# Arc Audio PS8 vs. Helix DSP vs. Minidsp C-DSP 6x8



## dsw1204 (Mar 23, 2015)

Well, I'm finally seriously thinking about getting a DSP for my car audio system. I really don't know too much about these things, but from what I've read on this forum is that people really seem to like the Arc Audio PS8, Helix DSP, and the Minidsp C-DSP 6x8

I think I am leaning towards either the Arc or the Helix mainly because of the 2 volt output of the Minidsp. My current system has an 8V Eclipse CD8051 (which I love) and would like to keep that strong signal to the amp. 

What to you guys think of these DSPs? What do you like about them? What do you not like about them?


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## bilbo6209 (Oct 12, 2015)

Sorry not trying to be an A$$ but is this just a statement, or did you have a question? If you are trying to get suggestions please tell us what you have for a set up IE what drivers, are they active or passive, what you want to accomplish etc.


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## dsw1204 (Mar 23, 2015)

bilbo6209 said:


> Sorry not trying to be an A$$ but is this just a statement, or did you have a question? If you are trying to get suggestions please tell us what you have for a set up IE what drivers, are they active or passive, what you want to accomplish etc.


Sorry, but there is a question there. After my first paragraph, my computer "blinked" and sent my thread through. I was not done typing, so I quickly edited my thread with the rest of my statement.


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## nanohead (Oct 21, 2013)

I own or have owned Helix, PPI, JBL, Mosconi and Zapco DSPs. Almost bought the ARC, but never bothered. Too expensive for something that isn't that much different.

There's 3 things to think about here. 

First, their are people who buy by looking at the specs, which are almost completely irrelevant, as there are only a handful of DSP chips made for this application, and one of those chips are used in every single car DSP. People scour specs and argue over tiny things that may or may not actually affect anything. They all sound roughly the same.

The second has to do with hardware configuration. Some have lots of add ons, like SPDIF (optical or coax), Bluetooth, remotes, multiple settings, smartphone apps, and of course, either high level or low level inputs. Finally, the amount of channels actually does matter depending on how "active" you want to wire your system, both on the input and output side.

The third criteria is more important, which is the software. Even though there are only a few DSP chips made, the software is one of the main things that differentiates these systems. And the software makes tuning and daily use either a good or challenging experience. Here, I've tried almost every single DSP software, even beyond the units I have or had. I've downloaded every one of them, including Massive, Cadence, ARC, Rockford, etc.

For me, I've standardized on Helix for all my cars. The hardware is fine and flexible enough, but the Software is actually made by grown ups. Someone at Helix actually pays attention to the software. The rest of the companies, not really. And it makes sense in many ways, as Helix takes it seriously, and the rest are really hardware companies that begrudgingly provide software. And it shows. Arc is a great example, where the hardware looks interesting, but the software is just awful. Mosconi is actually decent enough, but they don't do updates often and it can be flaky.

Ultimately, for me at least (I'm an engineer and have no patience for lazy product engineering), usability makes all the difference here, and for my $500, Helix gets the job done. 

The whole point of DSPs is to have massive flexibility with every channel, speaker, crossover, firing sequence (time alignment), etc. So in reality, and almost by definition, they will all sound mostly the same because they will in fact not sound like anything other than how you tune them. And from that perspective, they are all pretty decent.

I'd say, download a bunch of software and run them in demo mode before you buy. See which one you like the best. Look at the vendor's support and whether they provide updates or did it once and moved on.


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## Kriszilla (Jul 1, 2013)

I've used the MiniDSP 2x8, the Alpine H800, and currently use the PS8 and am very happy with it. It's getting a new OS and controller in the next couple of weeks. The company is live-streaming the announcement on the 21st.

It's more flexible than the Helix and you can run parametric on every band. The controller will allow for adjustment of *all* settings in the DSP.

Also, having user-upgradeable OP-amps is a very nice feature.


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## Ericm1205 (May 10, 2016)

I have the Alpine H800 and love it. its the only one to be able to do 5:1. but no one uses it anyways.


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

I have the c-dsp and it does a great job even with the 2v outputs. For the money it's hard to beat and the software seems to be pretty good by my standards, but I'm not an engineer with very little patience either


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## PorkCereal (Nov 24, 2009)

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/technical-advanced-car-audio-discussion/150005-dsp-comparison-spreadsheet.html

Might still be relevant.


