[ls1fanatic]

does anyone know if it is mp3 ready? trying to figure out what to do w/ the radio

 

[macca82]

Sorry Buddy, No Good on that count. If the Head Unit is the same as fitted to the Australian Spec Monaro then your are out of luck. Not too many australian suppliers of factory car audio have yet to offer it probably because the australian government is so paranoid about upsetting someone about copyright and so on so forth. Could be a different head unit but i doubt it considering that it looks identical in the photo i have seen.

 

[DANSLS1]

I emailed Blaupunkt to ask that question and was told no. The response was from the American division, and he said the unit was actually made and sold through the German division. He said the dealer should have the specs (lol). I'm still going to try and put one in and see what it does. I've found one CD player and 3 DVD players that weren't advertised as being MP3 ready that actually will play the CD's, so I'm hoping. Not that 6 disks isn't enough, MP3 would just be nice.

 

[mistermike]

I'm a grumpy, old-school, vacuum tube audiophile who doesn't even like CDs. I only use mp3 for music I can't get by any other means.

 

[tiggerfan]

I'm a grumpy, old-school, vacuum tube audiophile who doesn't even like CDs. I only use mp3 for music I can't get by any other means.

Vacuum tubes are the greatest thing for audio. They provide a much richer and warmer sound compared to transistors.

Of course, they are playing the output of my mp3 player but....

 

[mistermike]

Of course, they are playing the output of my mp3 player but....

Ouch

 

[tiggerfan]

Ouch

mp3's encoded at 256k a second are not bad at all. Particularly compared to anything other than a CD. Even compared to a CD they are nearly indistinguishable, particularly in an automotive setting.

Now, those people who encode at 96k or lower, well thats a different story.

 

[mistermike]

High bitrates aren't too bad. I have heard that the format Apple uses is actually listenable on a decent system. Generally, the better the system, the worse this stuff sounds. Automobile environment is not too critical to me. Like others, I'm probably more interested in what the motor is doing. My problem with mp3s and the like is that a lot of younger people, who have never heard live, unamplified music in a good acoustical setting, have no absolute point of reference in determining, if a recording, audio system, etc. is believably recreating the original event. So much of the music is 100% synthetic. "Gee, what a great stereo. It sounds like a real MIDI file right here in the room with me!"

 

[DANSLS1]

I was kind of hoping the stereo would play MP3's just so I could listen and see what difference there is. I don't own a stereo system where I can tell the difference. At the same time, most of my CD's are over 70 minutes, so that's like 6+ hours of driving time without changing disks or repeating songs as is, even w/o MP3's. I certainly won't be upgrading the stereo if it won't play them.

 

[VelodromeRacer]

That is dissapointing! My GTP played them!

I even burned 6 real cool macho car kinda music disks that are no use now!

So what CD will I need now? I was going to start with James Brown "I feel good" as I pulled away from the dealer!

 

[edge929]

I picked up my GTO yesterday and was under the impression that it did in fact play Mp3s but unless I hit the wrong button or something, it does NOT play mp3s.

Bummer, I'm big on my music, and was hoping it would play Mp3s. But like DAN said, I won't be changing it out either.

 

[DANSLS1]

Nope - the player will play CDR's, but not in mp3 format.
Dan

 

[GTOdriver7]

Nope - the player will play CDR's, but not in mp3 format.
Dan

good enough for me

 

[mlc]

If you start off listening to MP3 at home you think all is great. Then put in a CD and you'll forget about the MP3. Put in a SACD and your forget about the CD. It is about reference. I thought the G35 was great until I drove the GTO.

 

[ZillaGTO]

MP3 for me is about convenience really. I have a 40gig iPod and it rocks. The AAC encoding is very nice actually and I use in ear (not buds) and it sounds as good as I can hope from portable.

I wish the GTO had it, but no biggy, just plug my iPod in!

As far as quality, and nobody take this wrong PLEASE, but most audio enthusiasts (me included) are as biggoted as car enthusiasts! People always say that CD is bad and records are so nice and that Tubes are better, etc. Well of course to us they are! We want to make sure we like it! A good CD recording and SACD or DVD Audio even more so, is and should be a perfect recording of what the artist and producers intended. The problem is that many old recordings are not so hot and the flaws come out on a good digital system with good speakers.

I for one love christmas music on a record player with a little "hiss" to it. Just takes me back to my childhood I guess. And let's be honest, tubes look awesome and that is worth it by itself! Problem is that getting into audio can make cars look cheap!

 

[Razinhell]

So you want to play MP3's

MP3 Format at 128-256K bit rate only cuts off a certain range of the music that most humans cannot hear. It goes by the idea "If you can't hear it, then delete it to save space". 256K is the best for the normal MP3 format, and in most cases you cannot tell the difference. You have to also remember who created the MP3. When you convert a wav file to mp3 format there are many factors that can change the way it originally sounded to the way the MP3 sounds. Normalizing a track is one way to hurt sound quality as it maintains a balance of peak tones. There are also many Mp3 rip programs that pull the music of the cd, but like always the software can be inadequate to get the music off without errors and the cd player can be of low quality where it doesn't feed the data well. The is a Mp3 format which includes all ranges of the music, but isn't supported as well as the normal Mp3 its called Oggs Vorbis
http://www.vorbis.com/ It is better then Mp3 in compression, quality and requires no licensing from the German company that claims Mp3 patents.
Oh and there is a way to make your current Head unit play Mp3s even when it doesn't as long as it can play CDR's, i will find out. In the most cases it not easy, but very possible.

 

[derf]

While it's true that a good vacuum tube system with clean vinyl and a high end turntable gives fantastic sound, you have to consider the environment you're listening in.

All of those little things you hear from the high end systems are mostly lost to ambient road noise while driving down the road. With a 50+db ambient background noise, it's impossible to tell the dfference between most music sources.

I'd like to have all of my music on MP3 format so I can take my whole collection with me without having to fill the trunk with cascaded CD changers.

Now, when I'm at home I'll be more finicky because I can tell the difference. But cruising down the road, I can't tell so I'll go for convenience.

 

[MarkII]

What Derf said - and I only play my geetar through tubes!

 

[chris_wiz]

Just an alternative to mp3 discs- I bought this little gadget from iRock, it's a wireless FM transmitter that's powered either by battery or cigarette lighter. It basically acts as an fm modulator for my 20 gb jukebox, and sends the tunes to my GTO. The only problem I have had is when driving past National Airport or the CIA, I guess the radio transmissions there overpower the little guy.

 

[White Rider]

The AAC encoding is very nice

AAC is vastly superior to mp3. In fact theres quite a few formats superior to mp3- ie. smaller file/better quality. mp3 is very old news, but looks like its gonna be here for quite a while kinda like VHS was. It's a shame though.