'Premium sound'... not so fast.

[trunkrecords]

So we ordered our i3 today and discovered that the Premium sound package has no way to actually import premium sound to be processed! i.e. CD player.

Sirius radio is not high quality because it is a stream of mp3 encoded sound.
iTunes and other mp3 hawkers provide mp3s that are not high quality sound.

It appears that the only way to get this system to play true high fidelity sound is to rip CDs as uncompressed WAV and play them from a flash drive.

Chime in if you can help me understand what has happened to human beings and why most of them believe iTunes and mp3s are in any way 'premium sound'.

 

[mindmachine]

So we ordered our i3 today and discovered that the Premium sound package has no way to actually import premium sound to be processed! i.e. CD player.

Sirius radio is not high quality because it is a stream of mp3 encoded sound.
iTunes and other mp3 hawkers provide mp3s that are not high quality sound.

It appears that the only way to get this system to play true high fidelity sound is to rip CDs as uncompressed WAV and play them from a flash drive.

Chime in if you can help me understand what has happened to human beings and why most of them believe iTunes and mp3s are in any way 'premium sound'.

You apparently don't superscribe to the theory that better quality speakers, more of them and more discrete control do not add to the sound experience no matter what the source. OK whatever, I bought the premium sound and you can tell the difference.

 

[trunkrecords]

The point is if your audio source (i.e. CD, mp3, etc) is not 'reference' quality, the audio produced by the system will be less than the highest quality regardless of the number of speakers. Audiophiles understand this and most abhor the degradation of consumer mp3s. If I am buying a premium audio system I expect to be able to play reference quality, premium, audio files whether those files are WAV, mp3, FLAC, CD etc.

 

[Stevei3]

Reference ? Perhaps not, but what about ripping your CDs to Apple Lossless (if you've got an i-product) and playing them back through the cars USB port ?
Bit-perfect ? Mwah. But the bits are shaken up by the cars DSP and digital amps anyway...

 

[mindmachine]

The point is if your audio source (i.e. CD, mp3, etc) is not 'reference' quality, the audio produced by the system will be less than the highest quality regardless of the number of speakers. Audiophiles understand this and most abhor the degradation of consumer mp3s. If I am buying a premium audio system I expect to be able to play reference quality, premium, audio files whether those files are WAV, mp3, FLAC, CD etc.

I am fully aware of and understand the technical side of your point!

 

[Bunter]

Am I the only one who considers the concepts of "reference" and "audiophile" to be slightly strange in the context of a car stereo where playback is surrounded by background tyre and wind noise?

Bill

 

[mindmachine]

Am I the only one who considers the concepts of "reference" and "audiophile" to be slightly strange in the context of a car stereo where playback is surrounded by background tyre and wind noise?

Bill

I strongly agree with you, when I am driving I am not focusing on the music as "audiophile quality" I am focusing on driving the car and the road noise masks the quality of the sound anyway. I usually get the premium sound system if it isn't outrageously priced only because I find in a car more speakers tend to help the sound as I sometimes the premium sound options allow for greater adjustment/control of the sound. I rip my own CD for my cars and put it on a flash drive. I could rip full quality, but to me for use in the car it is a waste of space and time due to the file size and your ability to hear the difference in a car.

 

[electricvirgin]

I think the system in the i3 supports FLAC over the USB connector? If so this is equal to CD quality.

Although i tend to agree with other users that in the noisy environment of a car there are limits to the benefits of lossless/CD over compressed mp3 and similar. However the superior amplification and additional speakers of the 'premium' system can easily be heard, particularly at higher speeds/sound levels. I have heard both systems in the i3 and the HK system justifies its cost with ease.

I am something of an audiophile and dont listen to mp3 at home as there is certainly compromise involved, on the move i am less fussy but if Flac is supported then i will be fine.If not its not a big worry.

 

[Espresso]

I have the standard sound system on my i3 and it plays 96/24 Flac files. I got the free upgrade to the Pro nav/media system so I have the in-built 20gb hard drive. Uploading music to that via USB is easy but I think I'll mostly just stream directly from USB sticks / USB hard drives on an ad hoc basis.

 

[Ardie]

I was shocked (and perhaps appalled) when I found out that I paid $800 MORE to get the "premium" Harmon-Kardon sound system, and I *still* didn't get something as basic as an AM radio, or a CD player. Sigh.

So now, when I wish to listen to books-on-disk, I have to take 'em all home, rip 'em to files on the computer, rename all the files so they are in numerical order, copy them onto a flash drive, and put it in the car. At least the car 'remembers' the current track that the flash drive is on, so I'm not listening to disk-1, track-1 every time I get in the car.

