About Time Correction

While accuracy and performance are important factors to consider in a car audio system, having properly tuned speakers will determine the overall sound quality. It is also important that the system has high-precision tuning features to ensure High-Resolution sound quality.

Inside a vehicle, sound arrives at different times to the listener, due to the different positions of the high, mid, and low-frequency speakers and the asymmetrical distance between the driver’s seat and the right and left speaker placements. Along with the time misalignment, the frequency response can vary between left and right speakers due to reflections and absorptions in the vehicle. To account for these discrepancies, a digital audio processor (DSP) is incorporated to make time corrections and equalization to the speakers so that the appropriate sounds arrive at the listener's ears at the same time. To reproduce High-Resolution sound, the speakers must be tuned accurately. The below diagram shows a case where the gap in the timing between the left and right speaker is large versus small.

The gap in distance causes the sound waves from both speakers to cancel each other out and produce distortion, which greatly affects sound quality. While in traditional products, the gap can only be adjusted at 7.2mm steps (at an ambient temperature of 20°C), the AlpineF#1Status DSP can be adjusted at 0.9 mm steps, 8x more precise than traditional DSPs. Because the listener is likely to notice timing differences, particularly in the high-frequency range found in High-Resolution sound, micro-adjustment capabilities like this are crucial in the car interior space.

To achieve more accurate sound tuning, AlpineF#1Status has incorporated four of the highest-quality digital sound processors (DSPs) capable of 64Bit/1GHz processing power, similar to a personal computer’s central processing unit (CPU). This processor has 10 times the capability of traditional Digital Sound Processors, allowing it to process High-Resolution, high-spec signals without losing sound details.

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