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## dsw1204 (Mar 23, 2015)

nanohead said:


> I own or have owned Helix, PPI, JBL, Mosconi and Zapco DSPs. Almost bought the ARC, but never bothered. Too expensive for something that isn't that much different.
> 
> There's 3 things to think about here.
> 
> ...


First of all, thanks for all the info. I did not know you could download all the softwares. I find this very interesting. I am not sure how to do that, but I will look into this. Do I download these demo softwares on my PC?

Also, what exactly did you not like about the Arc Audio PS-8's software? I've read, elsewhere on this forum, that most people seem to like it's software.

Even though the Helix's output is only 5 volts, I think I can live with that. For me, I think I've really narrowed it down to the Arc and the Helix.


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## lashlee (Aug 16, 2007)

I've used the PS8 in the past, and currently use a Helix DSP Pro, but I have no experience with the Mini DSP piece. I prefer the Arc software over the Helix, especially when performing the initial setup for crossover and TA. After that they work about the same. I don't know if there is a real winner out of the three you chose, if they all had similar specs. The Mini DSP is cheap, and only has the 2V output. The other two are going to be pretty equal, IMO.


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## dsw1204 (Mar 23, 2015)

lashlee said:


> I've used the PS8 in the past, and currently use a Helix DSP Pro, but I have no experience with the Mini DSP piece. I prefer the Arc software over the Helix, especially when performing the initial setup for crossover and TA. After that they work about the same. I don't know if there is a real winner out of the three you chose, if they all had similar specs. The Mini DSP is cheap, and only has the 2V output. The other two are going to be pretty equal, IMO.


Can you tell me what it was that you did not like about the Helix DSP Pro? Also, is the only difference between the Helix DSP and the DSP Pro is the amount of channels the DSP Pro can handle?


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## lashlee (Aug 16, 2007)

The software interface is not as user friendly. When you set up crossovers or T/A you have to scroll to where you want instead of inputting the actual number. Not a bad thing, just not as easy as it could be, in my opinion. Once you've got it set, it's no biggie.

And there is some subtle changes inside of the unit to support different bit rates, but in general yes the Pro supports the two more channels.


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## PUREAUDIO (Jun 16, 2008)

I been eyeing the c-dsp but i would need something easy to setup because truthfully I don't know much about computers. Guess you can say im old school and dnt know my way around them.


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## nineball76 (Mar 13, 2010)

I have the Helix pro, and held off on getting a Ps8 until the controller was actually going to come out. I had the Alpine H800 previously. For me, the Ps8 controller puts it ahead of the Helix, plus I just started looking at the software, and the Arc looks very simple to navigate. The Alpine software was pretty, but had a steep learning curve. The Arc software could be a little higher resolution. Haven't touched the Helix at all, still in its packaging.


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## TwistdInfinity (Jun 7, 2015)

I just went from the miniDSP C DSP to a Helix P Six DSP MKII. 

The C DSP software was much easier to learn in my opinion and had some things that made it more powerful processing wise and some things that made it less so. 

If you're a manual EQ tweeker then the C DSP probably won't have enough PEQ bands for your liking, but it does have 6 for each output and 6 for each input including the digital inputs (the helix can't do input EQ on the optical in which is annoying me). 

The C DSP is awesome if you're doing EQ on REW as the eq's can be output as an FIR filter set to a file which can be uploaded straight to the C DSP which gives much more processing ability that the generic PEQ's. 

The helix software took me a bit to work out and has some data entry issues I don't like (when I tab to a new entry and go to type eg 2.5, it'll put a 2.00 in as soon as I write 2, then I have to forward delete the 00 before I can add the .5).

My c dsp remote has 4 buttons to switch presets and a knob to control master volume. 

My helix Director remote can switch inputs, I can store and select about 20 presets, change digital, aux, master and sub volumes independently. 

The helix can also do 30 bands of paragraphic (yep, like a graphic EQ but you can change the center freq and Q of each defined band slightly) or parametric EQ per channel which is great for manual EQing.

Cant think of anything else relevant right now. Hit me up of you want to know specific details etc. 

I believe the C DSP is the best bang for buck processor out there right now, but I couldn't go past a 6 chanel amp with built in dsp and a remote that did all that, but it did cost me 3x the amount of the C DSP and overall it has less noise than the C DSP 

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk


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