B&O sound quality and iphone connections

[nybimmerfan]

Orich in this forum mentioned that he is able to play FLAC files. Has somebody else in this forum been successful playing them?
Reason is that even the 2014 NBT Navigation,Entertainment,Communications Owners manual only lists the following formats as playable
on the M5 (2014) system:
DVD: DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVDR-R DL, DVD+R DL, DVD video, CD-ROM, CD-R. CD-RW, CD-DA,VCD, SVCD
Compressed audio Files: MP3, WMA, AAC
There is no mention of any lossless format. My take is that the M5 system only looks at the extention of the file and tries to play only those files, which is the reason why I chose the lossless windows media wmv music file version which has an extension of .wma and since my files were transcoded in windows media using the lossless format, not the compressed version, all aspects of the original source are present.

[Orich]

I have software version MN-002.017.007, and it plays .flac files.
What's the latest software version? How do I get an update?

I have not tried ALAC or WMV, but I tested a few more flac files, but not all of them are detected although they are all .flac file extension. I have not figured out why some flac plays but others could not be detected. Perhaps it has to do with compression level of the file? I checked all my files using Winamp and they all seems to be Sample rate = 44100hz, Bit per sample = 16, but I guess they are not all the same.

Originally Posted by nybimmerfan

Could you tell me the Media software version you have as I am still unable to play FLAC files. Could you also confirm what the extension is for the FLAC files you are playing. Normally they should have
.flac extention.
Per my info screen, my media software version is MN-001-021.006. I tested with 3 lossless files WMV, FLAC and ALAC -- my system could not even see the FLAC nor ALAC files.

[nybimmerfan]

Originally Posted by Orich

What's the latest software version? How do I get an update?

You may already have the latest media software, but anyway you can download software updates from the bmw site http://www.bmw.com/com/en/owners/nav...gion=&country=
You have to enter the last 7 characters of your car's VIN to get the correct one. The file downloaded will have a .bin extension which you put in the root of a thumb drive (FAT/FAT32 formatted) and insert in the car's USB connection at the central console. In the idrive menu under settings you should see something like software update. Myself, I tried to do an update but keep getting the message that I already have the latest. Anyway, from what I can gather, .flac files may be supported (by NBT but not CIC) in some car models. What I think is happening is that BMW is still testing with lossless formats (beginning with .flac) so even in their documentation, they have not mentioned anything about those formats. Also, maybe somebody in this forum could tell us the possibility of coding lossless formats because if I remember correctly, there is somewhere to specify "ogg-vis" as a valid codec. So in the meantime, I will stick with .wma lossless files (24bit 44Khz) as that seem to be fine.

[varanj_16]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

This is what I have found too.

Since I don't use XM Radio (which is the worst quality out of all of them I think), I mostly just stream Pandora via Bluetooth or I play the music that I have stored on my iPhone via Bluetooth. Sometimes when I want to same some music to the Hard Drive, I just download a bunch of songs from the Internet, throw them on a USB Stick and then upload them into a new folder on the M5's hard drive. I don't really own too many CD's anymore, wasn't a big collector anyways, but I do keep a few in the little multi-disc CD player that is tucked into the glove box. I don't really care that much about listening to lossless music, it is too much of a pain to keep a CD collection in the M5 or download ultra-high quality music from somewhere. Streaming via Bluetooth is plenty great for me and the B&O still produces some of the best sounds I've heard in a car even though I mostly listen to lossy music.

Also I like streaming from Bluetooth the most because I run Waze on my iPhone while streaming Pandora in the background and I can get the audio alerts that Waze gives you to come in through the cars stereo system, so it's a little extra layer of Situational Awareness for me while I'm driving. Hearing that "Police Reported Ahead" female voice from Waze through the Bang & Olufsen sound system in my car has saved me many many times.

Thak You: It's suggestions like these and a radar detector = no body will be able to catch us ever again hahahaa...!

[varanj_16]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

Yup, I have a handful of Techno/trance/dance music songs saved on the hard drive of my M5 high quality format and the sound of those songs is just incredible.

Hey you guys are my best friends now as trance/trap/dance/techno music is what i live for Glad to know that B&O is able to handle it well...!!

[nybimmerfan]

In general lossy compressed audio is more than adequate especially if listening to modern and pop music as the frequencies produced are between 80Hz to 16Khz. Most people cannot hear anything lower than 50Hz unless one is an elephant (but one can feel the vibration), or greater than 15Khz. Not to disparage those who listen to non-classical music but streaming via bluetooth (audio has been compressed and will hardly exceed the 15Khz range) will be very much acceptable/enjoyable. However, to the few, like me, who in addition to pop/modern music, enjoys the classics performed by an orchestra ensemble where the frequency range can be 80Hz or less and above 24Khz, the absence of the high frequencies can be unnerving. These frequencies may be beyond the hearing range of the majority, however, in my case and age (validated in my last medical hearing test, 4 months ago) I can still hear sound frequencies up to 22Khz. Listening, even while driving to some of Dmitri Shostakovitch's Symphonies (whose string section produce sounds that can reach 18Khz and above) in a lossy format such as MP3, results in complete dead silence which only a lossless encoded format can fix. BTW, even modern/pop music encoded in a lossless format do produce much richer sounds than one that is encoded in a lossy format such as MP3 (but of course, one must have the capable "ears").