Discussion
Just purchased a 40 gig I-Pod.
How do I get reasonable sound via an amp?
Have tried cable from the "base" unit direct into red/black but it is just distorted.
Do I need a specific cable?
Also - using the Belkin car adaptor and a "tape" in the car - sound is aweful & too much bass.
HELP - otherwise I have the most expensive walkman ever
How do I get reasonable sound via an amp?
Have tried cable from the "base" unit direct into red/black but it is just distorted.
Do I need a specific cable?
Also - using the Belkin car adaptor and a "tape" in the car - sound is aweful & too much bass.
HELP - otherwise I have the most expensive walkman ever
Buster
The best way to upload music to an iPod is to do it via your computer. Use a program such as iTUNES and connect the iPod to your USB or Firewire port. Copy all your cds onto iTunes then you can simply copy them all to the iPod at a click of a button. iTunes is available for Mac or PC so no worries there.
Connecting an iPod to a car's casette player will never be that amazing but do a search and alternative connections have been considered on here.
HTH.
Andy
The best way to upload music to an iPod is to do it via your computer. Use a program such as iTUNES and connect the iPod to your USB or Firewire port. Copy all your cds onto iTunes then you can simply copy them all to the iPod at a click of a button. iTunes is available for Mac or PC so no worries there.
Connecting an iPod to a car's casette player will never be that amazing but do a search and alternative connections have been considered on here.
HTH.
Andy
buster said:
Just purchased a 40 gig I-Pod.
How do I get reasonable sound via an amp?
Have tried cable from the "base" unit direct into red/black but it is just distorted.
Do I need a specific cable?
All you need is a jack to phono lead, costs about £3 from Maplin's for a standard one. As for distortion, well the base unit (I'm presuming you are meaning dock here) is a line-out. It's not pre-amped or anything.
buster said:
Also - using the Belkin car adaptor and a "tape" in the car - sound is aweful & too much bass.
Using the car kit is pre-amped. Check the EQ setting's of the iPod itself, also turn the volume to around 1/2 and use the car stereo to amp it up - the amp in the stereo is better than the one in the iPod.
When both of these are a problem however it suggests to me that your problem isn't with the iPod or the surrounding hardware but the MP3's themselves. What bit-rate did you encode them at? what program did you use? Do they sound alright on your PC, do they sound alright through headphones? What happens if you connect the jack directly into the audio out from the iPod?
buster said:
HELP - otherwise I have the most expensive walkman ever
The other thing to note is the iPod is simply a walkman. What you, me and most other people are doing is using it for a purpose it was never designed to be used for, namely as a home Jukebox (while it's on the stand), as a car MP3 Stereo... the equipments there, and it can be used as such but it was designed as an expensive walkman.
for much more specalist help, check out www.ipodlounge.com cunningly docevi1 there is me as well
Edited by Dazren so that the link works.
>> Edited by dazren on Sunday 14th December 14:32
Some interesting stuff here. Great forum link BTW.
When recently ordering an Ipod, I thought I'd get either an ITrip FM transmitter or a tape thing like buster is using, however peoples experiences vary and as I haven't ordered any of these gadgets I thought I'd do some research (tape is better than Itrip apparantly even though Itrip is illegal to use in the UK). In my own situation I regularly drive 3 different cars.
Car one (porker) has a becker minidisc headunit and a becker CD shuttle in the boot. I have found a little adapter that allows additional AUX INs to the head unit. Has anyone used one of these?
www.incarexpress.co.uk/focus.php3?partno=BEC02AUX
Car two (merc) has a 5 year old Kenwood minidisc headunit and a CD shuttle in the boot. I have found a kenwood adapter but am not sure if it will work with an "old" head unit like the one in my car.
www.incarexpress.co.uk/focus.php3?partno=CAC1AX
Car three (merc) has a basic tape radio. Current thinking is to buy a JVC headunit with an AUX IN jack mounted on the front as shown on this site:
www.caraudiodiscount.com/acatalog/jvc_cd.html
Has anyone had any experience of running any of the above bits & pieces with an Ipod?
DAZ
>> Edited by dazren on Wednesday 17th December 13:59
When recently ordering an Ipod, I thought I'd get either an ITrip FM transmitter or a tape thing like buster is using, however peoples experiences vary and as I haven't ordered any of these gadgets I thought I'd do some research (tape is better than Itrip apparantly even though Itrip is illegal to use in the UK). In my own situation I regularly drive 3 different cars.
