having this awesome 5.1 ML system, it would be freakin sweet to have all my songs play in 5.1 format. When playing DVD movies with sound in it, it sounds absolutely AMAZING in my car.

So the question is: how do i achieve this with music? I am about to buy a GROM so i can stick my music on a USB stick

 

why not just get the Vais Tech it much better and doesn't give problems and is simple to use with an iPod unless you really don't have an iPod and want to use it.

 

06 is gen 4 system which can not play mp3, only gen 5 and newer.

 

fully aware of the 06 GS capabilities. My question is what can i do to get 5.1 playback in audio

 

btw - is there a sound quality difference between GROM and the VAISTECH SLI 2 up?

 

buy DVD Audio or DTS discs.

 

I agree. The MP3 compression tends to distort the quieter sounds badly. If you have the drive space you can convert almost any audio format to a DVD-audio or DTS DVD-video disk to take advantage of the ML system. It will also let you burn whatever mixes you want that way.

I'm not sure any of the current MP3 players support 5.1 output. I could be wrong, though.

 

^^ tutorial? i have 2Tb of space to spare, i wouldnt mind converting all my audio and burning a dvd-a disc to take advant of 5.1

 

Uh, mp3 is stereo you're not going to get 5.1 out of it.

Don't cars already duplicate stereo into all of the available speakers? If we're talking about additional speakers that only the ML system has that only are active when playing 5.1 content... well, playing stereo content on 5 speakers is going to do absolutely nothing other than ruin the sound stage. It's like forcing your stereo content onto 5.1 on your home theatre receiver, it just doesn't make sense. Just having more speakers all roughly duplicating a left and right channel does nothing for the music.

DVD-A discs are mastered so that they have 5 discreet channels of audio, they are not just stereo sources that let you use more speakers.

 

What good is converting a lesser source to DVD-A going to do? You're just going to end up with a larger file with absolutely no benefit whatsoever. You can't get blood out of a stone.

 

If you care about sound quality then the Vaistech ML+ and VML are the best options in my opinion.

 

how do those compare to grom?

 

Grom is analog and it has no UI. It's like comparing a Corolla LE with wind up windows to a Lexus. They both play music, but the difference in the sound quality and the user experience is huge.

You will find my review of the ML+ in the audio/electronics forum on CL.

 

Yeah I gotta agree with batman on this the Vais Tech is a def. good choice and it seems as though the sounds comes out clearer than with a cd.

 

i have a 06 with ML package, not 07