Car and Fuze

MP3 players Sansa Fuze
1

Anyone else notice diminished sound quality/volume when your fuze is attached to your car. I have a double male-ended line (same wire as headphones, just a male portion on both ends). One end into the fuze and the other into the aux connection on the car. I have used other mp3 players with the exact same hardware and the quality is much better.

any thoughts?

2

I haven’t noticed that its any worse than any other device using the headphone jack. Its an impedance mismatch with the car’s line-in, so you shouldn’t really expect it to sound terribly good. There might be a difference in the output wattage but headphones will reach full volume with only a few milliwatts (per HeadWize) so its not much to begin with. As has been discussed in other threads, the only way to get line-level output from a Fuze is to use a docking station that would be too big for a car.

3

I just simply noticed that when I used a Nano vs. a fuze, that the sound quality/level was better. The wattage output makes sense.

Thanks.

4

You mgigh also check your system settings to ensure Volume is set to High.

5

yeah, all settings were appropriate. I’m guessing what the other poster said is likely the x-factor (line-out wattage/power)

6

The issue isn’t really power, it’s differences with voltage and impedance between headphones and line-out.  Headphone voltage can sometimes be in the ballpark of line-out, but the impedance is the real problem.

A couple things that can help:

  • Use MP3Gain to boost the gain on all your MP3s to 92dB
  • Use the Fuze’s custom EQ to boost all frequencies equally
  • Do the same with you head unit’s EQ if necessary
    Obviouslly, all the EQ boosting is not ideal, but it should get the level up into the normal range.
7

i checked out MP3Gain. Pretty dang neat program. I analyzed a lot of my stuff and found I am usually over 92db. Good for blasting yourself but I found if I took a song from, oh say, 100db gain to 92db the sound quality was a lot better. Took out the clipping on the higher db songs. So although they are not as “loud” they sound better. I noticed you have to be very careful on “quieter” songs. One song I had was an acoustic jam that analyzed at about 76db. I gained it to 92db and it really made the background white noise stand out.

FYI, I copied all the songs I messed with first so as to not alter the originals.

Message Edited by blkhwk91b on 08-20-2008 10:07 PM