Challenge: Playing FLAC on car audio sytem

Posted by: DestroPesante on 23 October 2015

Good day to all of you.

Hoping that there will be members here who also try to have the best possible sound in their car, I have a question. Who of you have managed to play FLAC files throught the car audio system?

 

I am getting my Audi next week, with the Audi MMI Plus 2015 with B&O (for what is't worth) and I would like to play my flac files through/on my car audio system. First of all because I have all my music in flac and secondly because of the sound quality. The system has dual SD card slots, aux in, usb, iPod connect and bluetooth.

 

If it's a real (only) option to play flac, I am thinking of buying a Sony Hi-Res Walkman to use in the car, but no one can tell me if I can connect it. Not Sony, not Audi, not B&O. All they know is iPod.

 

So maybe some of you have some experience with this "problem" and can give me some tips.

Thanks in advance!

Posted on: 23 October 2015 by Eloise

I think you should be able to get a standard Aux input cable for that Audi system.

 

Googling "Audi MMI Plus 2015 FLAC" suggests that it may play flac off an SD card though.

Posted on: 23 October 2015 by David02

this is an A6 with the B&O system?

I heard a demonstration once, and although very expensive, I thought it was a darn good car stereo...

You can plug SD-cards in it, trough a small slot in the dashboard.

 

Anyway, I think FLAC is a waste for a car stereo because ea car is a very very bad acoustic environment with a lot of background noise...

 

(but I believe the B&O cancels out the background noise with soms sort of anti-phase noise... interesting!)

Posted on: 23 October 2015 by JohnF

I use a western digital 1tb passport hard drive into usb port in bmw 520. All music files in flac and works like a dream. Passport is ~ £80 i think. 

Posted on: 23 October 2015 by Mike-B

I can play WAV in my BMW via the USB port,  but as per David02, its a waste of time,  yes it sounds nice compared to radio, its more or less the same as CD,  but on the move - forget it, road noise kills the SQ as does the car acoustics.

Posted on: 23 October 2015 by ChrisSU
I disagree that road noise etc makes a good source pointless in car audio. I use WAVs on a USB stick and they sound way better than any lossy format.
I don't see any point in getting an expensive iPod type player for the car. I buy 128GB USB sticks for about £24, load them with WAV CD rips from my Unitiserve, and just plug one into the car. If you store your music in FLAC and this won't play on your car, just use something like XLD to convert copies to WAV on the USB stick.
Posted on: 23 October 2015 by DestroPesante

Thank you guys for all the quick replies.

 

@Eloise

Thanks for doing a goole search. I did as well and found more comments of not being able to play flac then positive messages. If the sd card option works, this of course would be great, easy peasy ;-) Connecting with an aux cable should be possible, but then I have no volume and search control through the system, only on the Sony player. Not really safe during driving.

 

@David02 Yes David, it is a decent system as car systems go and sd card slots galore (3) and even a mobile 4G hotspot. But I just want to play flac! ;-) I know flac is a "waste" , but so is converting 2TB+ of flac/dsd files to mp3.

 

@JohnF and Mike-B  Slighlty jealous guys, I hope I can play flac too, but it doesn't look too good. And again, it's not just a quality thing. I just don't feel like converting all my flac and dsd files to mp3. I actually think the radio in the car sounds very good, I have DAB+. 

And of course you are right when you say that road noise and the car environment kill sq, but still, flac before mp3.

 

Thanks for your input guys and girl ;-)

Have a good weekend

Posted on: 23 October 2015 by DestroPesante
Thanks for your input Chris. In principle I agree with your comment. I can also hear the difference between lossless and lossy in the car.  But to have a car sound really good, it takes a lot of money and time. Almost no factory install system comes close to a really good aftermarket install. But it will cost you way more than a factory install. Trust me I have done this for years, Eur. 10.000 is easely spent. I will have to check if my system will play WAV, if so the usb stick or hdd would be a perfect option.
 
