Here's the deal...

I have noticed that my IPOD doesn't sound as good, nor is it as loud as the CD player.... I have not confirmed the issue on the CF player, but it definitely exists on the MusicBox. The IPOD volume issue exists whether I use the "Soundcheck" feature or not...

Here's the situation: I accidentally downloaded some MP3's from a site that appears to have encoded them at a significantly greater volume level than my other (self ripped) MP3's. All of my home MP3's are encoded at 89.5DB, and the other MP3's are in the 92DB range... The 92DB MP3's sound significantly better (they do NOT clip as you would normally believe) - clearer high end, better/tighter bass response and mid-bass is snappy!

I took a small utility called MP3Gain and boosted ALL of my MP3's to the 91.5 - 92DB range (on the IPOD only - e.g., I didn't touch the original source material).

Low and behold, badda bing badda bang.... vast improvement. I wanted to go a bit higher on the levels to better match the other G37 sources (musicbox, CD, etc.) but the MP3Gain utility reported that too many of MP3's would be subject to clipping...

If you use this approach, I would HIGHLY suggest that you turn on the MP3Gain utility's option to "NOT BOOST A CLIPPED MP3" so that if your chosen volume level would produce clipping (e.g., distortion) it will NOT change that particular song.

Last note: Clipping is BAD! VERY BAD! It can damage your speakers for sure, but in some cases may damage the electronics if the clipping is significant and dependant upon where in the system the clipping occurs. In other words, if the IPOD produces a level that is outside the range of the headunit's input, you could damage the input stage of the HU.

YMMV.

Lee

 

My ipod sounds great, its XM that seems to sound like crap compared to everything else.

 

I'm using the cable from apple with my iphone right now and the quality is much better. The only downside is that is doesn't charge it, and you can't use the controls on the car's system.

 

+++++1

 

all sounds fantastic to me
rumbles and bumps my rearview mirror so its basically worthless

 

Let me assure you, my IPOD sounds better now...partially because the BlOSE system automatically rolls off low frequencies as the headunit volume gets louder. So, if you can keep the volume of the headunit lower and still produce decent SPL, you will decrease distortion and produce increased bass and mid-bass because of how this system was designed.

L

 

You need to do some research as you are clearly misinformed. The only thing that damages speakers are thermal and mechanical influences. You could play square waves through your speaker for years and nothing will happen, as long as you stay within the speakers thermal and mechanical limits.

99.9% of stereos play some level of clipping. If we didn't clip our amps then there would be a helluva lot of disappointed customers, unless they were driving around with thousands of watts of power to run a perfectly clean signal to your speakers.

 

Distortion is bad for speakers and can damage voicecoils in tweeters and midrange drivers due to excessive energy and heat generated to produce it. You and I are both right. Clipping is a for of distortion. And, I believe, Infiniti tried to keep distortion and clipping to a min. The net is my system sounds way better.

 

As i stated before, you can run clipped, square or sine waves through speakers for YEARS and not have any problems as long as you keep within the thermal or mechanical limits of the speakers. If you are clipping your system so bad and pushing the speakers with a lot of power then you will most likely exceed one of the limiting factors I just mentioned. And to just make a blanket statment that clipped music will sound bad is false. It's the amount of clipping that makes it audible as low single digits of distortion is hardly if at all audible.

So again, a clipped signal does not destroy or harm speakers, it's secondarily related property of higher amounts of thermal energy does. This only is relevant if power distribution is not responsibly applied. Only a jackazz would take 2000 watts of clean, UNCLIPPED power signal and drive their 6.5 components full tilt and not expect speaker damage

 

+1 for MP3GAIN... been using it for years...