Audio Systems: car audio advice, mb quart component speakers, cassette tape player

Question
QUESTION: I recently had mb quart component speakers installed in my car with crossovers.2 in the front and 2 in the rear of my honda 1997 honda accord lx. The installer didnt put in tweeters in the door he told me i didnt need them.Im not using tweeters in my car just the 5 and quarter mb quart refernce component   speaker is this bad for my system if not using the tweeters in the front of a car for a component sound system. is it better to get a full range  car speaker if not using a component sytems tweeter.can a full range speaker or a coaxile give the same sound as a component speaker system. thanks

ANSWER: No, it is not doing any damage or harm by not having tweeters installed.  They will help the sound quality by adding better high frequency sound.  If you like the sound as it is don't worry about it.

If you want richer high end then either add tweeters or put in full range units.  Coax speakers can sound good, but if the speakers are mounted down on the front doors, the high frequencies are not heard as good due to location.  They sound better if tweeters are mounted up on the door so they have a more direct pathway to the ear of the passengers.

You can add tweeters easily, but sometimes the installation cost is high if the door or mounting place requires  significant modification.

But, the final solution is up to you.

Best wishes,
C


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I HAVE A CASSETTE TAPE PLAYER RECORDER. i HOOKED UP THE CASSETTE TAPE PLAYER RECORDER DIRECTLY TO THE BACK OF MY SONY DVD PLAYER WITH CABLE WIRES. i DID THIS TO TRANSFER MY DVD MUSIC TO THE CASSETTE TAPE. DOES RECORDING FROM A DVD OR CD TO A CASSETTE TAPE TAKE AWAY ANY QUALITY OF THE ORIGINAL DVD OR CD RECORDING AND ARE THE CABLE WIRES YOU BUY LIKE COMPONENT , S VIDEO CORDS AND DIGITAL COAXILE CORDS YOU BUY IN BEST BUY ANY BETTER OR THE SAME THAN A GENERIC BRAND YOU FIND IN RADIOSHACK.IS COAXILE DIGITAL AUDIO CABLE BETTER THAN OPTICAL DIGITAL AUDIO CABLE FOR HOME AUDIO . THANKS

ANSWER: Generally speaking the cables do not deteriorate the sound quality, unless of course they are defective or of some imperfect design or manufacture.  Hook up cables  from reliable suppliers are totally okey and you need not buy the expensive gold plated and all that hype that some upper end retailers want to sell you on.

S-video or component video will give better video (not audio; they are video only connections) not because of the cables but because of the video processing inside the electronics.

For example, I use audio cables and connectors purchased from the local dollar store and they work just fine - when used appropriately.

Signal degradation occurs when the cables are too long causing high frequency attenuation; or when the connectors on the ends get corroded and do not make good, solid contact. Otherwise, nearly all uniform cables of good quality will work just fine and you should not need to worry much about it.

That being said, if you are an audiophile or videophile of the highest order and have huge piles of money invested in your esoteric equipment AND you have golden ears then you may get an ounce of improvement from the $25 cables - but only about 0.5% of the population have hearing sufficient to pick it up - or eyes to see it.   And, of course the grade of equipment that can show these very small improvements cost in the thousands of dollars.

C



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks for the anwser about cable wires it was very helpfull. a few years back i use to record my dvd store bought  music to my maxell tapes. my  question is about recording from a dvd like led zeppelins 2003 dvd encoded with dts to a blank maxell tape. I know the tape sound quality loses its sound quality in the transfer but does the led zeppelin dvd encoded with dts  soundtrack lose any quality and does cd music like pink floyd the wall  recorded to a maxell tape  does the original recording lose any of its quality.  thanks

Answer
The audiophile who does serious listening quickly learns that master tapes are prepared for each recording format.  A musical recording is usually done on multi-track systems; say 48 or even 64 tracks.  These are then mixed down by expert mixing engineers for the format that is contracted for.  Mixing to two track stereo is totally different from 5.1 dolby mix and dtx or thx for that matter.

Taking a commercial recording with dts or 5.1 and blending it to stereo is okey if you are not critical of the resulting sound.  But the experts and audiophiles well tell you it is not a good mix down.  Many  packaged media contain both the multi-track and the stereo mix.

So, if you are satisfied with the deterioration of the sound when doing your own conversion from multi channel to stereo, no one can criticize you for it, but it will not equal the proper stereo mix.

There are a few commercial boxes that do conversions with some excellent results.  You can try them in your case.  One that I am personally  familiar with is from wavearts.com for about $200 per device.

Good Luck,
C