Sharky10

I notice the output from the sd cards my friend recorded sounds kind of muddy over my b and o system, compared to streaming off pandora....are
There variables or considerations to making a high quality sd card recording?

Seaclav

Both of these will be using the built in DAC, so if you're hearing a real difference, the chances are very high that it's coming down to a cleaner recording of the track that is being used on one of the media types....

Most likely due to the recording quality that was put onto the SD card. Two factors here:
1) the bit rate of the recording that is on the SD card
2) the quality of the original recording that your MP3 was recorded from.


Part one is the usual suspect - folks seem to like to use high compression (low bit rate) to put more songs on the cards, which is a fine tactic if you have a crappy sound system (it can't play the higher quality anyhow) but for a decent system where more compression = direct loss of music information, then it makes a real difference. With the B+O system you should be looking at MP3s recorded at at least 192 kbps. Use 356kbps or higher if you can.

The second part is harder to track down. Audio recording quality has changed dramatically over the years, and the recording quality is highly dependent on the quality of the original mastering (general rule, older = worse), and then the media that it was supplied on - analog radio/cassette are poor, CD is variable, DVD-A and SACD are usually good, and Digital depends entirely on where the track came from the before being transcoded to digital. Just because you start with a CD doesn't guarantee anything, as there's a difference in writing standards to the CDs over the years so that some CDs have a good base quality, and others are worse.


In terms of what you can control. If you start with a recent CD (say last 5-10 years) and make your own MP3s, set the recording bit rate to 356kbps and you should be getting as good as you can.
Check if your version of MMI supports the higher quality standards of FLAC and other lossless methods - if it does, use those (FYI, last time I checked, none of the MMI systems did, but that was a couple of years ago).

Longer shot - check whether either of your methods (SD card / pandora) has an automatic bass generation setting enabled in the playback properties. Many audio players use this to generate a "richer" sound by generating an artificial bass line based on the pitch of the audio being played. For some audio it's really good (like electro-dance etc..), for more rock like beats it's barely noticeable as it's overwhelmed by the music's own bass, and for spoken word or higher pitched singing (semi - operatic) it can be very noticeable and out of place effectively interfering with the clarity of the playback. I have a 2012 with the Bose system, and this feature is present and very notable on spoken word from the radio - news shows etc.. Right now I can't recall whether there's an on/off setting for it - but worth hunting in the setting.

HTH John

VentsiBeast

SD card carries digital sound. Therefore the quality of the source file is the only variable here.
Always, always download 320kbps mp3s and do it from reputable sources. Tracks downloaded from youtube are with crippled quality, even if you download them at 320kbps.

192kbps is too low even for the Bose sound, please don't do that. A 32gb memory card costs $20 these days and it can fit at least 2500 tracks at 320kbps.

subterFUSE

The quality of the source file is always the most important link in the chain.

Unfortunately, the SD card and jukebox can only play MP3 files.
No lossless formats are supported.

Best practice is to purchase your music on CD and then rip it yourself to using a good ripping software like EAC or XLD. Then you can convert to a 320k MP3 in stereo. Not joint stereo. And don't use VBR.


Or just use an iPhone and you can play Apple Lossless up to 24 bit 48kHz. That's what I use for the most part.

Sharky10

They were all recorded from purchased commercial CDs, I guess I should check what speed they were recorded at. Would the age of the computer make a difference in speed? It was an older laptop. Thx

VentsiBeast

There's no speed and they are not recorded. They are ripped from one kind of digital to another kind of digital. The value 320kbps is called "bitrate" and it means that every second of audio contains 320 kilobits of data. More data = more quality. For mp3 the maximum is 320kbps and it should be enough even for B&O system. I personally try to keep all my music at 320 and it sounds good enough on my B&O.

No, the age or the speed of the computer does not make any difference in the quality. It just takes more time for an older computer to compute the conversion from .wav (cd) to .mp3

However, if you used a crappy ripper, the quality might be affected. Try to use software products from reputable companies.

subterFUSE

Use a good ripping software like EAC on PC, or XLD on Mac.
These programs have error checking ability to ensure you get a bit-perfect rip.
I suggest ripping to a lossless format for archiving purposes.
FLAC or Apple Lossless are both good.

Then you can convert the lossless file to MP3 using a good encoder like LAME.
XLD has cross-format encoding built right into the software. Just click the format you want and Transcode in seconds.

Be sure to select 320k bitrate for MP3.
Also make sure to use "Stereo", not "Joint Stereo."
CBR is better than VBR, too. (This is more for stability/compatibility with players)



That said, I still don't use MP3. The format needs to die. I really wish it would just go away.

SWelsch

So at the risk of being redundant, I shouldn't be surprised that the quality of Pandora is far superior to the sound that I get from my SD card. I have the stock Bose system in my 2015 A8L. Actually Pandora sounds better than the Sirius Radio, FM or any other source that I've tried including the Audi connect music app

Seaclav

No real surprise. Pandora uses pretty high quality sound sources, so if you're in an area with good connectivity (and thus getting the highest quality signal), chances are that you're starting with a higher bit rate sound than a ripped CD can produce. Pandora (or anything) over bluetooth will always sound a bit worse than over the AMI cable - Bluetooth audio uses a lot of transmission compression (so you negate the benefits of having a high quality source) by comparison to other methods.

newmoon

Pandora on a mobile device such as an iPhone plays at a maximum bitrate of 64 kbps AAC+.

http://help.pandora.com/customer/por...-audio-quality

This is going to be much worse than an SD card with music that is properly ripped and encoded with, for example:

- iTunes AAC/mp4 up to 320 kbps
- lame mp3 up to 320 kbps