Car Audio Advice from the Audio Gurus: Use "Search thread" before posting a new Q!

[greenhorn]

I get most of my music off the interwebs , so i dont rip anything.
this is a good little soundcard btw, probably my next one

[hrsraghav]

Originally Posted by nickoo

@hsraghav..mate i have a another plan for you. You can further improve the quality of ut downloaded mp3. just follow the following steps:
1. Buy a re-writeable CD
2. Make an Audio CD using this rewriteable CD
3. Now from the Audio CD that you have made rip the songs into MP3 with 320kbps as bit rate and sample them at the maximum quality or if you have access to itunes use Apple's native lossless ripping format
4. Now you have a better quality mp3 compared to what you had downloaded(if we go by your thumb rule)..Right??
5. Now again write it back to a normal CD making it an Audio cd..so the end result is that you have made a better quality Audio CD starting from a low quality 128kbps/44.1 khz audio file

if you are not satisfied by the quality you can repeat this process as many times as you want till you achieve the desired quality
What do u say redfire?? Shouldn't i get a nobel prize for this theory i just refuted the basic laws of data compression
Well i could be wrong too , might be that he's using some encoders while writing the mp3 to audio CD that "very intelligently" add the missing frequencies depending on the song. Well if that's true i will be more than happy to give away my nobel prize to the guy who has designed this alogorithm!!
cheers...

Dear first understand what i said, dont force your presumptions on what you understood.
And secondly whatever you are saying, I too can understand. But dear as I said there is clear cut audible difference, and it has also been noticed by my freinds, to whom i told this thing. If it was that simple than there was no point in asking it here.
So please dont presume.
I would suggest instead of trying your cocktail ideas, you write two CDs, MP3 and Audio CD with same source of tracks, listen to them, and then post whether you found any difference or not.
Anybody WHO HAS TRIED this can tell the difffrence.
FYI I use IBM Record now for writing CDs (both mp3 and audio CD).

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by hrsraghav

I would suggest instead of trying your cocktail ideas, you write two CDs, MP3 and Audio CD with same source of tracks, listen to them, and then post whether you found any difference or not.
Anybody WHO HAS TRIED this can tell the difffrence.

hsraghav, it is possible that the levels at which the audio cd is written is slightly higher or lower than the mp3 disc. Another very remote possibility is that your cd player is not exhibiting the same fidelity with mp3 discs as with audio. There are a few other reasons too which can change our perception of the sound, but none of those would imo be what can be described as "better". We often perceive higher or lower intensity of sounds as better or worse too.

This is very similar to the common folly made by people in judging amplifiers, head units etc in AB tests. I have seen people jump to conclusions within one minute of listening that one amp/ HU is remarkably better than some other. Most of the time they are fooled just by higher/ lower power.

[hrsraghav]

Originally Posted by Bass&Trouble

hsraghav, it is possible that the levels at which the audio cd is written is slightly higher or lower than the mp3 disc. Another very remote possibility is that your cd player is not exhibiting the same fidelity with mp3 discs as with audio. There are a few other reasons too which can change our perception of the sound, but none of those would imo be what can be described as "better". We often perceive higher or lower intensity of sounds as better or worse too.

This is very similar to the common folly made by people in judging amplifiers, head units etc in AB tests. I have seen people jump to conclusions within one minute of listening that one amp/ HU is remarkably better than some other. Most of the time they are fooled just by higher/ lower power.

I too suspect that while writing a Audio CD, it does some enhancement for volume. BUt somehow the debate went into bit-rate.
Also if you see the Audio CD the whole disc is evenly burned. Its not that if you have loaded tracks of 100MB, so we will see a smaller circle, rather the whole disc is burned.
So maybe some extra information is added to help the HU to read it in a much better way.

[Ajaybiz]

Very simply even i am not 1% of audio gurus but still i am sure that making Kismis from grapes than again making grapes from kismis and again making kismis from grapes will sure kill the quality of the taste.
Still havent seen any MP3 beating normal CD atleast in Car audio.

[greenhorn]

some software normalize the audio when converting to MP3. this raises the volume level, as well as some old fashioned analog compression . this might cause the mp3 to sound better in the car than the source CD

[nickoo]

Originally Posted by hrsraghav

I too suspect that while writing a Audio CD, it does some enhancement for volume. BUt somehow the debate went into bit-rate.
Also if you see the Audio CD the whole disc is evenly burned. Its not that if you have loaded tracks of 100MB, so we will see a smaller circle, rather the whole disc is burned.
So maybe some extra information is added to help the HU to read it in a much better way.

