dahui9

Ok so I just bought my mac mini the other day should be in well today since its already 2:07 eastern time on thursday...

I've been looking at setups and everything seems easy, I'm getting the Lilliput eby701 2009 model and the centrix p21** can't ever remember what its called, and of course my mac mini.

here is the deal after searching through countless posts and such. how are you folks runing sound? are you keeping your stock head units? or running an amp system? I've been really looking into upgrading my sound system while I'm at it and not using the stock head unit. In that case I do need an amp to use as a sort of "converter/amplifier" to get my sound correct?

I would run all 4 speakers to the amp and then a stereo RCA to 1/8th stereo jack to the computer I would assume unless I wanted 4.1 then I would need a external sound card and possibly a 5 channel amp or a 4c and 1c amp...

also what are you all using to control your music and such? when I'm at a car show/meet I want to be able to change the song but the only way I've found so far (because there isn't 3.0 software for bluetooth on the iPod touch yet that acts as a remote) is VNC routing but I really want to not place a router in the car.....

is there a peer to peer way of controlling the mini yet via wi fi? because duh IR wouldn't work being 30ft away from the car and the mini being in the glove box..

toodles and sorry for the long post

-Charlie

PS toodles just sounded right

MP3Car.com

 

natedawgg

ok first off, the sound issue is almost always better if you go custom. I personally went with the factory system, but only because of the lack of cash to purchase all of the components to complete the install. If you go completely custom you have far more control over how the sound gets to the speakers and ultimately you can tweak the crap out of it for your specific vehicle. That being said, the easiest is to use the factory system with an aux in to get setup quickly. the advantage here is that the manufacture has done most of the work for you.

as far as controlling the music from outside of the car while at a show or something, you can download the itunes remote for the ipod touch, and the use that over an ad-hoc network in your car. to do that just go into your mini, right click on the wifi icon up in the top left menu bar. then select "create network" it will ask you for a name for the network, and will probably put a default name in there for you. it is perfectly fine to use the default settings (it will prob be something like "your-name-computer" or something like that). once you select "ok" the mini will set up a wireless network that you can connect to from the iphone/touch. just go to the wifi settings and select the name that you just entered in the mini. from there you should be good to go. on that note there is an awesome app called remote pad that is free for the iphone/touch that lets you turn the iphone/touch into a full featured mouse/keyboard for the mini. just install the helper app on the mini, setup the network as just described, and fire up remote pad and you are good to go.

if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

Good luck with the install!

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VmtSquad

First of welcome to the forum.

Usually, for sound, we simply use a Auxiliary input converter. It simply route the sound of the PC/Mac to your OEM stereo. http://www.logjamelectronics.com/auxinpconv.html

I just installed my Mac in my car and I needed an RCA noise filter. Now I see that my sound isn't LOUD enough for my taste, so I'll have to find a way to boost the volume from my Mac software or add a sound card to my setup.

Good luck on your project!

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soundman98

some excelent points, I just wanted to add that a a external sound card is not absolutly nessary for adding a sub. if you don't want to add the sound card, you would just need a active crossover(or use the crossovers built into the amps) to split up the audio to the different amps.

dahui9

Ok well let me first say thank you to you all, after a lot of tinkering till the wee hours of the morning I did successfully setup an ad hoc network to my laptop with my touch using Jaadu installed on both and basically using remote desktop of sorts.

To natedawgg, thanks a ton for the app idea's for the ipod remote features, I was searching all night but wasn't sure what I was looking for other than remote. Thanks also for letting me know how to use the Mini when I get it in tomorrow to setup the network... the only thing I've noticed about being in ad hoc with the laptop last night is you must have 2 network adapters should you wish to also connect to the internet. (idk I just felt like adding that even though I didn't specify doing that in the original post.) As for the speakers idk what I'm doing yet (equalizer) quality wise. The plan with that is to get a 4 channel amp (not using the Alpine IDA-X100 aka FS) 1000w and getting possibly some JL 6.5 x 4, and then running a sub off my already 1000w 1 channel. And finally thanks for all the posts you asked questions on, my friend and I every time we had a question did a google search got to mp3car and bam you asked and had it answered lol.

VmtSquad, thanks a ton for the greeting lol I know I've only technically been on here for 1 post now 2 lol but I'm an avid poster in the www.vwvortex.com forums, as far as the converter goes I'll be running straight to the amp from the Mini via 1/8th stereo to L/R audio RCA cable, and tapping the sub into the custom run 6.5 wiring (keeping me from going to an external sound car for now..)

soundman98, I was thinking about that but figured using the 2 amps allowed me to use their factory high/low crossover features providing the best sound without custom or inline equalizer.

to all lol thanks for the answers I wasn't sure how you all ran the sound but everything else being a computer nerd I understand and god I love knowing I can buy that power supply and not splice the power block.

everything should be in by the end of summer hopefully and be made removable so I can use it in the house also..

oh and I think I should have added about 10 of these

sonneboz

I added a hippo-hifi USB DAC to my setup, sending the audio USB out to DAC, DAC to amp via RCA's. Very nice.

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