Car one (porker) has a becker minidisc headunit and a becker CD shuttle in the boot. I have found a little adapter that allows additional AUX INs to the head unit. Has anyone used one of these?
www.incarexpress.co.uk/focus.php3?partno=BEC02AUX
Car two (merc) has a 5 year old Kenwood minidisc headunit and a CD shuttle in the boot. I have found a kenwood adapter but am not sure if it will work with an "old" head unit like the one in my car.
www.incarexpress.co.uk/focus.php3?partno=CAC1AX
Car three (merc) has a basic tape radio. Current thinking is to buy a JVC headunit with an AUX IN jack mounted on the front as shown on this site:
www.caraudiodiscount.com/acatalog/jvc_cd.html
Has anyone had any experience of running any of the above bits & pieces with an Ipod?
DAZ
>> Edited by dazren on Wednesday 17th December 13:59
I've always ran my iPod in the car using a tape adapter, however the quality is never great. The iTrips are terrible quality apparently, and are illegal in this country.
The best option (the one I'm going to take in the nearish future) is going to be to buy a spare dock, run a power lead to the battery and a lead from the line out to my amp/radio (Dependent on later decision). Not much help here, but if possible I would put in a little work and make a more permenent installation, or at least a better cable.
As for bitrates, it's up to you. Personally I use 196VBR quality 4, this gives 5MB files but the quality isn't to be faulted. Be careful with the iTunes default, you may be producing very poor ones indeed (128kbps is standard), you'll want 160kbps at least!
The best option (the one I'm going to take in the nearish future) is going to be to buy a spare dock, run a power lead to the battery and a lead from the line out to my amp/radio (Dependent on later decision). Not much help here, but if possible I would put in a little work and make a more permenent installation, or at least a better cable.
As for bitrates, it's up to you. Personally I use 196VBR quality 4, this gives 5MB files but the quality isn't to be faulted. Be careful with the iTunes default, you may be producing very poor ones indeed (128kbps is standard), you'll want 160kbps at least!
dazren said:
Car three (merc) has a basic tape radio. Current thinking is to buy a JVC headunit with an AUX IN jack mounted on the front as shown on this site:
<a href="http://www.caraudiodiscount.com/acatalog/jvc_cd.html">www.caraudiodiscount.com/acatalog/jvc_cd.html</a>
Has anyone had any experience of running any of the above bits & pieces with an Ipod?
DAZ
That's the way I do it. I got the "Get connected kit" from ExtremeMac which includes a car charger and assorted cables.
Works great!
www.xtrememac.com/foripod/audio_bundles.shtml
docevi1 said:
As for bitrates, it's up to you. Personally I use 196VBR quality 4, this gives 5MB files but the quality isn't to be faulted. Be careful with the iTunes default, you may be producing very poor ones indeed (128kbps is standard), you'll want 160kbps at least!
I've backed up 80 CD's using the iTunes default bitrate (128kbps). Haven't received the Ipod through the post yet. Sounds good on the PC, do I need to start again at 192kbps? DAZ
if they sound fine on the PC, then personally I wouldn't worry unless they sound really bad from the iPod. 128kbps is basically the lowest you want to go in the trade off between sound-quality and file size.
What I would be inclined to do is transfer them to your iPod and see what you think. Duplicate an album at higher bitrates and compare/contrast the two. You'll probably find they are fine, it's just I like the slightly better quality (I use it as a home jukebox and listen to it every single day either walking/busing/lecturing...)
What I would be inclined to do is transfer them to your iPod and see what you think. Duplicate an album at higher bitrates and compare/contrast the two. You'll probably find they are fine, it's just I like the slightly better quality (I use it as a home jukebox and listen to it every single day either walking/busing/lecturing...)
dazren said:
As for bitrates, it's up to you. Personally I use 196VBR quality 4, this gives 5MB files but the quality isn't to be faulted. Be careful with the iTunes default, you may be producing very poor ones indeed (128kbps is standard), you'll want 160kbps at least!
DAZ
I'm currently at 3512 sons - 128 sounds great via my Bose system in London.
Think 128 is OK!!
