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08-13-2010, 08:17 PM | #1 |
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Sound Quality iPod vs. Hard Drive
Folks,
I have been told that I have a golden ear when it comes to audio. I recently did a comparison between the iPod cables vs. listening to music with the built in hard drive. Both the iPod and hard drive use 256K bit rate for MP3 encoding since I can not tolerate the digital compression for higher frequency audio like cymbal crashes. It seems like to me that the iPod sounds better than the on-board hard disk. Does anyone here who has the H&K audio with the iPod and on-board hard disk have a similar experience?
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08-13-2010, 09:18 PM | #3 |
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If you do have a golden ear, and they do exist, it would depend on what the hard disk can store. I record my music as Lossless Audio, which is much higher than 256. I do it because storage (terabyte drives) are cheap and I'd rather record higher than lower.
I know my ipod does lossless, don't know about whether it can be stored that way on the hard disk. |
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08-13-2010, 10:01 PM | #4 | |
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Lossless is really great!
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I am wondering that the codec might be different on the iPod vs. what the built-in hard drive is doing. Perhaps the codec BMW uses is slightly inferior to the one used by the iPod. This may be pure speculation, but that is what I am hearing. But at least when the system produces low frequency sounds, the sub does not clip as it did in the logic 7 system in the old 745i.
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08-14-2010, 11:38 AM | #5 | |
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Ha ha!
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It appears that even though there is additional step to perform the analog-to-digital conversion going on with the iPod, it does sound better than the direct to digital feed. There is some sound quality improvement with the analog to digital conversion. Remarkable!
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08-14-2010, 12:18 PM | #6 | |
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Nothing compares to the Exhaust note!
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Folks like me, who grew up with analog to digital converters, always felt something was missing from the new generation of direct to digital amplifiers. My daughter who can't tell the difference has been listening only to MP3 all of her young life, so I do not expect the generation who started with MP3 to tell any differences. It makes me admire some of the design choices the made by BMW. And I am happier for it.
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08-14-2010, 07:46 PM | #7 |
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I have an old 32G iPod in my car that has mostly lossless audio. I have more than enough music on this ipod that I don't worry about space. The iPod Classic holds 160gigs, which would take longer to scroll through than most people drive.
I had a much more accurate ear when I was younger, but even now I can tell the difference between 256k and lossless with headphones. Now, I only record something on my computer once, so I just do everything lossless and storage has never been an issue. |
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08-15-2010, 11:17 AM | #8 |
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I don't have a hard disc or a good ear. However interestingly to me, my Ipod setup definitely sounds better than any other source including satellite when I had it. I wish the stock radio received HD channels, those usually sound best to me.
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08-15-2010, 05:24 PM | #9 | |
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AM Radio FM Radio (Some Stations) Satellite Radio (All Stations) FM Radio (Some Stations) HD Radio MP3 / Ipod (256 and below) AAC Ipod Audio Lossless Ipod Audio (from CD) CD Lossless Ipod Audio (from higher quality sources than CD) |
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08-15-2010, 11:00 PM | #10 | |
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Speaking of higher quality audio
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I recently played it in the 135i and found the CD to be even better on the H&K system.
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08-16-2010, 10:56 AM | #11 |
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gentlemen,
keep in mind, that the final sound quality is not only a matter of lossy or lossless compresion and data bitrates, but it is also a matter of the encoding method and quality of the applicated decoder - lossy 320kB AAC on good decoder might sound much better then lossless WAV or FLAC on poor decoder. E.g. I prefer 320kB AAC then 320kB mp3 Simple 44,1kHz, 16bit PCM (CD) on Wadia sounds much better then high-data-bitrate 96kHz 24bit on cheap DVD-A / SA-CD player If you like good sound quality for your AAC or MP3 from iPod then forget the BMW audio crap and go for Alpine CDA-117Ri with digital transfer from iPod to Alpine (only very fiew can do it), which uses internal 24bit DAC for decoding - but thats a different story :-) Last edited by Mister Cool; 08-16-2010 at 05:19 PM.. |
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08-16-2010, 05:23 PM | #12 |
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We can't get that deck in the States
But my iPod with Apple Lossless encoding using a Classic 160G sounds really good, better than the same files on my old 80G Video. IMO you have to upgrade your playback system before you start worrying about some of the smallest file format differences. Yes, they are real differences - but come on, if you have base Stereo, it doesn't matter. Everything will sound like ass. |
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08-18-2010, 12:19 PM | #13 |
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+1,000 to VP Electricity's point...
To be honest, the HK system in my 2009 135i vert was the weak point, no matter if you fed it MP3 or lossless from iPod or HDD. Hell, I even thought the mid-range sounded better in the stock system. (See VP Electricity's point here that these were Nokia OEM speakers and that they changed for 2010...) A quick trip to a car stereo store in SF (Audio Symphony) for a listen from my iPhone proved it. I demoed the Morel speakers there (Morel HiFi) and they were awesome. Previously, with my E36 M3 vert, the HK system was much better, i.e. speakers were fine. It just needed more power. I demoed the same HK speaker set in a 5-series with a McIntosh amp (McIntosh), I think their 6-channel MC4000 amp. Awesome! And lastly, I demoed DynAudio speakers in another car audio store (DynAudio). Again, after listening for 10 seconds, you could tell it had the midrange ability to reproduce voice superbly. So, Morel, DynAudio, McIntosh. IMHO, once you get a decent sounding rig set up, then you can start appreciating whether MP3 or lossless, HDD or iPod is better. |
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08-18-2010, 05:33 PM | #14 |
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With all this being said regarding equipment quality and having read so many posts with amp, speakers and sub upgrades where is the guide to HU? In response to this thread someone spoke of the Alpine CDA 117 ri why? Doesn't the CDA 117 take the digital signal out of the Ipod and run it thru its own DAC? That is what the customer support at Alpine told me in regards to the CDA117. So that being said what is the difference between the two? And for that matter for a SQ no compromise system what would some of the top HU be? I ask all of this since the Mobridge or JBL MS8 are at or near $800 and the Bit one/Motus would be what $1800. Just seems that would leave plenty on green left over if I just swapped out the HU.
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08-18-2010, 07:02 PM | #15 |
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You will get error codes, you lose Assist, etc.
The best SQ HU is not the best SQ iPod HU, anyway. It's the Pioneer Phase 4 (if we only discuss what's in production). It's similarly priced to a MOST gateway package. |
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08-19-2010, 09:58 AM | #16 |
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VP Elcectricity "The best SQ HU is not the best SQ iPod HU, anyway."
I found that to be true between the Alpine CDA 117 advantage the IPOD vs the Mcintosh MX406 advantage cd's. The advantage to bypass the DAC in the Ipod requires a higher end Dac thru a digital connection in the HU. Clearly the DAC in the Mcintosh reads cd's real well but goes unused when the Ipod runs an analog rca's thru the Aux inputs, too bad. Still unanswered the difference between the two Alpines 117 vs 117ri ? |
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08-19-2010, 11:10 AM | #17 |
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Question from another direction I spoke with Mcintosh who sent me to this youtube and type in - ipod car installation-. These guys amongst other things got a digital out of the IPAD via usb converted that to optical via
a Onkyo NSD1 and sent the opitcal to a Bitone for the DAC. Now my question is is there a way to get digital out of an Ipod? And then run that into the Bitone. |
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