SVX is getting new tunes! (audio stuff!)

Augh. Don't be blasting crappy downloaded MP3s near my place

Every MP3 has too much noise to be fed to an amplifier.

uh... then how do you listen to an mp3? Without amplification, I don't think you could hear it.

- Rob

If you keep decent, normal levels of sound, you won't mind it so much, but if you start blasting them, you will notice the noise much faster than with CD music.

MP3 noise is not pretty.

In my case:

I listen my MP3 CDs all the time in my car. Speakers are powered by the deck. I never raise the volume too much because I can hear the "artifacts". It doesn't happen when I insert an original CD.

Keeping the power levels low ensure that the MP3 noise blends in with the noise of the road.

Dude. Read what I wrote. All the speakers will be powered by a 300 watt amp. Thats 75 watts per channel. That's PEAK. RMS, that'll be around 40 watts per speaker (I think). That's not really 'blasting', it'll just give me a broader range of frequencies, and it'll sound clearer.

I'm not into ghetto thumping rigs that put out 200 decibels, I just like nice clean sound. An external amp is the only way to achieve this, most CD decks have crappy amplifiers.

- Rob

Oops. Does your deck have AUX-IN?

If not a deck, what's your MP3 player?

Get a ferrite core to block the electrical noise in that player->amplifier link [deleted something]

I am not supposed to know how a 300W amplifier sounds.

Sounds like a sweet set up. I think one of these days I might buy some new speakers for my iMac. Right now I've got four cheap yet fairly large RCA speakers, hooked up to a cheap Amp. Some days I'm tempted to buy a new sterio just to get some sweet looking speakers

uhhhh.......




As in, I do not currently have an mp3 player, but in the future I might tear out the factory radio and replace it with an aftermarket deck that is able to read MP3s on CD.

- Rob

Make me a drawing so that I understand you next time.

I thought you had no MP3-CD deck, but you had an MP3 discman.

They go for $30 at some place of the internet.

AUX-IN with an ipod is the way to go... i have a first gen mp3 player in my head unit and i cant stand the bass response on it

unfortuantly, my head unit is the only one kenwood decided to use their digital cd changer bus, and they dont make an aux-in adapter for it... well soon, ill get a new head unit and all will be well

I disagree. That would be cluttered, and annoying. Even if you built a 'cradle' for the iPod it would still look ugly.

- Rob

given that i drive a 1990 corolla i am not currently worried about the look of it... but i will agree that it would be hard to get looking good but it could be done... and the sound quality and the simplicity of not having to deal with burning mp3s onto a cd... that and the fact that it is a pain in the ass to navigate through a cd full of mp3s

isn't it also a PITA to use an ipod and look for song while driving?

Sorry, I'd just prefer a good MP3 CD deck. They've come a long ways from your overpriced kenwood.

- Rob

ha ha... yea there was a premium on that new technology... oh well, i guess you cant take it with you...

yea what we really need is just a way to say the song and have it play

Well, the newer decks are a lot more well designed. Check em out:

www.sounddomain.com

- $

I never tried any other brands (well, decent brands anyway), but the Kicker stuff I put in my truck sounds excellent. One of these days, I'll get another amp and install the dash speakers I bought 2 years ago.

yea the problem with me is the fact that i am lazy and putting a cd back in its case is just way to much work for me... so to sum it up, i am lazy and dont even have a cd burner anymore so yea

do you have a favorite brand for headunit... i have always gone with kenwood but the laser on my last two has become mis-alligned so if my car even comes near a crack in the road it skips...

it is kinda funny... i have an awesome sound system in my car, but most of the time i am listening to my ipod with headphones anyway

Not really directed at me, but I have both a JVC and a Kenwood (wife's car). I've always bought JVC stuff, home and car, I don't really have a reason though. The Kenwood was bought out of the return rack at Circuit City because the price was right

I've never had kenwood, I never liked the way they looked. I had a JVC chameleon, I liked that a lot, but I needed more RCA outs, so I bought a Sony with the active black panel. I liked that a lot, but wanted mp3 capability. Now I want to get that sony 850MP or whatever, it's got the active black panel, and it can do mp3s.

- Rob

yea the kenwoods have started to look like **** these days... have you had good luck with the sony... right now i am going between that and alpine

Research the Aiwa CDC-MP32.

It is the one I use. It has the wheel-remote with the 4 most-used buttons.

personally i would steer away from Aiwa, nothing personal but everything that i looked that they made was on the cheap side,

I got a decent JVC with Mini in for my ipod, i have the remote for the my ipod and just have it play all the songs on random and if i don't like it, fine, next song.

I also have an okay Sony its noting great but does the job and sounds fine for me. granted the top end gets distorted but what can you say for 250 dollar system


I do have to agree that a nice component system is more then enough, but you have to realize that you get for what you pay, so i would have gone for a nice Adire Koda system, where i know that they didn't skimp on the XO, you thing different kinda caps would matter but they do.

and if i wanted that last octave a nice Stryke AV12 with about 400 watts behind it will take me down nicely

Cash i know you like you 6X9's but they are still missing the lowest octave, they probably roll off around 55 or so, but i think around 35 is really nice.

I can testify it was cheap. Only $150.

I am no audiophile, but I like its motorized flip-face.

And I don't need any stinkin' high-res LCD with a movie

hey everyone has different tastes, Aiwa is just not mine

Aiwa is just not that good, returns on them are sky high at Best Buy (have a buddy that works there). And yes, I think blue light inside the car looks a little ghetto!

