Controversial Audio Opinion

[Bootneckshuffl]

Morning all

Thoroughly enjoying my new MYLR (even ia Park Assist is still dreadful).

Going to put my neck on the line here but I think (to my ears anyway) that Apple Music over Bluetooth is by far the best quality sound out of the streaming options in the car. Spotify and AM apps from the car don’t seem to be as good as AM over Bluetooth.

Anyone else find this to be the case?

 

[Mrklaw]

Possible the car mobile signal is throttling the stream quality to save cost? and that is worse than the loss in quality over bluetooth?

to complete the experiment have you tried AM from the car using your phone as a hotspot? so the car is on wifi.

 

[Durzel]

You obviously haven't listened to TIDAL HiFi over WiFi (tethered)....

 

[_MJF_]

I did some comparisons ages ago, found the best was high-quality MP3 rips (originally from CDs) played from the USB stick. The in-built Tidal was almost as good, and the in-built Spotify (with bundled account) much worse than Tidal. Also tried bluetoothing the high quality MP3s from the phone on a separate occasion, probably similar to Tidal.

Not tried Apple Music, not tried wi-fi hotspot, and this is all in M3 RWD audio system.

The big pain is that the USB playing doesn't seem to remember what it was last playing anymore.

 

[Durzel]

MP3s??? Even the best MP3s aren’t lossless. If you’d said FLAC (open) or ALAC (Apple) then yeah…

Give TIDAL a try over WiFi hotspot, you’ll love it. I can’t tell the difference between it and the lossless stuff stored on my SSD. It’s so good that I tether my phone every time I get in the car even though I have Premium Connectivity.

 

[Zilla91]

The big pain is that the USB playing doesn't seem to remember what it was last playing anymore.

Don't think that's isolated to USB, I have the same problem with Apple Music where i'll jump back in the car and it'll completely forget what I was listening to.

Curiously it'll just start playing a different song and it'll start halfway through. Personally I've sacked it off and use CarPlay via the browser with the audio coming through Bluetooth.

 

[_MJF_]

MP3s??? Even the best MP3s aren’t lossless. If you’d said FLAC (open) or ALAC (Apple) then yeah…

At the time MP3 was the best choice so they could be played everywhere, plus filesize given the price of large MicroSDs for the phone etc.

Neither would be valid arguments today, of course.

Give TIDAL a try over WiFi hotspot, you’ll love it. I can’t tell the difference between it and the lossless stuff stored on my SSD. It’s so good that I tether my phone every time I get in the car even though I have Premium Connectivity.

Glowing endorsement, certainly.

For me I don't spend enough time in the car listening to music to either re-rip CDs to FLAC or shell out for Tidal, although can absolutely appreciate why some do.

 

[_MJF_]

Don't think that's isolated to USB, I have the same problem with Apple Music where i'll jump back in the car and it'll completely forget what I was listening to.

Yes, previously you could speak "USB" to resume but that now says "service unavailable", or something. Same for Spotify.

Not retaining the previous audio source, and where it was up to, is one of those real annoyances.

 

[Durzel]

At the time MP3 was the best choice so they could be played everywhere, plus filesize given the price of large MicroSDs for the phone etc.

Neither would be valid arguments today, of course.


Glowing endorsement, certainly.

For me I don't spend enough time in the car listening to music to either re-rip CDs to FLAC or shell out for Tidal, although can absolutely appreciate why some do.

All fair points. I'm not really an audiophile in the sense that I have a crazy home system etc.. it's more the case for me that if I know something can sound better (much better to my ears) then I'll have a strong preference for it.

 

[Bootneckshuffl]

You obviously haven't listened to TIDAL HiFi over WiFi (tethered

MP3s??? Even the best MP3s aren’t lossless. If you’d said FLAC (open) or ALAC (Apple) then yeah…

Give TIDAL a try over WiFi hotspot, you’ll love it. I can’t tell the difference between it and the lossless stuff stored on my SSD. It’s so good that I tether my phone every time I get in the car even though I have Premium Connectivity.

how do you do this wifi hotspot thing mate? I’ve only ever used premium connectivity and the occasional BT for AM

 

[Bootneckshuffl]

MP3s??? Even the best MP3s aren’t lossless. If you’d said FLAC (open) or ALAC (Apple) then yeah…

Give TIDAL a try over WiFi hotspot, you’ll love it. I can’t tell the difference between it and the lossless stuff stored on my SSD. It’s so good that I tether my phone every time I get in the car even though I have Premium Connectivity

All I’ve ever used is the apps through premium. Gonna have to give this a go!

 

[Durzel]

Regards how you set up WiFi hotspot, it depends if you're on an iPhone or Android. I'm not familiar with how it's done on Android but on iPhones you simply go to "Personal Hotspot" and set it up and turn it on in there. You need to be on that screen, or the one where you've got the list of controls.

The main thing you need to do in the car is check the box on the WiFi network to say "Remain connected while in Drive".

You'll know it's working with TIDAL when you see a little "HiFi" icon next to the song you're playing. It's pointless going above "TIDAL HiFi" in subscription because the car won't play "Master" quality songs, and you'd never hear the difference in the car anyway.

Good luck!

 

[Bootneckshuffl]

Regards how you set up WiFi hotspot, it depends if you're on an iPhone or Android. I'm not familiar with how it's done on Android but on iPhones you simply go to "Personal Hotspot" and set it up and turn it on in there. You need to be on that screen, or the one where you've got the list of controls.

The main thing you need to do in the car is check the box on the WiFi network to say "Remain connected while in Drive".

You'll know it's working with TIDAL when you see a little "HiFi" icon next to the song you're playing. It's pointless going above "TIDAL HiFi" in subscription because the car won't play "Master" quality songs, and you'd never hear the difference in the car anyway.

Good luck!

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Superb and thanks

 

[TezlaTO]

Also, Tidal allows for HiFi downloads - so you can download a bunch of music from home or wherever you can get WiFi and save it to use offline. It’ll play back in HiFi.

Apple and or Tesla doesn’t allow this for Apple Music, thus why I switched to Tidal in my Tesla.

Gotta make use of the Bang and Oluffson sound system….. I mean, the no-name brand Tesla uses

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I've got a pi giving me a permanent hotspot, so Tidal is always on Hifi.

It sounds to me like they've been playing with the quality of spotify and tidal (I can't tell if they've made spotify better or tidal worse, it's just the difference isn't as night and day as it was.. or my ears are getting worse, which is also possible).

 

[Bootneckshuffl]

I've got a pi giving me a permanent hotspot, so Tidal is always on Hifi.

It sounds to me like they've been playing with the quality of spotify and tidal (I can't tell if they've made spotify better or tidal worse, it's just the difference isn't as night and day as it was.. or my ears are getting worse, which is also possible).

Spotify for me is defo the worst, certainly on the Tesla account Spotify, not sure if you get any better with signing in with a premium account of your own. AM for me is pretty decent, to my ears anyway. Tidal probably still the best but again for me there’s not a lot in it between AM streaming and Tidal streaming (non-hifi)