FLAC support for headunits?

[raverx3m 10+ year member]

**** i havent heard about that one

thats probably also impossible to find

 

[headless 10+ year member]

difficult, yes...but worth it. Check out the forums on http://www.empegbbs.com under for sale. There are a few for sale right now. I took some screenshots of it and explained some of it's features in my camry build thread way back when...

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1643949&postcount=4

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

what do you guys hear about it?

I deleted all the MP3s I had years ago to go to properly ripped FLAC...couldn't pay me to go back.

the only other option i know of is car pc but thats hella money.

It's not too bad, especially when compared to a high-end processor combo. And would give you the ability to change DACs whenever you felt like it, or get bit-perfect output...

 

[raverx3m 10+ year member]

well im still lost as far as getting sound to he speakers

i know how to make it work inside the PC i ve beeen building pcs for some time now.

so once i got the PC in

i need a soundcard with 4+subwoofer output

then i would have to use a preamp to bring it to 4 volts and go to amp?

or is there amplifiers that i can plug in a usb or iptical digital output?

 

[sexiewasd 10+ year member]

Your best bet would be to find a head with front panel aux input and then buy a portable player with flac support, Sansa makes one, Cowon makes some, Archos makes some. The portable player market is much larger than just apple. You can forget about head unit control though.

I would suggest staying away from a car PC. they are a much more electrically noisy environment than a portable player is, and unless you want to go with solid state storage ($$$) than they can be finicky.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

The only reason I never built a car PC is because I used to be an IT director for a CPA firm that had a staff of traveling auditors with 45 laptops. I used to dread June through August AND December through February because laptops left in extreme heat or below freezing didn't fare so well.

 

[raverx3m 10+ year member]

i dont mind the solid state drive i would only need enough to run windows and apps. i can buy a 30-64 gig thumbdrive and plug it in the usb or even a laptop harddrive thru usb.

i had a usb harddrive with my kenwood x592 for a while now

it freezes in the winter tho kinda sux. i had to add another usb power source for it.

 

[raverx3m 10+ year member]

i asked pioneer about it and there was dead silence on the other end.

the rep didnt say much but"were workign on it" and that "we were first to implement ipod support"

but what i just realized is, most of the units come with a USB input.

the unit sees any usb capable device that has memory as a removable drive.

which means it reads the file and decodes it internally like it would read off the cd for example.

also according to pioneer, the direct ipod connection is handled in a different way.

the ipod decodes the compressed file nternally and removes copyprotection...

and sends the PCM data(uncompressed data) to the stereo where it processes it as for example an audio cd.

and i think its safe to assume that the other compaies do it same way ipod decodes, radio plays.

what i dont understand is why cant we have it for all other MP3 players capable of playing FLAC.

its been a while since since the portable MP3 players had it and watching the car audio industry catch up is like watching special olympics...

is there any members of this board that have ties to the major car audio manufacturers?

maybe someone can investigate and ask around to see if we should expect flac support next year?

 

[thatguy 10+ year member]

bumping an old thread. im in the market for new headunit. and i need flac.

Ive got an ipod with rock box. but cant control the ipod when booted into rockbox.

All it takes its just a firmware upgrade for most of or current receivers. i don't know why manufactures dont want to work on this.

 

[raverx3m 10+ year member]

what pioneer rep explained to me made sense half way.

1)theres no programmable chip in most of the units.(programmable chips are more expensive)

2) licensing is expensive BUT. flac is FREE!!!!! there shouldnt be any licensing involved.

most of the companies are just being big pu$$ies and dont want to release the support untill they see a big enough market for it.

what i suspect pioneer did is just sit and wait and wait and wait untill they heard other companies are planning to release the ipod cable and they said WE MADE THE FIRST IPOD CABLE!!!!!!!! and released it before everyone else...

companies are playing a really dumb game. and consumers are like good lil bches eat whatever the companies feed them.

has anyone notticed there hasnd been any major changes in headunit lineups? alpine is actually going backwards

every year they change (color, move buttons around, add a feature or two) very carefully so not to underprice the unit. and limit it in a way that you would always need to upgrade...

