Tpl - hit the nail on the head. Still, a CD of any sort of music - R&B, Dance, 60's rock, indy punk, etc. there is a difference between poor quality recording and poor quality reproduction. I like to hear my fuzz, distortion, and crappy guitar playing as clearly as possible.
S60, I'm not a fan of any of the Prologic algorithms. The audio geeks I used to hang out with had a not very polite phrase about it along the lines of phase facking. We made a box, the PF2000 (short for phase $#%%^ 2000) that did the same thing as the original Pro Logic. I'm also not a fan of 12-way stereos as its such a hard challenge to get the frequency cross-overs to line up and then the physical wave propegation to work well in the space (to easy to get dead spots in the car due to inverse-phase subtraction - I need a picture here to make clear what I mean). Besides, unless you are playing a DVD there are only 2 (or maybe 1 if you listen to 680) channels so 12 (IMHO) is a waste. Sound reinforcement through multiple speakers is really tricky if you think any given listener is getting direct sound from more than 2 speakers (or there is more than 2 channels like on a DVD).
Can someone tell me what a Premium sound digital sound processor is?!? Sounds like fancy words for digital EQ/Loudness/Reverb. I'm not too into post processing, I'm more a fan of listening as mastering engineer intended. That said, the car often requires post-processing to make things audible in the environment (a good clue it is a poor listening space is when post-processing is needed).
Also, S60, in the setup you mention 12 speakers and also mention a center speaker. Is the center in addition to the 12. The amp is 4x70+25 for the center, so assuming there are 12 speakers + the center then that means three speakers per amp channel (bass, mid, and tweeter for each passenger? That would be nasty on space assuming the mid was 3-4" and the bass was 5-8"). How are the speakers placed and of what type?
I should go listen to an S40 sometime, always interested to see what people come up with. I believe there is (or used to be) one of the higher end cars that came with a Macintosh setup - that was pretty nice (for a car).
Back to the original thread - I'm a big fan of torque and I think high torque low HP motors are good for in city applications. My BMW is 190HP and 207ft/lbs and feels real nice. These engines are perfect for my wife that complains about delay and oomphf off the line in the Audi, but is unwilling to rev it high as she doesn't like the sound. My only thing is I also like redlining cars which means I'm okay with Miata and S2000 style engines. Oh well, I guess its good when you like both.
(Message edited by davidm on November 05, 2004)
