Hey all.

Am looking into upgrading my System in stages. I thought I might get one of the cd/mp3 head units, but I always found in the past with my other cars, that once I added a sub, mp3s sounded pretty bad due to the lack of bass. Was just wondering if anyone with a cd/mp3 player and sub could comment. Thought maybe the dedicated ones might have circuits to compensate for the bass being stripped out on encoding.

I don't want bass that everyone within a 3 mile radius will hear, but I do like to have a good beat in songs.

Cheers

Ventmore

Its fine with me - I get some massive amounts of bass on a well ripped MP3 track. And normally (99%) I cannot tell the difference between a CD and MP3 CD-R on my system - and thats with two subs too!

I tend to find that any "downside" to MP3 playback is found back at the encoding stage....

Try a better encoder with a higher bitrate in a setup you have been disappointed with and you may be suprised.

you will find its the high and mid range frequencys that are effected more then the bass tones...

as said above its all to do with the encoding

but go for it i have my entire cd collection in the car on 7 disks approx 20 albums per disk. :eek:

you do hear the diffrence between cd and my mp3 tracks but the qualiy of my mp3 is more then good enough for genral listening

i used music match to rip my cd's using MP3+ format at 98Kbs thats the same as MP3 at 128kbs but MP3+ creates a smaller file size thats why i cna get so many on a disk

Joel

Aha - I won't use less than 192 kbps, but still happy with nine albums a disc!

I won't drop below 128k, but then I have a HDD based player so space isn't an issue.

Which one you got Ian...fancied one of these as well. How much was it? Don't some of them play wav files?

Cheers

Ventmore

My subs is running off a Alpine HU and CD,CD-R,mp3 and WMA all sound good on mine!

I have a Dension DH200, it's a (audio only) cd head unit with an external drive unit, currently has a 20gb drive in it but there is an 80gb ready to go in it soon.

Its very good, I had two Mstations before it (a v1 and v2) and would rate it higher than those in terms of navigation and ease of use.

However, I could only reccomend it if you are going to run amps etc from it, as the head unit amp is not great. It's better than a Skoda Symphony, but it's no alpine!

My subs is running off a Alpine HU and CD,CD-R,mp3 and WMA all sound good on mine!

I hear an echo, echo. :P

You're running subSSS off the HU!? Must be the daddy of all HUs to power them! I couldn't imagine running mine off my piddly 4 x 50 HU, and needed to go down the "amplifier in the boot" route

However, I could only reccomend it if you are going to run amps etc from it, as the head unit amp is not great. It's better than a Skoda Symphony, but it's no alpine!

I'm hoping to run the original speakers off the hu, and maybe add a combined amp/bass box.

Cheers

Ventmore

i'm running a Kenwood KEG system with a 20Gb storage space and always copy at 128K as space isn't a real issue.

i have no problem with the bass on my new system,just fitted by Andy_CCR at his shop.

I hear an echo' date=' echo. :P

You're running subSSS off the HU!? Must be the daddy of all HUs to power them! I couldn't imagine running mine off my piddly 4 x 50 HU, and needed to go down the "amplifier in the boot" route[/quote']

I,m runing an Alpine MRD-M301 off an Alpine CDA-9831R HU.

Aha - I won't use less than 192 kbps, but still happy with nine albums a disc!

I'm with Jason on this one. I can't really tell the difference between mp3 and CD.

I'm with Jason on this one. I can't really tell the difference between mp3 and CD.

That's 'cos you don't use a compression greater than 192kbps - the smaller the file, the more compressed, the lower the quality.

I have been experimenting with MP3, VBR, MP3PRO and WMaover the past 12 months, I bought a pioneer DEH - P9400MP and started with discs at around 192Kbps, sounded ok until I hooked up amps and changed the fronts ( no rears) to Focal Utopia 165W components witha 2 X 200Wrms amp driving them) then the difference was unreal. dance tracks sound fine but try recording virtually anything by coldplay at less than 256 Kbps and it sounds crap. I now have a 120Gb Dension DMP3 with triple sheilded directional cables feeding the H/u and rip at 320KBPS, the result is astonishing, I have a 12" sub to go in the boot and 600W amp to feed it..... but I'm not sure that I need it, the focals give out unbeleivable bass that leaves people looking for the sub, the DMP3 is an amazing piece of kit and I will submit a detailed review of it shortly. The long shot of this is that if you have a high end setup YOU WILL hear an almost unbeareable difference between cds and mp3s below 256K, 128 is no where near cd quality despite what the industry tries to portray!

Usually, the only time you can tell the difference between mp3 & cd (wma) is when the car is stopped.... and even then it's only slight. When you are driving, the road noise eats more into the quality of both, so you cant really tell the difference. 128kbps should be the minimum bit rate.

As a follow-up to my own question, I have now got a Sony MP3 HU. I also had the door speakers changed, and disconnected the rear tweeters.

I have tried encoding several kinds of songs at differing rates (192kbps, 256kbps and 320kbps), and find that the sound is excellent, theres plenty of bass, and there is no real difference between the three. So I'll be using 192kbps for a total of around 130 songs per disc. This is however on my present system, and a difference may be noticeable if I ever add an amp or two.

Cheers

Ventmore