Phatnoise question

[BBGT2]

Has anyone on the board have them installed in their RS 6, if so how happy are you with it, and how much did it cost installed.
I asked my dealer and he gave me and estimate of $1700:eek:

Which is frickin too high for a unit that sells for $795.

Thanx in advance

Bajo:addict:

[rs6w]

Yes i have one.

Overall I'm quite impressed with it. It works well. My only gripe with it is it's bass respose is weak. But I don't listen to the radio anymore.

The $1700 is *including* installation. The 2003's do not have the changer control cable run back to the trunk so you have to spend $100 for the cable and then they have to run it from the head unit. That's where the $ comes in.

I wish I would have had it this summer on our road trip cause we packed a lot of CD's...

[gjg]

"lack of bass" is only from phatbox or you notice the same from CD player?

[rs6w]

Originally posted by gjg
"lack of bass" is only from phatbox or you notice the same from CD player?

Only from the phatbox...

[sturs6]

I have a Phatnoise system sitting right next to me on the floor by my computer and I am about to begin the task of putting in all of my CD's. I paid 1300 dollars for the phatnoise and Sirius.

[rs6w]

Originally posted by sturs6
I have a Phatnoise system sitting right next to me on the floor by my computer and I am about to begin the task of putting in all of my CD's. I paid 1300 dollars for the phatnoise and Sirius.

It was my understanding ( from info in the Audi catalog) that having PhatNoise installed prevented the use of the satellite radio.

(Kind of dumb if you ask me but....)

[sturs6]

It was my understanding ( from info in the Audi catalog) that having PhatNoise installed prevented the use of the satellite radio.
I called PhatNoise and they told me it had no effect because they were run on two different wires. :confused: But Like I mentioned The PhatNoise has not been totally installed into the car so I do not know for certain if it will work or not. The dealer had the PhatNoise box but not the mounting brackets. If it does not work I will either try to sale it to on here or Ebay.
:addict:

[sturs6]

Wait!!! now that I think about it I do not know which I would keep the Sirius or the PhatNoise.

[BBGT2]

Thanks for all the relies and inputs:cheers:

I have contacted phatnoise and seems real simple to install (to me at least) so I will not have to part with $1700 to donate to Audi, I feel like I have gave them enough.

The only thing that is bothering me is that "lack of bass".
Anyone know why this would happen, it seems it should not be happening and might it be a problem with something in the phatnoise unit itself. Agsin thanks
:cheers:

On a different note, after talking to MTM I have definately decided to go with them with their chip and exhaust upgrade in the spring (storing the monster for the winter). I especially liked the way they described their exhaust system and that it gets ouder after 12lbs of boost, WOW:flamed:

[sturs6]

This is just a thought but I wonder if it is the rate at which the Cd was ripped. The setting should be 192 or higher for cd quality. That is just a thought though so take it with a grain of salt.
:addict:

[BBGT2]

Stu,

Now you are geting way toooo techincal for me. :D
I cant even begin to debate that gigabyte of a statement.
Thanx for the input.

Bajo:addict:

[rs6w]

Originally posted by sturs6
This is just a thought but I wonder if it is the rate at which the Cd was ripped. The setting should be 192 or higher for cd quality. That is just a thought though so take it with a grain of salt.
:addict:

I'm beginning to belive that.

I have re-encoded some of my disks at 90% VBR with volume leveling using MusicMatch. It seems to be better, or at least acceptable.

On my rio and my computer 160 seems to work quite well, it probably helps on my desktop I have a set of Klipsch 2.1's there....

[gregoryindiana]

Originally posted by sturs6
This is just a thought but I wonder if it is the rate at which the Cd was ripped. The setting should be 192 or higher for cd quality. That is just a thought though so take it with a grain of salt.
:addict:

If the "rip rate" matters, does the software that came with the Phatnoise equipment allow you to vary that number? I am not so technosavvy, and I am just getting ready to start putting my CD collection on the Phatnoise using the software they provided.

BTW, I purchased the Phatnoise installed with the car when it was delivered. I can't break out the cost for it, because I didn't ask them to show it as a separate line item on the invoice. Call me stupid, I guess.....

[Nordschleife]

Originally posted by gregoryindiana
If the "rip rate" matters, does the software that came with the Phatnoise equipment allow you to vary that number? I am not so technosavvy, and I am just getting ready to start putting my CD collection on the Phatnoise using the software they provided.

BTW, I purchased the Phatnoise installed with the car when it was delivered. I can't break out the cost for it, because I didn't ask them to show it as a separate line item on the invoice. Call me stupid, I guess.....


I'm not sure that the Lord sent us Discussion Fora so that people would no longer have to read instructions!
Honestly, you would get the most out of your Phatbox if you took the time to read your manual. Not only would you see about varying rates, but you would discover all sorts of other useful features.
In fact, if you'd installed the software and run it, you could not fail to see this option!

