[viXit]

What mode? What mode?

Wireless is the norm today,
And for music, it's all over Bluetooth.
Services like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Prime Music are all the craze today, growing up with an iPod in my pocket when online streaming wasn't a thing, I've struggled with laggy iTunes interface and syncing music to the iPod.

Online streaming shouldn't really be a problem, except for one thing,
For the purists, nothing but for FLAC, Apple lossless etc. quench the thirst for uncompromised audio quality.
Free streaming is good, but not good enough.
And high-quality streaming services like Tidal and Amazon Music HD aren't available for Indians as yet.
And buying each song for 15 bucks on iTunes will end up being more expensive than my whole audio setup for the number of songs I have in my playlists.

Sadly for us, not available in India

I've seen several members mention that they have an iPod permanently docked and parked in their dash. More so in the earlier days of One DIN systems without Bluetooth streaming.
I want to start a discussion on parking a dedicated device in the car for music.
I mostly stream music on Amazon music over Bluetooth in the cars.
My ideal solution would be to plonk an old iPhone/iPod with the Amazon music app into the glove box after offlining my playlists.

Both cars have the USB+AUX ports in the glove box.

Amazon lets you offline music. But I don't know if I can browse through the music from the head unit that way, my head unit has inbuilt Spotify app which allows all that, but I don't want to pay for the subscription for ad-free and HQ music, since I already am paying for amazon prime( music+movies+prime delivery)

WHY?

1. This started when I noticed that streaming over Bluetooth was significantly worse than playing songs over a USB iPod connection in the Safari
   
2. I found the dock connector for the iPod in the Honda City, the urge to use it has come up.
   The city 2016 OEM Head Unit with MapMyIndia maps doesn't support Large-capacity USB drives and doesn't have iPod connectivity over USB. It has a special data connector. Which connects to an adapter and then connects to iPod (30 pin connector) (not lightning). I need to find a lightning connector too. I want to use this cable as it will allow
   
3. The safari's AVH-x7850BT head unit supports connecting to 2 Bluetooth devices at once and switches to the one on which a call is made or is ringing. But for streaming media, a single device has to be selected from the two connected devices, and it gets glitchy at times. You can choose any two to connect from 3 paired, and one to play music from
   
   Something like this:
   
   
   
   
4. Laggy interface from the head unit
   
5. Music controls on HU don't work sometimes( play/pause, shuffle, repeat etc.)
   
6. Retro feeling bro. Wired is already outdated. But nothing beats the redundancy, reliability and quality of offline music wired to your car
   
7. I would rather have several dedicated devices except when it needs janky setups like putting a GPS screen on my dash, or separate gauges on the dash. I will prefer having it all on the head unit instead.

What I'll gain

• My Safari supports USB up to at least 256gb drives and also iPod/iPhone connection over USB which is of much higher quality and fast + glitch-free.
  
• Album artwork will be displayed, I'm a sucker for details like these, no matter how insignificant. I want to see Drake sit on top of that tower when I'm listening to the views album.
  
  
  Album art in iPod mode
  
  
  Album art on the home screen too
  
  
  
  No album art in Bluetooth mode :(
  
  
• Will finally be getting the controls like shuffle and repeat actually work
  
• have properly managed albums, unlike in Bluetooth which doesn't browse through files and folders:
  
  
  
• I can fold away the display and use the remote for controls.
  Otherwise, the screen is blocking the AC controls, which isn't all too bad because we don't fiddle with it that often, but still.
  

[viXit]

All pics were shot for a review of the AVH-X7850BT flip out type head unit.
I reused them here.
I don't plan to do the review immediately but in case someone is interested, I'll expedite that one.

I'm still a noob at this, kindly point out any mistakes etc.

Although I merely shared some pointers and those were very specific to my use case alone where The main goal was to achieve quality playback of music.\

My idea behind this thread was to start a discussion among other more knowledgeable BHPians

My dream remains to have an inline 6 BMW with a beautiful dock like this and a sound system good enough to match the sweeet sweet scream of the I6. Albeit never at the same time.
I don't have my priorities mixed up, I just like the dock a lot. Looks damn N-E-A-T

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[rdst_1]

For the reasons you mentioned, I still prefer using my phone as the all-in-one device because it does everything perfectly well. It has a great touch screen, a good screen size at 6.7 inches, a dedicated memory card slot and great battery life. I recently upgraded my phone just to use it mainly as a portable music player and have a 256GB card in it right now with the possibility to upgrade it to 512GB when needed. Currently it holds around 100GB of Apple Lossless music of my own and another few GBs of Amazon Music downloaded.

[viXit]

Originally Posted by rdst_1

For the reasons you mentioned, I still prefer using my phone as the all-in-one device because it does everything perfectly well. It has a great touch screen, a good screen size at 6.7 inches, a dedicated memory card slot and great battery life. I recently upgraded my phone just to use it mainly as a portable music player and have a 256GB card in it right now with the possibility to upgrade it to 512GB when needed. Currently it holds around 100GB of Apple Lossless music of my own and another few GBs of Amazon Music downloaded.

That looks like an android phone.
What protocol are you using to connect to your Head unit?
Android auto? Or are you using it as a USB device storage with FTP?

[rdst_1]

Originally Posted by viXit

That looks like an android phone.
What protocol are you using to connect to your Head unit?
Android auto? Or are you using it as a USB device storage with FTP?

