Calling all Audiophiles - Hi Res Source Files

[DARKHART 10+ year member]

FYI all of the 2015 Pioneer Nex series decks and a few of the Kenwoods plays FLAC files.....

 

[fly_marlin]

FYI all of the 2015 Pioneer Nex series decks plays FLAC files.....

Nice catch, dude!

 

[Cincy2]

By the way, when you say your mp3s are not adequate, are they all 320kbps? I can agree that 256 is even lacking, but 320 is pretty good.

Have not tried this yet. Will give her a go. Thanks for all the responses. The goal is to make the sound BETTER. It will never get to the level of my two channel system which cost significantly more than the entire car.

Cincy

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Have not tried this yet. Will give her a go. Thanks for all the responses. The goal is to make the sound BETTER. It will never get to the level of my two channel system which cost significantly more than the entire car.
Cincy

It's all in the install. You can have the best gear, best source. If you just throw speakers in a door it won't sound good.

 

[fly_marlin]

Have not tried this yet. Will give her a go. Thanks for all the responses. The goal is to make the sound BETTER. It will never get to the level of my two channel system which cost significantly more than the entire car.
Cincy

HT DIYers have this thing called 10x rule. You can put together your own speaker set and have it sound as good as something that costs 10x the price.

 

[fatboytyler]

[quote name='fly_marlin']HT DIYers have this thing called 10x rule. You can put together your own speaker set and have it sound as good as something that costs 10x the price.[/QUOTE]

Bill Fitzmaurice Designs all day long. Puts your HT setups that cost thousands to absolute shame for just a few hundred bucks.


As for you Cincy, as you deadened the doors? That will help significantly. Also, 320 vs Flac, I find the difference negligible. Yes I've heard these in high end HT systems and while there is a difference, its usually not major. If you're that nitpicky then you're going to need to get a hell of a lot higher end speakers/amps and deaden the hell out of the car. Check out @keep_hope_alive build logs on here. You'll need to go into that much detail to get the sound you're looking for.

 

[Cincy2]

I found the solution! Hi Res portable player from Astell and Kern (AK-240). Conversion cable from Aux out on the player to Aux in on my processor. All parts on order. Will review the setup when I get it all set up this weekend.

 

[redcloud54]

Hi all,

Don't quite get the contortions you all seem to be experiencing playing hi res files. The FLAC files have to be converted into an easily recognized file type, AIFF, which is lossless just like FLAC and a direct conversion via a simple software utility. I figured this out trying to download some Grateful Dead live recordings that were in FLAC and another lossless standard called SHN.

I used to use MacFLAC to do it, but the author let it languish AFAIK. Now I use XLD, which is a simple drag and drop converter from FLAC to AIFF (also handles SHN files). Out comes the same bit rate (1411 kbps @ 44100 Hz). XLD even has a DSD importer that imports 192000 Hz "next wave" files. My mom could use it. There are other utilities out there, but XLD seems to work well if you only do a few files at a time.

The files upload to my iPod Classic and play through an aftermarket "iPod adapter" (a PIE I think) that I installed in my Honda, right through the 2003 factory HU. No worries at all.

All the music on my iPod is in this lossless format, direct from CDs. I only download 320 kbps when I absolutely have to now. And I never use any encoding into iTunes from CDs except AIFF, especially not Apple Lossless as it adds some DRM crap to the files. The songs end up being tens of megabytes size files, unlike mp3s which are single digit scrapings off the top of the recordings.

SO, get XLD and start some quality listening without ANGST, my friends! Defeat the mediocre beast!

 

[SounDrive Pro Seller]

Have you considered Apple lossless? It would require an analog signal but it would work.

Super high end sound quality in a car is hard to obtain due to road noise and what not. Vehicles are terrible environments for sound quality. Most of the time subtle differences aren't audible.

But with enough time, money, and effort anything is possible.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

I found the solution! Hi Res portable player from Astell and Kern (AK-240). Conversion cable from Aux out on the player to Aux in on my processor. All parts on order. Will review the setup when I get it all set up this weekend.

Has anything else not reached your ears? None of that will make a big difference as a proper install. Speakers thrown in a door with big holes and gaps have minimal chance of it performing properly, in fact most sound like utter garbage in a sub-par install. Car audio is not like home audio where you just throw stuff together and have a good source and be done with it.

-Home audio has a wall socket for almost unlimited power

-Car audio has a 12 volt charging system which directly impacts the performance of your amps.

-home audio has very minimal noise, sound proofing is rather simple with some acoustical foam.

-car audio, ANYTHING can be an unwanted reflection causing phase issues and blocked sound EVEN your legs, chairs and the materials of your car will have a big impact.

-Home audio speakers are in a nice sealed cabinet so getting proper sound out of them is almost a no brainer

-car audio doors are horrible resonating flimsy sheets of metal along with a plastic panel where sound can get trapped and all sense of sound quality is out the door.

I'd highly suggest you find a nice Real time analyzer to tune your DSP properly or have someone that really knows what their doing on a serious competition level install/tune level or else you'll be wasting your gear away.

THIS is a REAL install take your time and actually look through what is needed to be done to even tap into any potential of what your speakers can actually do rather than stressing over lossless vs 320kbps which Is utterly useless in real world performance wise.

Especially post #10

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/car-audio-build-logs-cars-trucks-suvs/608637-2014-accord-sport-sq-build-keep_hope_alive.html

everything else i mention will get you sounding 95% better. lossless instead of 320kbps 3% improvement tops. Totally focusing time and resources on the wrong aspects here.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

thanks for the references, guys.