I have a sansung T10 coming for the Pat from santa.
How are peoples mp3's working in the Pat?

 

my Dell Dj works great! Just got a new iPod yesterday, and plan to try it out later on today.

I have the base stereo, and bought an aux cable from Radio Shack.

 

My ipod works great even with a pretty cheap cable. Try a different cable and a different mp3 player and that should let you see where the problem is.

 

Actually it probably has less to do with the cable and the player, and more to do with the fact that they are MP3's you're listening to. MP3's by their very nature are compressed and lose sound quality in the process. Some MP3's are more compressed than others and perhaps the MP3's you have are very compressed. This would explain the sound you're explaining (?).

How did you get those MP3's? Did you rip them from a CD? At what frequency were they recorded? The higher the frequency, the better...but then again the better the sound quality the less compression that is used; and therefore the more space these take up. You'll have to find a the most adequate compression frequency vs. file size vs. sound quality.

I think it's the actual files because very rarely will a cable has as big effect as you are describing, and also that effect you're describing (sound being washed out) is often characteristic of MP3's. The files often lose a lot on the ends, bass and treble, and perhaps you never noticed these compression effects because you had never listened to the MP3's on a speaker system before (?). Headphones have a hard time conveying the same sound range as a speaker system, so it may never have occurred to you what these files would sound like on a speaker system.

I recommend, if you have another speaker system somewhere that has an aux input (most do these days), perhaps in your house/apartment, you can test out your MP3 player on this as well. If it still sounds washed out, you know it's not the patriot and you can narrower it down to the cable, the MP3 player, or the actual MP3 files (would be my vote). Then you can get another cable, if you so desire, to compare.

If in the end after doing that it still sounds bad, the only recommendation I would make to you is to re-rip the files from whatever CD you got them originally. But do it it at a higher frequency as this will only improve sound quality (assuming that's how you got the files in the first place). Perhaps as a test, you could only rip one song for comparison at a higher frequency and then compare it to the old file you have on your player. I hope you figure out the cause of the issue.

 

Hockeymac18 is right - The sound going out of your Pat's speakers will only be as good as the source material. Lower quality MP3s will sound washed-out or distorted, especially when coming out of multiple speakers.

That said, the AUX jack and the Pat's radio (both of them) leave a lot to be desired. The EQ settings are limited and obviously, it isn't exactly an audiophile-level system. The worst part is that here is no "gain" adjustment in AUX mode. You can't boost the incoming signal, which is why AUX-input devices sound too quiet or distorted; They are not amplified. We are inclined to make up for that by turning the volume on both the AUX device and the stereo up to maximum, which further distorts the sound.

Here's what I did:
Encoded MP3s at least at 192k, preferably 256k bit rate.
Got a pretty good 1/8"-1/8" cable. That means no Radio Shack, but it doesn't have to be gold plated or anything. Don't kink it.
Turned the Pat's stereo on AUX all the way up and used a low-bass/high-mid/treble setting. I don't like a lot of bass and find that most sound systems are geared with too much bass.
Made sure the iPod's volume level was never more than 2/3. That's an important one. It's on that high end that you'll see the most distortion. I know, it's tempting to raise the volume of the input device, but don't do it.
When in doubt, used the built-in EQ settings on the iPod - such as "vocal booster" "small speakers" "bass booster", etc. Those seem to be pretty useful and can make up for a lack of solid, loud volume...

Hope this helps,

N.

 

Since the same MP3 files sound good when you burn them to CD and play them back that way, it's probably not related to the sampling rate.

I suspect that the poor sound quality that you are getting when you plug your MP3 player into the aux port is probably because you have the volume on the MP3 player set too high. Try keeping the volume on the MP3 player set between 50 and 75% of max.

My experience has been that turning off the MP3 player's equalization and bass boost functions produces the best sound quality through the car stereo.

 

listen to kidblue and guy above him, they are correct

 

I have a Olympus MP3 player and a phone that plays MP3's ... both sound awesome thru the AUX. I encode all my MP3's at 192 kb.

 

I'm not very musically inclined but my wife bought me a sandisk sansa mp3 player cheap ($30-$40) that holds about 120 songs that I use at the gym. I bought a cable this weekend at staples for $10 and it works really well so far. I haven't tried my wifes ipod yet but I will keep you posted. I would think that if the lower end mp3 players sound good then the other high end models should as well. The only downside is that mine is a clunky shape made to strap on your arm so it doesnt fit in the console rest.

 

I have a Zune and it works great as well, I compress my song at around 160kb. I do notice thought the the aux input is poorly built though. I can wiggle the input wire slightly and it will jump out of stereo. Weak..... that should break in no time.

 

Problem is one or a combination of three things; mp3 player, cable, input jack on the car stereo

Your test of the files on a CD has ruled out any audio file related issues.

Test the same cable and same mp3 play on an another output device, this would rule out an issue with your Jeep's stereo.

 

The CD I made has the exact same files as on the MP3 player, because that was my first thought was the actual files. I got them from a www.gomusic.ru

I will try the volume on the MP3 player, see if that helps

 

Ah, my mistake. I thought when you said you listened to a CD you meant a CD containing the original source songs (that is from a CD you purchase). I misread it as it seems what you did was burn to a CD these MP3 files; so I suppose that does rule out the idea that the compressed MP3 files are the cause.