Regards,
Sebastiaan
 
 
Originally Posted by ChrisSU:
I disagree that road noise etc makes a good source pointless in car audio. I use WAVs on a USB stick and they sound way better than any lossy format.
I don't see any point in getting an expensive iPod type player for the car. I buy 128GB USB sticks for about £24, load them with WAV CD rips from my Unitiserve, and just plug one into the car. If you store your music in FLAC and this won't play on your car, just use something like XLD to convert copies to WAV on the USB stick.

 

Posted on: 24 October 2015 by Mike-B
Originally Posted by ChrisSU:
I disagree that road noise etc makes a good source pointless in car audio. I use WAVs on a USB stick and they sound way better than any lossy format.

I'm not saying high def in a car is pointless Chris, they are better than lossy, but more or less the same as CD with maybe better HF detail.  And to me CD is a PITA in a car - hate the storeage problem - I have a 64gb USB stick loaded with favourite tracks. mostly all 24-bit.

My BMW won't recognise FLAC but I'm all WAV anyway so thats no hardship,  the only thing I have converted is DSD to WAV 

Posted on: 28 October 2015 by DestroPesante

Well, my car has arrived and the audio system has been tested. Plugged in / connected everything that I have, from sd cards, usb stick, portable hdd/ssd, iPod and the Galaxy Note 3. In short, the system eats everything.

 

In detail;

1. Yes, the system plays flac files, but not all flac files. 20% or so of the files did not. I suspect it has to do with the ID3 tags. More testing to be done. I also still have to test WAV files. But flac was/is the basic thought.

2. I can stream Tidal in the car!! Not really desired of course because of the huge data usage in Hifi mode, but in MP3 mode this is a good backup with a huge music data base.

3. I can play Tidal off-line content, so I can always play flac files this way. The only limit will be the size of the sd card in my phone, 128gb in this case. The disadvantage of this is that you will have to skip songs on the phone!

 

Maybe I could help some of you with this info, as you guys have tried to help me. Anyway, if you are planning to buy an Audi with MMI plus and B&O you now know that it can play flac and Tidal.

If I have new test info, I will post my findings here.

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on: 29 October 2015 by Huge

Just a technical point, FLAC uses OGG Vorbis tags not ID3.

Posted on: 29 October 2015 by DestroPesante
Thanks for the tip!
I will have to look into that then. I read somewhere that the Audi system can only read/play flac files tagged in a certain way. Don't know which way these files need to be tagged, but I am hoping that with a tag editor I can see how the files that do play are tagged and then re-tag my other flac files. My MMI system does see all the individual songs/files and cover art, but at the moment I select the to play, they gray-out and system reports unable to play. Any ideas?
 
Thanks again.
 
Originally Posted by Huge:

Just a technical point, FLAC uses OGG Vorbis tags not ID3.

 

Posted on: 29 October 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Originally Posted by Mike-B:
Originally Posted by ChrisSU:
I disagree that road noise etc makes a good source pointless in car audio. I use WAVs on a USB stick and they sound way better than any lossy format.

I'm not saying high def in a car is pointless Chris, they are better than lossy, but more or less the same as CD with maybe better HF detail.  And to me CD is a PITA in a car - hate the storeage problem - I have a 64gb USB stick loaded with favourite tracks. mostly all 24-bit.

My BMW won't recognise FLAC but I'm all WAV anyway so thats no hardship,  the only thing I have converted is DSD to WAV 

Mike, I agree about storage problem in car.. I just don't want the faff.. I use the integrated Napster Online entertainment service.. Millions of track online through the inbuilt BMW 3G system.. and works across much of Western Europe when out and about with no data roaming charges. I can even integrate and share my Tidal and Napster playlists on the web, and it automatically appears in the car.. Nice..

its not FLAC, it is lossy, not quite sure of data rate, but usually sounds fine for the car..

Simon

 

Posted on: 30 October 2015 by drps

audison have a bitplay HD box which can play upto 24bit 96k with solid state HD option

i have been tempted for a while now!

paul