[azntripledragon]

I am new to the forum and this is my first post. I recently purschased a 335i coupe on July 4th, and I must say it is probably the best car I have ever driven everyday. I've driven a Ferrari 360 and a Bentley Continental GT Speed modded to 750hp, but I would not want to drive them everyday to work and school. I used to have a camry...lol. But anyway, sometimes when i play a cd using the in dash slot, it sounds better than from my ipod. I use the Ipod adapter that BMW allows as an option. The ipod doesnt sound bad and i love how you can view the playlists on the idrive screen, and Logic 7 is amazing. I know most people have told me its the CD quality thats better than MP3, but i will burn a CD using itunes and play the exact same songs on the cd and the ipod, yet the CD version of the song its noticeably better. Is it just me? Or is there another reason?

It is exactly this very reason why I am tempted to get a CD changer in the trunk, even though theyre every expensive

[smallseafishie]

Make sure your ipod doesn't have any "enhancement" sound modes enabled. Secondly, try loading a usb memory stick and playing your songs that way.

CDs may sound better since the resampling (upconversion) of a mp3 to a CD is of better processing in a computer than in an ipod.

[Formulaonehifi]

There are a lot of variables that come in to play here. It has to do with resolution and the actual hardware playing the music.

Resolution - If you are using itunes to rip cd's, check you import settings. Picking the right file type makes all the difference in the world. unfortunately with itunes you can not make a bit for bit copy(same resolution as the cd). Usually the best sounding rip will be Apple lossless. It uses compression, but does not throw away any info(i.e. resolution.) Any other mean of compression are considered lossy, which means that lower the file size by sampling the original file and only keeping a percentage, based on a fancy algorithm. Hence they are lower resolution and will not sound as good as the original.

The trade of people usually make is space vs quality - if you use Apple lossless vs some other kind of compression - the songs will take up more space, meaning fewer songs will fit on your ipod. I use a 160gb classic in my car that has about 3600 songs (all Apple lossless) and i am only at 87 gigs full. If i had used a lower compression rate - i would probably only be around 30gb full.

if you getting you music from a download service instead of ripping you are at their mercy for the quailty. Some are very good (Music Giants - actually better than cd quality - just not compatible with itunes and ipods) others - like itunes - are horrible - 256k quality and will not sound as good.

Then there is the issue of hardware - a whole nother ball of wax.

hope this helps

[ibimmer954]

When using the iPod in that manner, the iPod is doing the digital->analog conversion. I've found that the weakness of the iPod is the sound quality. It just isn't very good compared to other players on the market. What format are your digital files in? If they do not have DRM, then you will probably get better results if you put the files on a USB storage device and plug that into the USB port. Then, the car stereo is doing the digital -> analog conversion. There have been comments in the forums that the radio does a better job than the iPod and you will get better sound quality.

If the iPod is being used with Windows, apparently you can use your normal iPod USB cable to connect to your car and the iPod will act like a USB storage device. In this setup, you only connect the iPod via USB, not analog. You will probably lose your playlists, but you will have access to the raw files. This will only work if your files do not have DRM and the iPod is connected to a Windows box. This will not work if you access the iPod via a Mac (since in that case the iPod is formatted HFS instead of FAT).

[azntripledragon]

Originally Posted by Formulaonehifi

There are a lot of variables that come in to play here. It has to do with resolution and the actual hardware playing the music.

Resolution - If you are using itunes to rip cd's, check you import settings. Picking the right file type makes all the difference in the world. unfortunately with itunes you can not make a bit for bit copy(same resolution as the cd). Usually the best sounding rip will be Apple lossless. It uses compression, but does not throw away any info(i.e. resolution.) Any other mean of compression are considered lossy, which means that lower the file size by sampling the original file and only keeping a percentage, based on a fancy algorithm. Hence they are lower resolution and will not sound as good as the original.

The trade of people usually make is space vs quality - if you use Apple lossless vs some other kind of compression - the songs will take up more space, meaning fewer songs will fit on your ipod. I use a 160gb classic in my car that has about 3600 songs (all Apple lossless) and i am only at 87 gigs full. If i had used a lower compression rate - i would probably only be around 30gb full.

if you getting you music from a download service instead of ripping you are at their mercy for the quailty. Some are very good (Music Giants - actually better than cd quality - just not compatible with itunes and ipods) others - like itunes - are horrible - 256k quality and will not sound as good.

Then there is the issue of hardware - a whole nother ball of wax.

hope this helps

my import settings are at 320 kbps AAC encoder, but i think ill try getting some apple lossless files and then see whats up thanks!

[azntripledragon]

thanks for everyone's help, try the suggestions

[MrClean]

CDs are going to sound better than your iPod, or any mp3 player, too. From Wikipedia: MP3's use of a lossy compression algorithm is designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent the audio recording and still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio for most listeners, but is not considered high fidelity audio by audiophiles.

In a car environment, shouldn't be a big deal, but I'd never run it through my stereo at home.

J

[92tripleblack]

CDs should almost always sound better than Ipods as Ipod music is usually compressed. My impression of MP3s for the most part is they sound like a tape cassette without the hiss. Also, records sound better than CDs, and usually compilation CDs don't sound as good as the originals. The tracks on a soundtrack CD for example sound inferior to the CD from the original artist. Again, you loose some data often from point to point. Since I've been a spoiled sound snob since college, when I was a professional stereo installer before CD players were available in most cars, and we installed often systems that today would cost $20k, I didn't purchase an Ipod until a month ago. I still have no idea how to use it but I'll get it. I got it for the car as the only reason I see to own one is convience. I'm sick of swapping CDs and I drive on average 1200 miles a week.

BTW, though you can tell the difference easily between mediums with a quality sound system, it can still be heard, even the CD sound track differences, on a stock car stereo while driving.

[Winston1961]

In my opinion the best solution is to use the Ipod as an external harddrive, put WMA lossless files on it and enjoy the soundquality.
In this way it is not posible to play AAC or apple lossless files.
WAV files (exactly CD quality) can be used but when I use WAV files there is a loud click at the end of every song.

[Lassaxi]

Originally Posted by azntripledragon

I know most people have told me its the CD quality thats better than MP3, but i will burn a CD using itunes and play the exact same songs on the cd and the ipod, yet the CD version of the song its noticeably better. Is it just me? Or is there another reason?

So, I'm sure you figured this out by now, but most people here responded without actually answering your question. They just told you what you already knew: that CD files tend to be compressed at a higher bit and sampling rate than MP3/AAC files, which is why CDs sound better than songs from iTunes. But that wasn't your question, was it? Your question was why does a song you downloaded from iTunes and burn on a CD sound better than the identical song played through the iPod and iPod adapter. That has nothing to do with the quality of the sound file, because it is the same quality whether on the CD or on the iPod.

ibimmer346 explained one of the reasons for the difference very nicely. Another reason for the difference is that the quality of the connections you are using between the iPod and your car's stereo are not as good as the internal connections between the CD player and the stereo. But probably the biggest reason for the difference is that the sound processing circuitry on the iPod is not particularly good. So, when the iPod processes the sound file before transferring the analog signal to your car's stereo, there is a rather significant loss in sound quality. It's not a big deal when you're using a $2 pair of headphones, but you'll hear the difference on your car's sound system.

Winston1961's suggestion is a good one. By using the iPod as an external HD, you can essentially bypass its sound processing circuitry, and have the BMW sound equipment do the conversion work, which will produce better quality sound. The sound will be better if you use a better quality file to start with, but even MP3s should sound better this way.