I have been playing around with my kenwood deck lately and want to make use of its USB direct control thing. I like the idea of getting the numerous CD cases out of my car and being able to control it all off of my deck. the only problem is, whenever I play music off of the USB, it looses sound quality... (volume drops and the bottom end sounds weak). Why would the same song sound great from a CD but sound bad from a USB? Is it suppose to be this way?

Also, would the 3.5mm aux imput sound just as bad? I really want to figure out how to get rid of all of the CDs in my car so any advise would be appreciated.

By the way, the deck is a kenwood KDC-MP538U

Thanks

Alex

depends on the quality of the mp3. the bitrate can vary depending on where you get your mp3s from. a higher bitrate will get you closer to cd quality sound, but it also makes the file size bigger so less music fits on the drive.

also, does your cd player save different EQ settings depending on the source?

Yeah, I have went through and made sure all of the settings stayed the same. I put the same mp3 of a song onto a CD as I did the drive as a test, but there is still a sever lack in sound quality. The subs loose alot of power and the mids become really artificial sounding(if that makes any sence).

As above it depends on the bit rate. The higher the better. 250 and up and I doubt you could even tell the difference.

I had 2 Kenwoods and they both allowed for different settings for different sources. (1 for radio, 1 for CD, 1 for USB, etc.)

But as far as I know(and i very well could be mistaken), the bitrate is the same. I have taken a single song off of Windows media, burned it to a CD, turned around and placed that same file onto a drive, and the difference is still extremely noticable when I play them side by side. Maybe i am doing something wrong but it seems to me that there shouldn't be a difference sound-wise.

It sounds like when you're either ripping the song to you hard drive the bit rate it low or

when you are converting it to an MP3 file you have the bit rate set too low.

I have a JVC H/U and I can't tell the difference between cd and usb.

Mine also have a volume control for each input source, mine are all at zero.

If I turn up either control, it just gets louder.

That makes sence. i looked around some more and the song im using to test is dropped down to 8.29MB in size on the USB while the file on my computer(and im assuming the CD) is 24.4MB in size. Does anyone know how I would go about getting the full size onto the USB? Also, does anyone know how it sounds to run a zune into an aux imput, will it also be dependent on bit rate?

keep it at a windows media file not an MP3.

Well I thought I had it, I figured out how to place the full file onto the USB, keeping it a WMA file, but when I plugged it in, the deck came up saying it was an unsupported file, even though all the files ive played through it have been WMA files.

Download a song from the interwebs.

Burn to CD-RW and upload to the USB too.

Play them to see if there is any difference.

If there is, look at your manual for volume setting from external sources like USB's and AUX.

Lost/don't have manual? Google it.

Does this model have an audio setting called DSP? If so, make sure it is set to on or through. Its the setting for the D/A converter. Kenwoods is MUCH better then the one built into the iPod.

if you're ripping into itunes make sure you go to

Edit >

Click General tab, then Click Import Settings >

 Under Settings use the drop down menu and select custom>

On the drop down box under Stereo Bit rate it should say numbers from 64-320, for the most sound quality select 320

. It'll take up more space but you'll never hear the difference, Usually cd's are 256.

Its all in the rip, if you are ripping directly from cd try and see if the headunit supports .wav files.... I Dj and i always use either 320kbps mp3's or wav's... wav usually giving the better result...

sorry for the hijack but what is everyone's opinion on apple lossless vs mp3, etc?