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Dodge Dakota
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5/22/2005
03:17:14
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 Subject: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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Which is the best unit for the money? I've done some research but I am illietate when it comes to this stuff. Please help, I have tons of music, I don't want to be carrying around 250 cds anymore!!!!
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
 
5/22/2005
21:21:22
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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Neither. Slap in a computer and a touch screen and don't carry ANY CD's or DVD's! 
Couldn't resist.
I'm STILL waiting to clean up my project PC system, but it's been working a while now.
Nice having all of my favorite music on a hard drive and using simple play lists in media player. 
It doesn't cost much more than buying a good HU.
And to add new music you just connect to your home WiFi system to transfer music or rip it off of a CD into the PC.
My next mod may be to take apart my touch screen from it's housing and try to make it built in more into my dash. That way it looks more factory so someone may be less likely to want to steal it, and it will be more shaded form the sun. The sun kind of sucks.
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Jim Z
GenI
5/23/2005
22:53:13
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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was that supposed to be an answer?
I've done some research but I am illietate when it comes to this stuff. Please help, I have tons of music, I don't want to be carrying around 250 cds anymore!!!!
You might look into a DVD head unit which plays MP3s from a DVD-R. The Alpine DVA-9860 will do this.
Otherwise, I'd go to a shop and look at various models. See which one suits you.
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
5/23/2005
23:57:26
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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Why not? He said he DIDN'T want to carry a sh*t load of CD's LOL!
And with a Hard Drive you don't carry ANY.
As far as playing mp3's on a DVD. One day I want to see if our DVD player in our Grand Caravan will do that. But I doubt it.
i already tried a mp3-cd in the CD player part of it, no dice! I can't change out the HU because it's intergrated with our 6 disc DVD system.
Oh well. I rarely drive it. The wife drives it the most. I drive my Dak, and we usually all ride in the Dak when we go somewhere. I guess I like the feel of my truck vs. the Caravan.
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Leviticus
Dodge Dakota
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5/26/2005
01:14:43
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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Ive got the prior (2004) version of JVC CD/MP3 kds370 or something like that. It is pretty nice, but messing with folders on MP3 cds was too much work. Plus the random feature..wasnt so random. It would pick songs close together and kind of just go in order alphabetically. Go figure.
So i bought an iPod. This will hold all of my CDs and is working out great. Since my Headunit has an AUXillary jack on the front i simply connected a cable and operate the iPod on its own. No fancy interface or anything. My vote is go with an iPod.
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MikeMikeMike
Dodge Dakota
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5/27/2005
13:38:24
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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Before spending money on something to play MP3s you might want to take into consideration that they are COMPRESSED sound files. They do this by lowering the sampeling rate, which means pieces of your music are missing when you convert to MP3 files. If you have 250 CDs I would assume you like good sound quality. MP3s are not good sound quality.
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
5/29/2005
01:01:31
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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mp3's sound pretty damn good if they are done at a GOOD bitrate.
I usually do 192Khz, which is about CD quality as far as anyone's ear can hear on a GOOD system.
160Khz I can hear some difference, and 128khz (typical for what you get if you DOWNLOAD from other people) has very noticable loss.
mp3 in it self is just fine as long as you encode at a GOOD bitrate.
you STILL get a lot more music with less space. And it's not that it's that crummy compared to CD's. It's because the CD's PCM method use 16 bits at 44Khz to make each and every sample.
That's 44 thousand samples per second and using 16 bits every time!
mpeg (mp3) is different in that it takes a sample but then the next sample is the DIFFERNCE from the last sample. So you get the same accurate measurement as far as encoding does, but you DON'T need a 16 bit measurement for every reading. You only need a few bits of memory to measure the difference from the last smaple to the current one.
Good mp3's will be about 4 or 5 megs for a typical song. Still much less memory needed vs a CD type sampling.
Remember. DVD's with 5.1 or whatever Dolby Surround, AC3, etc all use mpeg for audio. NOT PCM like CD's. Look how good those sound? I think they are near 220Khz mp3 but I don't remember for sure.
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Jono
Dodge Dakota
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5/31/2005
02:26:46
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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Going back to what Jim said...JVC also has a DVD/CD player. Best Buy carries it for around $300. It is very similar to the alpine 9860 but for a lot less. Or you could get a deck with Ipod interfacability (is that a word?)...the best way to learn is to check out Best Buy or another stereo shop. Hopefully you find someone who knows what they're talking about because a lot of salesmen have no clue. Play with buttons, ask questions, and research all your options.
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Lurkin
Dodge Dakota
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6/01/2005
10:20:15
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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I notice a sound difference between CDs and WMA@192 when running through my truck's HU from my; my Dell DJ; and my newly acquired OmniFi DMP1. I don't notice any sound difference through the DJ's headphones though.
My WMAs have come from my own rips from CD, MusicMatch, RealNetworks and AllofMP3, all sound the same through the HU. The sound becomes much more "bassy", and the dynamic range seems to be less. I haven't found an equalization that will make the WMAs sound close to the CD versions.
Given this though, I am still using the OmniFi as it's just plain convenient not to need to jack with CDs. The Omnifi has a controller that is much better suited to driving, as opposed to trying to control the DJ while driving.
Also, I've tried downloading a lossless WMA version of a CD and compared CD/Lossless/WMA@192. Lossless sounds just the same as the 192kbps version.
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
6/03/2005
01:47:29
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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I rip my stuff all to mp3, not WMA. I use a plug in so Windows Media Player can still be used to rip my music and auto label it all. But I save as mp3's, not WMA
My sound card on my motherboard (in my Dak)that I'm using has NICE hardware I think. It sounds GREAT and the drivers included a really good setup including a 10 band EQ that I can bring up by dbl clicking the audop icon in the system tray
I've got the 60 Hz at just over 0 dB and the 30Hz cranked up to like +10dB
it sounds facking awesome. better than my last Sony HU that played CD's or mp3's
Are you using a laptop? Maybe the sound card just isn't that good.
The sound card in my home unit is a good ol' Sound Balster Live! card. It goes beyond CD quality with 96Khz/24bit capability (vs. 44khz/16bit CD quality). That's used when doing music composing, etc. I don't even mess with that much anymore.
Oh. With ripping mp3's. There are different schemes of doing so not too mention just setting bit and sample rate. there are extra settings you can change. Some settings I think may HURT quality. You got to play with it a bit.
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angel..
Dodge Dakota
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6/04/2005
18:27:53
| RE: Best CD/mp3 HU???
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leviticus..is right,theres nothing better than an ipod..you
can make playlists and all kinds of sh*t.thats what i run
in mine..i have the alpine hu that has the adaption kit so
i can use it wireless..its great
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