BEETS

I consider myself somewhat of an audiophile. I'm aware for the most part what sounds good is subjective but I want to know what would be the most optimal way to hear music in my FL C63? I'm assuming CD's are the best lossless format but come on, CD's?

My setup:

Streaming service: Spotify
Streaming quality: High
Download Quality: High
Audio Normalization: Enabled
EQ: Rock (Not that I prefer Rock but it gives best sound curve)

Nav Sound Settings: BT boost off (seems to distort)

Should I stream in "Extreme"?
Should I buy an adapter to use a USB connection?
Does Tidal actually stream in a higher audio "Lossless" format than Spotify?

What are you guys doing? Also, has anyone figured how to make calls and texts not interfere with your music playback?

m a x i m u s

I try to use max streaming quality, but of course that's limited by my cell connection. Also, I believe Tidal is also limited by cell connection. The super HQ comes when connected to wifi or similar, iirc.

Mazspeed

CD's are not lossless IMO. Lossless is record recordings or better. Record rips to CD or uncompressed music to digital.
WAV, FLAC, and ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec, used by iTunes) are all lossless audio formats. MP3, MP4, and OGG are lossy audio formats.
WAV is most popular in MP3 formats but also the worst sounding of the bunch. Record rips to CD/WAV would be good if you spend the money and time to gather all the songs from high def music places like http://www.hdtracks.com/
I have collected a ton of 80's music from other sources and converted them for my system at home.
Hope that helped.

sharkey_lsu

It doesn't matter what the sound quality your music is...the limiting factor in your configuration is Bluetooth. If you want to play high fidelity sound from your phone or other MP3 source you should consider using the iPod or AUX plug in the glovebox.

If you must have a wireless solution and do not want to sacrifice music quality, it is possible to setup apple airplay but you are looking at moderate amount of modifications and wiring. Also, not sure about integrated controls in this type of setup.

BEETS

So iPod and Aux yield the same audio quality? I guess it's sucks because it's like choose one or the other. iPod to have the data transfer so song info comes up but limited to what I download on it or Aux with spotify but no song info on the nav screen. Is that correct?

sharkey_lsu

I believe they are both the same quality but don't quote me on it. I do know that Bluetooth does its own compression which is why there is a loss of audio quality. Newer Bluetooth compression standards are improved but still lossy.

I just use satellite radio in my car and forget about it. But in my 09 I used to keep an ipod in the glovebox which was much better than bluetooth.

Mazspeed

Yes and no. It's only equal to what you put in there on any format. I also agree that Bluetooth is not the best format for this. Make a playlist with your ipod, put in the best quality music you can find and go from there.
No car comes with a Asynchronous USB DAC so the best you can do is the highest quality digital through USB.

Mazspeed

Also if you have clipart with your digital music, the screen on the car will display it and the song playing. Kind of a nice feature really.

BEETS

Good info. Appreciate the comments

edisonwu

You guys know how I can connect my iphone to the vehicle via USB? I have a 2014 model.

Jasonoff

Your Audio manual, page 80, explains how (free DL link below if you lost the physical copy).

Connecting an iPod®/iPhone® ........... 80

BEETS

@Jasonoff thanks for that info, which now leads me to another question. Let's say I have my iPhone 6 which I'm pretty sure the USB/iPod connect is out of date for thunderbolt connection and I get an adapter, will I be streaming music if the songs I make on Spotify offline?

If you're not sure what offline means is you can play the songs w/o data connection from your phone. If this is the case, would this be a better audio quality than streaming?

This might be the answer to the best possible sound via Spotify

edisonwu

Great thanks. Will look into it later. I did connect the phone once but the vehicle didn't recognize the iPhone (6s). Will try step by step written on the manual

edisonwu

One off topic (kind of) question. All my new CDs from 2015 or later have no CD info. Is there anyway to update the database (freedb? not remember what it's called)?