Hi everyone. I'm getting my car ready for the upcomming season but I am still having trouble with my head unit choices. I had planned on using a Pioneer P9 system to do all the source and processing duties. To be honest the only real reason I wanted the P9 was for the delay. I will be a rookie this year so judges will only be in one seat. Can you get a solid center stage and good height with out a delay (I'm not willing to cut my car up too much)??? I drive a 2000 NEON and for the most part the pathlengths are pretty good. My other choice for source duties would be the NAK. 700II with the audiocontrol digital x-over/eq.

Please help [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

IMO, p9 combo is far superior than the cd700/AC combo

time delay is u'r friend

ohh, i say delay! nice difference when set properly

One thing to think of is guys have been setting up cars for years before this fance delay/time correction came around. IMO time correction is only good for two things. 1) Someone who hasn't a clue on how to set up a car properly or 2) a final "tweek" once the car is set up.

Don't get me wrong, time correction is a great feature, but I think too many people are relying on it to achieve great results and putting less time into the actuall install. My advice is to learn what it takes to get a car sounding great first, then worry about time correction for fine tuning.

Being its your first year and your only being judged from one seat, it should be quite easy to achieve your image and stage.

oh.. its that easy [img]graemlins/freak.gif[/img]

IMO do not rely on electronic processors and aides to make up for lack of install and system design. Get the P9 but not for the sole reason as to rely on the time alignment to give better sound. It's not an end-all, be-all solution. Cars can, and have, even done very well in competition without such processing. Sounds uncomprehensible when t-a processing is the flavor of the day but it's true.

Thanks guys. To be honest I'm really not worried about my install (I will do my best). I am competing as a rookie but I have been playing with car audio for nearly 15 years. So my install should be sufficient. But I want to start as a rookie to sort of test the waters in IASCA. And of course I would like both seats to image well.

IMO yes it is that easy. Your talking one seat. If you know how to make a decent pair of kicks, one seat should be a snap.

kick panels dont make image and stage a snap, there is narrow stage issues with most kick panel installs, rainbow if you will, getting center image might be easier with kich panel mounted speakers, but getting a wide stage is a totally different story with kick panel mounted midrange/bass and tweeters, i have heard very few vehicles with what i would consider a wide stage, and truth be told even with kick mounted speakers there is still time alignment issues. it is widely accepted that humans can hear time variances as little as 1.5 ms which is about 5-6 cm, and most vehicle even with k/p mounted speakers have variances in excess of that. there are many people myself included that spent many many hours on our installs, and design, and in the end t/a was critical for stage width and especially depth, i agree it makes for a one seat sq install but i guess i disagree with your generalization that most people use as a bandaid for poor preparation and not as an installation aid that in most cases can yeild huge benefits in a single seat sq vehicle

When I tune, or build any comp car the last thing I touch is processing.

I will do most of the work with speaker polarity, and crossover points/slopes/levels.

Using any type of processing is a last resort in any audio system regardless of type.

However real world and what you can do are two very different things