[325er]

Originally Posted by Pangearox

i called again this morning and left a message, i guess they were busy.

anyways...a little while later a guy calls me and tells me that the best way to hook up my ipod is through the aux input in the armrest. I almost lost it, i specifically in the message said "new interface to be able to control the ipod from the idrive controler". so i ask him if he has ever heard of "ipod your bmw", he says no. then i tell him to go to the website and he says he has 3 people standing in front of him waiting.

im still waiting to hear back now again,...keep you all posted....vise you are probably right though

Does this response really surprise you? No offense to my fellow Canadians intended, but the fact is Canadians simply do not know how to do business. We are light years behind our Americans friends and neighbours. Canadians do business like farmers, customer service is non-existent. In all my daily dealings with Canadian businesses and Canadians in general, I am constantly frustrated by the lack of professionalism. Most of the time I have far more product knowledge than the person doing the "selling". That could range from a loaf of bread to a car and everything in between. If you want to believe anything in this thread beleive JSpira....this guy is on the ball.

All Canadians have is hockey and we can't even get that right. Zero at the Olympics and Stanley cups going to places that grow oranges and where people have never seen ice and regularly say "Y'all".

[NoMods]

Originally Posted by 325er

Does this response really surprise you? No offense to my fellow Canadians intended, but the fact is Canadians simply do not know how to do business. We are light years behind our Americans friends and neighbours. Canadians do business like farmers, customer service is non-existent. In all my daily dealings with Canadian businesses and Canadians in general, I am constantly frustrated by the lack of professionalism. Most of the time I have far more product knowledge than the person doing the "selling". That could range from a loaf of bread to a car and everything in between. If you want to believe anything in this thread beleive JSpira....this guy is on the ball.

All Canadians have is hockey and we can't even get that right. Zero at the Olympics and Stanley cups going to places that grow oranges and where people have never seen ice and regularly say "Y'all".

LOL!!! And I use to be a Canadian Citizen too, thank god I'm an American!

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by 325er

If you want to believe anything in this thread beleive JSpira....this guy is on the ball.

Thanks! We could file this as "ask the guy who owns one"

[BZTR]

Originally Posted by JSpira

Thanks! We could file this as "ask the guy who owns one"

JSpira,
Do you know who owns no navigational version?

[cobradac]

All this fuss and I have $8 invested in 4 DL-DVDs with 30 GB of music, no interface problems and all the control, and info available in iDrive. But I could not NAV at the same time. Still, for another $8 I would be at 60 GB, then another $8 for 90 GB total and so on. But options is the name of the game so happy to see this and hopefully Denisons will be a good option as well.

[deltron]

Originally Posted by 325er

All Canadians have is hockey and we can't even get that right. Zero at the Olympics and Stanley cups going to places that grow oranges and where people have never seen ice and regularly say "Y'all".

So maybe Canada is lacking in some areas, but at least you have some really hot women

[bsjd00]

Originally Posted by cobradac

All this fuss and I have $8 invested in 4 DL-DVDs with 30 GB of music, no interface problems and all the control, and info available in iDrive. But I could not NAV at the same time. Still, for another $8 I would be at 60 GB, then another $8 for 90 GB total and so on. But options is the name of the game so happy to see this and hopefully Denisons will be a good option as well.

Cobradac, if you have a DL-DVD with 8+ GB on it, which is presumably over 1,000 MP3 files ...

1. How long does this disc take to load the first time it is inserted into the car?
2. How long does this disc take to load each subsequent time?

Also, do you ever notice tracks skipping? When using CD-Rs I have intermittent skipping when the car decodes the file - even though the files are correctly encoded and play correctly elsewhere.

[Pangearox]

Ok...well...i cancelled my apointment now. they were going to install the old one, that had been upgraded for e90, wich doesnt work if you have bluetooth or bmw assist. that seems a little strange anyways...

so, i guess it was my salesman who made the mistake.

no biggie...i have waited a year....whats a few more weeks

[sjs]

Originally Posted by gr8sho

What is breakdown of parts and labor?

No idea, I haven't seen anything in writing yet. I am out of town, too, or I would have replied sooner... Sorry

-Steve

[bsjd00]

JSpira, have you had a chance to do an A to B comparison of the iPod v. CD, with identical files at identical bitrates? I'm curious to see if you're still happy with the degradation in quality resulting from the digital to analog conversion of the iPod and interface.

[simnew]

From my listening using my first generation ipod interface as JSpira keeps pointing out (and therefore this is the same for all ipod's connected via the auxilliary port using the dock on the ipod and not the headphone socket) there is no perceived loss of quality. I tend to have everything at 128k or above anyway. Of course there is a slight loss but if you can't hear it then it doesn't really matter that much.

