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Anonymous | I would like to hear what you think about what this guy Apathy had to say about head units, and whether what he said is true or not. http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177814 |
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Silver Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 509 Registered: May-04 | Not true by any means. I mean, 24 bit DAC's (which stock head units don't use) are only part of the equation, there are filters in line and a world of other electrical components that affect the signal. Stock head units have more distortion, less power, worse frequency response, and a low S/N ratio compared to an aftermarket head unit. Just like a cheap Sony amp doesn't have the sound quality of a Zapco, a head unit works the same, except that it has to convert the signal from Digital to analog, but it still amplifies the signal, so really it's just as critical as an amp. His comment about the amp being more important, the amp could be the best in the world, if it gets a crappy signal, it won't fix it, it'll only produce the signal that comes to it. Just like a crappy MP3 that pops and buzzes will still pop and buzz on the best components in the world, the signal dictates the sound quality. A crappy head unit will color the sound. It's all in the power supply, components, and design. LOC's are crap compared to preouts, they're run off the head unit's internal amp, which is inherently weak and has higher distortion and distorts more quickly, much quicker than a preout does, and it runs hotter than a preout, heat is an electrical enemy. Remember how the Alpine "dead head" (no internal amp) sounded cleaner than a unit having an amp running? That's because of less electrical interferance, also cooler operation. The design is just as important. If you placed that 24 bit DAC across a bunch of inductors it would kill the signal quality. Preouts with higher line voltages sound cleaner because of lower inductance, and less chance of interferance with other components. Go to an IASCA competition and see if they use stock head units in a SQ competition. Guarantee you it won't happen, if they do they definately won't win. Glasswolf will be using an Eclipse 8454 in his future car, I'm sure he's not doing it for the internal equalizers and crossovers, saying he's using Audiocontrol EQT's for equalization, and the Dynaudio crossover. |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfNorthWest, Michigan USA Post Number: 3453 Registered: Dec-03 | this tidbit of BS should tell you everything about Apathy: "Yeah, you get better internal parts (which is completely unrelated to sound quality)." spoken like someone who's never owned a piece of truly high end gear in his life, and never taken a single course in electronics. WTF does he think the sound comes from? The electronics. Period. They are responsible for producing the sound, recording it, etc. resistor tolerances, DAC quality, and so forth always have a bearing on performance. there's so much BS in that thread I'm not even going to get into picking it apart. not worth the effort. |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfNorthWest, Michigan USA Post Number: 3454 Registered: Dec-03 | btw, the fact that this guy is suggesting you use an EQ tro fix everything is just plain wrong, too. the more you process the signal, the more you INTRODUCE problems like phase shift caused by resistors and capacitors and coils, time shift, signal degradation, and so on. keep it simple, stupid. that saying has been around a long time for good reason. I'd take that five grand bet on a factory unit with LOCs versus an alpine CDA-7990 F#1status unit using my own reference CD any day. I've never heard a system using a factory source that sounded as good as a decent aftermarket unit. LOCs just plain suck going from amplified signal to line level and back to amplified. |