AudiFanFL

I ripped my music to .mp3 in 320kbps and it works fine - even on the B&O.

As others probably do as well, I own CDs from different decades and what really matters is the quality of the CD itself. Some of the late 80's or early 90's really sound crappy compared to more recent discs and there's nothing that can be done about it.

But in general, I prefer .mp3 in 320kbps because IMO, it offers the perfect balance between quality and storage space it requires.

Considering Audi's limit of 10,000 tracks and a 128 GB SD-card, it also puts you right there. A higher rate like losless makes it impossible to get that many tracks on 128GB and a lower rate than 320kbps is a waste as well due to the 10,000 file-limit.

Lookout57

Audi's limit is most likely based on them only testing 128GB SD cards. I use a 256GB card in my 2013 Q5 and 2014 A7 and a 512GB card in the 2017 Q7. The 256GB cards are formatted as FAT and the 512GB card as exFAT.

They also say that they only support FLAC up to 24/48k, but 24/96k and 24/192k work. I don't know if the 24/96k and 24/192k files are playing back at those rates or are being down sampled to 24/48k.

AudiFanFL

Interesting!

The next question would be: Does Audi indeed limit the number of tracks to 10,000? if so, that would be the limit for me then. If I convert all my discs to .mp3, I would be closer to 20,000 tracks. I could easily fit them on a 256 GB SD, but if the system only recognizes 10K songs, it wouldn't help much..

Who knows? Perhaps they will update the software at some point in time, allowing more than 10k tracks.

TrueAt1stLight

This is great intel! For those using larger SD cards than Audi says they support, which brand/brands of cards are you using?

Lookout57

The 10,000 track limit is only seen when browsing or searching by artist, album or song or in playlists. This seems to be based on the database they are using to store and search the metadata.

However, the good news is that the limit is 10,000 tracks per volume. So on SD1 I have almost 10,000 tracks and another 2,000 on SD2 and can browse and search by artist, album or song on either SD card.

I have the same problem with the track limit on an Android based DAP. However, unlike on the Audi, tracks in a Playlists can be stored on any volume. I haven't figured out how to store the tracks on one SD card and the playlists on the other.

Lookout57

The 256GB cards are PNY, the 512 is a Delkin.

I use cards and brands that I would use in my DLSR camera.

Brimstone

Can anyone recommend some good free ripping software that can do at least mp3 and FLAC? I think the best thing maybe to just take a song or two and rip too a few different formats and compare the CD to them in the vehicle and then make a decision.

Keyser Wi

+1

Lookout57

I use XLD which only runs on macOS to convert tracks.

Brimstone

Update: I called 2-3 car stereo places. None seem to be able to get a disc changer.

I also got an SD card and ripped a song at several encoding levels and compare to the CD:
1. 32k mp3 - tinny trash
2. 128k mp3 - subpar but hugely better than #1
3. 192k mp3 - decent
4. wma - decent
5. 256k mp3 - good
6. 320k mp3 - good
7. wma lossless - good
8. flac - good
9. wav - good
10. actual CD - sounds awesome.

So basically I don't think I could tell the difference between 5-9. At least with this song for just a min. or so of music in it (I picked a sonically dense song that varies styles in this time frame) but sadly the CD sounds much better. Really shocked the WAV file sounded different, did not expect that at all.

I was literally jumping between the wav and the cd by hitting the media button on the mmi and it was noticeable, bass sounds much richer with the CD (it was also a tad louder) does it store the EQ settings differently by source? I didn't think to check that until I was typing this up.

I'd much rather do the music digitally its so much easier, but after my sound test I really want the disc changer.

(I used this to rip everything: Exact Audio Copy)