Alpine Imprint Sound Tuning Tools

Alpine apply the amazing Aydessey MultEQ sound tuning technology with their own wrinkle – first deconstruct the best-OEM attempt to EQ cheap car speaker systems, then apply Audyssey’s incredible processing. Here’s the slightly dry news piece from Alpine’s newsdesk. It needed no changes from me:
A vehicle’s cabin is a challenging environment for sound reproduction, particularly when it comes to creating a system that delivers music as crisp, clear and defined as the artist intended. The variety of surfaces, materials and size of the car’s interior impact how the sound reaches the driver and passengers. Alpine Electronics of UK Ltd, introduces IMPRINT, a new hardware and software product architecture that dramatically improves in-vehicle sound quality. IMPRINT is the first automotive sound system that automatically corrects the sound systems output for the acoustical problems inside the vehicle using sophisticated DSP and FIR filter technology.

With IMPRINT products, Alpine delivers an automated equalisation and time domain correction technology that overcomes the car’s inherent acoustical problems resulting in improved sound staging, tonal balance and definition of music. The first products to offer IMPRINT are the CDA-9887R CD/MP3/WMA/AAC receiver, and the PXE-H650 system integration audio processor, which is a 2007 CES Innovations Award winner in the Mobile Audio category.
In creating the IMPRINT sound architecture, Alpine partnered with Audyssey Labs to develop the automotive application of their MultEQ technology. Audyssey’s research into the fundamental causes of acoustical distortion resulted in their creation of MultEQ, a breakthrough technology for minimizing sound distortion caused by the listening environment.
‘With IMPRINT, the highly technical process of sound tuning a vehicle is made easier, faster and better,’ said Graham Johnson, Sales & Marketing Director, Alpine Electronics. ‘This revolutionary system not only allows retailers to give their customers a better listening experience, but gives them a tool to overcome difficult sound quality problems such as correction in the time domain, with a fully automated process, which is something that was never possible until now.’
The signal from a factory head unit is not ready for processing right at the start. It generally has some type of equalization and even some time correction applied to it. This is why it is routed to AntEQ, which removes the factory sound processing. MultEQ captures frequency and time domain information from the vehicle’s actual acoustical environment and quickly identifies any problems. It then creates a set of equalisation filters to correct frequency response and time domain problems for each speaker in the vehicle. It also removes sound distortion caused by the specific acoustical problems in the vehicle by applying unique FIR filters, using more than 500 points along the frequency spectrum per channel. This optimises the sound reproduction to the specific vehicle listening environment with much greater precision than has been achieved up until now using typical graphic or parametric equalisation. The result is a more accurate, dimensional soundstage, and smoother, more natural sound optimised to match each vehicle.

CDA-9887R CD/MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver
Among the first products featuring the IMPRINT technology is the CDA-9887R. The unit improves consumer’s in-vehicle listening experience by creating excellent sound quality with full musical detail reproduction, resulting in more crisp and distinct sound reproduction of all the elements in the music. Users are able to listen to their music in the form that the artist intended by eliminating sound distortions with MultEQ, allowing for better soundstage and sound quality in all seats for all types of music.

The CDA-9887R uses a 24-bit Burr Brown D/A converter for the best sound quality and playback of WMA, MP3 and AAC files. With three pairs of pre-outs (4V) and built-in 60W x 4 high power amplifier, the CDA-9887R offers great flexibility to add on other digital sources. Connectivity solutions include KCE-422i Full Speed Connection for iPod; Bluetooth via the KCE-300BT adapter; and support for USB WMA/MP3 players via the KCA-620M adapter. A separate IMPRINT Specialist Tuning Kit is available for installers. The kit includes the IMPRINT Sound Manager set-up software (CD-ROM for PC), a PC USB interface/calibration unit, cables and a microphone. The software allows the installer to automatically tune the system right in the vehicle. The system can be tuned to match the customers’ tastes, with the complete tuning process taking approximately 45 minutes.

PXE-H650 System Integration Audio Processor
The PXE-H650 lets consumers improve their factory sound systems with aftermarket components such as speakers, subwoofers and amplifiers, and solves in-vehicle acoustical problems by offering customised, automated cabin analysis and acoustic correction sound capabilities. This is done without the need to replace the factory head unit or having an effect on other vehicle functions.

The PXE-H650 comes with its own calibrated, omni-directional microphone, which is placed in different areas of the vehicle’s interior to measure the cabin’s acoustics. The unit has two input options, factory or aux-in, and seven channel outputs: front 1 left/right, front 2 left/right, rear left/right, and mono sub. The supplied IMPRINT Sound Manager software application uses MultEQ to collect and aggregate the vehicle’s measurements, plot more than 500 control points to that measurement, and then adjusts the signal to the chosen target curve. Channel crossovers and levels are calculated from the measurements and applied automatically. The result is a custom-tuned system, tailored to best match the vehicle’s hardware components and interior cabin acoustics, all done with a simple automated set-up process. This process is revolutionary because it is done automatically. This is unlike previous solutions that required a highly skilled technician to devote extensive time and effort to fine-tune the system, yet still could not achieve correction in the time domain.

Pricing and Availability:
The CDA-9887R, £399.99 RRP, is available now and the PXE-H650, £399.99 RRP, will be available in November through authorised Alpine dealers. For your local dealer or more information on IMPRINT please visit www.alpine-electronics.co.uk

(Editor’s note. Having reviewed the Audyssey MultEQ home system and having interviewed one Tomlinson Holman, who is the TH of THX cinema sound and was heavily involved in its development, I can tell you this is no simple piece of marketing. It is like having the attention of an industry expert system tuner with the best tools, for around four hours and includes far superior equialisers than are currently available for home or car use. It is literally jaw-dropping and when switched off having been applied, makes you feel tearful for its lack!)