MDI niggles

[Maverick]

But I did notice that the sound quality seems to be better from playing CDs than from my iPhone.

Who would have thought that a lossless format like CD would be better than an icrud playing back a lossy format.

[G-rig]

Re: MDI niggles

Who would have thought that a lossless format like CD would be better than an icrud playing back a lossy format.

How do you know he wasn't playing low bitrate mp3 on the phone?

CD's will always sound the best but lossless is very close and the mdi sounds fairly good. Also on the stock speakers/amp you can't tell a huge difference.

Lets hope VW bring out a new firmware for the MDI soon.

[Corey_R]

CD's will always sound the best but lossless is very close

Lol... only an Apple user could say a comment like that seriously!

You do realise the big issue with that comment right?

[G-rig]

Re: MDI niggles

Lol... only an Apple user could say a comment like that seriously!

You do realise the big issue with that comment right?

??

They should sound the same minus any loss through the mdi cable etc.

I use flac at home on the pc with Foobar and that is just as good, so are wav files.

[Corey_R]

That's what I'm trying to say. There should be NO difference between a lossless file and the original source.
If there is, then the 'CD ripping' stage hasn't done it's job properly, or the playback chain is not up to scratch. Obviously Apple being Apple, and forcing users to only be able to hear their digital music via analogue output is the cause here

[Maverick]

How do you know he wasn't playing low bitrate mp3 on the phone?

It's irrelevant as it's a lossy format.

CD's will always sound the best but lossless is very close and the mdi sounds fairly good.

But it's still not the same, being surprised that a lossless format sounds better than a lossy format is like being surprised that the sky is blue.

Especially when the CD which is lossless is being played goes from a digital source to the headunit as a digital signal and is only converted to analog at the speakers whereas the icrud plays a lossy digital file converts it to analog is transmitted to the MDI and passed through to the headunit (I'm not sure if the signal is converted back to digital and finally back to analog at the speaker outputs at this stage).

Also on the stock speakers/amp you can't tell a huge difference.

Clean out your ears!

[G-rig]

It's irrelevant as it's a lossy format.



But it's still not the same, being surprised that a lossless format sounds better than a lossy format is like being surprised that the sky is blue.

Especially when the CD which is lossless is being played goes from a digital source to the headunit as a digital signal and is only converted to analog at the speakers whereas the icrud plays a lossy digital file converts it to analog is transmitted to the MDI and passed through to the headunit (I'm not sure if the signal is converted back to digital and finally back to analog at the speaker outputs at this stage).



Clean out your ears!

We are all basically saying the same thing..

My point is that most people may not hear the difference on the stock sound system between mp3 and lossless, however the better speakers/sound system the more you'll hear inaccuracies in low quality music rips/bitrates.

[Maverick]

We are all basically saying the same thing..

Except you're doing the faithful Apple Fanboi argument and skirting around the fact that a lossy format (whether it be on an Apple Icrud or not) is inferior to a lossless format, personally I don't care as high quality MP3's are good enough given all the limitations with audio in the car.

My point is that most people may not hear the difference on the stock sound system between mp3 and lossless, however the better speakers/sound system the more you'll hear inaccuracies in low quality music rips/bitrates.

You would need ears full of wax to not hear the difference, even between high quality mp3's and a cd source you can hear the difference on the stock system.

[G-rig]

Except you're doing the faithful Apple Fanboi argument and skirting around the fact that a lossy format (whether it be on an Apple Icrud or not) is inferior to a lossless format, personally I don't care as high quality MP3's are good enough given all the limitations with audio in the car.

We are not talking about lossy formats, but apple lossless vs CD.

I don't particularly like apple or itunes or apple lossless, but until there are head units out that support FLAC it will have to do, but interfaces with the car pretty well, except for the VW MDI bugs.

You would need ears full of wax to not hear the difference, even between high quality mp3's and a cd source you can hear the difference on the stock system.

I can hear the difference but it sounded like you couldn't if you think the stock MK5 setup sounds good. Although i may have got a dud car last time.

[Maverick]

We are not talking about lossy formats, but apple lossless vs CD.

Actually we're talking about icrud sound quality.

Apple lossless may be close to CD quality but you forget that it's let down by the icrud that is playing it back. The sound quality will never be as good as a CD player in a head unit or a PC with a digital output to an amp or a CD player connected to an amp.

I don't particularly like apple or itunes or apple lossless, but until there are head units out that support FLAC it will have to do, but interfaces with the car pretty well, except for the VW MDI bugs.

If by will have to do you mean have multiple extra connectors, unshielded cables and so forth why not just use high quality MP3's?

I can hear the difference but it sounded like you couldn't if you think the stock MK5 setup sounds good. Although i may have got a dud car last time.

The stock setup is fine if you set it up correctly, if you start hacking away at the car slapping in different components than you'll end up with different results. The car environment is dreadful for music playback and spending $3000+ to get slightly better sounding music is a pretty poor return IMO. Spend $500 on a pair of headphones and use those in the car and pit the other $2500 towards a system at home where that money will yield better results.

[G-rig]

The car environment isn't that bad and the mk6 has better sound deadening as well and is pretty quiet.

I already have a home setup and headphones but see your point.

There is nothing wrong with the iPhone sound quality when using decent quality files, have you tried listening to it with decent headphones?

People don't need to do any mods then.

Ps no one listen to mav as he's got an iPhone himself.

[Maverick]

The car environment isn't that bad and the mk6 has better sound deadening as well and is pretty quiet.

I already have a home setup and headphones but see your point.

There is nothing wrong with the iPhone sound quality when using decent quality files, have you tried listening to it with decent headphones?

It will still not be as good as coming from a CD even if the Apple Lossless really is "lossless" and not "loss loss" which is the statement that started this discussion.

Ps no one listen to mav as he's got an iPhone himself.

Damn it, I've been outed but this only adds credibility to my icrud/iturd comments! (it's a work phone and soon to be replaced with a non apple product - getting an iturd was not my doing)

[G-rig]

Re: MDI niggles

The point is there's not much point using CDs as the vw speakers and head unit/amp aren't of high quality.

[Maverick]

The point is there's not much point using CDs as the vw speakers and head unit/amp aren't of high quality.

?? Since when?

You can hear the difference between a CD and a lossless format on the icrud/iturd so how can the stock head unit and amp not be of high enough quality?

[Frankenstrat]

The point is there's not much point using CDs as the vw speakers and head unit/amp aren't of high quality.

I'm really reluctant to get involved in this discussion, however I'd like to raise the point that an important part of the digital>analogue chain is the D/A converters. That's why high-end CD players cost so much, it's the quality of the converters.

Second point, digital is already a lossy medium. A sine wave has to be sampled considerably more than 44 times a second to give close to a continuous analogue waveform. Since CDs are 44.1Hz you're stuck with a less than perfect medium to begin with. Audiophiles (and gear-snobs too, I suspect) will often refer to 'graininess' in digital recordings due to this. For them it's vinyl or nothing.

Third point, car+driving=noise. It's not the perfect environment for listening to music, so why bother getting all heated up? Listen to the radio if it bothers you that much.