no worries, I got my iPod back in May, but had the MP3's backed up for several months earlier, 15GB's of them 
. It's about 250 albums or something and I ripped them 2/3 times before I was happyish and couldn't be bothered to do them all again 
A couple of tools you'll need:
a tag renaming tool such as Tag & Rename (costs) or MP3 Studio (www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/) to make damned sure your tags are correct
MP3 Gain (www.geocities.com/mp3gain/) changes the volume of the actual MP3 file without distorting it
When you get it, make sure it's the latest firmware (2.1), makes a dramatic improvement. Oh, and one last thing, be wary of the battery, the meter is in-accurate to say the least & the life of the thing is somewhat short
. It's about 250 albums or something and I ripped them 2/3 times before I was happyish and couldn't be bothered to do them all again A couple of tools you'll need:
a tag renaming tool such as Tag & Rename (costs) or MP3 Studio (www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/) to make damned sure your tags are correct
MP3 Gain (www.geocities.com/mp3gain/) changes the volume of the actual MP3 file without distorting it
When you get it, make sure it's the latest firmware (2.1), makes a dramatic improvement. Oh, and one last thing, be wary of the battery, the meter is in-accurate to say the least & the life of the thing is somewhat short
docevi1 said:
no worries, I got my iPod back in May, but had the MP3's backed up for several months earlier, 15GB's of them
A couple of tools you'll need:
a tag renaming tool such as Tag & Rename (costs) or MP3 Studio (www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/) to make damned sure your tags are correct
MP3 Gain (www.geocities.com/mp3gain/) changes the volume of the actual MP3 file without distorting it
When you get it, make sure it's the latest firmware (2.1), makes a dramatic improvement. Oh, and one last thing, be wary of the battery, the meter is in-accurate to say the least & the life of the thing is somewhat short
I've noticed that the battery meter is not accurate.
It's meant to last 8 hours from full charge - I got 5........
the charge is very dependent on usage, for instance do you change tracks alot, fast forward through them? Do you have the light on, play games, use the "extra's", have the volume turned up loud? What bit-rates do you have your files at, what sizes are they?
The problem with the new iPod's is 2 fold, 1) the lowered the power of the battery from a 1200mA unit to 800mA or 600mA (can't remember which). The other problem is the way they work.
What happens is the HDD is spun up and 20MB's worth of files are transferred into the solid state "buffer" or memory. These are then played, and a the new ones transferred in as required. If you change tracks half-way through you are forcing the iPod to then clear it's buffer and re-access the HDD (this is where a lot fo the power goes).
If you have the volume above 50% or so, you are using more power than they did in the test.
If you have the bitrates higher, the processor is using more power to decode them
If you have larger files, fewer songs are getting into the buffer meaning the HDD has to be accessed for longer periods of time more frequently.
Then of course you have the other aspects such as viewing the notes and so forth, this all uses power.
The 8hrs is a joke tho, in normal use I usually get around 6hr's before I'm ready for the thing to die on me (even thats a push as well). When I get the car adaptor in it'll have a 12V lead to it for this very reason.
The problem with the new iPod's is 2 fold, 1) the lowered the power of the battery from a 1200mA unit to 800mA or 600mA (can't remember which). The other problem is the way they work.
What happens is the HDD is spun up and 20MB's worth of files are transferred into the solid state "buffer" or memory. These are then played, and a the new ones transferred in as required. If you change tracks half-way through you are forcing the iPod to then clear it's buffer and re-access the HDD (this is where a lot fo the power goes).
If you have the volume above 50% or so, you are using more power than they did in the test.
If you have the bitrates higher, the processor is using more power to decode them
If you have larger files, fewer songs are getting into the buffer meaning the HDD has to be accessed for longer periods of time more frequently.
Then of course you have the other aspects such as viewing the notes and so forth, this all uses power.
The 8hrs is a joke tho, in normal use I usually get around 6hr's before I'm ready for the thing to die on me (even thats a push as well). When I get the car adaptor in it'll have a 12V lead to it for this very reason.
docevi1 said:
the charge is very dependent on usage, for instance do you change tracks alot, fast forward through them? Do you have the light on, play games, use the "extra's", have the volume turned up loud? What bit-rates do you have your files at, what sizes are they?
The problem with the new iPod's is 2 fold, 1) the lowered the power of the battery from a 1200mA unit to 800mA or 600mA (can't remember which). The other problem is the way they work.
What happens is the HDD is spun up and 20MB's worth of files are transferred into the solid state "buffer" or memory. These are then played, and a the new ones transferred in as required. If you change tracks half-way through you are forcing the iPod to then clear it's buffer and re-access the HDD (this is where a lot fo the power goes).
If you have the volume above 50% or so, you are using more power than they did in the test.
If you have the bitrates higher, the processor is using more power to decode them
If you have larger files, fewer songs are getting into the buffer meaning the HDD has to be accessed for longer periods of time more frequently.
Then of course you have the other aspects such as viewing the notes and so forth, this all uses power.
The 8hrs is a joke tho, in normal use I usually get around 6hr's before I'm ready for the thing to die on me (even thats a push as well). When I get the car adaptor in it'll have a 12V lead to it for this very reason.
That does make sense - becuase it's a new toy I'm changing tracks frequently -
Fun sitting at the office uploading the cd's tho.
Getting VERY boring and I have about 500
latest update: 3538 songs - 10 days - 13.22 gig
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff