I'd like to see how others have used the settings in the menus to get the best sound from their stereo systems. Ill go first:

Fader set 2/3 to rear speakers

Balance set to middle

Bass cut 2/3

Treble set 1 notch down from middle.

The result is pretty balanced sound on most music. It's the best compromise I have found with a system that has very little low bass, boosted mid-bass, decent midrange and decent, if a bit strident treble

My source is iPhone/iPod. The music is encoded via apple lossless from cd's with error correction turned on.

I have ordered an audioquest upgraded iPod cable. I am going to re-download all my music to my devices with this cable and see if the sound quality improves further.

Good luck with your systems, let me know how yours are set up.

 

I have my bass and treble set more to the middle.. I kind of adjust when needed...my fader is set more like yours... But I have noticed sound quality is better with cd then ipod... Have you ever noticed that?

 

Believe it or not,I have never played a cd in my car. I'm surprised I haven't, I just haven't had the occasion to. I will A-B iPod to cd and compare. It will not surprise me If the cd sounds better.
When you import your music to iTunes, if you select "Apple Lossless" and "error correction" on, you will be set the way most experts say gives you best sound quality that an iPod is capable of.
I have purchased an AudioQuest iPod 30 pin to USB cable. As soon as it arrives, I am going to reload the music back on to my iPod via this cable and see if the sound quality improves.
I believe our system uses the internal d/a converter in the iPod, then amplifies the analog signal that is provided by the 1/8 stereo mini plug in the console area. If the signal was delivered digitally to the Mini system, with d/a conversion provided by the stereo system, the sound quality may be better.

All in all,it's an ok system sound wise, with the typical mid-bass hump provided by most stock systems. I've fiddled with it and have adjusted as much of the mid bass out as I could with the bass adjustment and the fader

 

Im going to fiddle with mine more.. But im going to check more into what you mentioned.. I have been told you will lose some sound quality with a ipod..which I was surprised to hear that.. If using the usb port isn't that considered a digital connection or am I wrong?

 

Are you using the Mini supplied iPod cord, where 1 end plugs into the iPod and the other ends plug into the USB connector and mini plug connector? If so, I'm 99% sure the audio transmits to the stereo system in analog form through the mini plug connection.
If you use the standard encoding during the importing of cd's, each song is encoded using less bytes of data and sound quality suffers. Apple lossless is their best encoding system. It sounds really good. I listen my iPod through a set of decent (Grados) and with lossless encoding, I can hear the difference, even with the weak headphone amp in the iPod.

 

That's correct. It uses an analog signal from the iPod, fed into the stereo's aux input port. That by itself shouldn't necessarily be too bad, except that the stereo's aux input is not high quality. The aux input introduces some of its own distortion and degradation in the signal, and there is noticeable quality loss even with a high quality source. The USB with a memory stick works better. The stereo reads the digital audio file and decodes it with an internal converter.

 

I'm not a big fan of digital music, but there is digital and then there is digital. CDs sound much, much better than MP3s, IMHO. These formats involving compression are nice--it's a great thing to have your entire music collection in your shirt pocket--but we've given up sound quality for that convenience.
That said, most of the time I have my iPod connected. Bass down, treble up, fader and balance centered. With a good CD I think it's a decent-sounding system.

 

How does one go about taking my music from iTunes and transfer it to a USB memory stick? I'm sorry to ask what appears to be a dumb question but I don't know how to do it.

 

I agree 100%, data compression has set back digital sound 30 years,when 44 kHz sampling and brick-wall filters were the norm. A properly set up analog (turntable) home system will out perform a digital based system 90 times out of 100. However, we have to work with what we're given so I'm willing to do what i need to do with the stock setup to get the best sound possible. I normally listen to my iPod with the equalizer in the "off" position, I'm going to try it in the "flat" position and see if that helps the mid-bass hump.

Are there any more tweaks I can perform from iPod through to the stereo system to improve the sound quality?

I already encode everything with apple lossless with error correction on.
I run equalizer off but will try flat to see if that helps.

Thanks again

 

Find the music file on the hard drive, then drag and drop to the USB volume. To find the music file location, right click on a song and select Show in Finder (Mac) or Show in Windows Explorer (Windows). You'll probably see all of your music organized in folders.

 

All in all I think the HK system is decent..not to shabby.. Its come along way from the first generation MINIs that is.. But with that said are we saying that by using a memory stick is better for sound quality? Im sure we cant get cd quality sound ..but if there is away to help it im more for it.. I was told from an audio tech guy that said you lose the dynamic range of the music by using your ipod.. which meant you lose highs and lows..but it seems to impact the lows more.. that's what ive heard from him..Anyone else here this?

 

I used a USB stick exclusively in my R56 because it's just so much easier to leave it in the car permanently (other than to add/remove music). If I didn't need to plug in my iPhone for MINI Connected, I'd do the same in the R58 too. I wish MINI would make Connected work over Bluetooth...

 

Yes, better sound quality than iPod with a Y cable.

 

Thanks rkw I will give the memory stick a try..I did also talk to this so called audio tech guy again and he said by all means use the memory stick as well..