Someone recommended MP3 as max quality? Maybe 15 years ago 🙄

 

The OP has his music in FLAC files, and has a problem playing them on his unit. Suggesting he should have different files is a bit like telling someone with an Octavia drivetrain problem they should have a Ford instead. OK it may be factually correct, but it's not helpful, is it? 

Amundsen M1B1 doesn't play flac, period. A also struggled with it for some time. It just doesn't. At he time only the colombus seemed to handle it. 

9 minutes ago, TDIum said:

Someone recommended MP3 as max quality? Maybe 15 years ago 🙄

If you read the post and graphic properly, you'll see that is not the case. The graphic shows the relative quality of the different levels of LAME encoded VBR mp3 files (and ABR files too). It shows that up to the v2 setting you gain substantially in the quality of the audio with only a small increase in file size, but beyond that the file size increase more than the payoff in sound quality. Before this he says that v2 will give you transparency i.e. indistinguishable to the ear compared to lossless. Before that he says that 320 CBR is the maximum quality you can get for an mp3. This will still be substantially smaller than a lossless file but (generally) a fair amount bigger than a VBR file without any perceivable improvement in sound quality.

 

Your snide comments seem to suggest you don't understand the technicalities of lossy file compression.

 

9 minutes ago, TDIum said:

The OP has his music in FLAC files, and has a problem playing them on his unit. Suggesting he should have different files is a bit like telling someone with an Octavia drivetrain problem they should have a Ford instead. OK it may be factually correct, but it's not helpful, is it? 

And the OP has had his answer - they don't work. Others, myself included, have been helpful in providing additional useful information. It's not like your analogy because in that situation you can't do anything about it. For the OP's situation, there have been ways to help him make the change in the most convenient way possible, with the outcome of resolving the issue of being able to play his music files with only a small amount of effort.

3 minutes ago, maffyou said:

If you read the post and graphic properly, you'll see that is not the case. The graphic shows the relative quality of the different levels of LAME encoded VBR mp3 files (and ABR files too). It shows that up to the v2 setting you gain substantially in the quality of the audio with only a small increase in file size, but beyond that the file size increase more than the payoff in sound quality. Before this he says that v2 will give you transparency i.e. indistinguishable to the ear compared to lossless. Before that he says that 320 CBR is the maximum quality you can get for an mp3. This will still be substantially smaller than a lossless file but (generally) a fair amount bigger than a VBR file without any perceivable improvement in sound quality.

 

Your snide comments seem to suggest you don't understand the technicalities of lossy file compression.

 

And the OP has had his answer - they don't work. Others, myself included, have been helpful in providing additional useful information. It's not like your analogy because in that situation you can't do anything about it. For the OP's situation, there have been ways to help him make the change in the most convenient way possible, with the outcome of resolving the issue of being able to play his music files with only a small amount of effort.

 

Think again. 

Just now, TDIum said:

 

Think again. 

1 hour ago, nickytheshaft said:

Amundsen M1B1 doesn't play flac, period. A also struggled with it for some time. It just doesn't. At he time only the colombus seemed to handle it. 

Once again the manual is confusing. It says it can play flac files obviously using the software that was around at that time

By far the easiest way to convert is to use a recursive tool such as flacsquisher.  Settings included.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/flacsquisher/

Another way to look at it. You can fit more V2 mp3s on a 32gb card than you can FLAC on a 128gb.

Off topic: My hifi is a benchmark dac1 with a krell KSA-100 Mk2 and some lovel B&W 805s speakers.

I wouldn't put a V2 mp3 anywhere near that setup but I'm cool with them in the car 😛

 

Luckily the MIB2 does play them as my whole collection is in FLAC format, so I could just copy them from my NAS to a 128GB SD card (not my whole collection though).

On the FLAC vs 320cbr mp3 debate.

 

These are the formats I use most often and have all my music in. FLAC for devices that will play it and 320cbr mp3 for those that don't.

 

Is there a difference to my ears? 

For my home system Denon/Bowers and Wilkins, undoubtedly yes. Even when streaming from my synology NAS.

For mobile, Galaxy S9+ with Bowers and Wilkins P7's undoubtedly yes again.

My main Car 1200W 17 Speaker Bowers and Wilkins. A lot closer, hardly noticeable on the move.

Octavia 3 with Columbus MIB1 and standard speakers. I couldn't tell any difference at idle and certainly not on the move. I'd even say MP3 in the Mk2 sounds better than Flac on the Mk3.

 

Lee

There's something that people seem to have forgotten - disk storage. 

If you have stored all your CDs as flac, why use more storage for mp3 files just because flac sounds no better in the car.

And you only have to rip them once.

Edited 4 June, 20197 yr by JD52

31 minutes ago, JD52 said:

There's something that people seem to have forgotten - disk storage. 

If you have stored all your CDs as flac, why use more storage for mp3 files just because flac sounds no better in the car.

And you only have to rip them once.

 

Thought I'd check mine.

