Picking up my new A3 in March and have upgraded to the B&O system, as good music is an absolute must in my cars. Read a few things about quality of music and the need to use SD cards, which doesn't mean anything to me. Was hoping to just plug in the iPod and leave it at that. Do SD cards allow superior sound quality over my iPod? and if so, what do I get and how do I load it up? Thanks
B&O advice plse
- Thread starter Mjs
- Start date
No, either device is able to have files with the same level of quality. However you are able to get higher quality lossless audio files and put them on the SD Card. Your iPod however will have the audio in a particular format with compressed quality as iTunes will convert the files.
You'll see people writing about FLAC and WAV files which you can put on the SD Card. To create these files you'll need the original CD and a converter (most are free online, Google is your friend). You'll also need an SD Card and a reader (Amazon is your friend here). A CD is generally the easiest way of listening to high quality music in your car. You can store many more MP3's than FLAC files on a SD Card so your song collection will be more limited on the high quality file types.
You really need to be a proper audiophile to notice or appreciate the difference. MP3's are great because the remove the frequency of sound that humans cannot hear from an audio file... an audiophile will say it does make a difference but to most people in a car with lots of background noise you'd be hard pressed to notice.
So it really depends, if you want to consolidate your CD collection onto a high capacity SD card to get the very best out of your B&O then you'll need to commit the time and money to ripping the CDs. I suggest you listen to your iPod and a CD of the same songs whilst driving around... if you feel there is a big difference then you can go about making an SD card version.
You'll see people writing about FLAC and WAV files which you can put on the SD Card. To create these files you'll need the original CD and a converter (most are free online, Google is your friend). You'll also need an SD Card and a reader (Amazon is your friend here). A CD is generally the easiest way of listening to high quality music in your car. You can store many more MP3's than FLAC files on a SD Card so your song collection will be more limited on the high quality file types.
You really need to be a proper audiophile to notice or appreciate the difference. MP3's are great because the remove the frequency of sound that humans cannot hear from an audio file... an audiophile will say it does make a difference but to most people in a car with lots of background noise you'd be hard pressed to notice.
So it really depends, if you want to consolidate your CD collection onto a high capacity SD card to get the very best out of your B&O then you'll need to commit the time and money to ripping the CDs. I suggest you listen to your iPod and a CD of the same songs whilst driving around... if you feel there is a big difference then you can go about making an SD card version.
Would have to differ slightly from the first reply I'm afraid. SD cards are convenient and reasonable cost. However, the A3 only supports certain types of files, and certain quality settings within those files. For example, WAV files are only supported up to 44.1kHz sample rate. There is a full list in the manual which I'll scan in at some point if I get a chance.
My music is stored on my PC in Apple Lossless ALAC format. The A3 does support this, but not to a particularly high particularly bit rate. When I copied the files straight onto an SD card the car could not read them; I later discovered this was because the bit rate was too high. I therefore converted them to WAV in the highest quality it will support. This appeared to work but after a while it became apparent the sound was unacceptably harsh, even with the treble set to the minimum. A thread on here suggested an encoding incompatibility. I therefore added an iPod Classic to my Christmas list which seems to have largely solved the problem.
Don't let the above put you off the B&O though; it is an excellent system and blows most car audio out of the water. IMO though the sound is not very good "out of the box" and does need some tweaking from the default setting. As a final point the A3 isn't really set up for bulk CD use; there is a single CD player but it is in the glove box and therefore not really designed for regular use!
My music is stored on my PC in Apple Lossless ALAC format. The A3 does support this, but not to a particularly high particularly bit rate. When I copied the files straight onto an SD card the car could not read them; I later discovered this was because the bit rate was too high. I therefore converted them to WAV in the highest quality it will support. This appeared to work but after a while it became apparent the sound was unacceptably harsh, even with the treble set to the minimum. A thread on here suggested an encoding incompatibility. I therefore added an iPod Classic to my Christmas list which seems to have largely solved the problem.
Don't let the above put you off the B&O though; it is an excellent system and blows most car audio out of the water. IMO though the sound is not very good "out of the box" and does need some tweaking from the default setting. As a final point the A3 isn't really set up for bulk CD use; there is a single CD player but it is in the glove box and therefore not really designed for regular use!
This thread has come at just the right time! I too am getting my B&O equipped A3 in March and I also want to put all my music on an SD card, in lossless format. I already have most of my music via iTunes (which I now realise is not the highest quality...) :-( so now I am going to rip my fav CDs AND download other music from lossless download sites. 3 questions:
1) can anyone recommend a good lossless cd ripping software?
2) can someone recommend a good lossless music download site?
3) how big (typically) is a lossless music track file? I'm aiming to get a 64 gig SD HC card...
Many thanks in anticipation...
1) can anyone recommend a good lossless cd ripping software?
2) can someone recommend a good lossless music download site?
3) how big (typically) is a lossless music track file? I'm aiming to get a 64 gig SD HC card...
Many thanks in anticipation...
1. MediaMonkey, I've been using it for years and swear by it now. I'm sure there are other programs out there so once you get a few suggestions try 'em all and see which one you like best.
2. I'd love to know this too.
3. Just to give you an idea a random track in my music collection encoded to mp3 @ 320 Kbps came in at 12.6 MB, same file in FLAC format was 37.9 MB.
HTH
snakehips
Registered User
I'd suggest that, so long as the music on your iPod is decent quality (256kbps or higher) that's going to be absolutely fine for plugging into your B&O. Best try that first before fiddling around getting SD cards. Since you already have a great music organiser there's no point in trying to duplicate that with little benefit.
Thanks for feedback Gents. Think I'll try my IPod plug and play first before worrying about anything more complex.
Cheers All
Cheers All
oufc1976
Registered User
RVP20:2086598 said:
This makes me feel better. Had to drop B&O in favour of other options so ordered *** instead so I'm happy to know it sounds decent
Agree with this, but also would point out that IMHO it doesn't sound that good out of the box; you need to tweak it a bit. These are my settings for DAB:
Obviously what is the "right" setting will depend on your personal taste and what you're listening to. I also find slightly different settings for different sources are best (which is fine as the system stores them separately anyway).
Itguy
Registered User
Turn it up. B&o really comes in to its own when you listen loud!!
this video probably doesnt do it justice but certainly makes it sound very good, so looking forward to b & o - 2012 Audi A3 Bang & Olufsen Surround-Sound-System [11/11] - YouTube
