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View Poll Results: How do you listen to Mp3 in your M5?
USB cable my iphone, so I can also charge it. 18 66.67%
Blutooth, I get music and phone calls. 7 25.93%
CD is the only way to best quality 1 3.70%
Copy Mp3 onto M5's HDD 1 3.70%
Voters: 27. You may not vote on this poll

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      05-27-2014, 09:44 AM   #1
Orich
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B&O sound quality and iphone connections

Hi All,

Just wondering how are you guys connecting to listen music from B&O with your iphone/mp3 players?

Does the connection method make a different on the sound quality in your B&O assuming the MP3 files are the same quality/bit rate?
  • USB cable your iphone?
  • Bluetooth?
  • Copy MP3 files onto M5's harddrive?
  • CD?

I have been using bluetooth alot, but am wondering if the sound will be better if I use a cable?

Thanks for the input!
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      05-27-2014, 09:50 AM   #2
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I actually still use CDs - havent even gotten around to try streaming, did once but it didnt work so I gave up.
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      05-27-2014, 10:00 AM   #3
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MP3 is lossy type of compression which defeats the purpose of having a high-end sound system such as B&O. For the best sound to come out of your B&O, either use CD's or put non-lossy .wmv music files (taken from FLAC or ALAC music files) into your car's harddrive or put them in a USB drive which you can connect to your car's USB connection.
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      05-27-2014, 10:08 AM   #4
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but assuming I'm willing to take a hit on the lossy and go with MP3, are some connection method better than others?

I understand if the MP3 is shitty quality, there is nothing B&O can change, but just wondering if I Bluetooth vs usb cable will the quality be even shittier?



Quote:
Originally Posted by nybimmerfan View Post
MP3 is lossy type of compression which defeats the purpose of having a high-end sound system such as B&O. For the best sound to come out of your B&O, either use CD's or put non-lossy .wmv music files (taken from FLAC or ALAC music files) into your car's harddrive or put them in a USB drive which you can connect to your car's USB connection.
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      05-27-2014, 10:10 AM   #5
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F10's build in hard drive can play FLAC and lossless formats?

I didn't know that, but that would be great! better than iPhone player
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      05-27-2014, 10:54 AM   #6
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I find Aux input gives the best sound via my old iPod Classic, which for some reason won't work off the USB port...? It's louder via aux too. But playing my iPhone via USB or Bluetooth makes no difference to b&o sound or quality.
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      05-27-2014, 11:43 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M5essex View Post
But playing my iPhone via USB or Bluetooth makes no difference to b&o sound or quality.
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.
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      05-27-2014, 12:01 PM   #8
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I bluetooth my phone for the phone only. I bluetooth my ipad for audio playback and also to an escort radar detector. I think the bluetooth stream from by beats app sounds much better than satellite radio. I think beats streams at 320 but not sure about pandora and others that may be 192?
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      05-27-2014, 12:12 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Orich View Post
F10's build in hard drive can play FLAC and lossless formats?
Have you successfully played FLAC (or ALAC) music files on your M5 sound system? Reason I ask is because I was unable to play any FLAC (or ALAC) file, however, upon reading the specs for lossless play on the M5 that it supported .wmv, I converted my lossless FLAC/ALAC files to lossless .wmv and for sure, the resulting transcoded music files played. I have not tried with the most recent software update but if you are certain that FLAC/ALAC files will play, then I will try again as that would save me some time transcoding from FLAC/ALAC to lossless WMV.
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      05-27-2014, 12:37 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Orich View Post
I understand if the MP3 is shitty quality, there is nothing B&O can change, but just wondering if I Bluetooth vs usb cable will the quality be even shittier?
USB cable connection will produce a much better sound reproduction, much closer if not the same as the source. You have to bear in mind that by using bluetooth, the source audio signals are resampled and reencoded for the bluetooth transmitter and that the encoding will recompress and combine the resulting audio in blocks -- which will usually result in a very short lag from source play. Also there will be some signal attenuation, i.e. if the source has 15Khz signal or higher, the recompressed and transmitted audio may now be gone and only let signals less than 15Khz (usually 8Khz - 12Khz) to go through. There are currently high-end bluetooth systems that are trying to go really hi fidelity which I doubt the M5 music system has. So your best bet is to use a connected source rather than bluetooth. But if your aim is to just listen to music without regard for signal attenuation (i.e. only listen to sound between 8Khz to less than 15Khz) then bluetooth is very convenient.
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      05-27-2014, 12:50 PM   #11
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I'll try it tonight and see if it plays FLAC and share with the fourm.

