cagambler

I know it's asking a lot, what with air noise, tire/road noise, engine noise, and exhaust noise, but I'd like my music to sound as good as it can.

I splurged for the B & O system.

I don't know what I can do directly through the car, but I have a subscription to MOG which when connected to wi-fi (I signed up for the 3-year Audi Connect deal that one of you gave us the tip about last week) streams at 320 kbps.

I've got MOG songs on my iPhone at the 320 higher quality bit-rate as well, but I recently read that the iPhone has a low quality DAC and if I'm going to use that, I should get a separate DAC.

I've got songs in iTunes at bitrates ranging from 64 to 1070 (median is 192 kbps).

And I still have some CDs.

I'd love to get some advice from someone that understands all of this better than I do.

subterFUSE

There is not a simple answer to this question. It depends on how much you care about quality, and what degree of dedication you intend to put forth in your quest.

I don't have much time to write at this moment, but I'll be happy to do so later on this evening. (We're spending the day at Epcot today)

Personally, I am not a fan of MP3 compression.
I purchase all of my music on CD, or in uncompressed AIFF format. I then convert everything to Apple Lossless for storage on my iPods.

If you still have CDs, then I would suggest ripping them into Lossless as a start.

I'll write back with more info and suggestions later tonight.

cagambler

From an Audi site that had music questions and answers:

What file types does the MMI accept?
MMI 3G: MP3 (MPEG-1 Layer 3, MPEG-2 Layer 3), WMA files (Version 7, 8, 9), and AAC files (MPEG-4)

So if I get my music into Apple Lossless in iTunes on my Mac, buy an SD card reader/writer that connects to a USB port on my Mac, copy my files to the SD card, put the SD card in the S6's SD1 slot when I pick up the car Friday, are those files in a format that the above answer will play?

It seems like this should be an improved method over having the music on my iPhone and having the poor DAC in the iPhone degrade the music which would be connected to the car by audio cable.

edporsche

Your killing me smalls... It sounds like you haven't even heard the phone connection and your wanting to improve it? The best playback that I have heard so far is iPhone to MMI via A2DP (Bluetooth). It sounds awesome. Way better than XM and FM. The DVD player does sound good too. I haven needed my cable because everything I need to listen to will pair through BT. I have all my music available via iCloud. My entire music collection is available on my phone and I can listen to any song I want from my phone and it sounds great. No storage issues. No sound issues. Easy. It will even display the album on the phone (not MMI).

Having said all of that, I'll transfer my music to the HD at some point. I'm told the album art will show up on the MMI. That is the only reason I'm doing it.

DeerHunter

Can someone confirm that MMI will transcode your already-compressed music to another compressed file when uploading to the Jukebox? Lossy to lossy is certainly not a good way to improve sound quality.

subterFUSE

Sorry, I misunderstood your intended source media. Was thinking you were wanting to use an iPod.

You are correct that the iPod/iPhone have an internal DAC, and in an absolutely ideal scenario it would be best to bypass that DAC. However, as a practical matter, your weakest link in the signal chain is not the Apple DAC. It is your music being stored in an MP3 format.

The amount of sound degradation that occurs from using the iPod internal DAC would be miniscule when compared to the degradation that occurs from compressing music files to even the best quality MP3 format. Therefore, a good place to begin improving your sound quality will be at the original source by making sure you have the best quality audio files available. For your CD collection, I would suggest ripping them to something other than MP3.

So what I am basically saying is that a really good quality file on an iPod will most likely sound better than a lesser quality file directly on the MMI, even though the Apple DAC is involved.
But if you have the option of playing that higher quality file directly from the MMI, then yes that would be ideal.

I do not currently own an Audi, so I am not familiar with the formats available via MMI. If you can play either uncompressed audio files, or lossless compressed files then those will be your best options. I believe WMA can support either uncompressed, or lossless? Maybe both?
The other formats you mentioned are all lossy formats (MP3, AAC)

Personally, I avoid MP3 as much as possible. About 95% of my music is stored in either uncompressed AIFF, 16-bit Apple Lossless, or 24-bit Apple Lossless.


I am planning an Audi for my next car purchase, and will transfer over my Audison aftermarket stereo system. My likely music source will remain iPods/iPhone. Audison is working on a new media storage and playback solution that is capable of FULL DA 24-bit 96kHz output. When that becomes available on the market I am going to give that serious consideration. With that unit added to my current setup I could have fully Digital signal from source all the way to speaker. (Audison amps/processors can be connected with Ethernet cable for full digital signal)

cagambler

[QUOTE=edporsche;24397796]Your killing me smalls... It sounds like you haven't even heard the phone connection and your wanting to improve it? The best playback that I have heard so far is iPhone to MMI via A2DP (Bluetooth). It sounds awesome. Way better than XM and FM. The DVD player does sound good too. I haven needed my cable because everything I need to listen to will pair through BT. I have all my music available via iCloud. My entire music collection is available on my phone and I can listen to any song I want from my phone and it sounds great. No storage issues. No sound issues. Easy. It will even display the album on the phone (not MMI).

I had to look up what "you're killing me smalls" meant first, and then I listened to my music your recommended way--Bluetooth.

Not a double-blind test by any means, but my wife and I agree that when the same song is played by SD card from iTunes it sounds better than when played from pre-downloaded MOG via iPhone and Bluetooth.

From an audiophile site my two favorite quotes:

1. Anybody that is remotely serious about having "quality sound" would never use any current wireless technology. If you want the convenience of not having a cord and don't care about sound quality, then BT is for you. If you actually care about quality, this is not even a remote consideration.

2. I think in a car it's crazy to consider audio quality (beyond a basic level of course). You're in a metal and glass box with TONS of ambient noise. The only reason we listen to music in the car because we have to be in the car to get where we're going.

subterFUSE

Point 1 is very true. There is no wireless technology currently available which can do as good a job with audio as a wired connection.

Point 2 is debatable. For someone like the author of that quote, they view the car as a temporary conveyance and nothing more. Some people consider their cars to be an important aspect of daily life. I spend a fair amount of time in my car, and therefore I want that time to be a pleasant experience. It is worth the effort and expense for me to have an audio system that sounds great.

The car is a difficult place to reproduce audio. There are many challenges such as reflective surfaces, off-center seating positions, potential for metal and plastic rattles, etc...
But we have a lot of ways to combat these problems whether it's from clever installations, or high-end technology.
For example, my aftermarket system uses active crossovers, 31 band equalization, phase correction and time alignment to help center the sound stage for the desired listening position. All of these settings can be tailored for a specific listener and saved to presets that are easily recalled.

Quite honestly, my car is one of my favortie places to listen to music because it sounds so good. I'd much rather listen in my car than at home, truth be told.