cblueG

Hi

I want to be able to listen to HD music (e.g. Tidal, Amazon music HD) in my car and wondering what are the best options out there in terms of adding equipment

1. I don't know the specs for the factory burmester that comes with the car so not sure what equipment will be advisable that uses the factory system to its full potential.
2. Wondering if adding an external DAC would do the trick or if I need to also invest in an external amp

Have any of you tried upgrading the sound even if it's not necessarily upgrading the entire system? What did you try and what worked?

SW20S

I listen to Amazon Music HD in my Lexus, plug your phone in via USB and you are listening to HD music. Just that simple.

bkdc

USB. The human ear can not differentiate CD quality (44kHz, 16 bit) over HD (88khz, 96kHz, or crazy 192khz, 24 bit) although HD recording allows more headroom for the sound engineers to produce a master so that albums mastered in HD sound better. It really doesn’t matter with pop music. Modern pop music is intentionally compressed so that people listening in a car or noisy environments like a gym or commute can hear both highs and lows of the compressed dynamic range (50 dB at most) making the availability of the massive dynamic range of HD (144dB in 24 bit) worthless. This is unlike a pristine quiet listening environment of a sound studio or treated home room where you can take advantage of hearing a pin drop in pianissimo versus the roaring fortissimo that almost hurts your ears in a classical symphony. The dynamic range of undamaged human ears is 140 dB. Audiophile Automotive sound is almost contradictory, the audio system designers do the best with the suboptimal listening environment. Pop music sound engineers know that most people are listening to music on the go.