i plan on buying a head unit with a usb slot and then hooking it up to a MP3 player. but my concern is that since i have invested a lot of money (around 1400 including electrical upgrades) i dont want to lose any sq. so granted i download songs from a reputable website like itunes would the quality coming from my mp3 to head unit be the same as if i were just poppin cd's? thanks, trey
thas what i was thinking, but im wondering how i will work the volume. because how will changing the volume on the mp3 affect the overall loudness of my system. i would like to jsut adjust the volume with the faceplate but idk how that will all work
Ok, a few different things need to be addressed here:
First you need to figure out if your HU will even be able to read mp3 files from your mp3 player. If you can drag and drop files to your mp3 player from windows explorer, it should work. If you have to use a software program to transfer files, this will NOT work.
Now assuming that your HU can read the files, the HU would be playing the mp3s, not the mp3 player. So you would adjust the volume on the HU just as you would with a CD or radio.
About the quality: With the usb connection the quailty will be the same as if you had burned the songs on a CD. However, if you connect the mp3 player to the HU via a cable from the players headphone jack to the HU's aux inputs, then you will lose quality.
the original cd will always have better SQ then the mp3s from it. sometimes the original recording isnt even that great so the mp3s with suck even more