I read that large capacity cards can take an age to load and navigating the contents

is not that intuitive.

Apart from being able to store huge music libraries what is the sound quality like? How

does it compare to CDs and Bluetooth quality?

Ummmm.... I dont think it will be sorted anytime soon as its not really a "problem" but rather the way Mac OS file system works. Other than that you are quiet right on how to address the issue and a solution for those that dont have a windows PC (or linux/unix PC as well) would be some virtualization software for their MAC. You can check two of the most known for Mac here:

http://www.vmware.co...n/overview.html

http://www.parallels...oducts/desktop/

Hope this will be of some help

OB

Thanks, but as these cost approx £30 and I would also have to buy "Windows" software I expect the total cost would be >£100 so not really worth it as I have no other need for Windows. I will just have to keep using my sister-in-laws PC to strip off the redundant files when I need to. Incidentally every time I use her PC I realise how much better Macs with OSX are!

I read that large capacity cards can take an age to load and navigating the contents

is not that intuitive.

Apart from being able to store huge music libraries what is the sound quality like? How

does it compare to CDs and Bluetooth quality?

I've got a 16Gb SanDisk, about 60% full, around 20 hours listening IIRC. Navigation is easy, after I found the SD icon - top left corner of the display once the card is inserted. I can't comment on comparative sound qualities (not that I can see it really makes very much difference, given mechanical and road noise, and driver's concentration on driving rather than listening JMO), but I don't hear any difference through the PC between CD and MP3.

Thanks, but as these cost approx £30 and I would also have to buy "Windows" software I expect the total cost would be >£100 so not really worth it as I have no other need for Windows. I will just have to keep using my sister-in-laws PC to strip off the redundant files when I need to. Incidentally every time I use her PC I realise how much better Macs with OSX are!

Sound reasoning and I agree 100%. Just gave the links in case anyone wanted to go that way and has no other means to access a PC, As for PCs vs MACs .... oh well, thats another neverending story. For me they are both two sides of the same coin, but lets just agree to that both sides have their merits ... lol

I think it was 2000 tracks... nothing to do with card size (up to 32mb of course!).

Now that makes me wonder, what if someone has not one folder but two for example...., ie under the Music folder someone mentioned earlier say we have 2 folders with 2000 songs (aka files) inside each. Would that do the trick? I dont have my Yeti yet so I cant try that yet, but if anyone can and does please let us know.

I read that large capacity cards can take an age to load and navigating the contents

is not that intuitive.

Apart from being able to store huge music libraries what is the sound quality like? How

does it compare to CDs and Bluetooth quality?

About loading time I have no idea yet till I get my hands on my Yeti and try but my best guess is it depends an how fast is the card and possibly the maker. (Same thing in a way to the cards we put in our cell phones. Others work fine and others make the sun rise from the west somehow)

Now about sound quality it all depends first and foremost on the bitrate of the conversion to mp3. Simply put when you convert a song to mp3 then the bigger the bitrate the better the sound quality but also the bigger the end file size. For example say we have a song converted directly from an audio cd both in say 96 kbps and 192 kbps. The second one will sound almost like original when played in a decent stereo while the first one will sound a bit of poor quality. Yet the 192 kbps will have bigger file size. Hence the need for more space thus bigger SD card. Having said that, the overall bitrate is not the only thing that matters of course but still is the most important. As for car listening a bitrate of 128, 160 or 192 kbps would be more than enough. all those 3 bitrates give near CD quality to the human ear with the 192 bit being the best of three. Certainly you can go for lower or higher bitrates than those but thats another story and it would get even more technical.

Sorry if I tired you with all this techy details and hope this is of some help to you all.

OB

^ agreed. It is in a car not your HiFi set up at home, when all is said and done it's perfecting acceptable quality even at 128kbps.

Can someone please explain the benefits of using the SD option on the Bolero.

I am quite surprised at the quality of sound from the standard setup in my new Yeti.

I don't have a huge music library and find 6 CDs for top quality sound plus all my

music available via Bluetooth on my iPhone and easily controlled from the steering wheel

is pretty impressive.

I've never used SD cards before but my mac computer can write them so I was wondering

what benefit I might get by using them in the Yeti?

Sounds like it could be a bit of a faff compared to the BT iPhone option. Is the SD sound

better than that using BT? Changing CDs regularly is a bit of a pain but worth it if that

gives the best sound quality.

As stated above the sound quality all depends on the rate your MP3s were made at... even 128 sounds good in a noisy car. You are not in a sound proof room remember.

As to your first question: why do I use the SD card when I can use BT over my iPhone: well I don't always have the BT on on my phone and to switch that on, go to music, press play, then press BT Audio is a faff if you're just going to the shops (yes I know double clicking the Home button on an iPhone and swiping to the right brings up the audio controls, even so, it's a faff). Just selecting the SD card saves time. When I drive further though the faff of BT makes sense. Or for someone that always have their body bombarded by Bluetooth in having it switched on all the time.

Thanks Guys
I was able following the instructions to convert music files off my Mac in to Mp3 and save them on the SD card until I get my car I will not know how successful it has been.

 

I now have tried the SD card. All of the music I input on to the card is stored as individual tracks it plays all the first tracks off each album. I can not select to play a album. It does show all the track detail on the screen. Is this a problem with using Mac Itunes for creating SD card . Also occasionally when playing the sound volume will fade out and then come back up 

There is an excellent (free) program called Exact Audio Copy which I used when putting music onto an SD card. This program allows you to copy by individual track or by complete album.

You do need each album to be in its individual folder. Andrew's solution might be best for you.

Thanks Guys

I was able following the instructions to convert music files off my Mac in to Mp3 and save them on the SD card until I get my car I will not know how successful it has been.

 

I now have tried the SD card. All of the music I input on to the card is stored as individual tracks it plays all the first tracks off each album. I can not select to play a album. It does show all the track detail on the screen. Is this a problem with using Mac Itunes for creating SD card . Also occasionally when playing the sound volume will fade out and then come back up 

It depends what you copied to your SD card! If you copied the Artist/Album/Song then you will be able to select the Artist then select the album and then each track  individually. Works fine from iTunes on my Mac - except you have to use a PC to see and delete all the duplicate unreadable _mp3 files.