Johnny Vector
Member
Agreed, and this two-device approach is what I would do if I had the glove box port!
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Audiophile Question - FLAC 24/96 Playback
- Thread starter Marcust99
- Start date
I have a 2020 LRMY and my Model Y does not have the USB port inside the glove box. What I finally got around to doing was purchasing an non-powered USB hub that plugs into the USB-A port in the center console. Using the USB hub you can have up to 4 USB drives on the one USB 3.0 data port, no need to partition any storage devices plugged into the hub unless you want to do so.
In the 2020 Model Y with the original console with no USB port inside the glove box the only other USB port in the front of the center console powers the wireless phone charging pad. The rear facing USB-C ports are only for power, as far as I have been able to determine do not support data. With the USB hub plugged into the USB-A port I am able to use Dashcam/Sentry mode on one USB hub port with a microSD card/USB reader (formatted by the Tesla Dashcam/SentryMode Viewer software as FAT32). I have a USB thumb drive (formatted on my laptop using FAT32) with .MP3 files stored on the thumb drive plugged into a second port on the USB hub.
This arrangement works well although things tend to flop around inside the center console. I keep meaning to use some velcro to secure the USB hub. I purchased 2 USB hubs, one was lost/delayed so I purchased a second USB hub. Then the first hub I ordered arrived so I have a spare that I can use with my laptop (the laptop only has 1 USB-A port.)
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Johnny Vector
Member
I got the Jeda USB hub, which took months to finally actually exist, to the great annoyance of everyone who had ordered one. Once it arrived, though, it's very nice. It fits right into place, and has a little hidden space for your SSD with a push-to-remove magnetic cover that conceals it very well from anyone who doesn't know it's there. It comes with a sticky flat magnet to hold your SSD from flopping around inside it too, and a 3" cable to connect it. Once it's installed you have 5 external USB connections plus the one hidden one for your SSD. (I think mine, an earlier model, only has 4 external ports, but now that we finally upgraded our phones to something modern enough to have wireless charging, we basically never use the USB ports anyway.)
The SSD is hidden from anyone who might try to steal it (which would take the sentry mode footage too!), and nothing is flopping around in the console.
Ahh, got it. Good to know. Looks like I should be able to store a bunch of my FLACs in that case!
Jigglypuff
Member
Sunvalleylaw
Member
Picking up my car next week. Hopping in here to learn as I prepare to partition a Samsung T7, or decide instead to have a second drive. I figure I will see what working ports I actually have in the car first. That Jeda hub or something similar, with two drives, sounds ideal if possible. I also have and use Tidal at home so figure I will use it some as well.
And I agree with road noise, etc., I don’t need to get too wrapped around the axle about some of this stuff. But I have always thought that actual CD’s sound better than bluetooth phone MP3 files in my other cars, so hoping to get the FLAC thing figured out, and optimize Tidal with downloading albums I care about, Etc.
And I agree with road noise, etc., I don’t need to get too wrapped around the axle about some of this stuff. But I have always thought that actual CD’s sound better than bluetooth phone MP3 files in my other cars, so hoping to get the FLAC thing figured out, and optimize Tidal with downloading albums I care about, Etc.
This is so NOT true.
Anyone with a pair of ears can hear the difference.
Try this very simple test.
Rip a good quality song that you like, twice. One in 256, and one in Flac. Have them back to back on whatever media player you're using.
Without changing anything in the audio between tracks (volume, bass, treble, the ridiculous Immersive sound settings, etc), simply listen.
You will immediately hear differences. How much different will depend on your source material, of course.
If you try this simple test, and you CAN'T hear a difference, then your one of the lucky few without the discerning ears to notice subtle differences, and should use the lower bit rate.
Most immediately can tell the difference. Many can't EXPLAIN the difference, but they can certainly hear it.
I used to be an IASCCA sound judge, and used to spend a lot of time tuning friends car systems for them. I mean a LOT of time, often keeping their car for a week. I had one friend who complained bitterly about how awful my tuning sounded. I was puzzled, as I thought it was sounding very sweet. I went back to his house, and we popped in some Floyd, and sure enough, it sounded awful. Turns out, he was listening to Pink Floyd downloaded from Apple Music at 256K. Took out MY media player, with FLAC, put on the same song, and the difference was clear and immediate, even to his ears, which are basically tone deaf. The differences are not always night and day, but they are discernable.
Anyone with a pair of ears can hear the difference.
Try this very simple test.
Rip a good quality song that you like, twice. One in 256, and one in Flac. Have them back to back on whatever media player you're using.
Without changing anything in the audio between tracks (volume, bass, treble, the ridiculous Immersive sound settings, etc), simply listen.
You will immediately hear differences. How much different will depend on your source material, of course.
If you try this simple test, and you CAN'T hear a difference, then your one of the lucky few without the discerning ears to notice subtle differences, and should use the lower bit rate.
Most immediately can tell the difference. Many can't EXPLAIN the difference, but they can certainly hear it.
I used to be an IASCCA sound judge, and used to spend a lot of time tuning friends car systems for them. I mean a LOT of time, often keeping their car for a week. I had one friend who complained bitterly about how awful my tuning sounded. I was puzzled, as I thought it was sounding very sweet. I went back to his house, and we popped in some Floyd, and sure enough, it sounded awful. Turns out, he was listening to Pink Floyd downloaded from Apple Music at 256K. Took out MY media player, with FLAC, put on the same song, and the difference was clear and immediate, even to his ears, which are basically tone deaf. The differences are not always night and day, but they are discernable.
