New Sound System coming....

[BluPhant]

Well I've bitten the bullet and I'm going to do some upgrades on my Jeeps sound system. I've been using an Aiwa head unit, which has been working fine (and I may post for sale if anyone is interested) -- its been a good little unit, plays MP3 Cds, and has a 1/8" aux input up front. I ran into some issues when I got a Harman Kardon iPod controller and attached it up to this head unit... about half the time there is a rhythmic click int the background which makes it virtually unusable in this regard. I'm sure I could have pieced together a solution to make it work, but I decided to just upgrade.

So.....I've ordered this head unit, its an Alpine iDA-X001 Digital Media Receiver. It has great iPod connectivity, which is the primary motivation for this. It displays cover art, all that kind of good stuff. Plus, it has a cool clock

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For the moment, I'm going to keep my XM tuner (a Delphi SkyFi 2) and hook it up via this cable (From MyRadioStore.com)

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This cable goes from the AiNet jack on the back of the stereo and gives me a 1/8" male which will plug right into my XM unit.

Here is the fun/geeky part of this install. This head unit has a USB port on the back. This is generally the way I would attach the ipod to the radio. (there is another ipod connector, but it's not as good for later generation models). BUT...you can also attach a memory key to it, and it will play MP3s right off that.... so to that end, I ordered this cable:

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Which, at $20+, was a bit expensive, but I think it's going to suit me nicely. My plan is to run this cable from the back of the head unit, under and into the center console so I'll have a surface-mounted USB port hidden in the console, but within easy reach.

I'm waiting for all the pieces to come in, I'll likely do my speaker upgrade at the same time. I've had a set of 4 nice quality Infinity speakers which have been sitting in my attic for a couple of years now.

Will post some pics as I go if anyone is interested.

-Blu

 

[JeepINgeek]

ROCK ON GEEKY BROTHER!!! WOOT!rockon.gif

 

[hyde]

That thing looks cool, how much will it cost you?

 

[BluPhant]

$218.99 + shipping from an Amazon.com merchant. Newegg has it for $250, $300 at Crutchfield.

 

[hyde]

That's a good price, it doesn't have hard drive in it, or CD player, right?
And will it work with just regular USB thumb drives instead of ipod?

 

[BluPhant]

That's a good price, it doesn't have hard drive in it, or CD player, right?
And will it work with just regular USB thumb drives instead of ipod?

No hard drive in it. I have not seen anyone who has used this head unit with a hard drive, but theoretically at least it should be possible. But yes... it does indeed work with thumbdrives! Gonna get a couple of 2 giggers, fill em up with music, and huck em in the console, for when the ipod is not around.

No Cd player either.. CDs are so 1990.

-Blu

 

[hyde]

Mine has USB input, you should be able to use hard drive instead of thumbdrive. 2GB? That's so 2000s..

 

[BluPhant]

Ya, I'll give it a whack. I think I have a notebook (2.5") usb drive kickin around somewhere. Gotta wait & get all the parts in first........

 

[BluPhant]

Still waiting on the head unit... both cables came in (the USB one is nice, it will suit me nicely).... hopefully later this week I'll have all the pieces in place. Found a home for the Harman Kardon, a buddy is going to try to recycle it.

-Blu

 

[cdh1125]

No Cd player either.. CDs are so 1990.

-Blu

Only to those that can stand the sound of an mp3, personally I can not

 

[hyde]

GRRRR.. Please, stop this. I am really getting tempted to buy a subwoofer. Please.

CHD, just encode at 256, or 320kbps. There is virtually no difference between that and CD recording. Obviously you have been hearing some 128kbps encoded tracks, and those using low priority.

And if you can distinguish a track between CD and 320kbps encoded at highest priority, you have some supersonic hearing capabilities, then.

 

[cdh1125]

You can tell the difference between cd and 320 easily

 

[BluPhant]

This head unit will (allegedly) play lossless formats as well. Not sure if it is FLAC compatible, or just compatible with new lossless downloads offered from iTunes, but it's supposed to work.

From my own personal experience, I can't tell the difference between CDs and well-ripped MP3s.

I have ripped CDs from my own collection using ExactAudioCopy, using a variable bit rate setting (v0) which is ~240 kbit/s, typical 220-270. I then use Tag & Rename (little windows app) to add cover art into the ID3 tags, which I generally get from our friends at Amazon. So, most of the stuff in my iTunes library is from our CD collection, fully tagged w/ cover art. There are a few stragglers, but I spent a chunk of time after getting the iPod classic whipping the library into shape.

-Blu

 

[hyde]

You can tell the difference between cd and 320 easily

I don't think that's possible, especially in a car stereo setup. If you are talking about hifi setup at home, maybe, and that's a big maybe. But in a car, if the ripping and encoding is done properly, I don't think anyone with regular ears can tell any difference.

 

[cdh1125]

I don't think that's possible, especially in a car stereo setup. If you are talking about hifi setup at home, maybe, and that's a big maybe. But in a car, if the ripping and encoding is done properly, I don't think anyone with regular ears can tell any difference.

Sure you can. A uncompressed audio on a cd has a bit rate of 1411 kbit/sec compare that to 320 kbit/sec. And you tell me you cant tell a difference? You can tell anywhere you have speakers that arent blown. And thats even if you use something like Nuendo to rip, which is a $2000 program.

 

[hyde]

You are an audiophile then.. What sound system do you have in your jeep?

 

[BluPhant]

You are an audiophile then.. What sound system do you have in your jeep?

Click on his sig, betting he knows his shizz.

 

[cdh1125]

You are an audiophile then.. What sound system do you have in your jeep?

Its still stock except for my Sirius unit I had previously and moved over. Havent had it 2 months yet and paying cash for it kinda left me a little short on funds for a bit.

 

[BluPhant]

Finally got a tracking number, TODAY. It only shipped 3/6.... schnikees... last time I deal with this Amazon merchant. In any case, should be getting it in the next couple days, looking forward to the upgrade.

-Blu

 

[BluPhant]

Installed last night. Busted out the soldering iron and the heat shrink, and did it up all nice nice. Initial impressions are very positive. It's exceeded my expectations out of the box. Haven't figured out yet how to get the AUX IN working, I'm sure I've done something wrong or maybe kicked loose a connector somewheres.

It looks great in the dash tho- pix pending. I still need to remove the Harmon Kardon, but took me longer to get everything together than I'd figured.

Mrs Blu took it for a spin today and loved it as well, but commented that the stock Jeep speakers now seem inadequate... might have to bust out the speakers from the attic

More to come-

-Blu