what freq shall i set HP filter to on headunit?

[jason1987]

the subwoofers annoying, some songs are fine, and others sound really bassy and like theyre killing the sub and go really low.

[jason1987]

like some hip hop tunes you cant turn up as loud cos they get to bassy to low down the volume

[Gary406]

ye it all depends on the song, and the sorce you will find mp3 sounds sh*t i never use mp3 i only use genuine cds from the shop, they sound much better

[jason1987]

ive got albums from torrents, i thought theyd be good quality rips

[jason1987]

its annoying i cant set it up like a stereo in a Club, they can play all music loud and the same and not distort

[DiscoPol]

mp3s have too much removed to give good quality sound output on a system, they even sound sh1te in my landy with the factory amp and sub and after market hu.

sadly you will need a better quality source to get a better quality output.

[jason1987]

but they shouldnt be more bassy/boomy just from being worse quality should they?

[highlander]

Depends on the bit rate of your MP3.

Normally your music ripping software will take the audio off the CD at 128 Kilobits per second (Kbps) at a sample rate of 44,100 Hz. You can hear the difference between this and a CD (difficult to describe, but there is a certain "mushiness" to some frequencies which is the result of the reduction in quality).

I have started only using 192 Kbps at 44.1 KHz, which is closer to CD-quality (uncompressed CD audio is 1,411Kbps), and is noticeably better (to my ear at least). The compression ratio on 128 Kbps is 11:1, where 192 Kbps is 7:1 - you capture the original waveform a lot more accurately. The downside is that your MP3s take up more space, but not so much as to make it unusable - it's a nicer balance.

If you buy music through iTunes and the track they offer you is also available as an "iTunes Plus" track, get the iTunes Plus version. Yes it's a bit more expensive but 1) there's no DRM and 2) the bit rate is higher (either 192 Kbps or 256 Kbps). They also use AAC which is less of a lossy compression format than MP3 is.

[jason1987]

my songs are at least 192kbs tho, and the others are VBR files which are supposed to be better arent they?

[highlander]

Unless you use a true lossless audio compression format (i.e. FLAC or MPEG4-ALS) you're going to get sub-CD-quality sound. Variable Bit Rate is supposed to help strike a balance between file size and audio quality by upping the bit rate for complex sections and lowering it for less complex sections. This has a negative effect on subtle harmonies, which are often dropped in quality or (irritatingly) omitted entirely.

I'm glad you're not using 128 Kbps bitrate or (gasp!) lower! I just mentioned it because most people tend to leave their CD ripper software on the defaults and either don't have a keen enough (or a discerning enough) ear to notice/care, in which case upping the bit rate is the first thing to try.

What I don't get is kids that listen to music using the speakers built in to their mobile phones (irritatingly, on buses, trains, or in other public places). Sounds tinny and crap; I can't bear to hear it!

[jason1987]

also weirdly, i downloaded tinie tempahs album, and one of the tracks is fine when i play the file on the laptop, but on my headunit its turned it into a dubstep version, really weired, it sounds like its ment to be a dubstep version, but its obviously the bitrate playing up, isnt that strange? it plays normally on laptop

[Gary406]

thats probably because your laptop speakers cant re-produce some frequencys with being very small speakers

[jason1987]

no but you can tell its not all slowed down like in the car

[Gary406]

heres a pic of my boot, subs are currently not fitted due to a water leak im fixing, should be back in 2moro ,

[jason1987]

oh bt w im using an Alpine ported box, so do i need different settings for this? or is 80hz still fine? its a proper alpine box so is tuned right