Who can explain this setting on my Alpine?

[matt_bennett05 10+ year member]

I have an Alpine CDA-117 and it has a Media Xpander feature... what exactly does this feature do and if you own one what is your headunits expander set at?

Click to read more...

 

[nateberrier 10+ year member]

Media expander is like a synthesizer aimed at bringing some of the data lost in mp3s back into the track. Similar to pioneers sound retriever but it works a bit better. Set it and play with it and do what makes you happy, its all pref

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

The media xpander on my 9887 made it sound funky.

 

[matt_bennett05 10+ year member]

Yeah I figured that was what it was... thanks! Yeah i preferred it off... still want to hear everyones opinion though!

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

The media xpander on my 9887 made it sound funky.

Thats because you cant add stuff to a track that isnt there. When you compress to an MP3 the data that is taken out are frequencies the ear cant hear. Expanding it and putting those there is adding distortion to the song to fill in those gaps or frequencies that arent being played to make it sound full again. Thats like taking a picture thats 800x600 and enlarging it to 2048x1024. It will become blurry.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Good explanation.

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

sort of felt the same way about the sound retriver on the pioneer decks it just dident sound natural