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This system was planned to be a very simple, good quality, 2-way system. But, as I was writing the "competition" section of the FAQ's, I had the desire to see if the "minimalist" phylosophy, that I have always sustained together with a few friends, could find confirmation in competitions.
The components are, in my opinion, the best for quality, but don't expect to see 45 cm sub-woofers, or dozens of amplifiers and speakers. There's no active crossover (except for the one dedicated to the sub-woofer), equalizer, or DSP's...only the necessary to obtain the best sound quality and the closest reproduction of the original event.
The installation will be compliant with the rules of the principal international Car hi-fi regulations, but, anyway, I will try to "steal" some point with the maxium exploitation of the same regulations. One of the aims of the sound system is to be as much as possible integrated with the rest of the car.
I thought that I could let everybody know the most important phases of the preparation , and I hope that this work will be able to help those people who think that quality is better than quantity and want to undertake the preparation of a car for competitions or only to enjoy the best possible sound.

Papy

Theese are the listening impressions, published on the Newsgroup by Massimiliano Buttaro (Arch Sorge), Emma Judge, and "exigent ear". His strictness has gainend to him the nickname of "beater of sound systems" ...:-))

A few of you knows that, on the last weekend, a meeting of the Newsgroup took place in Rome; there I could listen to a 2way system which doesn't sound like a 2 way system. I'm talking about what will become the dream of a lot of people: Papy's car.
Basically, the system is very simple: 2way + subwoofer. The source is a Nakamichi MB 100 with separate d/a converter. From the front pre-out the sound signal arrives to a Phoenix Gold for the front 2way-system, formed by the midwoofer Tecnology LS 180 and by the LS 29 neo tweeter
The car is passively filtered except for the subwoofer, which makes use of theamplifier's internal crossover; for the front hi-pass , a hi-pass on the line has been used.
The passive cross over, the key for this great result, is really top secret, and it has been realised thanks to the work of R. Tognon.
In fact, he got out from his hat a new surprise to satisfy Papy, going beyond what was supposed to be the physical limit of a 2 way sytem. The whole car is Van Den Hul wired...after all what did you expect from him? The sound itself is on a very very high level, and let's consider that this is the very first setup, and there's still a quite good margin of improvement. The result that, for many people, would be a point of arrival, here is only the beginning.
The thing that impress you most is how is possible to have the soundstage over the dashboard and a so deep image. But what I really like is that this is a charming system, that makes you forget those little indecision, that are going to disappear with the next setups. The tone balancing is very good, and this makes the car "neutral". Arnaldo Vince, journalist of Car Electronics compared its sound to the one of the Rogers speakers (that are English, very neutral, loudspeakers. In fact the sound is very "sweet" though not to "fast" (but the original battery is really underdimensioned for the transient) ; anyway don't think that the system is "slow", quite the contrary.
The ultra low gamma has a quite good extention, an excellent articulation and matricity; also the bass frequencies is well defined and has a good articulation, where the medium gamma is smashing, especially magic with female voice: the sound is very clear and clean.
The high band has a particular precision and it's very well defined, where the extention is less impressive, but it could be the result that I obtained from the long listenings with SACD, DAT, DVD and Vynil that charmed me.
The transparency of the message is incredible, though it looses something in terms of "corporeity", but the refinement of the message itself is incredible, especially in giving back all that details like breathes and the touch of fingers on the musical instruments. Music seems to blow inside the car.
Acoustic scene is quite wide, going from the left to a little beyond the right strut, a little decreasing on the extremities, but this problem shows itself only with a few passages.
Sound height and deepness are praiseworthy, better than a lot cars I listened to, though there's still work to do with ambience, that is the ability to ideally reproduce the place where the recording took place.
Image is very stable, both orizontally and vertically, also when you move your head. Though, the sound stage is a little vertically squashed, presenting the instruments as they were in a two dimension world. Focus and dimensioning are excellent, from the center-right and from the center left to the end of the sounstage, while the center is a little rarified, and it reproduces voiced and instruments a little bigger than at the sides.
Micro and macrocontrast are very good, maybe microconstrast could be a little better, but speed is not at the maximum level (but what car does it?), giving, together with a warm tone colour, a sound that i call "English sound". Honestly, the music genre I liked most in this car was jazz, incredibly beautiful, especially those recordings made in jazz clubs; wonderful the interpretation of Jazz at the Pawnshop by Proprius, recorded in the famous club in Stockholm more than 25 years ago: it makes you dream....like the sound decay and the noise of the customers, with their glasses and their chattering that send you in that smoky club of 30 years ago.
An excellent result, especially if you think that it has been obtained with a two way system

Arch.Sorge

More installation in my site www.carhifi-it.com/