Brimstone

I got a new Prestige delivered about a week ago with the Bose system in it, which I think is decent, however I can hear a noticeable (to me) degradation in quality when I listen to mp3s off my phone as opposed to just listening to a CD directly.

This really isn't surprising since as my experience over the years 'better' stereos more often than not tend to enhance imperfections in the source material more often than not. Although its definitely a function of the source material, what the imperfections are, the stereo, the room and the eq settings.

Typically even with mp3s the compression tends to enhance the background noise and change the drum/cymbal sounds to my ears a bit, and the car is quiet enough that unless there's a lot of external noise or the A/C fan is going I can hear it.

So with that said I'd like a more convenient way to use CDs, as the single disc changer in the glove box is not convenient. Are there any good options out there either for replacing that unit or just adding a new changer (under a seat or in the rear perhaps) and plug into the AUX port? Not sure if direct wiring is possible via MMI interface. Disc changers themselves seem to be a rare breed.

If someone knows of a more lossless format to rip to SD card, I'll consider it but the idea of ripping 900+ CDs is not appealing (and I don't think I could fit all the music on there)

FairwellQ7TDI

You may be better off searching some car audio forums on this one since this applies more generally, and not so specific to the Q7. I'd start there, and also take a look at Crutchfield for some of their aftermarket solutions. If you want seamless integration, a reputable local car-audio shop is of course the end-game if you want this done right.

This all said, I'm curious if anyone on this forum has done exactly what you're looking to do. I know there's been discussion about media servers for the rear seat entertainment, but not so much for just audio.

yk0786

Are you using bluetooth to listen to your music? Have you tried ripping it to a SD card or thumb drive? All of my music is 320Kbps on a thumb and it sounds great on the Bose system. If you really want to go the route of lossless format, then format it to FLAC and place it on a thumb or SD card.

I think it will be hard to find a CD changer that will allow a clean hook up to your factory bose system.

Brimstone

I do intend to visit a local shop at somepoint unless someone has a link to something they used and I think I can do the install myself.

I'd be interested in knowing if its possible to stream a digital movie to an iPad through the wifi from an SD card too, I haven't tried yet, sales guy said he didn't think I could. Would be nice to have some options for the kids without eating up space on the ipad. (then again it seems like you have to have a data plan for the wifi to work?)

Brimstone

Its BT or direct line. I rip everything at 192kbps which is the max itunes allows. I know there's better rippers but I don't think I can tell with my regular earbuds (or my prior car stereo situation), but for years the idea of using iTunes was more about quantity than quality, perhaps I'm finally having a change or heart about that, a disc changer seems easier than reripping everything at this point.

yk0786

I understand your dilemma. I was in a similar situation couple years ago. I was at 192Kbps and lower as well. Finally decided to just take the time and re-rip the CDs to the max lossy that these cars played (320Kbps). I am still using iTunes for the ripping process. Having ripped them in a lossless just takes too much space on the hard drive, and for the equipment I have in my house including in my cars, my ears cant tell much difference between 320Kbps and lossless. I think the minimum you want to go is 256Kbps before you hear a huge difference in these cars.

Lookout57

The best solution for highest quality sound is to convert your CDs to FLAC and keep the resolution the same, 16 bit / 44.1 kHz. Then put them on a SD card or a USB stick or drive.

As long as the tags are correct you can browse in media player by artist, album or song. If you create a .m3u playlist it will then show up when you browse playlists. Otherwise you can browse by folder.

srbsq7

I believe Apple Music is now 256kbps ACC. I can't tell the difference between that and a CD. So much less hassle just using Siri / CarPlay / Apple Music.

Amazon Music now integrates with CarPlay so that's an option if you want to import your own collection into their service.

Maybe when sat in a quiet room with a high end hifi I could tell the difference, but not in the Q7 - even with acoustic windows and bose!

txaudiguy

I would think that if you are swimming in the Apple pool, then using Apple Lossless (equivalent to FLAC) should be an option if you are going thru CarPlay. Of course it will eat up a significant portion of you onboard storage. I'll have to test and see if Apple Lossless works from SD card or USB too.

Lookout57

There is no support for Apple Lossless, only FLAC for SD card or USB media.

You could use Apple Lossless if you want to play songs stored on your iPhone. But be warned Apple Lossless does take up a lot of space on your iPhone. So you would need a 128GB or 256GB phone.

I converted my iTunes library to FLAC and put it on a SD card. In my case I have almost 10,000 songs and a lot are hi-res, 24/96 or 24/192, so I needed a 512GB SD card.