With regard to digital to analogue conversion - this occurs anyway as part of the amplification - amplifiers amplify an analogue signal and the speakers will only work with analogue - so I wouldn't get to hung up on that. The bitrate is probably more important.

[bsjd00]

I don't mean to harp on JSpira - I only asked because he mentioned an upcoming comparison earlier in this thread, and I have a lot of respect for his opinion.

There have been conflicting posts both on this board and others (specifically Audi's) in relation to the loss of quality with the D/A conversion, and there doesn't seem to be a clear answer yet. (JSpira’s earlier tests of sound quality were not extensive as his interface had just been installed.)

I mean no offense, but if you listen to anything at 128k - anything at all - you're probably not as concerned about audio quality as I am, so your impression of the loss in sound quality resulting from the conversion would not be the same as mine. (I run everything as pure WAV now and will convert to Apple lossless or 320k AAC at the bare minimum. Logic7 has already been a compromise from having custom aftermarket components in the past, so I am concerned about additional compromise in sound quality.)

Yes, there are other entry points in any sound system for degradation in quality or noise, but the goal is to eliminate as many of those as possible. As such, I’m not sure how your mention of other areas of degradation is relevant. Would you want your sound quality degraded 3 times, 2 times, only once, etc.?

Seriously, thanks for your post though. I'm just a pretentious audio snob, I guess.

[3s-a-charm]

Originally Posted by 325er

Does this response really surprise you? No offense to my fellow Canadians intended, but the fact is Canadians simply do not know how to do business. We are light years behind our Americans friends and neighbours. Canadians do business like farmers, customer service is non-existent. In all my daily dealings with Canadian businesses and Canadians in general, I am constantly frustrated by the lack of professionalism. Most of the time I have far more product knowledge than the person doing the "selling". That could range from a loaf of bread to a car and everything in between. If you want to believe anything in this thread beleive JSpira....this guy is on the ball.



All Canadians have is hockey and we can't even get that right. Zero at the Olympics and Stanley cups going to places that grow oranges and where people have never seen ice and regularly say "Y'all".

Those are pretty harsh words... especially being a business person in Canada.

The Stanley cup teams that are "growing oranges" are formed of mostly Canadian players being paid by the wealthy Americans who own the teams.

Canada is "different" nation than the US (nothing new here). So are most European countries and everyone else for that matter. I, for one, don't really want to be compared to the US. I enjoy having the US as a neighbor but there are a lot of things the US are doing that are pretty messed up. I don't mean any disrespect at all, and I think a lot of savvy Americans would agree. The US economy is going down the tubes right now... where are all the smart business people? Taking advantage of the fact that people are having tough times... the rich get richer.

I think the important message here is that there are loser business people in all countries and all industries. Some of them do very well. Have you ever heard the term, "I don't know how they stay in business... they are so dumb!" It's truly amazing how dumb business people can be and still be successfull. It's not a Canada thing, or a US thing. It's business - there's successfull business people, and then there are losers - and sometimes it's the same thing.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by bsjd00

I don't mean to harp on JSpira - I only asked because he mentioned an upcoming comparison earlier in this thread, and I have a lot of respect for his opinion.

There have been conflicting posts both on this board and others (specifically Audi's) in relation to the loss of quality with the D/A conversion, and there doesn't seem to be a clear answer yet. (JSpira’s earlier tests of sound quality were not extensive as his interface had just been installed.)

I mean no offense, but if you listen to anything at 128k - anything at all - you're probably not as concerned about audio quality as I am, so your impression of the loss in sound quality resulting from the conversion would not be the same as mine. (I run everything as pure WAV now and will convert to Apple lossless or 320k AAC at the bare minimum. Logic7 has already been a compromise from having custom aftermarket components in the past, so I am concerned about additional compromise in sound quality.)

Yes, there are other entry points in any sound system for degradation in quality or noise, but the goal is to eliminate as many of those as possible. As such, I’m not sure how your mention of other areas of degradation is relevant. Would you want your sound quality degraded 3 times, 2 times, only once, etc.?

Seriously, thanks for your post though. I'm just a pretentions audio snob, I guess.

I didn't feel harped upon...

I did make a brief comparison - the problem I'm up against is that I tend to store my CDs away as soon as they are ripped (I first rip them in FLAC and convert to other formats as required).

So I only had one CD handy.

That notwithstanding, and I think I have a fairly critical ear having grown up in training to become a pianist, I did not hear a discernable difference between the CD player and the iPod.