If it plays FLAC that would be awesome

Quote:
Originally Posted by nybimmerfan View Post
Have you successfully played FLAC (or ALAC) music files on your M5 sound system? Reason I ask is because I was unable to play any FLAC (or ALAC) file, however, upon reading the specs for lossless play on the M5 that it supported .wmv, I converted my lossless FLAC/ALAC files to lossless .wmv and for sure, the resulting transcoded music files played. I have not tried with the most recent software update but if you are certain that FLAC/ALAC files will play, then I will try again as that would save me some time transcoding from FLAC/ALAC to lossless WMV.
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      05-27-2014, 01:18 PM   #12
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Thanks for the info, very informative. I'll try USB cable for a few days and see if I hear any difference.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nybimmerfan View Post
USB cable connection will produce a much better sound reproduction, much closer if not the same as the source. You have to bear in mind that by using bluetooth, the source audio signals are resampled and reencoded for the bluetooth transmitter and that the encoding will recompress and combine the resulting audio in blocks -- which will usually result in a very short lag from source play. Also there will be some signal attenuation, i.e. if the source has 15Khz signal or higher, the recompressed and transmitted audio may now be gone and only let signals less than 15Khz (usually 8Khz - 12Khz) to go through. There are currently high-end bluetooth systems that are trying to go really hi fidelity which I doubt the M5 music system has. So your best bet is to use a connected source rather than bluetooth. But if your aim is to just listen to music without regard for signal attenuation (i.e. only listen to sound between 8Khz to less than 15Khz) then bluetooth is very convenient.
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      05-27-2014, 03:42 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nybimmerfan View Post
USB cable connection will produce a much better sound reproduction, much closer if not the same as the source. You have to bear in mind that by using bluetooth, the source audio signals are resampled and reencoded for the bluetooth transmitter and that the encoding will recompress and combine the resulting audio in blocks -- which will usually result in a very short lag from source play. Also there will be some signal attenuation, i.e. if the source has 15Khz signal or higher, the recompressed and transmitted audio may now be gone and only let signals less than 15Khz (usually 8Khz - 12Khz) to go through. There are currently high-end bluetooth systems that are trying to go really hi fidelity which I doubt the M5 music system has. So your best bet is to use a connected source rather than bluetooth. But if your aim is to just listen to music without regard for signal attenuation (i.e. only listen to sound between 8Khz to less than 15Khz) then bluetooth is very convenient.
Great post... basically garbage in, garbage out.

If you're listening to 128KB compressed MP3's, it really doesn't matter the connection type used, as you've already lost so much of the music data - the bluetooth re-encoding that occurs won't strip much more away that's already been stripped. It's still crap in, crap out.

Where people will notice the difference is using a true lossless source (CD's, WAV files or lossless codecs where all the music data is retained) and using a direct digital connection. That's where the B&O system will shine (or the HK system, or any high end audio system). Don't use the bluetooth connection - as nybimmerfan noted, the bluetooth connection is compressing the hell out of your audio files which compromises quality.

I tell people who listen to nothing but 128k or even 256k MP3's just to stick with the stock audio system, use bluetooth, etc. because it doesn't matter at that point. So much of the details of the music have been stripped away.

I *believe* I read somewhere a while back that BMW performs direct digital connections from iPod's, Iphone's, etc. via the dock cradle in the center console or the USB connection. (Dock connection for sure but I would need to do more research on the USB connection.) So a lossless audio file that has never been compressed via the dock cradle connector (and possibly USB) will give you the best possible audio quality, and on a system like the B&O system, you'll be able to hear the difference.

By comparison, Audi's MMI interface does NOT do a direct digital connection via the MMI cable. It's one of the biggest annoyances I have with Audi's MMI system - you can spend $7,000 on their B&O reference speaker system and unless you are listening to a CD or a lossless audio file via the SD card slot, you aren't getting a direct digital connection. *Any* Apple device connected to the MMI cable is getting the digital audio converted to analog, sent to the B&O amp and then converted again from analog to digital. It's totally pointless and neuters the audio quality. They are apparently "fixing" this with their latest gen MMI/MOST interface but I haven't confirmed that yet. This is something that BMW does right.

Hopefully one of these days the iTunes store will offer a lossless/uncompressed file download option, because it's frustrating that everything you download from there has been compressed already. Most people don't mind the lost data because the files sound pretty good as-is, but if you hear the original uncompressed version, there are times the difference is striking. Techno/trance/dance music is where the compression really takes a toll on the original source.

Last edited by TonySCV; 05-27-2014 at 03:51 PM..
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      05-27-2014, 04:10 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TonySCV View Post
Techno/trance/dance music is where the compression really takes a toll on the original source.
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.
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      05-27-2014, 10:37 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nybimmerfan View Post
Have you successfully played FLAC (or ALAC) music files on your M5 sound system?
My LCI M5 plays flac files via usb drive, I tested it out.
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      05-27-2014, 10:44 PM   #16
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I split time between Spotify (high quality, via bluetooth) and iTunes stuff either through my iPod classic on USB or iPhone in the center console cradle. I find a VERY slight difference in audio quality between bluetooth and wired, but then again it all depends on how well the music was mixed. I usually find bluetooth audio more than adequate for most circumstances.
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      05-28-2014, 03:38 PM   #17
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Off Topic, did you I-Phone 5s guys know that if you go into settings and then I-cloud and look at contacts. If the button is green( meaning on) then your contacts are stored in I-cloud. If you accidentally turn contacts off you lose all of your contacts. Be sure not o do that.
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      05-28-2014, 03:45 PM   #18
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If I play 320kbps audio over bluetooth vs over USB I can tell the sound quality is better over USB. You lose some detail over bluetooth. It doesn't sound bad, just doesn't sound as crystal clear in terms of detail.
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      05-28-2014, 04:03 PM   #19
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      05-28-2014, 06:43 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Orich View Post
My LCI M5 plays flac files via usb drive, I tested it out.
Thanks for the info. Maybe the updated software now allows the FLAC files to play because when I last tried it, neither FLAC nor ALAC files would play and only lossless WMV files would -- this was before the software update.
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      05-29-2014, 07:03 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Orich View Post
My LCI M5 plays flac files via usb drive, I tested it out.
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.
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      05-29-2014, 10:45 AM   #22
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I'm using a Samsung Note3 and find that the "MILK" audio service with the "Audio Quality" setting in "High" sounds better than most of the MP3s I have. You can also do the skip function on the songs via the steering wheel controls on the M5. I'll note also that this is all over bluetooth.

((Just sharing in case anyone hasn't given it a shot))
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