About Imprint - Alpine CDA-105 Owner's Manual

About IMPRINT

Alpine introduces IMPRINT - the world's first technology that
thoroughly eliminates in-car acoustic problems that normally degrade
sound quality, which enables us to experience music the way the artist
intended.
VISION VS. REALITY
All good music starts as an artist's vision. After countless hours of
rehearsing, recording and mixing, that vision is ready for us to hear on
discs, radio and other media. But do we hear it as the artist created it?
Unfortunately, the reality is that we are almost never able to listen to it
in the exact way the artist intended. Especially when we are listening in
a car.
CARS ARE TERRIBLE LISTENING SPACES
Car interiors are full of materials that obstruct and degrade sound
quality. For example, windows amplify and reflect high frequencies.
Seat and dashboard coverings change certain frequencies. Carpets
absorb and suppress mid frequencies. Graphic and parametric EQs are
only partial remedies for these problems. In addition, the speakers are
not located at equal distances from listeners, creating an unbalanced,
uncentred sound stage. Time correction can help fix this, but only for
one listening position.
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INTRODUCING IMPRINT
These acoustical problems are so severe that no correction system has
been able to overcome them. Until now, with the introduction of
IMPRINT, Alpine provides a hardware/software combination that not
only solves these problems, it actually improves the sound stage, tonal
balance and definition - and does it automatically, in a matter of
minutes!
HOW IMPRINT IS DIFFERENT
IMPRINT using MultEQ is superior to other equalization systems in
five ways.
• It is the only system that measures the entire listening area,
capturing time domain information from each listening
location and applying a proprietary method for processing it
to represent all seat locations. This gives the people in each
seat the optimal listening experience.
• It corrects both time and frequency problems, for an
improved soundstage and smoother, more natural sound.
• It uses dynamic frequency allocation to apply hundreds of
points of correction to those areas where the sound problems
are greatest.
• It determines optimized blending points for low frequency
crossovers.
• It provides, in minutes, vehicle sound tuning that generally
takes skilled professionals days to accomplish.