gigabeat f-40 sound not up to par.

[rph]

I have the gigabeat f-40, and am deciding whether to use rockbox instead of the gigabeat software.  All my music is in the wav. format for the best listenin experience.  The sound does not come close to CD quality.  I am using a cassette adapter to play through my car radio and home stereo.  Will installing rockbox make the sound quality better or is the problem using the cassette adapter. I want the best sound quality possible but am a little concerned about changing software on my gigabeat. I am not that unhappy with the software installed on the gigabeat.   Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I am new to mp3 players and online forum use so be gentle with me.  RPH

[elborak]

Unfortunately I can't directly answer your question as I ran the stock firmware only long enough to verify that my (used) F10 worked before installing Rockbox.   So while I'm very satisfied with the sound quality of the Gigabeat with Rockbox, I can't tell you whether it's noticeably better than the Toshiba firmware.

Even if the sound is identical, one big advantage you would have with Rockbox is that you could use FLAC or some other lossless codec to double your storage with no loss in quality.

[saratoga]

The sound does not come close to CD quality.  I am using a cassette adapter

Problem located.

to play through my car radio and home stereo.  Will installing rockbox make the sound quality better or is the problem using the cassette adapter. I want the best sound quality possible but am a little concerned about changing software on my gigabeat. I am not that unhappy with the software installed on the gigabeat.   Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I am new to mp3 players and online forum use so be gentle with me.  RPH

Rockbox doesn't change the analog output at all.  The best it can do is change how its processed on the digital side.  With a linein instead of a tape adapter, you will essentially get CD quality, at least to the extent that you consider the DAC in your gigabeat to be CD quality.  Both firmware should allow this.

[Mad Cow]

Obviously cassette adaptors cause a huge degradation in quality. Do you use line-out on the dock or the headphone port?

[soap]

While cassette adapters are not line-in quality - they are second only to line-in.
That being said, I do believe it is most likely your cassette adapter which is to blame.
Do you experience such obvious quality loss when using headphones?
Perhaps you have the volume level set either too high or too low?  (assuming you are using the headphone jack on the player, not the line-out jack on the dock.)
If you are using the line-out jack on the dock, perhaps the dock connector itself is dirty, corroded, damaged, or otherwise the cause of your misery.  Try the headphone jack in that case.

[Llorean]

Most cassette adapters I've used don't work well at all at line level. They need to be at about -20 to -25 from the headphone out to work properly. From the line out, you're locked at 0, which has been way too high in my experience.

[elborak]

One other problem I've sometimes seen with folks who use cassette adapters is that they forget to turn off Dolby on their head unit and hence the highs turn to absolute mud.

[GodEater]

I don't think my head unit has the option.

Mind you - my ears are made from low grade mush, so it doesn't bother me much

[rph]

Obviously cassette adaptors cause a huge degradation in quality. Do you use line-out on the dock or the headphone port?

I have been using the head phone jack, I have not tried the line out but will try it to see if there is any difference. RPH

[elborak]

I have been using the head phone jack, I have not tried the line out but will try it to see if there is any difference. RPH

It's worth a try, but read Llorean's post above: it's not likely to help.

When you say "The sound does not come close to CD quality", can you be more specific? What problems are you hearing? Your description is too vague to do much more than guess as to the cause.

[soap]

Obviously cassette adaptors cause a huge degradation in quality. Do you use line-out on the dock or the headphone port?

I have been using the head phone jack, I have not tried the line out but will try it to see if there is any difference. RPH

What do you have the volume set at when using the adapter through the headphone jack?
For my cassette adapter use around -7.
If your WPS only shows a graphical representation, switch to one which shows numbers for volume for testing.