[lawlhi]

Hi! So I'm not sure if this in in the right section, but on with it.

I have a CD deck in my car, but I'm tired of burning CD's. The deck uses and RCA style connection for auxiliary and i have an IC already that would work with my mp3 player. I am curious as to the sound quality of my mp3 player compared to that of playing a CD.

 

[linuxworks]

in the car, a well made mp3 will sound every bit as good.

even really good car audio installs; they're filled with freq response problems that will fully mask any 'damage' the mp3 process does.

enjoy the mp3 format in the car; not to worry at all.

 

[lawlhi]

Hmm? I'm not too sure I understand
What I was saying was that would there be any difference in the sound of :

Song on CD (MP3 format) > Deck
versus
Song on MP3 player > Auxiliary connection

 

[krmathis]

Why not try it yourself and let us know?
After all you are the one having that explicit car audio setup, and hence are able to find out how MP3 sound on it compared to CD audio.

 

[earthpeople]

It depends on your head unit and how it processes. Some are better than others so some will sound better. It comes down to what head unit you have and what player you're comparing it to.

what linuxworks is saying is that a car isn't an ideal place to listen to music and that you very likely wouldn't notice any difference between a CD and mp3 files.

 

[linuxworks]

if you really do have an aux-in then that's your input to the head unit's preamp.

keep it well shielded, watch your car audio grounds and it should work ok.

run your mp3 player output as 'hot' as you can get it while still not distorting. since you run the mp3 output into a high-Z input, you may be able to crank the vol-out on mp3 to full and still not clip. if so, do that; then vary the volume only at the head unit level.

should work fine.

 

[lawlhi]

Well I tried it out, but I found that the bass isn't as deep and a slight reverberation when playing from my mp3 player

But I was doing some research and I found this:
Quote:

it will actually sound a bit better then going with burned cds. since the information its coming direclty from the resource wich its gonna be the zune mp3 player, when you burn a cd you might loose some information (quality) due to a unneficient cd burner, plus you have the cd player laser factor so by the time your cd gets to your radio the informacion has been transfered 3 times, cd-computer-cd-radio, i dont know if this makes sense, in conclusion you might be better off with a portable mp3 player then going with burned cds (mp3)

Source

Could my results be from a poor quality cable?

Edit: Thank you for all the help guys! Sorry for being such a noob, I can just get picky when doing things

 

[fnzeee]

I have this setup in my car and have for a number of years. I prefer it to CD's generally (for the convenience). A couple questions for you:

- What bitrate do you record your source files at and in ahich format?
- Which MP# palyer are you using?

Generally speaking, here is what I can confirm / dispell:

1) Follow linuxworks' advice and set your MP3 player at as high a volume as you can without distortion (or roughly 3/4 full volume), then use the headunit volume control to adjust.

2) The quote about CD quality being lower is generally not true, unless you are using FLAC or some other lossless source with a killer DAC. Sure, you degrade quality with every CD copy, but you have the same effect with lossy media formats (mp3, m4a, etc...). It comes down more to the quality of the DAC (headunit's vs what's in your MP# player) and the format and bitrate of the file.

3) linuxworks is also absolutely correct about the acoustics inside of a car. The car has all sorts of reflective surfaces and other qualities that actually make it one of the worst places for accurate sound reproduction.

4) Most MP3 players will not be as loud as the CD player, even at max volume.

5) Portable audio players and CD's are both capable of reproducing the same frequency ranges. If you hear less bass than it is because of the way the player is processing the sound or because you have created mp3 files with a low bitrate / quality and some of the low-end was lost during file creation.

I hope this helps. As I said, I have used my Samsung P2 with my Nakamichi deck for years via the AUX input and have been quite happy with the results. I record files in lossy mp3, m4a (bitrate ~320) or WMA format (VBR). Bass response is fantastic and comparable between CD's and my player.

 

[linuxworks]

my car setup is ONLY an mp3 one. its about 7 yrs old and I built it with what was good, at the time. I have no head unit, per se, and only an mp3 embedded-system player (neo35, if anyone remembers that) in the trunk and a long analog+control cable running up front. there, we installed the lcd/button remote and the line-out goes into an analog line-driver that sends the analog signal back to the trunk where the amps are. I used balanced line drivers on all 'long runs' and was careful with grounding and power feeds (keeping the power lines separate from audio lines).

I have no cd player, no radio, no nuthin' - just that remote disk player and mp3 hardware based decoder. and it sounds great, I think.

today, I'd 'ship' spdif around the car if I had to do things like this. run digital cables along the trunk-to-front runs (etc). only do d/a conversion just before the amp rack (physically). that way you can avoid having to worry about balanced lines or even running hot line levels (if your dac is clamped right onto the amp or amps, any cable will work fine).

if your head unit has a 'walkman input' right there at the head unit and you are planning on having a small cable from your pocket sized mp3 player to that head unit, that should work just fine, as well. if you can't get enough volume from the mp3 player, you -may- need another amp (preamp/booster) stage. one of those 'line drivers' that I mentioned would work in that case, but see if you can get by without that middle amp stage between your player and head unit. if you have external amps, you may be able to turn their gain up to help.

 

[mrarroyo]

I can not hear any difference when feeding my car audio w/ CD's encoded with mp3 files or using the output of a DAP feeding into the 1/8" deck input. IMO the car environment is lousy due to road and engine noise so for the most part it all sounds just ok.

 

[lawlhi]

Thank you everyone, this really helps.
I normally use mp3 format, and I try to keep them at 320kbps. The player I'm using is the Sony NW-A808, which I think is the cause of my problem

linuxworks, is there any difference from an input in the front of the head unit and a AUX line in the back body of the unit?

 

[linuxworks]

that would vary based on how the unit was built and if the front vs rear inputs were meant to be treated any differently.

most likely, any line-in is going to be the same. it will probably assume a 2-4v input max and your player may be only 1v or so, output, max. that's why it may sound a bit less loud. that's why I said you may have to adjust your amp gains (if you have an external amp) or use a preamp stage between the mp3 player and the head unit.

or even just find a better mp3 player that has 'more drive' on its output.

also, if you power your portable mp3 player via a lighter plug adapter, you -may- run into ground loop problems (alternator whine). if so, a quick solution is to use a ground loop isolator which is nothing more than a 1:1 transformer that 'lifts ground' and sort of balances (sort of) the signal. it will definitely break the ground loop and alt-whine but if you get too cheap a unit, it can degrade the sound. maybe not a lot, but it can degrade it unless you get very good transformers. I would worry more about that than the mp3 320 format

 

[lawlhi]

Thank you linuxworks and everyone, you've helped me a lot

Great learning experience for me today