Stumbled on to something with my WMA/MP3 player
12-27-2004, 11:08 AM
#1
Gearhead
Thread Starter
Stumbled on to something with my WMA/MP3 player
Like many of you I am not super happy with the stock stereo. When playing a good DVD-A the system can sound amazing. Drop in a normal CD or turn on the radio and the soundstage just dies. I also hated the fact I couldn’t play MP3’s or WMA files in the car. So like many of you I was trying to find a way to input the player into my system. As we all know the antenna location poses some challenges for FM modulators. I wasn’t ready for cutting and splicing to plug in like other methods into the factory wiring harness.
Ultimately I went low-tech with a high quality cassette adaptor. I hated the fact that I had one more wire to clutter up the cockpit but when I fired up my player it was the result was amazing. The sub actually was working; the spatial imaging was actually obvious all in all it was amazing to listen to again. Then my significant other “borrowed” my WMA player and I grabbed my other one. Definitely not as good, well at best it was mediocre.
This is where I felt I stumbled on to something that transformed my daily commute. My original player that I used was an iRiver H320. If you don’t know about these you should really investigate them. It will play photos, video (with the firmware from another country) and it will play OGG files, MP3, WMA, etc. It has a very bright color LCD which isn’t huge but workable for photos and video but it makes navigation quite nice.
All this is great but the real benefit for my system was I had forgotten about the audio tweak the unit is capable of. You can select the frequency at which you can adjust the bass sort of like a parametric EQ but in more limited fashion. By doing this I could actually find the point where the sub could make a difference on my material much more effectively the stock controls (but in conjunction with the stock stereo controls if I wanted or needed). The other benefit was the SRS and WOW settings to play with the soundstage. This allowed me to recreate different environments and get a very realistic surround sound experience. It also has a TruBass mode for more accurate bass rendition if you want.
So now I make sure that the iRiver stays in the TL. I tried this on a RL and it helped it out as well. So at this point I am more than happy to live with the little cord from the tape deck as it does a pretty darn good job and I am so glad I didn’t buy an iPod! No slam to an iPod but competition is good and the iRiver is a technophile or geek’s paradise. I also hated the lack of Ogg and WMA support of the iPod. Now I have an iPod sized device that does video, many audio formats and even will display my photos. The 20GB version is under $300. It was like $279 or so at BB with rebates.
I had seriously been considering swapping out my sub or getting a box and amp to augment the stock system but this solution has gotten me pretty close to where I want to be. If you are a total bass hound then it might not work for you but I was really surprised at what the stock sub and amp could do when using a better source signal and tweaking the EQ. I didn’t really want to lose trunk room to a box and I haven’t seen a good replacement amp/sub solution yet that I want to drop my money on.
Now I just need to find a good way to hardwire it into the stock system and not disrupt my navi. I'll keep browsing the forum until I find something that'll work well and at the same time covert the nav to a DVD display. It would be awesome if there was some way to plug in a better EQ into the stock system. I truly was surprised at how well the stock sub did.
Ultimately I went low-tech with a high quality cassette adaptor. I hated the fact that I had one more wire to clutter up the cockpit but when I fired up my player it was the result was amazing. The sub actually was working; the spatial imaging was actually obvious all in all it was amazing to listen to again. Then my significant other “borrowed” my WMA player and I grabbed my other one. Definitely not as good, well at best it was mediocre.
This is where I felt I stumbled on to something that transformed my daily commute. My original player that I used was an iRiver H320. If you don’t know about these you should really investigate them. It will play photos, video (with the firmware from another country) and it will play OGG files, MP3, WMA, etc. It has a very bright color LCD which isn’t huge but workable for photos and video but it makes navigation quite nice.
All this is great but the real benefit for my system was I had forgotten about the audio tweak the unit is capable of. You can select the frequency at which you can adjust the bass sort of like a parametric EQ but in more limited fashion. By doing this I could actually find the point where the sub could make a difference on my material much more effectively the stock controls (but in conjunction with the stock stereo controls if I wanted or needed). The other benefit was the SRS and WOW settings to play with the soundstage. This allowed me to recreate different environments and get a very realistic surround sound experience. It also has a TruBass mode for more accurate bass rendition if you want.
So now I make sure that the iRiver stays in the TL. I tried this on a RL and it helped it out as well. So at this point I am more than happy to live with the little cord from the tape deck as it does a pretty darn good job and I am so glad I didn’t buy an iPod! No slam to an iPod but competition is good and the iRiver is a technophile or geek’s paradise. I also hated the lack of Ogg and WMA support of the iPod. Now I have an iPod sized device that does video, many audio formats and even will display my photos. The 20GB version is under $300. It was like $279 or so at BB with rebates.
I had seriously been considering swapping out my sub or getting a box and amp to augment the stock system but this solution has gotten me pretty close to where I want to be. If you are a total bass hound then it might not work for you but I was really surprised at what the stock sub and amp could do when using a better source signal and tweaking the EQ. I didn’t really want to lose trunk room to a box and I haven’t seen a good replacement amp/sub solution yet that I want to drop my money on.
Now I just need to find a good way to hardwire it into the stock system and not disrupt my navi. I'll keep browsing the forum until I find something that'll work well and at the same time covert the nav to a DVD display. It would be awesome if there was some way to plug in a better EQ into the stock system. I truly was surprised at how well the stock sub did.
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