Butch341

Hello all,

I have been combing this 2IS forum for a day or so specifically looking for anything pertaining to this, but cannot find it. Unfortunately I guess that means my problem may be mine and mine alone. Or maybe not.. Anyway, I have a 2 iPod’s, a 30GB photo & a 60GB video, with about 5 different audio cables (I will get to why I have so many cables in a minute..) and no matter what combination of iPod/cable I use, I still have the same problem in my '06 IS/no Mark Levinson. What's happening is when I play songs that use a lot of stereo phasing (or just have specific parts of the music coming out of either the right/left channel; i.e. vocals/guitar only on right channel and backup vocals/other instruments only on left channel, a lot of Beatles songs do this) I can only hear the portions of music that are arranged for the LEFT channel. The funny thing is that I’m not having a problem getting sound out of all my speakers (the balance setting on my radio is centered) because all speakers are playing music, it’s just that the musical parts which are supposed to only come out of the left channel are dominant/loud on all speakers, while RIGHT channel portions sound extremely muted/distorted and play on all speakers as well. It’s like I'm getting some kind of weird MONO sound instead of true/full stereo sound. The reason I know this, and what types of vocals/instruments go with what channel, is that I like to hook my iPod’s up to my home stereo a lot and they sound great/normal there. I then use the L/R balance **** on my receiver to tell what’s coming from the left and what's coming from the right. When the balance **** is all the way to the left, that’s what the music sounds like on all speakers in my car: Left channel is dominant with a little hint of right channel in there. Not all songs are arranged in the manner I described to where you can hear this problem easily, it’s only blatantly obvious on certain songs (the beginnings of “Ramble on” by Led Zeppelin and “Fell on Black Days” by Soundgarden are good examples of the left/right arrangements I’m talking about), but since I’m a musician and listen for all instruments/arrangements, I can pick it out almost instantly on any song. It just doesn’t sound “Full”. I took my car in to the Dealer about 5 months ago and tried to explain this to one of the Tech guys there, but he looked really puzzled when I finished explaining. (I hope I’m not being too confusing now) How some ever he told me he’d take a look at it, and since I was in a hurry that morning I just left without performing a demonstration. Turns out, at the time I was using a faulty audio cable that would crackle when jiggled sometimes, so immediately he pinned the problem on that. I guess I can understand because it's not blatantly obvious on all songs, sound does come out on all speakers, and for the average person listening for a few minutes like he was all sounds fine, but I have since bought several different audio cables thinking I keep getting faulty ones and after the 5th one, I had enough. I still have the same L/R problem. I’m about to go in for my 15K maintenance soon, so I’m going to bring my iPod photo/5 audio cables along and have a tech sit in the car with me while I demonstrate the problem, but I just wanted to post this message to see if anyone has had this problem or might be able to shed some light on what’s going on. I’m thinking the easiest bet is that there’s some kind of short between the AUX port and the radio, but who knows. I hope it’s not the radio, but since I’m still under warranty I should be covered. Anyone have anything? Thanks in advance.

Evitzee

How about when you use other sources ..... CD or Radio?? Still same effect? If they are ok, and if your iPod is ok when you use the headphones, than I would say the fault lies in the connection between the Aux input and the head unit/amplifier.

Also, are you using the headphone plug on the iPod as your source signal?? If so, have you tried using the line out as your signal instead? (Better quality)

ben_r_

Okay, so two questions here... What were your original sources for the songs? AND What and what WITH are you encoding them to for use on the iPod? If you end up ruling out all hardware possibilities (ie with the iPod and the car) I would suggest you begin trying other audio file encoders (and maybe even different audio formats). Perhaps whatever you are using is causing the loss of audio on one channel or another. If this suggestion did not make sense let me know and Ill clarify further.

Butch341

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate it.

