home receivers.

That is a very nice install you have there.

If you step into my Mercedes you will hear Logic 7 decoded sound from the factory system. TV tuners with video inputs are also coming from the factory, though used mostly by children to play game consoles.

 

[Ajay Kamath]

If you step into my Mercedes you will hear Logic 7 decoded sound from the factory system. TV tuners with video inputs are also coming from the factory, though used mostly by children to play game consoles.

Thank you.

We upgrade the sound in many Mercedes, BMW, Audi and other imports as well. Especially those that don't come with the top line audio package.

 

[rjstyles]

So Ajay how does one distinguish when it's a 5.1 setup and what goes into the making of one ?

 

[hrd.hrishikesh]

I have a query, how is the channel balance controlled with the screens being offset from the center? Is that a compromise that one can't avoid? Thanks.

 

[Ajay Kamath]

So Ajay how does one distinguish when it's a 5.1 setup and what goes into the making of one ?

I didn't get you. A setup which can decode surround sound formats, and/ or convert traditional 2 channel stereo to simulated surround modes would count as a 5.1 setup. Hence, you need equipment capable of doing this, plus the minimum number of speakers to achieve this.

I have a query, how is the channel balance controlled with the screens being offset from the center? Is that a compromise that one can't avoid? Thanks.

Speaker positions have to be chosen so that the L-C-R and surround relativity is retained as much as possible. Channel balance will be skewed from one seating position to the other much like the case where in homes, the channel balance will be off for people sitting in non-sweet-spot locations. So obviously you try and optimize as much as possible for the "money seat(s)".

 

[navin advani]

Channel balance will be skewed from one seating position to the other much like the case where in homes, the channel balance will be off for people sitting in non-sweet-spot locations. So obviously you try and optimize as much as possible for the "money seat(s)".

It amazes me why anyone would want 5.1 surround in a car but hey I'm old and outdated.

The ear-speaker distances in a car make it very diffuclt to optimise the sound for even the front 2 seats, things get crazy ifyou want to optimise for the rear 2 seats as well.

Take an average home with 2 listeners watching a movie. Speakers 10 ft. apart, listeners 10 ft in front the center speaker (ok I know this is not ideal but it makes for simple calculation) on either side.

Left listener:
Ear to left speaker is say 10ft. Ear to right speaker is 14ft. difference 40%

Same listener in a car:
Ear to left speaker is about 3 ft. Ear to right speaker is about 6ft. difference 100%.

Add in driver distraction, road conditions (bumpy video watching) etc.. and video is not so much fun. Audio makes more sense.

 

[rankesh]

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[rankesh]

Agree with Navin

 

[just4kix]

I drive my car and hence I cannot watch DVD in car because if I watched movies in car, others would have to watch out. :lol:

So I have not bothered about 5.1 setup in my car - not even a in-car DVD+LCD monitor.

 

[prasoonjee]

Hi everyone, this is my first post and it feels great to be part of this sound loving community. This forum has helped me in the past to make a decision on buying a home theatre a year ago, HT IV300.

This time i was looking for an 4 channel amp for car which is cost effective.. any recommendations ? TIA