Anyone upgraded their Sony 10-speaker stereo?

[engine ear]

I'm in the group that thinks this is a great system that is plenty loud. I played professionally for 10 years, sat(Hammond B-3, 122 RV Leslie and Mini-Moog, Fender Rhodes) in front of Marshall stacks, Orange, Fender, Sunn,,,etc...and I know loud. Went to a WHO concert and THEY were loud. The Sony gets plenty loud for me. How loud do you need it? I want CLEAN loud, not distorted and this system is fine.
I've been in the thousands of watts cars and it's not enjoyable. If you want loud because it pisses the neighbors off and you want to be the loudest on the beach, well, to me that's a waste of $ and infantile. Ever been in someones home that's a true audiophile? You know, the receiver is a few grand, the speakers are 10K...clean, pure audio...zero hiss...you hear the the drummers brushes and the faint squeak in the bass drum pedal...the pluck of a stand up bass or the harmonics of a Martin guitar...all at rather high volume, or low volume for that matter. Booming bass you hear 2 blocks away is idiotic to me...course..there's no dust in that car...it's all vibrated out the windows.
I like heavy metal...LOUD...but tone down the bass...that's not how it is live...if it were the manager would be talking to the bass player to tone it down. Booming bass sux.
My 2 cents...the Sony is fine for me and mine. Go try it out...can always make it louder with $$$...but for most of us, not necessary.

[Daytona Coupe]

Well, tried disconnecting the center channel. I have mixed feelings about it.

In my opinion:

Pro: got rid of most of the echo-ey nasal sounding midrange I was hearing. This seems to be a byproduct of these frequencies bouncing off of the glass.

Con: seemed to hurt the soundstaging, moved the sound lower and more into the doors (to be expected). Tonal balance might have been slightly better with it connected.

So I'm split on it. As of now, I left it reconnected, and I'm going to continue to look for other solutions. Adding a resistor to reduce the center volume or attempting some type of passive equalization might work. We'll see, I'll report back if I find something that seems to help.

[Linchpin]

Originally Posted by Daytona Coupe

Well, tried disconnecting the center channel. I have mixed feelings about it.

In my opinion:

Pro: got rid of most of the echo-ey nasal sounding midrange I was hearing. This seems to be a byproduct of these frequencies bouncing off of the glass.

Con: seemed to hurt the soundstaging, moved the sound lower and more into the doors (to be expected). Tonal balance might have been slightly better with it connected.

So I'm split on it. As of now, I left it reconnected, and I'm going to continue to look for other solutions. Adding a resistor to reduce the center volume or attempting some type of passive equalization might work. We'll see, I'll report back if I find something that seems to help.

If you have an iPad or iPhone try an app called EQu (available on the app store). You can either use line in (RCA mini) or bluetooth to connect to MFT audio. Launch EQu and select a song (Mary Chapin Carpenter or Steely Dan are well produced). With the song playing try different presets. When you find the one you like you can fine tune the EQ curve with your fingers. A notch (narrow cut) in the mid range will tame the brightness of the center speaker. Close your eyes and enjoy. Sony never sounded so good!

[jamnesta]

Daytona, I'm with you on your findings, although for me I prefer it disconnected, but at the same time acknowledge what I've lost regarding center fill and stage height. I actually prefer the disconnected tonal balance. Wouldn't you consider a volume pot. for adjustability over a resister. Looking forward to your possible solutions.

Linchpin, Great idea. I assume this applies only to musical content within the ipad or iphone? I'm stuck on the sound quality from the cd player above all else even with the highest resolution storage; lossless at a minimum on my ipod. Will an upgrade to my storage device w/recommended apps approach cd quality? If so, sign me up, sure can't deny the convenience.

Between what your both offering we may be able to wait out the next generation DSP implemented players surely to come.

[Linchpin]

Originally Posted by jamnesta

Linchpin, Great idea. I assume this applies only to musical content within the ipad or iphone? I'm stuck on the sound quality from the cd player above all else even with the highest resolution storage; lossless at a minimum on my ipod. Will an upgrade to my storage device w/recommended apps approach cd quality? If so, sign me up, sure can't deny the convenience.

Between what your both offering we may be able to wait out the next generation DSP implemented players surely to come.