R+C

[gregoryindiana]

Thanks for your insightful response.

When I install the software, I'm sure I will run across the instructions you so kindly mentioned in your reply.

Meanwhile, I need to get back to shuckin some corn fer dinner and choppin some wood to heat the ol log cabin.

Hard to believe that Audi would actually let us hayseeds here in the US Midwest buy such a sophisticated car. With any luck, maybe someday I can someday do their faith (and yours) justice.

Quite honestly, this is the first post of yours on any subject that I found objectionable. If you didn't find the issue worthy of your attention, why did you deign to reply?

[quattroboy]

To all:

I started a thread on the Phatnoise a couple of weeks ago, as I was attempting to get it and the XM module installed in my car at the dealership. My experience was that the official line is that they cannot do both, but I never got a satisfactory explanation as to why. My suspicion is that the head unit does not have enough inputs, or cannot be coded to accept inputs from both. This is confirmed by Audi's recent accesories catalog, which mentions in a footnote that the two systems as "incompatible". (and Oregon Bob pointed this out in my phatnoise thread, BTW). (':cheers:') The phatnoise rep I talked to said Audi is aware of the problem and is working on a solution. I decided to let discretion be the better part of valor and wait for the factory solution, although I suspect a high-end audio place could figure out a way to make it work.

So I settled for the XM only, as it did not require the dealer to dig into my car to install the absent for 2003 cd changer cable, and my dealers service advisor and tech where acting weird about the whole thing anyway. (Too many conflicting bits of info from Audi tech support, i guess) I also downloaded the "Digital Media Player Installation instructions" from Audi's website, and the recommended installation attaches the Phatnoise box vertically to the inside of the fiberboard panels that line the trunk, forward of the CD access panel, and this seemed lame to me as well.

Somethng to keep in mind in all of this is that the Phatnoise system is basically an iPod with a dock in your trunk. For the money, I'd rather have an iPod and a proper computer and OS to run it with :-), and let Audi figure out how to integrate these things in the fullness of time. An iPod can be used with your radio for $35 now if you accept the limitations of an FM interface, other postings on AudiWorld have detailed how to hook up an iPod in a wired manner, but none in conjunction with XM or Serius that I am aware of.

Regarding the lack of bass, this is most certainly a function of the quality of your "rip", as others have pointed out, ripping an mp3 at 192 kbits/second or higher is recommended. I assume the Phatnoise software would have this capability, the iTunes software that comes with a Mac or an iPod can rip at up to 320 k/bits per second, which nobody in a car could tell from the original CD quality

Hope this helps
(':argue:')

[rs6w]

Yea I'm re-doing my rips at the 90% VBR setting on music match. That seems to help quite a bit in the car.

[sturs6]

I had to have the Sat uninstalled so I could install the Phat. I asked the Service manager to make some calls to see why we could not have our cake(Sat radio) and our ice cream (phat noise) and eat them together. He is trying to find out some info for me so I will update when possible.

[dabull]

[COLOR=darkblue] I had the PhatBox added to my RS6 about 2 weeks ago and I already had XM installed. My Audi dealer also ran into the same problem but they worked out a fix. Both work well. I do not know what they did ( I just want it to work I have my own job ) but I am sure that if you are interested you could call Midwestern Auto Group (MAG ) in Columbus, OH and they would be happy to share. What annoys the heck out of me is the pathetic phone installation. :addict: :addict:

[sturs6]

Da Bull,
Thanks I will have my people call your people. :D What do you not like about the phone install? I am curious because I do not like mine either.

[dabull]

[COLOR=darkblue]Sturs, first of all you can't even close the phone all of the way because you have to use its keyboard to dial, to dial you have to open the armrest actuate the phone release, open the phone and then look down and back to dial the little keyboard. If it is at night you have to turn a light on. You are supposed to be able to see who is calling on your dash display and see the number that you are dialing there also. Hopefully the new V60 corrects some of these problems.

[sturs6]

Hey have any of you guys out there with PhatNoise tried ripping the CD in FLAC(Free Lossless Audio Codec)?
I think it sounds pretty good it seems to be a little hotter than MP3's which is a lossy codec.
Quick difference.
Lossy is a term describing a data compression algorithm which actually reduces the amount of information in the data, rather than just the number of bits used to represent that information. The lost information is usually removed because it is subjectively less important to the quality of the data (usually an image or sound) or because it can be recovered reasonably by interpolation from the remaining data.

Lossless is a term describing a data compression algorithm which retains all the information in the data, allowing it to be recovered perfectly by decompression.

Phatnoise is one of the first players to accommedate this decompression feature.

Defenitions provided by
FOLDOC (Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing) (http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html)

:cheers: Stuart