hannan36 Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 I recently got a new truck, complete w/ the standard in dash cd radio. First thing I do when I get a new vehicle is upgrade the sound system, of course. Rather than install an in-dash unit with external amp, in-door speakers, and all that, I decided to try to install the 4.1 in the truck. I use a 4.1 in my garage w/ a cd walkman, and it sounds great, so I purchased another unit and installed it in the truck. It too, sounds great! Source comes from a sony cd walkman w/ line-out > Y splitter > green/purple plugs. It's powered by a 1000 Watt DC/AC converter. Industrial strength velcro holds the front speakers which are mounted on the dash. Rear speakers are up high in the corners, "creatively" mounted (waiting for the wall bracket order to arrive). Sub behing the center console. I was surprised when I visited Klipsch's web site to see that someone else did this too. Gotta love the price: $129 for the 4.1, $99 for the cd player, $79 for the inverter (ebay deal for a Prowatt), plus monster cable upgrade. My only complaint is I could use more power. Output from the line-outs is pretty low. Anyone else out there try this ? /Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
007 Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 cool, did that with my 5.1's a few years back, used a 500 watt converter with a 2 to 6 channel spliter and a 20 gig mp3 player. If you have an extra outlet in your converter, consider an SWS if you can find one. I also had a problem with the lineout on my mp3 player, it was pretty weak, I think creativelabs has the most power, you might want to consider getting a jukebox or soemthing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannan36 Posted March 11, 2004 Author Share Posted March 11, 2004 Plenty of spare power on the inverter, could add more to the system. Seems like sound quality varies, could just be me, but... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannan36 Posted March 11, 2004 Author Share Posted March 11, 2004 1 more thing: I don't use mp3, and do not plan to. Got WAV files and plenty of storage devices to carry em for optimal, lossless sound ;-) /Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geekdragon Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 Wow. You must have a LOT of storage to be keeping raw WAVs. I'm sure you hear this a lot, but a properly generated MP3 is virtually indistinguishable from an original source. I find that a good 192Kbps VBR encoded file usually does the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooting_monkey Posted March 12, 2004 Share Posted March 12, 2004 You may wanna consider FLAC files. They are lossless like .wav files but they are compressed, sorta like .zip files. You can still expect 30mb per file though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannan36 Posted March 12, 2004 Author Share Posted March 12, 2004 I burn wav files, sourced from flac or shn, of live music to cd/r. No problem w/ storage devices that cost about 25 cents each ;-) I don't mind carrying a stack of em in the truck... I wonder if the 4.1 I have has a problem. Sometimes it sounds great, other times, there's a lack of bass and distortion... /Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juba310 Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 25 cents a CD? You can find them a lot cheaper than that! =P Why not just encode you're stuff in 320kbs mp3 or aac? Even at home on my hometheater system, is it very hard to tell the difference between cd and the compressed file. I don't think you'd beable to really tell with all the external noises of the car engine, traffic, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doudou Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 if the output of your walkman is too weak plug it in the line reserved for the walkman on the promedia s control pod,it will give a +6db gain to the output of your walkman. but i think this input only feed 2 sats of the promedia. the best is to try Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannan36 Posted March 19, 2004 Author Share Posted March 19, 2004 I will never use MP3 technology for audio. My goal is to reproduce the sound as good as I can, and that excludes using lower audio standards like mp3, which is just a way to reduce file sizes by removing stuff "you probably can't hear anyway". I exclusively use lossless technology (.shn,.flac > .wav > cdr). Anyway, I removed the Sony D-NE710 and replaced it with an iRiver SlimX 400. The difference is huge! The system sounds so much better w/ the iRiver player, perhaps because of the variable line out level/increased output over the Sony. I can't find the output specs for the Sony, but the iRiver is about 57x, where x is mAw or something... /Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juba310 Posted March 21, 2004 Share Posted March 21, 2004 I understand your point, but I mean, why bother with that in a car when your imaging/soundstage is allready distorted, not to mention the outside noise such as engine noise and other interference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannan36 Posted March 22, 2004 Author Share Posted March 22, 2004 It's a philosophical thing (MP3 being lossy). And I drive a nice quiet Ford ;-) Speaker position is everything with this setup. Overall, however, there's not enough power when I really wanna crank it up. /Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juba310 Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 what kind of ford and how do you have them positioned in your car? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
007 Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 I got bored so I put my pm in my car again. I used my 5.1 ultra and sws hooked up to an mp3 player, my rearview mirror was so blury, lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juba310 Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 How did you have them set up in your car, 007? I'm wondering where you put the sub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InnovaZero Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 I'm planning to put my Ultra/SWS in my car as well, what was it like 007..did it compare well with other Car Audio setup? How was the bass, could it get loud and deep? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannan36 Posted March 29, 2004 Author Share Posted March 29, 2004 ... in the F150 Super Crew, the speaker setup is: Inverter for AC power in center console. Front satellites: 1 in each corner on dash, fasted w/ "industrial strength" velcro. They don't budge, and are easily adjustable for direction. Rear satellites: just above top of rear window mounted using Klipsch wall mounts horizontally off center by about 2' (allows headroom for passengers). Sub is in rear floor right behind the center console, port facing back. Picked up a "headphone volume booster" which helps boost the line out of the walkman, but it's battery operated and low quality radio shack. Distorts easily. Testing a Rockford Fosgate 'lectronic crossover which increases preamp signal a bit, and allows for more frequency control. Overall, for general rock n roll (Radiators, Grateful Dead), jazz (Bela Fleck), etc, the sound is very good. For harder rock, like Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, and the like, there's not nearly enough power. Too much distortion. My regular custom car stereo, with a 10 or 12" sub and cleaner power, sounded a lot better in this regard. of course, yammv: your actual mileage may vary /Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
007 Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 hannan36, grab an mp3 player (i recommend ipod) when you get extra cash, it holds plenty of songs and wont skip no matter what. I dont know what kinda cd player you have, but all the ones i have used skiped in the car pretty bad. The line out on the iPods is also VERY strong, much better then any other mp3 player i have tested. In fact, its even stronger then my revo 7.1 analog out! You will need a 2 to 4 channel spliter however because ipod only has 2 channel out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
007 Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 Also, does mounting the sats on the dask obstruct your vision? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannan36 Posted March 30, 2004 Author Share Posted March 30, 2004 The speakers on the dash don't affect vision at all. It's a big dash. But my wife doesn't like em there - thinks they're a safety issue. However, I'm considering moving them lower, just haven't gotten to it yet... As for MP3, I copied a few mp3 tunes my son had to a disc and checked out the sound. It sounded really poor compared the original. But I don't know the parameters involved (how the mp3 files were created). What are the recommended settings if I'm converting an audio cd to mp3 ? I'd like to give mp3 another try... I use an iRiver SlimX 400 portable cd player as the source for the 4.1. It's a nice unit, and sounds *much* better than the Sony D-NE710 I originally purchased and have since returned. The iRiver has a stronger output signal, and a lot more features. /Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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