 

[4OZGLOVES 10+ year member]

i agree... flac head units please. heres my vote. all i have is properly ripped flac. and like the guy above you could not pay me to go back. it's bit perfect and it's the most flexible lossless compression compatibility wise. they should have no trouble implementing flac decoder to head units. **** itunes.

though my tip for you if you want to is convert your flac to alac with dbpoweramp or winamp. you could even send the converted files straight to your pmp so they dont take up space or make clutter on your pc.

thats all i can say. some head units play apple lossless. you could just convert and send it straight to your ipod

whoa wait a minute... i thought i was just posting as guest... well I am a friend of 40 oz (lol). he's here all the time. im more of a head-fi regular. drooling over ridiculous headsets that i cant afford. though my setup is decent...

anyways hello. perhaps i will clear my cookies here and make myself a screen name just to hang out

YEAH 40oz gloves!!! 40 oz to freedom!!!. lol

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

Have an Alpine 9887 as well and have been more than happy with my iPod for the last three years...ripped all of my CD's at 192kbs to save space and the rest is downloaded directly from iTunes...I'm sure there are all sorts of opinions in which people can say they can tell the difference between something that is 192kbs versus something that is recorded at a higer rate...I like classical too and even at 128kbs it sounds awesome. IMO.

 

[stanky1219]

Have an Alpine 9887 as well and have been more than happy with my iPod for the last three years...ripped all of my CD's at 192kbs to save space and the rest is downloaded directly from iTunes...I'm sure there are all sorts of opinions in which people can say they can tell the difference between something that is 192kbs versus something that is recorded at a higer rate...I like classical too and even at 128kbs it sounds awesome. IMO.

if it sounds awesome , and you cant tell the difference , you must have bad hearing or a not so good setup.

play something with lots of dynamics like dark side of the moon. i can instantly tell the difference between flac and MP3 on that particular album. Or others like i have the eagles greatest hits 2 in MP3 320 but i have the full hotel california album in flac and there is a major difference in the two. especially in the high frequency range. Sounds like someone switched speakers on me. LOL. but i also listen to my music from my pc thru a optical cable hooked to a kenwood sovereign reciever that does 130 per 5 channel , with a pair of infinty rs3's and a velodyne CHT front stage. Sounds great. But i can instantly hear the poorness of mp3. and most of my mp3's are properly ripped at 320k stereo , not joint stereo.

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

if it sounds awesome , and you cant tell the difference , you must have bad hearing or a not so good setup.play something with lots of dynamics like dark side of the moon. i can instantly tell the difference between flac and MP3 on that particular album. Or others like i have the eagles greatest hits 2 in MP3 320 but i have the full hotel california album in flac and there is a major difference in the two. especially in the high frequency range. Sounds like someone switched speakers on me. LOL. but i also listen to my music from my pc thru a optical cable hooked to a kenwood sovereign reciever that does 130 per 5 channel , with a pair of infinty rs3's and a velodyne CHT front stage. Sounds great. But i can instantly hear the poorness of mp3. and most of my mp3's are properly ripped at 320k stereo , not joint stereo.

Just how do you do that if, like the OP indicates, there aren't any H/U's that can play FLAC? Wasn't the question here about FLAC in a car audio environment? That's a whole different environment than sitting in one's home and listening to music. If I could listen to my iPod and then switch to FLAC in my vehicle, then I would be able to comment on it. I was commenting on the difference between ripping music to an iPod at 196kbs versus something higher...I wasn't comparing it to FLAC nor was I confusing the listening environment.

 

[stanky1219]

oh. sorry i misread your post. i thought you meant mp3 vs flac. and yes my head unit in my truck plays flac files beautifully............After i decompress it and burn it to a standard cd