DB22

AudioBear - What is the source of the audio that you are trying to record from?

If you start with a CD at 44.1 16 bits and convert to 196K it only changes the format and will not give you any more information than the source. Same applies for word length, if the source is 16 bit then changing it to 24 bit does not ADD information it only transforms it.

I do suggest that you enable VIM and set the listening bar by playing back a good DVD. This source is probably the best that you will hear in the car, you can transform, encode, change word length or anything else but you wont get more information to your ears.

subterFUSE

All factory car audio systems are limited in quality. It's as simple as that.

Some may be worse than others, admittedly. If you are serious about wanting high-end audio in your car, you owe it to yourself to go with aftermarket upgrades.

DB22

If someone spends $6K on a B&O and someone tells them that to get good audio then they should have bought after-market audio then that person would have a great deal to be unhappy about.
For $6K that thing should sound perfect AND give BJ's.

Maverick61

Agreed. I spent far less upgrading the base audio system than I would have spent upgrading to the B&O system - AND got better sound with my upgrades compared to the B&O in the car I test drove

I know it is more difficult with the BOSE system, but OP if you can, upgrade at least the sub and you will see a nice difference

subterFUSE

For $6000 it is possible to replace the entire Bose system with aftermarket gear that outperforms the B&O, and possibly still have enough cash leftover to get that BJ, if so inclined.

subterFUSE

Getting back to the original focus of the thread, which was audio source quality...

One of things on my wishlist for the car is having AirPlay instead of Bluetooth music streaming. AirPlay supports higher quality than Bluetooth.

I'm actually putting some thought into installing an Apple AirPort Express in my car and then plugging it directly into the BitOne via digital cable. This would give me AirPlay in the car, and a direct digital connection to the stereo.

Should be super easy to hook up. Just need to get the Airport working on 12V power, and then plug it into the BitOne.

Only downside would be that I have to push a button to switch the audio source between the MMI and AirPlay. So if a phone call came in, I'd have to push a button to switch the audio over. Not a huge loss.

AudioBear

That's absolutely correct. Up-converting is a waste of time and disk space. I started with recordings made at 24/192 AIFF. I can understand why you didn't notice it because it's buried in my original post but I named the source: Chesky Records produces high quality high bitrate original recordings. There are a few other sources of Hi-Rez recordings as for example HDTracks.com. In a world that listens to compressed music this may not be important but I think most of us can hear a difference between bad recordings and good ones. Given the prevalence of low bit rate mp3 listening in the world, a lot of people don't care about the difference enough to put up with the inconvenience of hi-res sources but that may be changing as a few small portable hi-res audio players have appeared and more are on the way (see Neil Young's Pono Music Player for example). I am not on a crusade here and I am not an audiophile, I am just trying to get as good a sound quality as I can out of what is probably a pretty average car audio system. With a few tweaks it can be greatly improved.

I appreciate all the comments and feedback thus far received. Thanks to those of you have pointed me toward solutions--here's what I have concluded:

1. Quality of source material is important. Garbage In Garbage Out. A good recording at full CD quality (16/44.1) can sound very good (try some audiophile CDs if you want to hear a difference). That said good recordings made at high bit depths and rates can sound slightly better. There is not much to gain beyond 48/24 in an uncompressed format. At least 96/24 doesn't sound any better to me, but that could be due to limitations in the playback system, the room, or my not very audiophile ears. There is however general agreement here that using the CD or DVD as a source will get the best audio result as I had observed in my original post. [I am still going to try out the analog input from a good portable player]

2. Improvements can be made in the Bose Audio system for a lot less than $6k as some of you have pointed out. I am going to change the subwoofer at the very least. [I have to add that I found a shop where I am not going to have this done. The counter guy at this high end auto audio shop told me they do Audis all the time. He said my problem was that Bose used two 6.5 inch subwoofers that were inadequate for low bass. As a prior poster pointed out he was wrong. I went out to my A6 and looked and indeed there is one large subwoofer so this guy didn't know what was in an A6 audio system. I'll cut him a break, maybe some A6s have or had two small woofers back there.]

3. Enable VIM.

Final comment on comparing car audio systems. It's hard to do because there are so many uncontrolled variables. Listening is also very subjective so I never argue with how someone else feels. If you don't like it, you don't like it, If you think it sounds great, that's fine too. From a scientific perspective you can't ever do a real blinded A-B test if you have to move from one car to another to do the test. But I took along a standard audio CD (Chesky, Rebecca Pidgeon, the Raven) and listened to the same track (Spanish Harlem) in every car I looked at when I was shopping for my A6. l asked to be left alone in the car and just sat there and listened for a while. I found the Bose system to be OK, and the B&O to be audibly better. I needed a car quickly and couldn't wait 4 months and since there were no TDIs available with the equipment I wanted and a B&O the point was moot, I couldn't have bought the audio upgrade without waiting even if I had wanted to pony up the extra $$$. In the process of looking I did the same test in Acura, Lexus, Infinity, BMW and Mercedes with and without their upgraded audio systems in most cases. My ranked order of subjective liking for the standard system was Lexus>Acura>Infinity>Mercedes>BMW>Audi. For the upgraded systems I found them all about the same even though there were differences: quite acceptable. At the end of the day I am not going to buy a car for its audio system so this comparison was more a curiosity than anything else. As it happens I bought the car with what I thought was a very average or worse system and I am totally happy with everything about the A6. It's a great car and the audio system isn't going to change that one way or another.

A.H.West

I find the best way to improve my A6 Bose audio quality is to stop driving. Cuts down on the road noise.
I briefly played the 40th Anniversary "In The Court of The Crimson King" DVD - Audio with MLP lossless 5.1 surround. It was good. But in everyday use, I play the stereo tracks I ripped and placed on a memory card, because there's more convenience and variety. I'm not interested in carrying around and changing DVDs while I'm driving.

If I want the best audio quality, I'll listen to these recordings on my Sennheiser 600 headphones with a headphone amp and external D/A converter in a quiet room. No road noise to interfere. For a car, I pick music without excessive dynamic range.

But I think the audio is pretty good even with mp3 files and Sirius. Good enough for me. If I'm listening to symphonies, even the best car stereo system isn't going to compete, simply due to road noise drowning quiet portions of the music. Ironically, due to this, older analogue recordings with lower dynamic range work better for driving than the newest most high fidelity recordings. Maybe the best way to improve car audio is to buy a Rolls Royce or a Cadillac that provides more noise isolation. Or maybe Acura's dynamic noise cancelling system works - I doubt it.

Mickelin

No need to rip the car apart to install a decent subwoofer. It is a very simple, non-destructive, reversible install, as can be seen in any of the subwoofer threads on this forum. Makes wonders for the Bose!