There is an Aux-In 3.5 mm audio-in jack right next to the USB port, but I haven't explored the possibility of getting an ordinary portable CD player and re-routing the CD player's audio into the aux-in jack. But I imagine that it will work. I bought this car so I wouldn't have to have a rat's nest of wiring everywhere to take advantage of modern-day technology.

Maybe BMW has forgotten that there are still a number of audiophiles that have a couple of hundred CDs that they (we) won't part with.
I'm not fully embracing The Cloud just yet.

-- Ardie

 

[stonecold]

Agree with Ardie re: CD. They may be "old school", but so much easier to load for recorded books than playing with iTunes. BTW, in California, using phone as controller/access to recorded material (or using phone for anything else which is not hands free but which requires touching the phone) it ticketable offense, as I found out the hard way. Would have thought that any amenity on ActiveE would be the minimum carried over to i3.

Same for AM radio. I was told that electric motor interfered with AM reception, and I experienced this effect on occasion with ActiveE. But this minor inconvenience was so much better than trying to listen to AM stations via HD band (much worse reception) or via internet radio (waiting for buffering makes this option impossible). I have not looked into this, but have not heard that Leaf or Tesla lack AM radio.

 

[I33t]

Are you guys serious? CD Player and AM Radio?

CD Players are well on the way out and if you value your CD's why take them in the car where they cop wear and tear and are a traffic hazard swapping them. As for AM Radio, where we live there is very little of it left, and the quality if far from anything associated with 'audiophile'

Ripping a CD on a modern machine takes a couple of minutes, and you can choose any quality you want. You can put a whole collection of CD's on a single flash drive, we have our entire music collection on a 62GB flash drive.

Leaving the CD player out is a good thing, saves weight and cabin space too

 

[MikeS]

+1 for the UK as well.

 

[Blue20]

Are you guys serious? CD Player and AM Radio?

Most highway travelers' information station in North America are still on AM radio. It is a safety issue.

But then you can argue i3 is a "mega city car", it is not suppose to be on highway.

 

[SamWhitei3]

My dealer was out of HK Rex's when it was time for me to buy, so I just have the standard audio system. It doesn't sound too bad.
I can confirm playback of 192khz flac files from the Pono Music Store. Sounds nice! And the artwork shows up on the split screen of the nav system. I'm not going to import files that big to the internal memory, that I believe is only 20GB. But I might copy a few 96khz files of some of my favorite albums. I'd rather have quality than quantity. You can always erase and import something else later.
I have about a half a terabyte of high res music. Maybe I'll put it on 4 thumb drives and be done. Or experiment with a USB hard drive.
I would say that it sounds noticeably better than my iPod through USB.

 

[epirali]

Ok as an audio engineer I feel I have to chime in: more speakers DOES NOT equal better sound. In fact it usually means more sound sources, potential phase problems, and separation of material by frequency. Takes a LOT of care to make this work, and most car companies don't care.

My i8 has premium sound and its marginally better than the basic sound in i3. Haven't heard the premium i3.

Cars are a terrible environment for detail listening. The shape of the room is wrong, you are not in the center of speakers (and no DSP doesn't fix that, just shifts it). Not to mention the environment changes day to day by humidity. Temperature etc.

Finally I can HEAR the difference between uncompressed audio and AAC high bit rate audio, but I don't care, and specially don't care in the compromised audio system of the car. At best they have marginal speakers, not enough watts and nowadays almost all run processing that can't be turned off. This makes starting with CDs a moot point.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Unfortunately, as I age, my hearing isn't fairing well, and the challenge becomes hearing the thing at all! Some are better engineered than others. IN that confined space, with realistic dynamic range, being so close to the speakers can mean it's not all that healthy for long-term hearing health.

 

[epirali]

Unfortunately, as I age, my hearing isn't fairing well, and the challenge becomes hearing the thing at all! Some are better engineered than others. IN that confined space, with realistic dynamic range, being so close to the speakers can mean it's not all that healthy for long-term hearing health.

It all depends on how loud it is. One of the things I love about electric cars is the reduced background noise, which means you can listen to things softer.

 

[psquare]

High quality audio inside a vehicle is a contradiction in terms, I am afraid. I would call myself an audio (or "HiFi", as they used to call it) enthusiast and listened to the £650 HK upgrade. It sounded nice, but in my very personal opinion, I'd rather buy more music for that kind of money.

 

[spinball]

I have an i3 with the H/K and have had plenty of trips in models without it. I don't find EITHER of them to be that great, honestly. The H/K in my E46 was better. In my opinion the soundstage in the i3 is way to far forward in the dash because the A-pillars are so much farther in front than in a typical car.