When I play CDs or listen to the radio everything sounds great. I have mainly been using CDs since I got the car, and even though I have a much more vast selection of music at my fingertips on my iPod's, I am drawn to the incredible quality of the CD mixed with the pretty descent factory system my car has. My iPod's, when listened to through headphones, sound great. That's also the output source I use when I hook them up to my home stereo/car. No problems with L/R sound on my headphones/home stereo. The car is a different story, of course, so I'm starting to be pretty sure it's something with the hardware (AUX jack/Car Stereo). As for the line-out approach, I have not tried it. I'm afraid that I might meet similar results, however, unless I can bypass the AUX port all together and somehow plug some RCA's or line directly into the back of the car stereo unit. I've never looked at the back of one of the units to even know what it looks like, so that probably wouldn't even be possible/too much trouble anyway. That would be starting to reach a little too much I think too. Also, if it ends up being the radio somehow in the end, that wouldn't even fix my problem anyway. Oh well, I think once I get this issue resolved I will go with the line-out approach, though. Good idea..

As for the original source my MP3s came from, a lot are direct from CDs I own. Others have come from iTunes. I used MusicMatch Jukebox to rip most of the MP3s @ 192 Kbs. I guess if all else fails with the hardware, I can try to burn some MP3 CDs and listen to the same songs to see if they sound the same/reproduce the problem. I might just start using MP3 CDs anyway. I've just been lazy and never got around to burning any in hopes that I could get my iPod problem fixed. I just don’t like navigating those CDs. The iPod is so much better. I can also try using some WAV files for testing purposes I guess. I might even just use those since they get better quality anyway. They just take up soooo much space though. Haha.. Any other formats you recommend?

yogi350

I know the "quality" wont be that good but maybe you could test the Ipod and speakers with an FM transmitter. That way you are using the ipod in the car and see if the songs sound as they should or not, although it will prolly sound radioey if that makes sense.

chaotix382

actually i had the same exact L/R problem in my 250 with some random audio cable i found in my "spare cable" bin. i then switched to another cable from the bin and still had the problem.. finally i picked up what i felt was an extremely overpriced $8 audio cable from radioshack and it fixed the problem. i know you said you have 5 audio cables.. but are they different brands? or the same cable?

Butch341

I also have an FM transmitter that I used in my old vehicle before I got my IS. Although it does sound "Radio-like", it does not have the L/R problem. I would just use that since it's not too awful bad of quality, plus it charges my iPod, but I get some rowdy interference from time to time that I just can't stand.

The cables I got are all generic brands from Radioshack. They were no more than $3-4 a piece. I never thought to just try a more expensive one. That does sound like something I gotta try since you said it worked for you. You are the first person I've talked to in the IS community that has had the same problem, so I've gotta try it!! I'll stop by after work this evening. I appreciate the tip and I will let you know how it goes.

Again, thanks for the responses. It helps a lot because no one outside this community understands what I'm talking about when I try to explain it to them. Hopefully I'll get to the bottom of this soon.

ac281

iTrader: (2)

That happens to me sometimes too. Usually I just wiggle or turn the cable that's plugged in to the actual IPod's earphone jack and the sound comes back on properly. I'm 98% sure this is a cable quality or connection issue.

tmag

Butch,
I'm supprised that for such a music buff, you didn't go ahead a try a more expensive (compared to radio shack) cable. Buy some monster cable or such, and buy it from an store that lets you return it if it does not solve your problem. Just my 2 and half cents. Good luck

ben_r_

Okay, few points Id like to hit on here:

• Getting a cable that takes the line out of the iPod (from the bottom I/O connector) will improve the audio quality. How much seems to be dependent on what generation iPod you have (older more, newer less).
• Going through an input in the back of the radio is very difficult to do and will require additional hardware that is not very cheap (50-70 bucks for a CD changer RCA input adaptor).
• It sounds like your ripping your MP3s properly, but just for fun have you tried ripping them at 320Kbps? The IS really does have a good and better quality stereo system than most cars out there, so it can be frustrating at times when we try to connect poor audio sources like MP3 players too it. They sound so good through little ear buds, but once you hook them up to the car or a nice home audio system they somehow just arent the same.
• MP3 CDs WILL sound a lot better. When I had an Ipod I didnt really like the outputted sound quality at all. I think this scale about sums it up: iPod Headphone Out < iPod I/O Out < MP3 CD. You can literally take the same MP3 song and put it on your iPod and burn it to a CD and try each of these and see for yourself.
• All the gripes you are developing during your research with these issue are the same that many of us have had since the beginning. Just wait till you get an MP3 CD put together with 150 songs on it and you select random play and decide you want to hear the next random song and press the UP button on the steering wheel only to find out it doesnt go to the next random song but rather the next song in order. Well when that next song happens to be of the same artist as the previous and you just dont feel like listening to that particular artist right now you have reset the random mode just to get the stereo to pick a new "random" song. Trust me it will get old quick. And thats just the beginning.