[JamieA]

Wow, I don't care what it costs, I just gotta have it. I am sick and tired of not being able to navigate my iPod on the move.

[325er]

Originally Posted by JSpira

I didn't feel harped upon...

I did make a brief comparison - the problem I'm up against is that I tend to store my CDs away as soon as they are ripped (I first rip them in FLAC and convert to other formats as required).

So I only had one CD handy.

That notwithstanding, and I think I have a fairly critical ear having grown up in training to become a pianist, I did not hear a discernable difference between the CD player and the iPod.

Just got my IPOD and I want to start ripping my CD library. Can you recommend the best most efficient way to do so?

[JamieA]

Originally Posted by 325er

Just got my IPOD and I want to start ripping my CD library. Can you recommend the best most efficient way to do so?

I think that you are stuck with feeding one in after another. iTunes is a biatch with getting album covers too, ie you have to get them yourself (not like Windows Media Player which gets them for you - the only feature of this program I like).

I have a large CD collection, and I am about 2/3 the way through. I was dedicated for a few weeks, but have since slackened off. I would get a production line going... I would group my CDs in piles of about 10, grab a pile, then start feeding them, and while the first one or two were ripping, I would get their covers from Amazon, or Google Images and put them in a folder. As the CDs were ripped I would drag the cover images over to the songs... after that 10 were done I would do the next and so on...

If you have multiple machines you are in a good position, get them all ripping simultaneously, then consolidate the libraries.

[obLu]

savvy Americans would agree. The US economy is going down the tubes right now...

OT to the max. And what are you basing this bit of economic observation on? I'm seeing the real estate / construction industry at an all-time high, there's crazy-silly prices in our region. I just saw a report that over 15% of the homes in our region sold for over a million. The tech market is on another rampage (that might be regional however) that the nasdaq hasn't caught on to (thankfully). I see an increasing number of people with way more money than brains. I see an ever increasing amount of service industries that can't hire enough people to fulfill demand. And my investments are screaming along quarter after quarter.

My observation is that the economy is nowhere near going down the tubes. If I'm late to the party, somebody please clue me in.

[Greeney]

Originally Posted by obLu

OT to the max. And what are you basing this bit of economic observation on? I'm seeing the real estate / construction industry at an all-time high, there's crazy-silly prices in our region. I just saw a report that over 15% of the homes in our region sold for over a million. The tech market is on another rampage (that might be regional however) that the nasdaq hasn't caught on to (thankfully). I see an increasing number of people with way more money than brains. I see an ever increasing amount of service industries that can't hire enough people to fulfill demand. And my investments are screaming along quarter after quarter.

My observation is that the economy is nowhere near going down the tubes. If I'm late to the party, somebody please clue me in.

Deaded.

[obLu]

Just got my IPOD and I want to start ripping my CD library. Can you recommend the best most efficient way to do so?

Windows or Mac? Did you want to go mp3, aac or lossless? Either way, don't use iTunes to rip.

I shied away from lossless just because there's no market standard yet, so I did the highest quality mp3 I could since everything plays mp3 now (my wife dragged me to Bed Bath and Beyond the other day, and I sh*t you not they had an mp3 player pillow). There are a ton of front ends for LAME, just make sure the one you end up using can do v1 and v2.3 id3 tags for you. It's v2.3 (I think it's v2.3 or v2.2, can't remember) that can store the album art.

And then, if you're on windows, the program you want is called Album Cover Art Downloader. I've never had much luck with Windows Media Player embedding the art into the id3 tag so that itunes can see it. It's not the most stable program, but it'll go search a lot of different places for album art.

So what I do is rip to 256VBR or 320 using LAME, and then go back over it with Album Cover Art Downloader to get the cover art. Then I point itunes at my mp3 collection (make sure to uncheck the option in itunes to have it copy files to your library) so that I can sync to my ipod.

If somebody's got a less labor intensive way to rip and keep a large collection, I'd love to hear it. I went with my way because I have a larger collection of music than I do space on my ipod. So I generally only have the itunes library full with what I want on my ipod, instead of dumping everything in there and then selecting what I want to sync.

[MUrhino]

if the part is under $200 or so, and the labor is the main expense, why don't we just wait until someone does a DIY? Think I'll just sit back and wait while some other guy figures out how to do it....then if it's easy I'll do it, if not, my MonsterCable/Charger is working fine right now.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by MUrhino

if the part is under $200 or so, and the labor is the main expense, why don't we just wait until someone does a DIY?

Won't be possible as DIY so don't sit back and wait.