Yes, only from the iPad or iPhone. Mp3s only have a tenth of the digital information as lossless CD quality 44.1-16 bit. Those who play mostly Mp3s on a good audio system usually think the system is crap. To paraphrase Bill "It's the mp3s stupid!" CD quality is what I load onto my iPad and iPhone. I think iTunes will play a higher bit rate than 16 bits. But I haven't got around to fiddling with it

I would really like to hang my iPad in front of MFT screen when playing music with EQu running and pretend (and pray) that the engineers at Ford can see and hear what a huge improvement this is. It is totally intuitive because when you select a preset you see the EQ curve displayed with the set points, ergo you can see what causes the sound. With EQu you can add up to 1000 points. You touch the curve and tweak it and the change is dramatic. You really can 'Have it your way". What is truly laughable is that the EQu app is a couple of bucks. Ford should buy the rights to the app. Are you taking this in Crystal?'

For those who really want more volume from their Sony here's a quick fix. Go to your iPad or iPhone song folder in iTunes on your Mac or PC and choose 'select all' then choose 'get info'. Go to options>volume and move the slider to 100%. Insert ear plugs, fasten seat belt and hit play. Roger Dearborn, we have liftoff.

"What did you say?"

[geewhizbang57]

I am mostly disappointed in the sound quality of the 10-speaker Sony speakers. The system sounds pretty good at the dealer, but in listening to a variety of music there is some really ragged dips and peaks in the response. The imaging is also really bad, a song like the Posies "Suddenly Mary" with its pulsing shimmering image that was quite enjoyable with the Focal speakers I installed in my previous Mazda 3, is almost completely flattened. I am going to try disconnecting the center channel to start with, but I think the door speakers are probably going to have to be replaced as well, and there needs to be some braces and acoustic mat added to the door panels to get rid of some annoying resonances in the doors.

I think I will just use some masking tape to cover the grille for the center speaker to do an easily removed experiment. If it sounds better, I will then disable it.

The problem is that the head unit will still be sending sound to the drivers as if there is a center channel so the equalization may be way off. I wish Microsoft / Ford would give us more control of the MyTouch system so we could change things like this.

[zippy75]

Did anyone ever get around to trying a resistor to reduce the volume of the center speaker? That sounds like what it needs to me.

[Daytona Coupe]

I was thinking of either trying that, or maybe making a notch filter but I haven't gotten around to messing with it yet. I was thing of taking an RTA measurement of just the center channel to see where the peak/reflection/resonance is at and seeing if it can be filtered somehow.

[SaToX]

Well I think I am going to bite the bullet and change out the Sony shit for some Rockford.
What I am thinking of is
PBR300X1
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...?itemid=120464

PBR300X4
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...?itemid=120465

T1 6.5" Components
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...?itemid=296194

T1 Coax for the back as I am not sure if the tweeter will be to annoying high in the rear
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...?itemid=223191

As for the sub it will be replaced with the P3 8" Shallow Sub.
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...?itemid=233191

leaving the center channel alone and hi leveling the amplifiers.

Let me know your thoughts on the gear if you have had first hand experience with it. Thanks.

[oritpro]

Originally Posted by engine ear

I'm in the group that thinks this is a great system that is plenty loud. I played professionally for 10 years, sat(Hammond B-3, 122 RV Leslie and Mini-Moog, Fender Rhodes) in front of Marshall stacks, Orange, Fender, Sunn,,,etc...and I know loud. Went to a WHO concert and THEY were loud. The Sony gets plenty loud for me. How loud do you need it? I want CLEAN loud, not distorted and this system is fine.
I've been in the thousands of watts cars and it's not enjoyable. If you want loud because it pisses the neighbors off and you want to be the loudest on the beach, well, to me that's a waste of $ and infantile. Ever been in someones home that's a true audiophile? You know, the receiver is a few grand, the speakers are 10K...clean, pure audio...zero hiss...you hear the the drummers brushes and the faint squeak in the bass drum pedal...the pluck of a stand up bass or the harmonics of a Martin guitar...all at rather high volume, or low volume for that matter. Booming bass you hear 2 blocks away is idiotic to me...course..there's no dust in that car...it's all vibrated out the windows.
I like heavy metal...LOUD...but tone down the bass...that's not how it is live...if it were the manager would be talking to the bass player to tone it down. Booming bass sux.
My 2 cents...the Sony is fine for me and mine. Go try it out...can always make it louder with $$$...but for most of us, not necessary.

My sentiments exactly, word for word. The Sony is a pretty decent for the Focus.