Can I upgrade to 5.1 surround sound in my new 2010 C300??
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Apr 2007
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From: Cleveland Ohio
beater with a heater
true 5.1 doubtful, pro-logic for sure. It is close if your Multimedia screen says Dolby and DTS,
plus the rebuilding of the dash to house the center channel for a real true 5.1 will set you back, after all the center is the most crucial... not to mention you need a serious processor as the windshield screws it up at 2000 Hz and seriously colors the output. the best I got out of one of those is a hertz HL70 with the separate 25mm soft dome tweeter from 500HZ up... anything below it starts to work out of its intended frequency range... then of course the result in the long run is a speaker that is playing 500hz and up when you need it down into the 60Hz region for true 5.1 sound
does it sound phenomenal still? extremely! and will rival some of the higher end audio systems out there. But at the end of the day... there is a huge gap in the audio of the center...which means you aren't truly 5.1 pure
plus the rebuilding of the dash to house the center channel for a real true 5.1 will set you back, after all the center is the most crucial... not to mention you need a serious processor as the windshield screws it up at 2000 Hz and seriously colors the output. the best I got out of one of those is a hertz HL70 with the separate 25mm soft dome tweeter from 500HZ up... anything below it starts to work out of its intended frequency range... then of course the result in the long run is a speaker that is playing 500hz and up when you need it down into the 60Hz region for true 5.1 sound
does it sound phenomenal still? extremely! and will rival some of the higher end audio systems out there. But at the end of the day... there is a huge gap in the audio of the center...which means you aren't truly 5.1 pure
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Apr 2010
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C300 4MATIC Sport
Thanks. I didnt know I was missing a front center. I saw a mesh grill and just assumed it was there. My 03 Saab even had a front center - I thought it was prety much standard equipment these days. Oh well. Dolby DTS for enhanced CD or DVD's only I believe. It would be nice to have it for Sirius Radio.
Newbie
Joined: Mar 2010
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c300 4matic
A driver does go under that grill in the center dash, but you only get it with the HK upgrade. I put a small driver in there in my car, didn't fit perfect! It took a little custom work. For me it was a compromise between OEM look and SQ, it had the FR I was looking for without modding the dash.
I used the The very compact HL 70 full-range from Hertz Audio, but there are many small 3" full range drivers that should fit with little modification.
Also there are several after market signal processors that can "simulate" a center channel by summing only the shared information from the stereo output. This would also have a decent effect on rear fill with some time delay off of said processors. It is possible with enough work you can play DVD's in your car and with enough equipment actually have 5.1 surround.
Hope this helps.
V
I used the The very compact HL 70 full-range from Hertz Audio, but there are many small 3" full range drivers that should fit with little modification.
Also there are several after market signal processors that can "simulate" a center channel by summing only the shared information from the stereo output. This would also have a decent effect on rear fill with some time delay off of said processors. It is possible with enough work you can play DVD's in your car and with enough equipment actually have 5.1 surround.
Hope this helps.
V
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 2,430
Likes: 12
From: Cleveland Ohio
beater with a heater
Sirius isn't a recorded 5.1 media, it would need a prologic decoder.
I never said it didn't have a center, I did say the center will need to be modified heavily for it to work as a true 5.1 center channel in a 5.1 system
I never said it didn't have a center, I did say the center will need to be modified heavily for it to work as a true 5.1 center channel in a 5.1 system
