about car stereos...

[BonzoGonzo]

when i got the car i hurriedly installed a jvc. now that things are slowing down with the repairs i have been regretting that.

i put in a thumb drive with 48 KHz wave files in it. the cheap thing will not play them. so, grudgingly, i converted the tracks to 44.1 KHz. STILL will not play them. WTF?

so i called jvc. they tell me their cheap crap will not even PLAY wave files - just mp3 and wma. i think they know how soon i will buy something with jvc on it again...

so i take the thumb drive, format it, put 2 folders on it (rock and trance) then put several cuts of each type in each folder, using 48 Khz wave files. i take it to best buy and... believe it or not, NOT A SINGLE STEREO IN THE STORE WILL PLAY IT!

i can't believe i'm like, the only person in the world who does not have a tin ear and has a little skill with digital audio... asking around, i hear that if a car stereo will play a wave file at all, it is considered good? can this be? seriously? wow!

does anybody know what company makes a head unit that will allow me to navigate folders (to select music) then play my 48 KHz music files?

thank for your replies.

[Jack Deth]

if you create an image of the cd and stick it into a folder, maybe the jvc will mount it as a virtual disc, but i wouldn't count on it.
better to encode at 320 kbps mp3.

[BonzoGonzo]

my only interest in mp3s is avoiding them, Jack.

[Chunkywolf]

Get an iPod, and fill it with wav files.
This will allow any iPod supporting head unit to play them.

[BonzoGonzo]

Originally Posted by Chunkywolf

Get an iPod, and fill it with wav files.
This will allow any iPod supporting head unit to play them.

here's an idea!

ipod will play 48 KHz wave files?

how about the interface between the ipod and the deck? it goes through usb but at what quality, and in what format? i think there is a pin jack for aux. if the ipod will play through that...

i'd just like to get some decent quality sound. there is a world of AUDIBLE difference between 441. and 48KHz. i dunno if i could hear it in the car or if a good system would be required to reproduce it, 'cause i've never been able to try it. but one might assume... the car stereo is not all THAT bad... and one day i will solve that !@#$%^&*()!! wind noise thing. i will. just watch me.

i don't think ipods support external memory? i've seen them in stores and on miscellaneous bourgeois types, running in parks. that is the extent of my interaction, with them - lol. what are their specs? i'll need 20-20KHz +-3db, at the very least, with .00? thd. mundane, for modern electronics, especially with digital storage. i'd like +-0.5 db...

my hearing has always been acute. my vision was but at 62 i'm losing that - the focusing part, anyway God must understand what music means to me... my hearing, so far, is great.

tell me about ipods...? you copy files to them like they were disk drives, right?

[Chunkywolf]

All songs must be copied using iTunes.
The spec sheet is available here: http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/specs.html

I'm not sure about the THD, but I'm sure it can be dug up.

Either way, I see this as the only way you are going to get wavs to play without burning tons of CDs.(or building a carputer)

I personally run MP3s just because of the size of WAVs.

[Chunkywolf]

Also, along the line of wind noise, a lot of people with pickup trucks have been running a piece of latex tubing inside of the outer weatherstripping to stop wind noise. This makes the doors harder to close, but it has had good results for them.

I was going to do it, but I just haven't gotten around to it due to other problems with my car that are much more urgent to get fixed.

[BonzoGonzo]

Originally Posted by Chunkywolf

Also, along the line of wind noise, a lot of people with pickup trucks have been running a piece of latex tubing inside of the outer weatherstripping to stop wind noise. This makes the doors harder to close, but it has had good results for them.

I was going to do it, but I just haven't gotten around to it due to other problems with my car that are much more urgent to get fixed.

yeah - it may come to something like that...

i was thinking about putting some of that... spray foam stuff (GREAT STUFF is a brand name) that people use to fill gaps in house walls into the place where the front fender attaches. seems to me that's where a lot of the air pressure comes from, at road speed. could be wrong...

there are two layers of weatherstripping. are you talking about the stuff on top - that seals the tops of the doors from water (or is supposed to - lol)? or along the sides, down in the doors by the hinges?

there's got to be a way to deal with that annoying hiss...!

[Jigg007]

Now, I'm not entirely sure how the interconnect between an ipod and stereo works, however if the stereo cannot play .wav, and the ipod can, then that means the ipod must be decoding the file, running it though its ipod DAC, and sending an analog signal thought the interface cable to the head unit. Now, I don't know about late-generation ipods, but the few I've heard in my time, 3rd, 4th, and 5th generations, the sound quality was pretty poor.

I had a high-end pioneer 6900 with usb interface, and like you I was very disappointed when i discovered it could not play wav files, thinking I was crazy, I checked the box/manual and indeed confirmed no wav support, which as you stated is very common among aftermarket radios.

In addition, assuming your music is ripped from a CD, the industry standard for CDs is 44Khz, where you really wouldn't be gaining much going to 48khz. While 320kbps mp3 does have its limitations, I feel that they are quickly played off due to so many different factors inside an automotive environment.

You should try FLAC encoding and see if your JVC supports that.