[Syd]

Originally Posted by 6th element

To be clear Chris, I am trying to troubleshoot and come up with a reasonable solution in the interim only. My dealer says the sound quality will be addressed along with IRIS. If so I fully expect a great sounding system that is also plug and play. If not I will be making some demands from my dealer.

Can you tell me more about what you did with the SD card? I used REAL player to rip a couple of CD's in full WAV format onto a USB memory stick thinking this might be recognised as a valid input but it is not! Do you need a particular file structure to emulate an iPod maybe?

I am guessing from the data sheet that gadget so kindly provided that the issue lies within IRIS, in particular with the front end D/A converter. It may be down to sampling rates and hopefully can be fixed with software. Does anyone know what size of drive will be included in IRIS? If we do need to store music uncompressed then that is around 500Mb per CD, or two per Gb.......!

At the risk of starting a whole new thread on musical tastes, is there any chance we could agree a track to use as a benchmark for these tests/comparisons? I am old so I'm afraid we are talking nothing younger than twenty years for me! (well, there might be a few exceptions!) I usually test out hifi with classical music, but of course that's entirely a personal thing.

Anyway, I agree with the idea of figuring out the best way to get the most out of the existing music system particularly if the fix isn't coming until June.

[6th element]

Originally Posted by Syd

Can you tell me more about what you did with the SD card? I used REAL player to rip a couple of CD's in full WAV format onto a USB memory stick thinking this might be recognised as a valid input but it is not! Do you need a particular file structure to emulate an iPod maybe?

I am guessing from the data sheet that gadget so kindly provided that the issue lies within IRIS, in particular with the front end D/A converter. It may be down to sampling rates and hopefully can be fixed with software. Does anyone know what size of drive will be included in IRIS? If we do need to store music uncompressed then that is around 500Mb per CD, or two per Gb.......!

At the risk of starting a whole new thread on musical tastes, is there any chance we could agree a track to use as a benchmark for these tests/comparisons? I am old so I'm afraid we are talking nothing younger than twenty years for me! (well, there might be a few exceptions!) I usually test out hifi with classical music, but of course that's entirely a personal thing.

Anyway, I agree with the idea of figuring out the best way to get the most out of the existing music system particularly if the fix isn't coming until June.

Hi Syd,

I am using a USB card reader/writer (see photo). The SD card is a Lexar Professional brand SD HC 8GB 133x Speed. It does seem to recognize the card, most of the time, although sometimes it takes a while to recognize the song files before playing. I had some quite decent results, today, with WAV files (44.1 kHz, 16 bit) and the following settings on the Meridian:

Bass +10
Treble -10
Balance -01 Right (I find takes some of the sound "slap" out of your face)
Rear Level +10
AVC MAX
ATC ON
DRC OFF

The sound was definitely loud and distortion-free. Still not perfect, in terms of separation and immersion, but liveable.

The funny thing is, I've also had some of the compressed MP3 files on my iPhone sound excellent. Usually the electronic genre music. So, I'm not sure if it is worth going through the trouble copying WAV format to disk, or just picking and choosing the music that sounds best, in the mean time.

I can certainly continue to test with classical, if you have a particular track(s) in mind. I suppose we should have the exact same file, though, to make any relevant comparisons. So, we'd probably have to use some sort of file sharing website.

[Gadget]

Originally Posted by bruce

27th may is the bank holiday weekend - how about Silverstone ?

Bruce Bank holiday has been moved this year to the following week so we have Mon/Tuesday off.

I think Monaco could be a good day what say everyone else?

Sorry I can't give anymore info about the car system but politics have caused problems

[Syd]

Originally Posted by Gadget

Bruce Bank holiday has been moved this year to the following week so we have Mon/Tuesday off.

I think Monaco could be a good day what say everyone else?

Sorry I can't give anymore info about the car system but politics have caused problems

Gadget,
Hope we haven't got you in any trouble. Pretty sure the data sheet you pointed us to is freely available so that should not be an issue. But I guess if it's a different division of your Company they don't want to rock the boat with McLaren. We will just have to do what we can on our own and push McLaren to give us the info directly.
All the best,
Syd

[HyperMac954]

Tried a USB stick w/ uncompressed audio this morning on my ride in... WOW. HUGE HUGE HUGE difference. Just so much better. Audio is infinitely clearer.

[6th element]

Originally Posted by HyperMac954

Tried a USB stick w/ uncompressed audio this morning on my ride in... WOW. HUGE HUGE HUGE difference. Just so much better. Audio is infinitely clearer.

Were your songs in WAV format? Were they converted to WAV or were they originally in that format? If converted, what did you use to do the conversion and do you remember sample rate and bit size settings?

Thanks!

[HyperMac954]

They were 512 kbps mp3, pulled straight from an unnamed online source.

[Chrisb]

Originally Posted by Gadget

Bruce Bank holiday has been moved this year to the following week so we have Mon/Tuesday off.

I think Monaco could be a good day what say everyone else?

Sorry I can't give anymore info about the car system but politics have caused problems

Hi Gadget

Hope that you are not getting too much grief. Monaco would be a great event, count me in and I look forward to more details. Possibly best to pm those who have expressed interest in earlier emails

Chris

[bruce]

Originally Posted by Gadget

Bruce Bank holiday has been moved this year to the following week so we have Mon/Tuesday off.

I think Monaco could be a good day what say everyone else?

Sorry I can't give anymore info about the car system but politics have caused problems

Oh yes the country has an economy in free fall so our IDIOT politicians have decided that business should fund yet an extra public holiday! That's the trouble with being an old Etonian that knows diddly squat about business and being charged with running a major trading economy -- omg rant over!

Really sorry Gadget that you got in trouble giving the masses information when it is better to adopt the mushroom club philosophy toward customers!

Monaco would be great as long as I don't go to Nurburgring that weekend!

[AugustWest]

A refernce track was suggested earlier (sorry I can't recall by whom). I'd like to suggest a couple.

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (Track 3, "Time") (or any of it, really).

Dire Straights, Love over Gold (Track 1, Telegraph Road)

Obviously - these are from a single genre - so others should suggest others. I will say that the system really does reveal crappy mixing or production/recording quality, so (no offense to the youngsters), it may be best to choose things from pre-iPod days (so they were mixed with real stereos in mind, not $15 earbuds)...

Just my $.02!

[bruce]

Just my $.02

[HyperMac954]

About to show my youth, but Colbie Caillat "Brighter Than the Sun" and Flo Rida's "Good Feeling" both sound awesome, for different reasons, when pumped out of high kbps and high volume. "Good Feeling" at 100+mph... very fun.

[hei819]

Thanks a lot guys
what if I change my iTune setting to " using MP3 Encoder " with 320kbs ? will that be okay ?no 512 Kbs available from iTune when i rip the music !

[Gadget]

Cheers for your understanding guys.

OK so at the moment its looking like Monaco is favorite for an open day at Oxford.

We have a full range of Meridians home Audio you will be able to play with and then we will show the F1 on the 50k Meridian cinema system.

I can lay on some food and drink and also know of a couple more McLaren owners who may come along.

Will also see if I can get one of our IT blokes along and he can give some quick lessons on getting the best out of your digital audio to stop you all playing compressed sh*t

[Gadget]

I will post it on the main McLaren Life page as well lets see how many MP4-12C's we can get together