In-Car Express wrote:

Ok, so the unit's also acting as a DAC?
To be perfectly honest, I couldn't tell you - it uses the iPod
docking connector, but I'm not sure whether it's using the analogue
line outputs or one of the digital signals. My gut feeling is it's
probably an analogue audio connection with serial control, but for
all I know, they could just as easily be using the USB or Firewire
data.

That's what I figured, although if it did use the USB data as mass
storage it should be trivial to hook up an external hard drive to act
like an iPod and have a fairly cheap HDD based in-car player.

I'm currently developing a device similar to this (hard drive that plugs
into a Sony head unit) similar to the PhatBox. I'm guessing the iPod
control protocols are publicly available someplace? If the unit does
simply provide an analogue pass-through then it should be fairly trivial
to build a piece of hardware that emulates an iPod but without the
portability.

Have contacted Connects2 directly anyway, will see what their response is.

It's all connected to the head unit via an analogue RCA connection
anyway. Sound quality's generally OK, but it seems most people with
iPods tend to use 128-160k encoded MP3s anyway, so it's not often you
get the chance to really assess it's full potential.

I previously had a Sony CDX-757 changer with MP3 discs, and I could
actually hear compression artefacts (sort of a swirly sound) at 192Kbit.
I re-encoded to VBR which seemed to get rid of this problem but did mean
I could only store 10 albums on one CD rather than 12-13.

With ATRAC encoding at 132Kbit (using MEX-1HD) I don't get this problem
though.

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Glenn Richards Tel: (01453) 845735
Squirrel Solutions http://www.squirrelsolutions.co.uk/

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