 

1654 albums ripped from CD to Flac. 686GB

1654 albums converted to Mp3 320CBR 230GB.

 

Not really bothering my NAS with 4x6TB drives but yes I suppose it could be an issue for some with just a single device. 

 

I find it more of a bind just using two formats and having to do things twice. I suppose at some point I wont own a device that can't play lossless so won't need MP3.

 

For the OP it seems like if FLAC is a must the only option is to upgrade the head unit to Columbus or MIB2 Amundsen. There are plenty of threads on this.

 

As for software, I've tried many but found the link below the best but it isn't free.

https://www.poikosoft.com/music-converter

 

Edited 4 June, 20197 yr by logiclee

1 hour ago, JD52 said:

There's something that people seem to have forgotten - disk storage. 

If you have stored all your CDs as flac, why use more storage for mp3 files just because flac sounds no better in the car.

And you only have to rip them once.

If you have anything more than a small music collection, you’ll struggle to fit it all onto a flash device for using in the car, which is another reason why mp3 makes better sense for in the car. 

.... 256GB SDs exist and aren't that expensive. I've been carrying a 256GB Thumb drive for the last several years... never mind a 500GB T5 since last summer. I will have to try that in the car, so far it's been reserved for more important stuff. They're only €80 now. I have currently a 256, several 128s, some fast 64s and a couple of *really* fast 32s... the car has a 128GB SD permanently in. Should be able to fit a thousand CDs on a 256.

 

The Fi couldn't deal with FLAC so I created a shuffle directory... I don't like the duplication, there's a bunch of MP3s in that one directory and i want rid of them - either I then have a duplicate file structure - artist / album / tracks - or i have two files for each album track in the same directory. Both are suboptimal, as is a "simple" single subdirectory. Especially if album art wasn't done cleanly in the first place.

 

AFAIC, if the manual says it's supported, it really ought to be. The manual I've seen says it is, I don't get why it isn't.

 

MP3 will die sooner rather than later with the ubiquity of better codecs and larger memory sizes. 

 

 - Bret

OP Here...

I am reading these posts with a huge smile on my face.... do any of you watch Dave Gorman's Modern Life Is Goodish on the channel Dave?

I ask this because it seems to me some people appear, shall we say, overly jealous when it comes to posting, the information therewith and possibly going off topic to various degrees!!

I ONLY asked if Amundsen played flac files because my digital library is in flac..... NOT because of the quality. I simply wanted to save myself the task of re-ripping all the music I wanted in my car. To be honest I'm not overly bothered about the quality - we all know house lo-fi, let alone something decent will probably sound better than in a car.

Started this topic and boy does it run......

Thanks for all the salient info and for the amusing other stuff.....

 

10 hours ago, abaxas said:

Cars are crappy places for audio.

If you want max quality go for 320kbps CBR MP3 but if you encode with LAME you should be using v2 which should be transparent relative to the quality of the listening environment.

FLAC is pointless in a car audio setting.

Based on that graph I would argue that you should be using -V3. The different in quality from -V2 is negligible but it's significantly smaller. Where did the graph come from?

 

I was impressed when I read in the manual that the MIB2 Bolero supported OGG Vorbis and FLAC as well as mp3. I encoded my small music collection with OGG Vorbis to a reasonably high quality, although I don't remember the exact setting.

 

Agreed that there's no benefit to using FLAC in a car except for avoiding having to recode it if that it what you already have, and if FLAC will fit on your storage medium. I would be surprised if MIB1 radios support the latest large SD cards.

Edited 4 June, 20197 yr by Rodge

52 minutes ago, Rodge said:

Based on that graph I would argue that you should be using -V3. The different in quality from -V2 is negligible but it's significantly smaller. Where did the graph come from?

I guess the point is where transparency occurs for the individual - everyone’s ears are different. V3 might win on the size:quality ratio but if that gave a file which was noticeably lower quality to the listener then its (arguably) not the best setting to use. 

 

V2 generally seemed to be the encoding level at which most people found transparency. 

 

Ogg, I seem to remember, was favoured in blind tests for sound quality but it never really took off as a format and isn’t well supported for playback on devices. 

One thing to note is that the VBR setting V2 offers near transparency over all genres of music. This is most important in terms of 'rock' which is always the hardest to compress due to the strange harmonics of the electric guitar.

I listen to lots of minimalist dance music which compresses 'fine' with even V5 but if I used the same setting for a band like Muse, it sounds like a mess.

V2 is sort of the 'fire and forget' option for all music.

 

19 hours ago, Rodge said:

 

Agreed that there's no benefit to using FLAC in a car except for avoiding having to recode it if that it what you already have, and if FLAC will fit on your storage medium. I would be surprised if MIB1 radios support the latest large SD cards.

 

In the MIB1 Columbus I was running 2x 64GB SDXC Cards and a 128GB USB with no problems 

 

Lee

Edited 5 June, 20197 yr by logiclee