hurry up and bring FLAC to car stereo everyone needs to help out

[d77543020]

and also let me compare some things for yaal ipod lovers

32gb itouch $260<<<>>>32gb thumbdrive $40

apple way:
converting your flac collection to itunes>>>roughly about a week for me if not more. tonns of cpu usage and useless PC for a week.
my whole collection beeing copy protected by apples format now and ONLY PLAYABLE ON APPLE PRODUCTS!!!!!!!!!!!
only acessible through I-TUNES
having a useless ipod in my glovebox that i dont use for anything else
configuring reconfiguring,reorganizing playlists


the FLAC way:
no time spent converting any music(mp3 or flac)
DRAG AND DROP FROM WINDOWS EXPLORER!!!!!!!!!!! can it be any easier?
thumbdrive compatible with ANY windows based PC (which is a majority unlike apple)
thumbdrive doesnt need software updates
thumbdrive also doesnt neet to be taken out of the car every time.
thumbdrive is compatible with alot of newer models of home entertainment systems( that actually support flac already)
no need for docking stations, copy protection BS, special cables, i-compatibility issues etc
cons:
cant bring your flashdrive to starbucks and attemt to look cool while playing with it for 2 hours like iPod/iTouch/iPad/iToolbag

where can you get a 32 gig thumb drive for 40?

[i2ain2thunder]

Truths: Mac is superdousche on IPODS and ITUNES no you can't relocate your media and yes you have to use their **** they're very smart about that.
MP3 is stupid and outdated caraudio needs lossless it's behind the times.
90% of music listeners aren't audiophiles and prob don't even recognize a difference between lossless and mp3 quality. Manufactures just sell to the moronic public who are content with whatever they get AS LONG AS IT'S FLASHY AND SOUNDS COOL.

[davidk]

This thread is one of the top hits in Google for "flac car stereo", so forgive me bumping it.

So I read the thread, very amusing i-flamewar going on there.

Let's get the FLAC part out of the way, for my part I have:
* a 1.2TB music collection of 70,000+ tracks all in FLAC
* a home SqueezeBox Transporter and an analog audiophile setup (costs more than the car)
* a portable Cowon J3 player paired with Grado SR235 headphones

Disk is cheap, I don't care for the space issue... but I do care for the quality issue (at home and on the move). I've spent a lot on a great setup for audio at home, and all I want from a car setup is:
* The convenience of using my existing music collection without me re-encoding it
* No unnecessary drops in audio quality due to the setup (though I concede the shape of a car cabin makes audiophile ideals simply mind-numbingly stupid, that's before you introduce road and engine noise)
* Seamless integration with the car stereo so as to not have to connect and disconnect stuff on every journey

That's it... it's a convenience play, but when you have a collection of 70,000+ tracks then convenience matters a lot.

To the questions of why a manufacturer would add it, let me say 2 things:
1) FLAC is fully open source and doesn't require a license to implement
2) People like myself will spend a disproportionate amount on convenience, to the point that I would step from a GBP 500 unit up to a GBP 1,000 unit without batting an eyelid and I would betray any brand loyalty and try new manufacturers just for this feature <-- pretty compelling, no?

Anyhow... that's all just addressing the prior posts, now onto what I found.

I found the Parrot Asteroid. At least, it's a PC wrapped up as a hands-free and audio system based on Android OS and because Android supports FLAC then in theory so does the Parrot Asteroid.

So there is something out there, but I don't necessarily need a full hands-free, Android system... I prefer simplicity and coming from a UNIX background I like the idea of "do one thing, and do it well"... so I could settle for the Parrot Asteroid quite happily, but I would still like to know if anyone else has a commercially available in-car system that plays FLAC and beyond that has few bells and whistles.

Any informed posts welcome - though I'm sure the flamewar will continue

[ciaonzo]

Probably the best first post ever.

[Moofs]

I havent read all 7 pages but for ipod users. U can rockbox ur 5th gen ipods, mini's, nano's etc. and they will play flac. I considered it but my headphones arent good enough to really enjoy flac compared to 320kbps mp3's.