Cool...no hard feeling mate. Enjoy your music thats the bottom line whether its mp3/FLAC/AAC/WAV on USB , CD or an audio CD.

[hrsraghav]

Originally Posted by nickoo

Cool...no hard feeling mate. Enjoy your music thats the bottom line whether its mp3/FLAC/AAC/WAV on USB , CD or an audio CD.

Any constructive comments are always welcome dear.
I hope this one is coffee.

[navin]

Originally Posted by JPL

Gurus the fuse to my mono amp is melted.
I rechecked the connection to the sub and all I was fine
What could have caused this? After I removed the sub I shoved the speaker wires to the sub under the stepney tray.

did you tape the wires? The wires might have shortred. when you turned on your HU the amp turned on and blew. I hope the amp has a fuse that blew if not ...ouch!

This is why we recommend Speakon Connectors.

Originally Posted by greenhorn

some software normalize the audio when converting to MP3. this raises the volume level, as well as some old fashioned analog compression . this might cause the mp3 to sound better in the car than the source CD

normaliaztion and compression is exactly what FM stations did/do to the music they transmit.

[JPL]

Originally Posted by navin

did you tape the wires? ..This is why we recommend Speakon Connectors.

Thank you Navin. Will check that and find out how lucky Iam !!

EDIT: No, I did not tape the wires. I usually do it though. Will get a reinstall done soon also.

[shuvd]

Gurus!
Any input on the following amps?
Pio GM 5200T and GM 5300T
I'm planning to run one GZTW 12MK2 sub with either of these.

[ketchup]

Originally Posted by shuvd

Gurus!
Any input on the following amps?
Pio GM 5200T and GM 5300T
I'm planning to run one GZTW 12MK2 sub with either of these.

@shuvd

I'm no guru, but I'll share my findings (based on several hours of midnight oil, I mean bandwidth).

Both the above amps are two channel amps, the experts on this forum have been recommending using such amps to run SVC Subs such as the GZTW 12MK2. The reason is 2ch amps are cheaper than monos, on per Watt of RMS at 4ohms basis.(This sub is a 4ohm I believe). So the reason is just price efficiency.

But for the same price (Rs 7k in grey) you may get a GM-7200M or a Pio GM-7300M which are monoblocks. So you might want to get that. But these monos do NOT appear to be class D amps. The Pio D7400M is a Class D amp, not sure about the prices, if you find out can you pl let me know.

I was thinking of buying a GM-7300M this week, however I thought I'd look for a GTO 301.1 if available in grey although it is less powerful than the Pios its Class D and supposedly a better amp.

I now have another question: in what way are Class-D or digital monos better than non class-D monos? Anyone?

Regards, Giri

[The_Warrior]

Gurus, i am buying a Skoda Rider and have to ICE it up. I Don't have an extra ordinary budget, can stretch upto a maximum of 20 K. Good sound quality is required. Need Advices ASAP!!

[redfire]

Originally Posted by The_Warrior

Gurus, i am buying a Skoda Rider and have to ICE it up. I Don't have an extra ordinary budget, can stretch upto a maximum of 20 K. Good sound quality is required. Need Advices ASAP!!

Not a guru, but if I were you, I would have done the following with 20K and Skoda.

I believe Skoda has a nice HU with it, like alpine. So leave the HU.
Get a pair of good component speakers at front, like GTO 8 series or Illusion Electra etc - 6K
Get a good 4 ch amp like Kenwood 8401 or JBL 100.4 6K
I hope you have a pair of rear speakers with the car, use them.
A 12" sub and sealed box - 6K
Get some good cables 2-3K

Power the comps and sub by amp. Power the rear speaker from HU.

You will get better ideas from Gurus/experts here. Many of them drive Skodas too

[navin]

Originally Posted by ketchup;916816I now have [B

another question:[/b] in what way are Class-D or digital monos better than non class-D monos? Anyone?

Class D amps are more efficient than Class A-B amps. They do have some problems when use fullrange but for driving a sub especially in a car enviroment they are really useful as they can be made very compact.

Originally Posted by The_Warrior

Gurus, i am buying a Skoda Rider and have to ICE it up. I Don't have an extra ordinary budget, can stretch upto a maximum of 20 K. Good sound quality is required. Need Advices ASAP!!

If you Rider came with an Alpine HU (many Octys do and at various stages different models of HU have been offered; in 2004 I was given a Alpine 9830) leave it alone.

As Redfire suggested get good components for 6K and a good amp for about 7K, you will need 6K for a sub and 2K for RCA connectors. Total 21K.