[erzenble]

Hi I am trying to find a way to play lossless or higher end music quality in my 2018 440i without using CD's or thumb drive. The reason is I want to use apple music which has lossless quality now.

I know Bluetooth is crap for higher end quality and I have an Android phone, is there anyway for me to play apple music through my USB? I checked and don't have a AUX port so that's not an option either. Even if I bought an iPhone I heard car play is wireless only so that would be bad quality also.

Are there any options for higher end music or am I stuck buying and downloading everything to USB?

[wilbur_the_goose]

@erzenble - We're in an automobile. It's not going to make any difference if you're using lossless or a decent quality MP3.

(I'm an audiophile, and I wouldn't think of MP3 at home, but in the car anything goes due to road noise and my desire to drive in an environment that can't divert my attention to the road)

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by wilbur_the_goose

I'm an audiophile

Careful with using that term. Around engineers it gets an eye roll.

The technical definition is 'someone who'll believe anything'.

[Cytoplasm0671]

Also a bit of an audiophile. My home audio setup is pretty sick (is lossless). But as the prev commentor said, any quality will be degraded by road noise, so what's the point?

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Careful with using that term. Around engineers it gets an eye roll.

The technical definition is 'someone who'll believe anything'.

Audiophile just means lover (philo) of sound (audio). Engineers should instead get triggered by something like audiologist or "sonic scientist", terms that try to apply objectivity to the subjective enjoyment of music.

[Billfitz]

Audiophile should simply mean a lover of music. But by and large it's become a term of self-description for those who only value the subjective and dismiss the objective. I guess somebody has to keep the Shakti Stones guy in business.

[bimmer456]

DAC to aux in

[WDE82]

Originally Posted by erzenble

Hi I am trying to find a way to play lossless or higher end music quality in my 2018 440i without using CD's or thumb drive. The reason is I want to use apple music which has lossless quality now.

I know Bluetooth is crap for higher end quality and I have an Android phone, is there anyway for me to play apple music through my USB? I checked and don't have a AUX port so that's not an option either. Even if I bought an iPhone I heard car play is wireless only so that would be bad quality also.

Are there any options for higher end music or am I stuck buying and downloading everything to USB?

This isn't really worth the effort. As someone else said, the audio quality of the system in a car as whole isn't great. So something like 320 kbps AAC is not discernible from FLAC or other lossless formats in a car.

There is likely an aux port retro fit kit available for your car from BMW if you do want the highest quality connection possible.

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Audiophile should simply mean a lover of music. But by and large it's become a term of self-description for those who only value the subjective and dismiss the objective. I guess somebody has to keep the Shakti Stones guy in business.

It can mean a lot of things but in general it's just someone who appreciates high quality sound and it's not limited to music. Like any enthusiast community the ones who are really deep into it are delusional.

[Cytoplasm0671]

Every religion has its snake handlers

[jus711]

I use the lightning to USB camera adapter to a THX Onyx DAC to aux input. Sounds much better than Bluetooth (obvs) or even the usb connection in the car. If you can go this route it’s worth it in my opinion and you can still use the CarPlay UI which I like.

[atbmw3]

Find a way to rip your CDs/music to FLAC and upload it to a thumb drive, the difference is huge compared to bluetooth streamed music.

[P_W]

Originally Posted by atbmw3

Find a way to rip your CDs/music to FLAC and upload it to a thumb drive, the difference is huge compared to bluetooth streamed music.

Absolutely! I also find it amusing when people who cannot hear the differences between MP3s and FLAC in their cars assume that no one can hear the differences. That's like saying because I can't tell the difference between a vintage wine and current swill, then nobody can.

[XxThe_RemedyXx]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Audiophile should simply mean a lover of music. But by and large it's become a term of self-description for those who only value the subjective and dismiss the objective. I guess somebody has to keep the Shakti Stones guy in business.

"Philo" is the Greek word for friend. Ask me how I know.

[thatgarrett]

Originally Posted by XxThe_RemedyXx

"Philo" is the Greek word for friend. Ask me how I know.

I think you're thinking of φιλος which comes from the same root but has a different derived meaning


But to the topic of this thread, I don't think its worth the effort to do Hi Res audio, I upped the audio quality to lossless on my apple music settings a while ago and I noticed a difference on USB and BT from the lowest tier of quality on the streaming app (even though it is capped at some point via BT). When I A/B'd the USB to BT with the same song in a parked car I could hear a bit of a difference, but once I started driving it was impossible to tell. Yes, theoretically a DAC via the AUX port would give you a higher bit rate but if even the difference the bit rate at a lower level is not usable once driving, any gains here won't be either.

I am perfectly happy with the BT audio quality and HK in my car, dialing in your EQ well will make a MUCH bigger difference than going through the trouble of a DAC or similar in your car to achieve a level of detail that will be masked by the road noise anyway. I'm not an audio engineer but do a decent bit of live mixing for work and have helped design a few commercial A/V systems, so I would like to think I have some training in my ear for things like that, even as things like this are rather subjective

[RAK92]

The OP states he doesn’t have an AUX input? My 2016 435i has one under the armrest. Did they remove that input on later models? I wouldn’t think so.

[MidtownMike]

Originally Posted by RAK92

The OP states he doesn’t have an AUX input? My 2016 435i has one under the armrest. Did they remove that input on later models? I wouldn’t think so.

Yes they did. USB and Bluetooth only.