My apologies up front for the length of this post. My new-to-me 23 S580 has the upgraded 4D audio system. So, I asked ChatGPT which on-board audio service was best for my car. See its response below. Does anyone in the forum know if this is correct? I know Apple Music offers lossless audio, but according to ChatGPT, our on-board Apple Music app doesn't pass lossless to MBUX!!!!

HERE'S MY QUESTION TO CHATGPT, THEN I CHALLENGED ITS RESPONSE, WHICH IS FURTHER DOWN IN THE POST: I have the 4D Burmester audio system in my car. Which one of two: Tidal or Apple Music is best suited for the sound system in my car streaming over the built-in apps in my Mercedes-Benz 2023S 580?Mark, with the 4D Burmester High-End audio system in your 2023 Mercedes-Benz S580, you’ve got one of the most advanced in-car systems available—multiple amps, 30+ speakers, 4D resonance transducers in the seats, and full Dolby Atmos support. This system demands premium source material to shine, and not all streaming services are equal in how they integrate with MBUX.

🚘 In Your Specific Case: Mercedes-Benz MBUX Integration

✅ Tidal

• Native MBUX Integration: Yes, built directly into the car’s infotainment system.
  
• HiFi & HiFi Plus available: You can stream lossless FLAC and even Dolby Atmos tracks natively via Tidal on MBUX.
  
• Fully utilizes the Burmester 4D setup with its spatial audio.
  
• No Bluetooth bottleneck: Since it’s app-based in the car, you avoid Bluetooth compression entirely.
  

⚠️ Apple Music

• MBUX Integration: Available in newer Mercedes, including your S580—but not all features are supported.
  
• Lossless & Hi-Res not supported over MBUX app: Apple Music only streams AAC (256 kbps) in the car. Lossless and Hi-Res audio are not currently supported through the built-in app.
  
• Dolby Atmos: Not supported via Apple Music in MBUX. Even if a track is labeled Dolby Atmos, the car won't decode it that way through Apple Music.
  

🔥 Verdict: TIDAL is the clear winner in your S580

With your Burmester 4D system and MBUX, Tidal HiFi Plus is the only service that:

• Streams in true lossless or hi-res directly through the car’s native interface
  
• Fully supports Dolby Atmos, which your system renders beautifully
  
• Takes advantage of the 4D seat transducers with well-mixed spatial tracks
  

If you’re paying for a system of that caliber, Tidal HiFi Plus is the only streaming service that gives you the return on that investment.

Let me know if you want help setting up Dolby Atmos in Tidal or tuning your Burmester settings for best results.

MY CHALLENGE QUESTION: Are you certain about the information you provided about Apple Music and my car audio capabilities?Absolutely—let’s clarify with concrete info:

✅ Apple Music via MBUX in Your S‑Class

Spatial Audio (Dolby Atmos)

• Apple announced in October 2022 that Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos is available natively in MBUX for S‑Class (and other models) 🎧(apple.com).
  
• That means you can stream Atmos tracks directly through Apple Music’s app in your vehicle, tapping into your 4D Burmester setup.
  

🔍 Lossless & Hi‑Res Audio

• Apple Music’s lossless formats (ALAC up to 24‑bit/192 kHz) are not used by the native MBUX app over your cellular car connection (reddit.com, support.apple.com).
  
• The car’s app sends audio over the network or Wi‑Fi (not a dedicated digital cable), so it defaults to compressed streams, even if tagged as lossless.
  
• Reddit and forum users confirm that FLAC/ALAC via USB (e.g. flash drive) can produce true lossless in MBUX—but that’s a local media, not streaming (reddit.com, reddit.com).
  

🎯 What This Means for You

• ✅ Yes, you can enjoy Dolby Atmos with Apple Music through MBUX in your S580, fully leveraging your Burmester 4D system.
  
• ❌ No, you won’t be streaming true lossless or hi‑res (24/48 or higher) via the native Apple Music app—only standard compressed audio.
  
• If maximum dynamic fidelity matters (i.e., bit-perfect hi‑res), you’d need to switch to USB playback of local files, or opt for Tidal, which supports true lossless and hi‑res streaming through MBUX.
  

🧭 Summary

• Spatial Audio: ✅ Available via Apple Music app in MBUX
  
• Lossless / Hi‑Res: ❌ Only compressed when streaming
  
• FLAC/ALAC playback: ✅ Via USB files
  
• Tidal: ✅ Supports both true lossless and Atmos via the native app
  

✔️ Final Note

You're spot-on to question it! Your S‑Class does support Apple Music’s Atmos, but not hi‑res lossless through the streaming app. If you want both Atmos and true lossless in the car, Tidal HiFi Plus through the MBUX app is your best bet.

