MP3 player question. (Off topic)

Will playing an mp3 player through my input jack in the front of my car
cd player have the same sound quality as a regular cd? Is the signal to
noise ratio pretty much the same? Just curious.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:


> Will playing an mp3 player through my input jack in the front of my car
> cd player have the same sound quality as a regular cd? Is the signal to
> noise ratio pretty much the same? Just curious.



A car is normally filled with electromagnetic interference sources, so you
are bound to have more noise, especially considering that you cannot
properly ground (bond rather) the MP3 player. One the other hand, you will
hear no difference because of all the road noise. I constantly listen to
MP3 in my car, hooked up exactly the way you asked about, and I have to
deal with occasional cracks and pops, but that does not bother me while on
the road.

You are right, it is way OT, but I would suggest that you toss this
question to folks at sci.electronics.basics That crowd is extremely
responsive and they would love to give you all kinds of suggestions. More
that you'd know what to do with ;-)
We keep that group's archive here:
http://www.cabling-design.com/forums/newsgroup43-.htm

Good luck!

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http://www.cabling-design.com
Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful resources for
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On 12 Nov 2004 06:19:17 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Will playing an mp3 player through my input jack in the front of my car
>cd player have the same sound quality as a regular cd? Is the signal to
>noise ratio pretty much the same? Just curious.

The signal to noise ratio is identical assuming the wiring doesn't
pickup some junk from the vehicle electronics. However, you won't be
able to take advantage of the S/N ratio in a vehicle. The acoustic
background road and engine noise level is so high, the low level
sounds coming from the speaker are inaudible or drowned out by the
noise. Try whispering to a passenger while on the freeway for a clue
as to how it works. Within reasonable limits (about 40dB), you could
have all kinds of garbage, crap, noise, junk, ignition noise,
alternator whine, etc coming from the speakers, and you would not hear
them over the road noise. To aggravate the situation, most commercial
CD's, including the MP3 ripped versions, have a very poor dynamic
range, where everything is compressed to absurdity. Unless you're
listening to classical music, there are no quiet passages, or low
level subtleties, that you can hear. It's *ALL* loud music.
Therefore, S/N ratio and dynamic range don't have much meaning in a
noisy vehicle. Of course, if you drive to some place quiet, turn off
the engine, and then listen to the music, S/N and dynamic range are
now important. However, with the engine off, you won't pickup any
junk from the vehicle electrical system, so noise pickup in the wiring
is not terribly important.

Of course if you ask the same question of a real audiophile (audio
fanatic), you'll get a completely different answer. You gotta have
that kilowatt power amplifier, monster cazapitor power filter, welding
cable Kelvin bridge wired speakers, quad shielded differential gold
plated audio cables, and acoustic foam lining in the trunk. Oh yeah,
you gotta have fiber optic audio (ToshLink) to reduce electrical noise
pickup.

Sigh...




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