Hi Fidelity vs. Streaming

[MichaelB]

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Originally Posted by RunningBum One thing I wonder about is whether it's worth it to have a really nice sound system in a car. On the one hand, I'm not in the car all that much, and there's a certain amount of road and car noise that will disrupt the music. On the other hand, it is the most likely place for me to be listening to music.

One problem with road noise is when it is constant at a certain frequency, like on a highway, it’s like white noise, cancelling some of the sound coming from the audio system.

[finnski1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum One thing I wonder about is whether it's worth it to have a really nice sound system in a car. On the one hand, I'm not in the car all that much, and there's a certain amount of road and car noise that will disrupt the music. On the other hand, it is the most likely place for me to be listening to music.

That's where I listen to my music the loudest.

It helps overcome road noise and I am not bothering anybody with the volume.
I just installed a new double din head unit (Pioneer avh-521ex) in my toyota tacoma. It sounds really good even with the crappy factory speakers.
It has touch screen, blue tooth phone etc and with the equalizer you can get some very good sound out of it.
Added a sirius xm adapter for my factory shark fin roof antenna and that works well also.
All in only cost me $300 but I did all the install myself (several hours of messing around) and it makes the truck look more up to date in the dash area. it has a single CD player which I wanted because i still have hundreds of those and like to listen to them.

[zinger1457]

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Originally Posted by finnski1 I just installed a new double din head unit (Pioneer avh-521ex) in my toyota tacoma. It sounds really good even with the crappy factory speakers. It has touch screen, blue tooth phone etc and with the equalizer you can get some very good sound out of it.

You are right about the Tacoma factory speakers being crap, if you ever get the chance to remove one and take a good look at it you'll be shaking your head. I replaced the speakers (4 doors and dash tweeters) in my 2016 Tacoma with Hybrid Audio Imagine speakers and an Arc Audio amp. The sound improvement was amazing. When replacing the door speakers I also installed sound deadening material on the door panels and the back wall of the truck, helped a lot in reducing outside noise. I take a lot of long road trips so I'm definitely in the camp that it's worth upgrading the stock sound system in a car although I'm sure some upgraded vehicles have a decent system.

[Qs Laptop]

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Originally Posted by HadEnuff I was driving down the road listening to Pandora, listening to a song that I'd had on vinyl LP in the mid 1970s. Even though I was broke at the time, I did manage to have a sweet sound system. As I was reminiscing over that I got to thinking that I do rather miss the fidelity of those vinyl LPs played on a turntable, through nice speakers. I have some questions for the group: Who among you still has, or has returned to, a component sound system?

Still have a component sound system.

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Do you listen to vinyl, or CDs?

No longer have a turntable or vinyl. CD's is the preferred media for listening to music for me.

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How does streamed music sound on a really good system?

Pretty good, but if you really listen you can tell deficiencies. One telltale thing to listen for is how the source material treats the high-end tingle, brilliance, and longevity of a cymbal strike. A good recording will have crystal clear, bright cymbal sounds with no hint of "splattering" or shortness of the cymbal note. Listen to the cymbals in "Listen to the Music" by the Doobie Brothers on LP vinyl or CD and then compare it to a streaming recording or an mp3 recording of the same song. You will hear a difference.

Modern stereo receivers with room acoustics correction software can make mp3 recordings sound pretty good. If you have such a receiver you can play an mp3 song with the room correction software activated and then switch to "Pure" or "Direct" mode where the software is off and if you listen closely you can hear a difference. Streaming content and/or a good mp3 recording--256 kbps/sec or 320 kbps--and room correction software makes for almost the same listening quality as CD's.

Caveat: Of course it depends on whether or not you still have a good ears to hear it.

Naturally, the quality of the speakers is the main, determining factor in whether or not something "sounds good". If you accept the argument that the best speaker is neutral, and faithfully reproduces the source material, neither making it sound "warm" or "bright", a really good stereo setup will make a shoddy mp3 or streaming recording sound as awful as it truly is. Sometimes speakers that are not sonically neutral can actually improve the sound quality of compressed music formats.

[HI Bill]

For casual listening, I stream music via ethernet cable to my AVR. I haven't played a CD in more than 7 years. I have a moderately good system, and consider myself an audiophile. But since I never do critical music as a sole activity listening, it's not worth the trouble to go back to physical media for me.