Thread: can a carputer replace a high end av dedicated system?

Originally Posted by LeoTheHamster

Some people might just want a headunit and carputer. The sound quality of a carputer is dubious what with many boards using the intergrated sound, coupled with mp3 (low quailty by ITS OWN DEFINITION), especially when compared to a good headunit. Coupling the two sounds like the best idea to me.

I for one want a setup that will tell me where I'm going, and will play a cd that I get from the Tesco on the way there, with the minimum of fuss

That's one of my points! burn a cd to mp3= degrade the sound, no ifs ands or buts about it, if you're a sound quality freak you will apreciate the subtle nuances of difference enough that you know the cd sounds better, & in the pursuit of perfection, better is always better. If you spend 5 times the money for an amp just because it is marginally better, & spend top dollar on the best speakers, the best rca's & processors, noise gates, high quality wiring,tune the system with an rta , work hard on getting a wide sound stage with pinpoint accuracy & "tingle your spine" vocals, why would you want to intentionally depend on a degraded compressed source, my original question refered to BETTER, not cheaper, IE; no fuss, & as good as possible PERIOD. cost is secondary in the pursuit of sonic excellence...

Bring back vinyl incar players!

Originally Posted by turbocad6

hey vanman, I just checked out your van man, pretty crazy how much stuff you have going on in there. it's nice to see there are other "nutjobs" out there, I think your van is sick, it also looks like you have a LOT of spare time on your hands.

Just a little friendly advice, your van looks great but the thumbnail image you use on your posts doesn't do it justice, as my first impression was that it looked ratty, probably because of all of the shadows across the picture... you should put a picture up there that would do it the justice it deserves, sweet.

check out my chevy van on cardomain, it's been there for a few years now & it still sits unfinished...but this winter I think I will pull it out of the cobwebs & get it done...maybe then It would get back up into the 5 star catigory like yours

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/221373

Right on... Thanks a lot!

It's not so much that I have a lot of time on my hands (thankfully nothing has given me problems really since install), it's just that my van is like my pride and joy, and I love computers and music, so I'm just trying to fuse those areas as much as possible. I'd like to someday make a bad-*** gaming van with a beefy comp and a fat easy chair and a big-*** LCD. It would be more of a show car than my current van. Since I took out the TV and put in the LCD, I've got this compartment behind the LCD, and I've thought of putting in a wireless microphone/instrument receiver, or some other crazy equipment.

BTW, that Caddy is dope.

Originally Posted by LeoTheHamster

Some people might just want a headunit and carputer. The sound quality of a carputer is dubious what with many boards using the intergrated sound, coupled with mp3 (low quailty by ITS OWN DEFINITION), especially when compared to a good headunit. Coupling the two sounds like the best idea to me.

I for one want a setup that will tell me where I'm going, and will play a cd that I get from the Tesco on the way there, with the minimum of fuss

Yeah, I kept my HU. I listen to a lot of talk radio, both AM and FM, and it's nice to not have to turn on the comp if I don't really need it. It also gives me a volume knob right there, and the HU remote for volume, radio, and source switching.

As far as MP3 quality, if you get stuff ripped at 256k compression, it sounds pretty damn good. I notice an 'electronic' sound in the highs sometimes at 128k and a little bit at 192k. But I've also got stuff ripped at 320k+, and it's pretty clean.

Originally Posted by VanMan69

Right on... Thanks a lot!

It's not so much that I have a lot of time on my hands (thankfully nothing has given me problems really since install), it's just that my van is like my pride and joy, and I love computers and music, so I'm just trying to fuse those areas as much as possible. I'd like to someday make a bad-*** gaming van with a beefy comp and a fat easy chair and a big-*** LCD. It would be more of a show car than my current van. Since I took out the TV and put in the LCD, I've got this compartment behind the LCD, and I've thought of putting in a wireless microphone/instrument receiver, or some other crazy equipment.

BTW, that Caddy is dope.

That idea you have for a show van is what my astro will be basically, I am going to use a tiny xga projector on a huge drop down screen, like a 46"drop down widescreen panel. it will be extremely light with a honeycomb construction & reflective screen material, I did one already this way & wow, talk about sick...that one was only aroud 30" & it was totally insane, from the rear it looked like the whole back window was a huge screen.

as far as the caddy goes, that post is over two years old & since then I added a full alpine system to that one also.there is a 7" widescreen that pops up out of the top of the dash & 8's in the doors, illusion audio compression drivers under dash, all old school ppi art amps,eqt's, alpine dvd,I kinda went off on it, but it's been used for a few years so it's a little pounded now, I don't drive it anymore & i am trying to decide if I should just rip it all out & sell just the car for around 2g's or so, or try to find someone who would appreciate it enough to give me say 5-6 grand complete, it's worth that in parts alone...I may just throw it up on the bullitin board to see if there is any interest there...

...also, even at 320+ k, mp3s don't have the same "dynamic range". I'll admit that it isn't very noticable to the average joe, but when you are obssesed your obssesed & back to" better is always better..."

So long as the bass kicks clean, I'm happy.

yeh, that's what I used to think...

well moron, yer doing audio in a car.

You got 12V. Wow and HUGE amps.

Your house has 120v, hmmm more power more clean sound.

A car audio setup, competition or not (which is always just Db not testing the cleanliness of the sound) IS NOT FOR CRISP CLEAN STUDIO QUALITY SOUND.

And MY ******* GOD dont start on the 320k+ Mp3 encodings still not being CD quality, of course they arent its a lossy codec as we all know. BUT FOR GODS SAKE NO HUMAN BEING CAN HEAR THE DIFFERENCE FROM 160K and up, yer fooling yerself if you can hear the difference.

Now hearing a difference from a 320k mp3 and an audio CD, yes u can hear the difference, but like I said the system in yer car is not supposed to give you 600 channel EQ and perfect audio. Car audio is for nice sound not QUALITY (in that quality is say from a movie theatre sound system) sound.

Just dont come back saying YOU CAN hear the difference from 160k encoding and up, YOU CANT. THATS WHY MP3S WORK THE WAY THEY DO! The human ear's impercepibility.