Ive' been using a partitioned Samsung T5 for both music and DashCam for 3 years now with no problems at all (on a JEDA hub).
Sunvalleylaw
Member
How much do you need for DashCam, with a little headroom, for the partition? I bought a 2T as I have lots of music and want it to be lossless FLAC if I am going to go to the trouble of ripping and storing it.
. Will be ripping with a BlueSound Vault I have coming for my home system, and figured I would just copy what I want for the car onto the Samsung.Not thinking I will end up with 2T worth of tunes, but how much the dash/security cam takes will determine if I get another little drive and just use this Samsung for music, or partition.
Johnny Vector
Member
Now do the same but use an A/B/X setup so you don't know which one you're listening to. I've got $100 says you can't get more than 16 out of 20 trials right in a comparison between 256k AAC and FLAC.
The Tesla USB drive is 128GB, holds ~17 hours of Tesla saved 10 minute Dashcam video clips or 10 minute Sentry mode event video clips. Dashcam video is only saved when you tap the icon on the screen or honk the horn (also if the Tesla vehicle detects a collision.) Otherwise the Dashcam file is overwritten after 1 hour. Sentry mode event videos are automatically saved, stored until you delete them.
I did it the other way around .. I have approx 3000 albums with of Apple lossless music (about 550GB of data), with modest growth needs, so I ended up assigning 750GB for media and left the rest for DashCam, on the basis I'd rather have the extra space for captured Sentry etc stuff. It's also not a big deal to rework this, given the fast read/write times of the T5/T7, even if you have to repartition/reformat the drive and recopy all the music, its really only 10-15 mins max.How much do you need for DashCam, with a little headroom, for the partition? I bought a 2T as I have lots of music and want it to be lossless FLAC if I am going to go to the trouble of ripping and storing it.
Not thinking I will end up with 2T worth of tunes, but how much the dash/security cam takes will determine if I get another little drive and just use this Samsung for music, or partition.
Was just going to post about ABX testing. My bet is with any experience judging car audio shows, the days of golden ears are long gone. I was in a band for a couple years, have tinnitus, consider myself an audiophile, and could only beat chance at 128kbps. Granted it was with a pair of crappy headphones, but still it was humbling.
Try it yourself here:
Sunvalleylaw
Member
Oh, so you can use ALAC also? I was thinking things had to be FLAC. And yeah, I likely won't have more albums than that. I am guessing but don't know that ALAC and FLAC files take up about the same amount of space.
Sunvalleylaw
Member
Interesting. Dad hack musician and long time loud music listener here also. I feel like the CD's I would play in my old Passat TDI sound noticeably better than bluetoothing MP3's from my phone through the same system. But not saying I ABX'd anything.
All that said, I like to buy physical media to support the artists, even if I can stream their work, and so do. So may as well rip a CD if that is what I purchased, or if there was an ALAC or FLAC download along with a vinyl album I purchased, and bring it along. But I plan to use my Tidal account too for convenience. Will be interesting to see what I hear. Will probably even call up some Spotify playlists I have access to only there, even though I mostly avoid Spotify after the whole Neil Young thing. LOL! Silly maybe, but I do what I do.
Not meaning to start any format wars or arguments over whether people can really hear things or not. Whatever is the most enjoyable way for a person to listen to music is the right way, IMO. Mostly here to learn how best to use the USB music feature for when I want to use that.
Yes, they do, but mea culpa, I DID convert all my ALAC files to FLAC for the car, though I've since been told the car does handle ALAC now (but have not yet had time to test it). Converting them wasn't too hard (for me) as I just wrote a BASH script to convert my entire music collection.
Sunvalleylaw
Member
You speak words I do not understand as I am a Mac guy and have always just burned via my computer, and don;'t know that BASH acronym. But guessing I will learn, as I reorganize my music library, and re-rip some things, etc.
Johnny Vector
Member
I've given up on physical media, but I do make sure to always pay the artists. Thank you for doing so as well!Interesting. Dad hack musician and long time loud music listener here also. I feel like the CD's I would play in my old Passat TDI sound noticeably better than bluetoothing MP3's from my phone through the same system. But not saying I ABX'd anything.
All that said, I like to buy physical media to support the artists, even if I can stream their work, and so do. So may as well rip a CD if that is what I purchased, or if there was an ALAC or FLAC download along with a vinyl album I purchased, and bring it along. But I plan to use my Tidal account too for convenience. Will be interesting to see what I hear. Will probably even call up some Spotify playlists I have access to only there, even though I mostly avoid Spotify after the whole Neil Young thing. LOL! Silly maybe, but I do what I do.
Not meaning to start any format wars or arguments over whether people can really hear things or not. Whatever is the most enjoyable way for a person to listen to music is the right way, IMO. Mostly here to learn how best to use the USB music feature for when I want to use that.
I think it's pretty well established that Bluetooth audio does have noticeable artifacts (not to mention interminable pause/play latency and occasional connection argle-bargle), although I haven't read any actual papers about that. And yes, MP3 at 128k or below does result in artifacts that most (or anyway many) people can hear. Also if you need to make major EQ changes, then you want lossless input (but you probably don't need to do that in the car!) But 256k AAC or MP3 is firmly established through lots of testing with lots of listeners to provide no noticeable difference from the original.
OTOH, storage is so cheap that if you want to store your music uncompressed, there's almost no cost to it, so go wild!
That was on a Mac, but yeah its geek wizardry a bit.
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