So, I'm with the majority here when I recommend to try messing around with the volumes to see if you can get less distortion. The cable may be the cause as well but I'm not sure. I'd only replace the cable as a last resort if none of the other recommendations work as you'll have to spend money on this (and I'd hate to have you spend money if it turns out the cable wasn't the issue). Good luck and I hope you get it sounding better.

 

What kind of Cable are you using? If you're using the one that connects to your Headphone Jack on the MP3 Player it won't sound as good as a Cable that connects to Dock Connector on your MP3 player.

http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/d...ompatible 3.5mm to Dock Connector Audio Cable - White-MP3 Players & Accessories

 

Just tried out my iPod in the car, with my little Radioshack cable. Sounds great.

We had problems in my Buick - Hubby rigged up an Mp3 player connection to the back of the after-market stereo...wound up having to rig up a cable and connect it to another type of cable to plug into the headphone jack of my DJ. Sounded awful. SOmewhere, we lost part of the music...couldn't hear certain guitars, etc.

I'm very pleased with the set-up in the Jeep. Except that my iPod doesn't fit in the little iPod holder in the armrest. It's a brand new 80gb classic (thinner than the 80gb classic Hubby bought six months ago!) and I put a plastic protective covering on it. Now it is too wide to fit in the little space for it. No worries, though. I bought an anti-slip pad for the little cubby under the stereo and just rest it in there.

 

I have an relatively new 4Gig Apple iPod and a pretty cheap radio shack cable and my music sounds great. The vast majority (like 95%) are burned from my original CDs. After blasting my ears every time I turned on the stereo (seems the Pat's stereo defaults to volume 20 when set on Aux) I turned down the iPods MAX volume and locked it.

So now with the iPod's volume at about 75% and the Pat's default level 20, everything sounds awesome.

 

192 kbps is very good quality which I download to my ipod and it sounds great in the Pat.I know someone here complained about the bass quality of the speakers but I think they sound OK

 

Thanks for the help guys, I tried the volume settings no such luck, and I looked on the mp3 player to see if their was settings on there I could adjust, and that did not help.

I am going to try the cable next, I happen to have a 6ft cable from radio shack.

Any chance it could be the actual mp3 player?

 

May I ask, are you saying your MP3 player did not have a volume control that you couldn't find or just that it didn't help any?

 

On encoding

Sorry to go off-topic a bit (as if that's ever stopped me! Hah! ), but just in case it comes handy to someone:

Personally, I rip everything at 320kbps. I know that the common wisdom claims that 192kbps is good enough, but I did a test - ripped the same song with both bitrates and listened to them one after the other - and there is a most definite loss of quality that at least I could hear. (Test setup was a Blaupunkt MP72 head unit and Infinity reference series loudspeakers in a Ford Puma.)

320kbps had an audible loss of quality compared to the original CD too, but without a subwoofer at least it seemed to be good enough that in a moving vehicle it hasn't bugged me. We'll see what happens once I get my Patriot with the BA system.

Anyways, I've always felt that storage space was cheap enough these days that I should sacrifice as little sound quality as possible. I'd rather have a little bit less music with better quality than a lot of stuff where I can't hear everything because of poor quality encoding. And with iPods and such that have 80GB hard drives, storage space becomes even less of an issue. (Personally, I don't even have 80GB of music files ripped from CD's or downloaded with permission.)

 

Sorry to go off-topic a bit (as if that's ever stopped me! Hah! ), but just in case it comes handy to someone:

Personally, I rip everything at 320kbps. I know that the common wisdom claims that 192kbps is good enough, but I did a test - ripped the same song with both bitrates and listened to them one after the other - and there is a most definite loss of quality that at least I could hear. (Test setup was a Blaupunkt MP72 head unit and Infinity reference series loudspeakers in a Ford Puma.)

Anyways, I've always felt that storage space was cheap enough these days that I should sacrifice as little sound quality as possible. I'd rather have a little bit less music with better quality than a lot of stuff where I can't hear everything because of poor quality encoding. And with iPods and such that have 80GB hard drives, storage space becomes even less of an issue. (Personally, I don't even have 80GB of music files ripped from CD's or downloaded with permission.)

ABSOLUTELY. People generally don't realize that the MP3 (or AAC for Apple users) is a COMPRESSED FORMAT. The nature of MP3 is to save space in exchange for quality. AIFF/WAV/Basic CD-quality is also a compressed format, so by encoding an MP3, you're basically compressing something that's already been compressed. It's a slippery slope indeed.

I recommend using a VBR (Variable Bite Rate) regardless of whether you like to use a higher or lower general bit rate. It will use a basic "level" of bit rate and then go slightly higher or lower as the music quality dictates. The VBR can take the edge off some tracks and really improve others and most encoding software (iTunes, WinAMP) are smart enough to figure out the difference.

As for going as high as 320kbps - With such huge file sizes, why not just go all-out and use a loss-less format like AIFF, OGG or FLAC?

 

Either way, that mediocre AUX jack saves everyone from the horrendous performance of FM transmitters. I'm in the middle of Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA and couldn't ever get a clear signal. Even when I've been out in the boondocks it's degraded everything to "radio quality".

 

i have a cheap radio shack cable and my older 8gb nano and never have any issues the sound quality is very good.

 

Guess it´s either the cable or the mp3 player output level/signal quality