How Do You Like Your Music To Sound?

I don't listen to many live recordings with an audience, so this is kinda hard for me to answer. I just want to be able to see the band in front of me, and feel like i'm at the concert. Basically i just want it to sound like the live concert would. When i went to see Evanescence in concert, i didn't think it was one of the better sounding shows i'd seen, but overall it was probably in my top 5 as far as best overall show. Anyway, on some songs their guitars are nothing but pure distortion...one note wonders if you will. This really got on my nerves at the concert as i thought one of the speakers had blown and was making that god awful noise. However, when i got home and listened to the same song again, that's exactly how the guitar sounds in the recorded track. It wasn't as forward in the car as it was at the concert (thank god) but the sound was still the same. There are plenty of other bands that are just like this...Staind is another one i can think of off the top of my head.

Basically, i just want the sound to be in front of me, with the lead singer in the middle (if that's where he/she is supposed to be) and have it sound just like the live concert...whether that be a good or bad sound.

 

To me, I like to be "in the crowd"...

Think about what it means, to sound like you are in the back of the room...
Because it sounds like it's way out there in front of you, that probably means your stage is narrower, and lower... neither of which are generally regarded as positive attributes.

It shouldn't sound like you are directly smack center in the crowd, that's not really the issue...
It's normal - and expected - that you'll be (if sitting in the drivers seat) a bit to the left hand side of the stage... that's just like what it would sound like if you were there in that live environment, if you were just to that side a bit.

The stage should sound as wide as possible... and as high as possible.
Ultimately, it really is to your liking - but that's generally what people agree to like, and you may grow to that same liking.. I'd almost advise installing that way even if you are thinking otherwise.

Who wants to be in the back of the room anyway, you wallflower! :lol:

 

I've been doing the SQ thing for a while, and I've learned my own personal likings. I do love everything to be pinpoint, but you have to make sacrafices for that, and some of those I'm not willing to make, so the things I really try to achieve when I set up systems for myself are as follows....

1. Natural sound of course, mostly EQ here after finding final speaker positioning

2. A nice center image. Doesn't have to be pinpoint, but it has to be placed in the middle of the stage if thats where it's meant to be. I can't stand the singer being to the left of the right. And by center I dont mean directly in front of me, I mean in the center of my dash.

3. Probably the thing that bugs me slightly more than the other two, stage height. I couldn't care less if the stage is at my windshield wipers or the edge of my hood, depth I dont care too much about. Width isn't as bad either, as long as it isn't all compressed to the middle, but stage height kills me. If the left or right side of the stage draws to the floor it drives me nuts. I cant stand it.

So basically I like to have a stage that has a nice central image and that has eye level height from left to right, and I like the sound to be on point of course as well, those are my three biggest things.

 

The things I aim for, in my car at least, when trying to get it just "right"..."right" defined by me, not an online stranger...

Stage Height: I like it so the band/vocalist(s) sound as if their just above eye level. Like Josh mentioned, a stage that is at your knees grates on the nerves. It also makes me focus on speaker placement instead of just listening to the music. I don't want to know my speakers are "down there".

Stage Depth: Mine is currently (in my head/ears) where the dash and windshield meet. That's deep enough for me. I could care less if Mike Ness or Chino Moreno is sitting on the front of my hood! If the stage is too deep, again, it breaks my concentration. It just doesn't sound right way the hell up there.

Stereo Seperation/Width: Huge for me. If there's one thing that really ruins imaging (obviously), it's terrible stereo seperation. I hate if everything is stage left, or stage right. I want it all nicely delineated and seperated. I don't, however, need width so wide it's 2 feet outside my side mirrors. As long as everyone is where they're suppossed to be, I'm cool. Systems with a right side or left side bias just plain irk me. I just bought the AutoSound 2000 cd, "My Disc", and was very surprised at how awesome I was able to get both my seperation and width without any time allignment or special processors.

Amazing how good average speakers can sound if you take the time to install them properly. Now, if I could only get my truck to sound as good as my home system...

 

I'll go with what Josh said, but I prefer the singer and center stage at my right eye..

When I'm driving down the road ideally I want to be drawn to where my gaze belongs. Psychologically, we tend to tilt our heads to where the sound appears to be coming from. I feel, if you set your stage hieght appropriately, your head should be in a level position, straight ahead, without giving it any thought about which direction to point it in. if you feel yourself driving down the road with your eyes up or down, your stage hieght is off.

As far as being enveloped in sound, and other times feeling like they are in front of you, that is simply presentation and recording of the music. Sometimes, it feels as if the music is simply recorded against a wall in front of me, while othertimes, I can hear a high-hat right at my knee, and a large crash cymbol rolling all around me. Provided the system can accurately produce those "3D" effects you are set up right. If you notice some tunes are flat, then it may simply be in the recording.

I feel you on the passenger thing. I determined how I drive most often and set it from there. For instance, in my Nat I almost always drive alone, so I set it up for that scenario. I even loosely assembled things and didn't completely finish the comp install for almost 6 weeks. When I installed the stuff, I found myself making myself sit differantly to correct for issues in my system. I found that when I drove like normal (to and from work) I would sit more natrually and notice weaknesses in the system. My leg position, the fact that I lean slightly to one side, arm position, etc. all made noticeable differances. Differances which I corrected over time.

 

I don't know the position that the instruments are "supposed" to be in, in the recording.
But if I find recordings (usually simpler, high-quality ones) that do allow you to discretely place the instruments, I don't worry about what's "supposed" to be there...
I just want it to sound realistic, believable, to me. If the singer is to one side a little bit, and the guitar just off-center in the other direction... that's not a problem, that's placement, and really the only place it could come from is the recording.. so, it's essentially a self-satisfying test. B)
That's how a "realistic" reproduction would sound, with a good install.

However, what usually ends up happening is that things don't sound so convincing.
In my Civic, I currently have a problem as I haven't got my mids aimed right...
The symptom is, often the singer, or guitar player, even though the recording would place them nice and centered... in the Civic, it sounds like there are two singers, standing next to each other... or two guitar players. You can hear a slight, but audible void in the center.
It's not that placement per-se is bad, but rather distorted.
Often, people get that "rainbow effect", most often from having the speakers a bit too on-axis to them. This is another sort of distortion... the image of the stage droops to the kickpanels, but rises in the center.

My point is, if you HAVE musician/stage placement... it's right, true to the recording.
It isn't as though musicians get placed about into wrong places... it's more that the image is somehow smeared and distorted into simply the wrong shape...
Picture the acoustic version of the funhouse mirror room.

Stage width is really a function of how far to the outsides your speakers are... and to some degree the width of the vehicle and where you sit relative to that width.
I've seen some guys in the past couple years cutting into the voids in their unibodies, behind the kick-panels, so that they didn't have their speakers protruding from their kickpanels (which would narrow the stage width), but rather were recessed flush to the kickpanels (which widens the stage).
Doors are nice flush, wide locations... the problem with doors are the pathlength differences, right to left.

Pick your poison. :bag:

As far as kick-panels go... I've never made truly sealed ones. Mine have been built to seal against the factory carpeting. But I haven't used kickpanel locations for quite a few years now..
For aiming, temporarily mounting, you really shouldn't care about the loss of midbass... sure, expect it.