Hope some of this was of some use to you.

Butch341

Yeah, well in my experience a cable is just a cable. I do like the idea of getting a "returnable" cable though. Especially if I'm going to spend some good money for it. I don't usually buy into all the crap that salespeople shovel when it comes to "premium" and "non-premium" cables. Most of the time, I do believe it's just a sales pitch to get you to buy more expensive stuff. If this does in fact fix my problem, however, I will start to invest in "better" cables and will take that into consideration when I buy from now on. Even though we have a success story on here based on the grade of cable, and don't get me wrong cause I'm at least excited to try it out, I still have a significant amount of doubt that a supposedly "better quality" cable is going to fix this problem. I have used regular cables for years and years on stereos, guitars, amps, you name it, and have never been told by any of my audiophile friends that my sound quality is lacking. I believe there's probably such a small amount of difference, if any, that any "quality" increase between "premium" and "non-premium" cabling is negligible. There's only so much the human senses can pick up/discern. Beyond that, it's a waste of money.

For example, you buy a new HD TV at Best Buy or somewhere and what do they try to do? They try to sell you the most expensive HDMI cable out there. They also tell you that you need this "Super-Duper" surge protector or your TV will short out after a while. I have friends that have bought into that crap and took home a $200+ HDMI cable and a $175+ surge protector. With all the crap they try to sell you, you can easily turn a $2,000 TV purchase into well over $3,000. I have owned an HD TV for a while now and do not see any discernible difference in picture or quality compared to theirs with my basic, *free* HDMI cable that came with my Satellite setup. My pretty descent surge protector hasn't done a bad job either.

I'm not saying that you can't argue physically(materials composed of)/electronically that any one cable is "better" than another, again, I'm just saying that you probably start to reach a point beyond what human senses can pick up/discern, therefore it's a waste of money.

Anyway, we'll see what happens tonight and I'll be on here right away to post the results.

Thanks Ben for the points. I will probably try to use an MP3 CD just to hear what it's like. I'll probably try the 320Kbs approach as well. I'd love to burn both 192Kbs and 320kbs on the same MP3 CD and then try to listen for a difference. I'm sure there's a little. I figured the line-in approach to the back of the unit was too much anyway. I am, however, going to invest in a system that does not use the headphone jack on the iPod in my car once I figure all this out, though. I'm not going to try to argue switching the type of input/output, because I do believe you can tell a quality difference there. I'm sure it's right in line with what you said too. iPod Headphone Out < iPod I/O Out < MP3 CD...

I'm taking a week of vacation from work here soon, so I'm going to go on a fact finding mission if none of this works. Thanks for the input.

tmag

I guess you're right Butch about reaching a point of diminishing return, I just thought it could be an easy/relatively cheap (if returnable) possible solution. But good luck enjoy your vacation and please post how it goes as it could be very usefull for someone else.

Xanadu350

I can concurr with this...I bought the Sik ram din cable that uses the bottom connector to the iPod. I rip using a high bit rate and I can tell you the sound is amazing with the ML. I was literally taken back at how good it sounded. Well worth the $20.00 for that cable.

ben_r_

Thats the one I was going to recommend to him I just couldnt find the thread or the link to buy it. Found it though. LINK

Xanadu350

Right and better yet...you can get this cable at Amazon.com too, also eligible for free shipping for the same price and the item is fulfilled by Amazon, seller is The Sik Store. It's a win win. Just search amazon with key word ram din to find the cable. I got black to match my interior.