Cd player quality

[GeneYus]

Anyone else experiencing the issue I have? My Lexicon plays my DVD Audio well, and the sound from my Ipod is wonderful. However, CD's sound horrible !!

 

[nearwater]

Anyone else experiencing the issue I have? My Lexicon plays my DVD Audio well, and the sound from my Ipod is wonderful. However, CD's sound horrible !!

Maybe the CD itself is a horrible recording.
CDs in general are supposed to sound better than any kind of compressed format(non-lossless).

What CD are you listening to?

Dan

 

[tjc78]

Generally, in my experience, the best quality from the audio system is from CDs (I don't have tech pack for DVD-A just the 14 speaker Lex). XM is pretty bad, and the sound from the Ipod is dependent on the quality of the MP3. Luckily, all mine are 256 or 320 so they sound pretty good.

On another note, I switched from my Ipod to a thumb drive with the exact same library and swear it sounds a bit better than the Ipod connection. Possibly because the Lexicon system has better D/A converters than the Ipod?

 

[GeneYus]

It was CCR Chronicles 1 and 2.. Loaded them on the Ipod and they sounded much better. CD's just don't seem to have any oomph to them in my car. I'm ending up cranking the vol to 23-25. Shouldn't be.

 

[tjc78]

I have that album on my Ipod/thumb stick and it is always at a lower volume and yes no "oomph" its just that recording. If a CCR song is on and I have it cranked up the next song usually blows me out of the car. Perhaps the reason it sounds better on the Ipod is Itunes may be set to level out the volume level of the tracks therefore boosting the overall output.

 

[ctrcbob]

No problems with mine. I am using MP3CD's vice the regular CD's.

 

[Mark_888]

Someone previously posted that the iPod is outputting digital signal to the Genesis audio system if using the Hyundai iPod cable (according to Apple a digital signal comes from the bottom of the iPod and analog signal if from aux/headphone connector on top).

I also thought my iPod sounded better than my CD player (playing store bought CD's), but I did not conduct extensive testing. It's possible that MP3's burned on a CD-R (just like an iPod or USB stick) uses a different D/A converter than regular format CD's, and that could explain why ctrcbob thinks his MP3 CD's sound great.

 

[tjc78]

I wonder if its an all digital signal from the Ipod. The reason is I know there are analog outputs on the dock connector, and also if it was all digital there would be no reason for the 3.5 MM headphone plug on the Hyundai cable.

 

[Mark_888]

I wonder if its an all digital signal from the Ipod. The reason is I know there are analog outputs on the dock connector, and also if it was all digital there would be no reason for the 3.5 MM headphone plug on the Hyundai cable.

Maybe you are correct. Someone else in this forum said they asked an employee at an Apple retail store who told them that the bottom connector is all digital. But I don't know.

However, my iPod does sound very good in the Genesis, and subjectively better than playing the original CD in the Genesis CD player (of course I record my CD's at 256 kbps or higher on my iPod).

 

[tjc78]

Here is a quick link to what I am talking about http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/Apple_iPod,_iPad_and_iPhone_dock

Pins 3 and 4 on the dock connector are used for audio out and pin 1 would be for ground. The guy at Apple was mistaken. That doesn't prove that the Genesis connects that way, but most likely it does.

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[jkohn]

Two things to consider:

1) The Genesis audio settings (bass, treble, fade, surround, etc) are source-specific. If you've tweaked these settings for iPod but not CD, you'll need to tweak them again for CD.

1) If your iPod has its own EQ settings or other enhancements active, these could also be coming into play.

 

[jkohn]

I wonder if its an all digital signal from the Ipod. The reason is I know there are analog outputs on the dock connector, and also if it was all digital there would be no reason for the 3.5 MM headphone plug on the Hyundai cable.

I agree, given that the same 3.5mm jack can be used as an auxiliary analog input from any type of device that supports it, I don't see how this could be anything but analog sound.

 

[GeneYus]

thanks for all the input. I do need to try a variety of CD's to confirm my thoughts. I did adjust the settings when I put the CD's in.

Have Johnny Winter Anthology on the way. Should be doing some major cranking in a week or so, and will check which format sounds better.

Steve