The sony decks are nice looking now, but I really like Eclipse decks. Eclipse Commander, top of the line stuff.

There's this thing called a "playlist"...

Aiwa..eh.. no thanks. I remember they made an mp3 cd deck. What apiece of ****.

BLech.

My speakers should be here soon.

So do you guys think backlighting the speakers is ghetto? I think it kinda would be. So maybe I won't.

:|

- Rob

I think doing that would be very ghetto, or ricey. Let them 'glow' on their own merit, so to speak.

Yeah. I'm kinda thinking so. But on the other hand, it might be kinda cool at night, when you're on a road trip to have them glowing 'softly'.

Just sorta cast the interior in a soft blueish hue.

- Rob

Get one of those lights that 'dance' to the music. That way you can unplug it at will.

That would be obnoxious. I don't want to be driving around in a seizure inducing disco ball, but having a soft blue glow might be kinda nice inside.

- Rob

You should put the Apple, soft glowing PowerBook pulse behind it. That might look ok.

anti-ghetto setup:

Install an 8-track player, then hack an iPod into an 8-track cartridge.

linky

before 8 track

don't back lite, thats just as bad as those cold cathode lights in iMacs

Update: I reinstalled the blaupunkt 6.5s and this time I sealed them to the door with some silicone/latex bathroom tub sealant, and I also installed a machined aluminum MP3 cd deck.

http://www.xplodsony.com/products/?...CD&MD=CDX-F7700

Pretty freakin' sweet. Underneath the radio I have an empty pocket which has a miniplug that goes directly into the headunit. Kick ass. 12 hours of music on 1 cd, and then an iPod underneath playing even more tunes! Also, now that I have the deck connected via RCA to the amp, it sounds MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH better than it did with teh speaker level output being converted to RCA (the stock deck didn't have RCA out, so I had to do it).

I'm diggin this. My new suspension should be here this week too.... I blew $1300 on it.

- Rob

told you the ipod with AUX-IN was the way to go

How do you make your money? Wait.. you live at home still right? /never mind.

Hey, I just blew 1,500 on my mortgage! Yippie! :/

Ca$h,

Why have you not been permanently banninated from this place? The inanity of it all...

He's married, lives in an apartment.

If ca$h got permanently banninated.. well macnn just wouldnt be the same.

I work my freakin' ass off. I usually work about 50 hours a week. Blech. Oh well, overtime is good.

- Rob

How do you like those blaupunkt 6.5's?

What else are you running in the car?

I have stock pioneers all around right now...
I was thinking of getting infinity reference 6.5's for the front and polk DB690 6x9's for the back...

Scroll up.

http://www.voodoo-voice.com/faq.html

been there, done that.

Amazingly, this little thingy works extremely well if you have a decent mic.


PS, Ca$h, lose the 6x9's and any other full range speakers that are behind the 'soundstage' (your head). At least make some small effort to reproduce the sound as it was recorded. High frequencies are very directional and easy for your ears to locate the direction and source. It would sound better and more lifelike if you attempt to keep the soundstage just above and in front of your head.

Anything can be loud. You're looking for 'accurate'. At least kill the midrange and highs from the 6x9's by using a low-pass filter.

A pair of full-range separates with crossovers (like you just bought) and a subwoofer along with a decent amp (like you have) can be devastatingly accurate as well as loud. More speakers almost never equals better sound.

I'm not a sound geek.... I just like what I like. And right now, it sounds pretty good. Nice deck, nice thick juicy RCAs to the amp, nice 4 channel Alpine amp with barely any distortion, nice thick wiring to all the speakers, nice quality speakers all around. I've tried futzing with the low pass and high pass filters on the amp...but honestly it sounds best (to me) without the filters. The 6X9s have a silk tweeter that's 'aimable' and they mainly only reproduce the low frequencies anyway.

- Rob

I just figured out the alpine was turned WAY down in the front speakers.... turned the gain up a bit.... WOW. It sounds great. There's a rattle coming from one of the rear speakers, might have to attack that this weekend.

- Rob

Figured out what the stupid rear rattle was. The speaker. Apparently in world of aftermarket speakers, manufacturer's think it's fun to make a standard size like 6X9s, but instead of putting the holes in the right spot, they make them 'off' by about 1/2 a centimeter or so, causing you to get really ****ing pissed as you file out and elongate all the holes. So then, once you install them, the screw head puts a sideways pressure on the speaker's plastic ring that's glued to the rubber surround. Eventually, the plastic ring moves a little, seperating the surround from the frame, turning a $175 pair of great sounding speakers into one good speaker and one piece of garbage.

>sigh<

SOOOOo I spent a few hours listening to new speakers, and picked up a set of these:



Sounded great. Wanted to install them tonight. Found out they have the same ****ing problem hiring blind people to drill the god damn holes. Oh sure, we can make carbon fiber cones and magnets that are enough to pull fillings and speaker powerful enough to blow out windows, but no, we couldn't possibly drill the holes in the right ****ing places, that's just too much to ask.

>SSSIIIIGGGGHHHHH<<<

I ****ing hate installing this ****. The sad thing is I know that I can't hire anyone to install it correctly, all car audio people are dumb****s, so I have to do it myself.

ARGH.

I'm going to go kill **** in GTA.

- Rob

This was a great morning laugh. Post gets bumped up after a year by the original poster and no one cares. 2 months later, gets bumped again and STILL no one cares. Let it die man. LOL

I Cared.

I care a little, car audio interests me. Problem is that I only have negative things to post so I figured I'd stay out of it!

Is something I said about setting up an audio system incorrect? Please englighten me.

- Rob