[Germ305]

I didnt read this whole thread...but based on FLAC vs. mp3 i found an amazing song in the process...Enjoy

[hoosierxhoosier]

not to mention the people that use it to back up their entire CD collections in FLAC
all of my CDs are backed up in flac but its very GAY and disappointing that i cant take any of them to my car and enjoy quality sound without bringing a stack of CDs.

i ve talked to local reps, i ve created a topic on pioneer mel forum and few other places and so far i got no results.

grow up

[MisterDeadeye]

I don't really think it's much of a hassle to re-encode my FLAC files to Apple Lossless. For the most part, it only takes a minute or two per album, and I've got a three year old laptop.

[raverx3m]

some of newer units are switching to aux input for ipod instead of digital usb connection.because of some issues with ipod control and headunit software.
it is much of a hassle because i have to do it every time i want to add an album
1 i dont think theres a 500gb ipod to fit my music collection.(and wav doesnt support id tag or any album information) i have more than 2 cases full of cds that i spent weeks converting and im not about to do that again.
2 i have to buy an ipod and use it as a a storage device(paying 200 dollars for a thumbdrive? right)
3 if i do convert everything to i tunes lossless im stuck with it and cant use it on any other "normal" media player
4 i dont like apple products for one and only reason and that is: purposely limiting my options so they can make more profit.
you can argue but that will not make me support that company.because its my money that im paying for that prescious piece of ipood.
if i spend money i want to get what i want not what a company tells me i can have.

[xmakeafistx]

Did everyone just ignore that first awesome post?

He pretty much said it all imo.

[ace_800]

The new soundstream Ingenix HU's read flac.

[TheUnderFighter]

The new soundstream Ingenix HU's read flac.

/thread

[r0llinlacs]

It can't just be standard flac though.

It has to be 24bit 192khz FLAC. Nothing less. And 24bit DACs that work on every input source for your regular cds and mp3s.

And for God's sake, give us at least 5v pre-outs. Especially on the double dins.

[AndroidBubba]

I'm in the same boat.

I have 3000 CDs that I am in the process of archiving to archival electronic format....ie. FLAC. I have expensive home audio gear so keeping a single copy of the music means it stays in FLAC format.

I want to play my music in the car, at good SQ preferrably.

ipod used to be the only option - but 64GB doesn't hold much, and it requires *24 Hours* to convert the collection to AAC and load it on the ipod.

I'm out shopping for a new car, and BMW recommends just loading the files onto an SD card to be used in their OEM head-units. Never thought about it....could work......with a big enough SD card. 128GB for $180 seems the current largest. Not sure how well the album art, and how quick the searches work.....but it's cheaper than my 64GB $380 ipod.

FLAC files are approx 50-60% compressed, so a full CD would be 300-350MB - so 360 albums for $180 dollars. For those with small collections, it could work and manufacturers would be wise to add the support. I'm willing to spend $hundreds if not $1000+ for FLAC support as long as it works. I'm definately a minority, but there is money to be made by supporting FLACers.

In the meantime, I'm just trying to get good ipod integration for large collections but the **** auto manufacturers keep making it difficult to go after-market due to tight integration of auto-controls & monitoring into their OEM head-units. Bastards!

Any alternatives? (i.e. how to upgrade stereo w/o giving up auto-controls & monitoring?)

Thanks,
David

[99chevy7.4L]

Well let me add a little bit to the fire. I am a home audio and car audio SQ purist. That being said MP3 is none existant to me. Yes I can tell the diff between a crummy MP3 and a good quality recording. Those that don't think there is.....go buy a Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Original Master Recording CD. Then compare the same songs in an MP3 format. There is a diff. If you can't here you must be hard of hearing. In my home audio setup I use tube gear. For my car stereo I built a tube amp...and use McIntosh power for most everything else. FLAC would be nice in the car. But WAV's work for me. Those that can't hear a diff prob don't have a very good SQ head unit. Those that DON"T WANT to are in need of someone to show them what SQ truly is.