Audio Systems: staging, imaging and ambiance, van gool, alpine ina n333r

Question
Hi,
I have a question about how to get a better staging in my car, I am competing in the EMMA SQ competition, and last sunday were the BeNeLux finals. The judge came to me after judging and said my stage was not wide and deep enough, and too close to the driver.
I knew it wasn't perfect, but now I am a bit stuck on solving it. Can you give me some tips on what I can try to get it better?
Here's a list of my setup, so you know what I'm working with:

Head Unit: Alpine INA-N333R
Processor: Alpine PXA-H701
Commander: Alpine RUX-C701
CD/MP3 Wisselaar: Alpine CHA-S620
Compo-midbass: Micro Precision MP7 MK2
Compo-tweeters: Micro Precision MP7
Versterker Compo: Helix HXA400 MKII
Versterker Sub: Helix HXA1000QX
Sub: Helix HXS1206 MKII
Cap: Helix DPC 1000

My focus is OK, but the soundstage is a bit narrow, an not very deep.

I've been trying to get better with ajusting my time-allignment, but now I'm stuck.

kind regards, Bor van Gool

Answer
Ooops!  I forgot to add my email address for the image(S).
:P


This is a tough situation to deal with remotely, due to:

A) The vehicles' acoustical charateristics.

B) speaker location and their mounting axis.

C) the subjectiveness of the judging.

I presume, since this was the 'finals', that you realise this is not an 'easy' task to deal with (having already had the entire season to correct issues from week to week).


So let us take the ones we can deal with one at a time and see what we can do.

What kind of vehicle do you have?
Did you use the stock mounting locations? If not, please specify or send an image of what you are working with. Send an image even if you used the stock locations, since I am not familiar with your vehicle as of yet. Preferably, a 45° angle into the opened door area.

EDIT:  send image(S) to gmael@greenhills.net


I always got 10/10 points for my staging, but a lot of that score was due to the cars' fine stock speaker locations and imaging characteristics (and yes, I indeed looked for these things when selecting my vehicle for competition).

This does not mean that we can get YOU '10 out of 10' in this particular instance. But I sure plan to try to :)

Sincerely,
Jerry Mael