Chaybone

I wrote a note to the Audi Customer Experience Center asking them the following questions regarding the MMI system on the 2018 Q7:

1. While you previously informed me that I can stream music from my phone via cord through the MMI at a maximum rate of 320 mbps, do you know if this same maximum mbps threshhold holds true for music loaded onto an SD card?
2. Assuming the system can read files from an SD card that are greater than 320 mbps, will it play them back at this higher rate or will it “step the resolution down” so that the output played out through the system to the speakers is actually capped at 320 mbps?
3. Assuming the system can both read and then output music on an SD card at resolutions higher than 320 mbps, do you know what formats I can use on an SD card beyond 320 mbps that the MMI will accept? By way of example, will the MMI allow me to play WMA Lossless files (which are essentially 1411 mbps)? If it won’t allow WMA Lossless, are there any other lossless formats that it will accept?
4. Finally, in an earlier note you indicated that the maximum size SD card the 2018 MMI can handle is 64GB in each slot (for a total of 128 GB). Interestingly enough, however, many of the posters on the AudiWorld blogs are from users stating that they are using much larger cards (i.e., 128 and 256 GBs). Do you know if that is possible? If so, does Audi recommend not using these larger cards for any reason?

The response I received was as follows:

1. The maximum bitrate of the audio system is 320 kbit/s and 48 kHz, so any file being played from an SD card will need to meet that characteristic.
2. There are two SD card ports in the vehicle and the maximum capacity is 128GB. You can have two 64GB SD cards in both ports or you could theoretically have one 128GB SD card in the SD1 port, if you like, but the capacity just cannot exceed 128GB.

So here are my questions to the AudiWorld forum (with the idea that actual users of the new edition Q7 that came out in 2017 would know best):

1. Is the Audi Customer Experience Center usually correct in their answers to these sorts of technical questions?
2. Does anyone have experience playing bitrates from SD cards above 320 mbps and, if so, what type of files were you using to accomplish this (e.g., WAV files? Other lossless formats?)?
3. Does anyone have experience using either one or more SD cards that exceed the stated COMBINED maximum of 128GB without encountering any problems?

The reason I am posting this thread is that I assumed the Audi Customer Experience Center would have definitive answers on issues like this but (a) it seems highly unlikely to me that "the maximum bitrate of the audio system is 320 kbit/s" since it plays CDs with much higher rates (unless the system is somehow "stepping down" the file size) and (b) I thought I saw folks posting that they were successfully using cards of 256GB and higher (although I guess I didn't note whether they were having any odd issues with these).

Just looking to understand how to optimize my use of the MMI since the B&O system was a big reason I purchased this car in the first place (and I don't think any of my questions here are B&O specific but, instead, are related directly to the functioning of the MMI).

With my thanks, Chaybone

drive4fun

I don't recall if I used FLAC or WMA lossless, but lossless files do play via SD card on my Q7 with Bose.

Brimstone

Please reference this post

My ears suggest you may be correct about the down sampling for higher bit rate files (they will play though) I still think the CD sounds better this explains why. (I assumed maybe a DAC or some piece of hardware was the difference)

They're definitely wrong about the higher capacity SD cards though., it works fine. (256 GB here)