Workoholic

One more thing. I have a large library of high resolution FLAC and AIFF music from HDTracks and PONO. I used dbPower AMP to convert the files and reduce resolution. I'm able to set it up and walk away while the files are converted (about 4,500).

For a free option you can also use Foobar2000 which I believe uses a dbPower AMP plug in.

TNJohn

My car's production date, 4/2011, must be after the new amps came into play, because the Bose system sounds great. I have heard the flat Bose systems in other cars and never cared for the system. My car changed my mind about Bose. HD radio sounds very good, the albums stored on the MMI hard drive are outstanding. I transferred the MP3 coded albums to the hard drive with a memory stick connected to an MMI cable under the arm rest. All album art displays nicely. Alas, 2011 A8's only recognise MP3 and AAC.

subterFUSE

On Mac, there is XLD which is a free program that does an outstanding job at accurate CD ripping... but also does file format conversions very well using a multitude of codecs.

lennon31987

mine is a brand new 16 and it sounds like ****, you have to crank the volume up to like 25/30 for it to get LOUD. It sounds very clear but not loud like my d3 bose a8L

Workoholic

What source material and media are you using with your Bose?

I'm using a 128 GB SD card with 512k AAC files down sampled from the original high resolution FLAC files which were purchased from HDTracks and Pono. Many remastered and re-released classics from the 50's, 60's and 70's. With volume set to 20 my Bose practically blows the windows out and the quality is quite good.

If you are using your phone over Bluetooth and/or low resolution files downloaded from iTunes or similar sources, the music will sound like **** whether you play it on the Bose or B&O systems.

MP4.2+6.0

Seconding that the bit rate is critical, as well as original source material. And likewise, if you are using bluetooth connection, that's more fidelity degradation.

lennon31987

sirius sat radio is nowhere nearly as loud as my d3, bluetooth audio in this car is terrible compared to my f10 m5, i have yet to use the MMI or whatever the 'hardwire' is, since this car has no USB ports i need to find my old ipod or use one of those pin connectors from big to small.

i use itunes, had 30k songs in my library and use the phone religiously for music.

Whats the best way to set up this up properly?

MP4.2+6.0

First, lose the bluetooth connection. Flat out. Next, get the cable for the AMI connection--the one under the arm rest. Honestly (and using same devices), I would decouple the music function from your phone. Also since you need to cable it for decent fidelity, it is a recipe for leaving phone in car by accident, theft risk if left exposed, etc. Old iphones or iPods meantime are a dime a dozen, especially 30 pin but by now also Lightning. My prior iPhone 5S drives mine. Then just sync it to same library.

Also, if you really have 30K songs, you must have compressed the heck out of them to have all accessible even on a decent sized (memory) device. Need to get back to at least 320K bit AAC.

Finally find my post on altering volume of inputs via Hidden menu. I did it for B&O, but expect same thing is there for Bose. Likewise of course, SAT won't have great fidelity with its compression algorithms.