MP3/Ipod vs. C.D.?

[Stonecold12321 10+ year member]

I've seen a lot of videos (and even my friends) using their Ipods or other MP3 players to play music through their stereo, and I always think that it could just be better.

I have seen so many people just plug into an auxiliary port through a headphone jack during competitions and what not and i'm merely curious as to why that seems to be more common than a basic C.D.

Am I just going crazy here? Is there a reason behind it or am I just finding the idiots of the world?

Or am I the idiot

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[NASTY08IMPALA 5,000+ posts]

Whats a cd?

 

[NASTY08IMPALA 5,000+ posts]

Ppl will argue that cds have better quality...but i play all my music thru flash drive on my hu and quality is fine for me....aux cords probably is the worst quality of the 3

 

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

I use SD card, I think it sounds good. As long as you have downloaded good quality songs.

 

---------- Post added at 02:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:26 AM ----------

 

Whats a cd?

Yeah, a what?

 

[NASTY08IMPALA 5,000+ posts]

Yup sd cards n flash drives are good.ebough for.me assuming u got a quality dl

 

[BlurredVision 10+ year member]

My thing for CDs is the quality is always constant regardless. Bad things are skipping if you're knocking and you're a little limit music wise. My next stereo with be with a nice CD player thou. Gotta solve the skipping issues. I also have a USB deck if it doesn't pan out

 

[WinC101 10+ year member]

USB is the highest quality in all. AUX is the lowest quality. cd is just fine.

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

This might go right over some of your heads, other people who have an understanding of electronics or physics will get it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Anytime you have to convert from analog (sound, vibration) to digital (on/off, 1 or 0), YOU ARE TAKING A LOSS.

Digital to Analog conversion, or D/A is a loss.

This means that anything "Digital" is going to sound worse from the time it was recorded. Unless, somehow, every detail of sound was converted to 1's and 0's and stored perfectly, which is impossible. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif Sound is analog. Storage on computers, CD's, Mp3's is digital.

This is why some people prefer 1980's or high end Analog sound gear for "audiophile" listening experiences.

The more times you convert from analog to digital, the more loss you have. The recording was most likely done on an analog tape machine at the studio or digital recording studio operating at a lot higher rate than your 44Khz CD (referring to bandwidth)....more likely 192Khz or so bandwidth in the studio. More ability to capture sounds.

Now the CD has been compromised because it only holds so much sound information in its digital state. It's 44Khz instead of 192Khz or infinite (analog).

The sound has been converted at least 2 times from analog to digital at this point.

Ripping music from CD's to MP3, even at 320Khz....at least one more conversion. This time, digital to digital (usually). Another loss, especially when compressing music. Something has to be lost to convert from a 40MB WAV file to a 7MB MP3. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Now you are playing the MP3 through your HU using an Aux cable.... Aux is analog (headphone) to analog (line in). Another loss.

The HU converts the analog signal from the Aux port back to Digital one more time. Another loss.

If you use your USB cable, at least your iPod/Mp3 player is going digital to digital to your HU....eliminating 1 loss.

Without counting the above losses, you are converting the audio from analog to digital at least 3 - 5 times just playing music from your iPod/MP3 player into your head unit. Each time is going to take a noticeable hit.

Play an original recording (master) or Download a FLAC recording from an artist or even a good quality CD. Play that through your home stereo. Now hook up your MP3 player through some RCA cables and play your average 192Kbps MP3 and listen to the cymbals any horns or high pitched instruments. Notice a huge loss of decay and detail? Now try a 320Khz MP3. Hear the difference?

If you don't, its not going to matter for you anyway. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Here is some good reading about the subject:

"CD audio is not good enough"

CD audio is not good enough - Hydrogenaudio Forums

Why Neil Young Hates MP3

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

USB is the highest quality in all. AUX is the lowest quality. cd is just fine.

Not true.

CD's are considered lossless format. MP3 is a lossy codec. Depending on the MP3 encoding it could very well be much worse than CD quality. However, the human ear can not hear any distinguishable different above 224kbps provided the MP3 is encoded properly. There is also the option of MP3 V0 encoding that is also a high end MP3 encoding.

 

[BlurredVision 10+ year member]

It maybe just me, but I can hit a clear difference between CDs and USB. I went as far as the make the highest quality copy of the same exact CD and played them both. The CD still sounded better. Your gear and sound staging probably plays a role in that. My tweeters are in front of me and load off the windshield, so I hear a good bit of detail that way

 

[tc300 10+ year member]

I'm sure how the song was recorded itself will play a role.....

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/head-units/114272-effects-compression.html

 

[whitemax 10+ year member]

I really enjoy listening to my cd's, but it's nice to have the ability to have so much music on tap with my iPhone/iPod. Lately I've been using the BBE app from iTunes. It's slow, but gives your compressed music a little more sparkle.

 

[Sleeklsc 5,000+ posts]

I was late to the usb/sd/aux game. All I used were cd's up until probably 2 years ago. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Imo cd's still sound better, but I can have 1000 songs on a 1"x1" sd card and not have to fiddle around with cd's anymore or worry about skipping rather it be from bass or just scratches. I'll gladly take some loss in sound reproduction for the simplicity.

 

[Full Tilt 10+ year member]

I've seen a lot of videos (and even my friends) using their Ipods or other MP3 players to play music through their stereo, and I always think that it could just be better. I have seen so many people just plug into an auxiliary port through a headphone jack during competitions and what not and i'm merely curious as to why that seems to be more common than a basic C.D.

Am I just going crazy here? Is there a reason behind it or am I just finding the idiots of the world?

Or am I the idiot

I connect my iPod to my head unit via USB, the sound quality is very nice.

I think CDs are just starting to go 'out'. I mean, you can fit thousands upon thousands of songs on an iPod without ever having to change it out. Mine stays plugged right into my head unit. I just find it more convenient to use, and I don't need to find a place to store a hundred discs.