 

Now that ChatGPT challenged what I thought I knew about Apple music in our cars, I signed up for 1 month of Tidal. I used a 3rd party app to import my Apple Music playlists into Tidal and have been comparing the two services for a few days now. I "think" I hear a difference with Tidal, but to be completely honest, I'm not certain if I REALLY hear a difference, or if I "think" I do. Since I'm a fossil anyway, my ears have seen (err heard) better days, so it likely is all in my head (lol). But, I'm all in with Apple, so I doubt I'll keep Tidal past the one month I signed up for, but am looking forward to others' perspective in the forum.

 

While I have both services now, Apple and Tidal, I do think Tidal might sound a bit better - but that may be all in head.

 

I have the 4D system in my 2025 W214 E450 AT. While I have not tried Tidal, I have used the Apple Music MBUX app and I do notice, especially on Dolby Atmos encoded albums, a huge difference compared to Apple Music via CarPlay. CarPlay transmits data via bluetooth, so it does not have the bandwidth to transmit Atmos data. Whenever I listen to the same song on the Apple Music MBUX app it sounds better, crisper and has more bass via 4D than it does via CarPlay Apple Music.

 

I hate to be a party pooper, and I say this as a long time Tidal person: Apple is better organized in terms of getting to the music you want. in ATMOS. It's also easier to light off ATMOS with Apple; it just worked, whereas I screwed around for weeks getting ATMOS lit on Tidal.

About Tidal, check your past playlist on the PC after you get out of the car; it will show what you played and in what format. Verify what you were actually served up, I think some of you may be surprised by the results.

Again, I like Tidal, I'm on Android, and I'm not trying to be beat Tidal up. But a bottom line to me is that I'm about sure no one is going to be able to critically listen to this system, and pick one vs the other blind, at a rate that exceeds coincidence. On the other hand, Apple just works. There's something to be said for that.

 

I also have used both, and they sound exactly the same to me. I highly doubt Apple Music doesn't send lossless files, and I can tell a difference between Atmos tracks and non Atmos tracks. I don't think MB would pretend you can turn Atmos on and off if it wasn't actually using Atmos.

 

Just to fully enjoy the lowly 3D Burmester I have in my car, I got a new USB-C thumb drive dedicated for FLAC files.
I was set on installing my aftermarket sub/amp in the S580 but after listening to some files in the car, I don't see the need at this moment.
Now I'm really curious how the 4D sounds!

 

I also had a sub/amp in my S560 and its totally unnecessary in the 580. You should try the streaming through the MBUX.

Another issue with Tidal is whenever it starts up it defaults to some vulgar explicit Drake song...Apple Music starts up with what I was listening to

 

Just wanted to follow up on this.

I have been having connectivity issues with MBUX and Apple Music and I decided to try Tidal, it seems to have solved my connectivity issues, it also seems to have stopped defaulting to the Drake song lol. I do believe the sound quality is slightly better than Apple Music, actually.

As long as it continues to solve my connectivity issues I will keep using it.

 

Reviving my old thread as this past week I got an email asking me to come back to Spotify as the service now streams in Lossless audio. I ditched them last year and moved to Apple Music for their better audio quality. Then I tried Tidal for a few months to "see" if I could actually hear a difference in the audio quality.

In the US at least, you can get two months for the price of one for Spotify, so I signed up for a two month go, to see how it sounds. Sounds okay to be honest, but that got me thinking: We've pretty much concluded that MBUX passes lossless through on Apple and Tidal, but what about Spotify? Dunno - do you?

I'd call MBUSA Customer Service, but can you imagine how that conversation would go? No thank you. Hopefully someone here knows rather than a customer service rep pulling some answer out of their butt.

 

Let us know what you find out.
With your 4D Burmester, I'm sure the SQ difference is significant!
I'm jealous.

 

Great question. I like the SQ of Tidal, but the interface and the way music is organized and presented is nowhere near as good as Apple Music. Also I havent had any crashes of the Music app using Tidal like used to happen all the time with Apple Music. Spotify is the king of organizing and presenting music, would love to give it a shot. The SQ alone isn't what keeps me with Tidal (its probably actually the same) its the fact that the app doesn't crash requiring a soft reset.

MBUX does also pass lossless through Amazon Music...

 

If it passes lossless in Amazon, Title and Apple, then it likely passes in Spotify now, too, so that's great. Doubt I'll switch back to Spotify, because of a number of reason, but mainly because I'm all in with Apple: phone, watch, music, etc.

The reason I was asking for Spotify (and a bigger reason, really), is because in the mobile app for each of the streaming services, you must go into preferences and select the audio quality you want, and the lesser quality is selected by default. You don't have that option in MBUX onboard music apps, so I wonder does it default to the max audio quality by default to give the listener the best experience???

 

Thats a great question, my guess is yes. The reason that the phone app has that option is to save on data use