1 x portable CD player

Yeah, I was thinking along those lines, but have some doubts. As I have found out, CD players (portable or otherwise) don't put out digital audio -- they put out analog, and in so doing, they process the signal according to the whims or preferences of the design engineer. As Tony has pointed out more than once, most CD players put an unnatural emphasis on the bass, which tends to please the majority pf purchasers but is not an accurate reproduction. I suspect that a portable CD player, designed primarily to drive headphones, will be even more skewed towards excessive bass.

This is not an insurmountable problem... after all my input device does have a 20 band parametric equalizer!

1 x power regulator for the cigarette lighter plug

As seldom as I would be using this lashup (perhaps 5 hours per year total playing time) I would probably just rely on the internal batteries of the portable CD player.

You whip out your tackle and stick it all in the right holes, power on the player and the empeg, unleash the remote and flip to the AUX source

This is a big problem... a significant portion of the judging is devoted to installation and ergonomics. Better to find someplace I can mount it permanently. Have to see what sort of options I have as far as top-loading, front loading, etc. Don't know much about these portable players... But even so I have to compromise between ergonomics (how easy is it to put in a CD? The judges won't be happy with me if they have to stand on their heads and snake their arm under the passenger seat to put in the CD) and neatness of installation (The judges will also be unhappy with a DiscMan velcroed to the top of the dashboad with cables hanging down over the gearshift lever )

...a couple of hundred dollars extra out of pocket.

Probably not that much... I don't need to spend extra for things like shock protection (I guess the jogging DiscMans cost more) because the only time it will ever be on is with the car parked and full of judges. Sound quality will be the big question, won't it.

I got the '99 IASCA disk.... Any tips?

Yes. Go visit Henno and play the entire disk half a dozen times on his home stereo. (Or, maybe I'm short-changing your home system? Henno's description to me of his system leads me to believe it is one of the more impressive and above all accurate stereos around...) Listen to the disk until you have it very much in mind exactly what it is supposed to sound like under optimal conditions. Then you take the disk (or the empeg version of it) to your car and start tuning and tweaking until you make it as close to what you heard in the home system as possible. Takes a good ear to do that.

Be prepared to compromise. You may find that getting the widest sound stage wrecks track #13 (the seven drum beats left to right) and when you get the drumbeats evenly spaced, your sound stage has dropped. Above all, unless you are foolish like I am and planning to compete, tune the stereo the way YOU want to hear it, not the way you think the judges want it. My judging settings are different from my listening settings. (Yes, I admit it -- I am your typical consumer, and I crank my bass up about 3dB and end up with my soundstage right in my face instead of out in front of the windshield because that's how I like to hear it!)

The three linearity tracks are invaluable. If you get good linearity you are way ahead of the game. The last track on the CD (the one used for "Back to Basics" judging) is excellent, too -- it is from Sheffield Labs, and is exceptionally well produced.

I could go on, but I see this is getting pretty wordy and most of the other people on this bbs aren't as interested in this topic as you and I are... At least you didn't get me going about drag racing!

tanstaafl.





"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"