I like simplicity so using an aux cable. And I don't have a smart player either. I had the option but decided to go for a simple player with an option to play CDs and no screen and I use my phone for all the functionality I needed. With emergence of new technologies one can simply upgrade their phone and enjoy the benefits without having to upgrade head-unit as well. It also gives me the opportunity to use variety of apps like 'Move' which has better maps/navigation for Indian cities than having to stick to Android Auto etc.

[viXit]

Originally Posted by rdst_1

I like simplicity so using an aux cable. And I don't have a smart player either. I had the option but decided to go for a simple player with an option to play CDs and no screen and I use my phone for all the functionality I needed. With emergence of new technologies one can simply upgrade their phone and enjoy the benefits without having to upgrade head-unit as well. It also gives me the opportunity to use variety of apps like 'Move' which has better maps/navigation for Indian cities than having to stick to Android Auto etc.

Aux is great but the reason I said in my post that usb data interface is better because it’s digital.
Aux is analog, and the quality that goes to your Head unit is decided by the DAC(digital to analog converter) on your phone.
But if you use usb , the data is digital and is decoded in your head unit itself which has a much better DAC than the one inbuilt in your smartphone.

Aux is also susceptible to disturbance like alternator whining and other hissing sounds.
Any leak in current, whether it’s at the head unit or while charging your phone, it will create disturbances in aux. since it’s an analog connection.

I prefer to keep it digital till the last moment of the process to prevent any form of distortion. Works very well.

I have a Bose Sounddock 2 speaker and it has two inputs, the iPod dock, and the aux input.

The 30pin iPod connector on the dock is of much better quality, and when I’m charging the speaker, there is distortion.

And if I increase the volume over a certain threshold the sound signal over aux gets a little distorted (tearing noise) this is really high volume, mind you.

But there is no such distortion on the data connector (iPod dock) input.

[haisaikat]

Since you liked using the iPod over USB that means your head unit's DAC is acceptable to you. You will get better audio output with iPod's inbuilt DAC if you play using AUX cable, the only thing you will miss is controlling using the Head Unit.

Having Amazon Music, Spotify and Tidal all 3 at the same time my take is that Spotify free on Head Unit can still work out better for you because of

• Ad is not that frequent like in Youtube
• Sound quality is way better than Amazon Music and supports offline mode too
• Dynamic Playlists on Spotify are the best offerings of the platforms, they recommend you playlists made out of your listening pattern
• If your car HU has an ability to connect Internet separately then one Spotify app (like your phone) can control the Spotify on your HU, requires Spotify premium and subject to compatibility.

If you can live with your phone and Aux cable then Apple Music has better quality than Spotify unless you want to go for Tidal. Even higher level would be to using USB Audio Player Pro app on your phone connected to a USB External DAC like the ones from Dragonfly connected to HU via Aux or even a dedicated newer generation DAP in sub 10K range over iPod that offers better connected features unless you have one of the compatible iPod touch models that support Apple Music streaming

[rdst_1]

Originally Posted by viXit

Aux is great but the reason I said in my post that usb data interface is better because it’s digital.
Aux is analog, and the quality that goes to your Head unit is decided by the DAC(digital to analog converter) on your phone.
But if you use usb , the data is digital and is decoded in your head unit itself which has a much better DAC than the one inbuilt in your smartphone.

Aux is also susceptible to disturbance like alternator whining and other hissing sounds.
Any leak in current, whether it’s at the head unit or while charging your phone, it will create disturbances in aux. since it’s an analog connection.

I prefer to keep it digital till the last moment of the process to prevent any form of distortion. Works very well.

I have a Bose Sounddock 2 speaker and it has two inputs, the iPod dock, and the aux input.

The 30pin iPod connector on the dock is of much better quality, and when I’m charging the speaker, there is distortion.

And if I increase the volume over a certain threshold the sound signal over aux gets a little distorted (tearing noise) this is really high volume, mind you.

But there is no such distortion on the data connector (iPod dock) input.Attachment 2054546

Have you compared the S/N ratios of any of the DAC chips in the HU to that available in the current phones.
Maybe the phones have weak amplification but the DACs inside them are more than capable of producing good S/N ratios. Even for my phone, I use a small but powerful USB-C DAC E1DA 9038s, but only for it's powerful amplification which is needed for my HD650 headphones (37mW at 300 ohm).
Just take a look at what chips a HU unit and what your phone uses and check their S/N ratios and you will be pleasantly surprised.

[GTO]

Have my entire music collection neatly organised in iTunes and used to be an iPod guy for a decade. But with smartphones evolving so much, have moved entirely to Bluetooth or Android Auto via my phone.

Out of curiosity, if your phone is connected to your ICE via a cable (either USB or Android Auto), would you not get the same sound quality?

[sai_ace]

This is a problem close to my heart as well. I own a Fiat Linea with Blue and Me. While the Quirky Italians gave me voice controls and bluetooth phone connectivity - I do not have Bluetooth Streaming or even an AUX!

Circa 2014 - I have no problems with not having Bluetooth Streaming simply because I have always been an Ipod Touch (2nd Gen) music guy, the system neatly integrates to my IPOD via USB and shows up everything from playlists to Genres. And I use ITunes to curate my music. So all worked perfectly. And the sound quality was great - as great as stock audio can be. Side note: the stock speakers on the Fiat Linea lack in lows but have quite a lovely mid and high. The notes are warm and refreshingly soothing to my ears. Also has a great sound stage.

Circa 2019 - My Ipod touch 2nd gen is dead - but I have replaced it with 5th Gen Ipod Touch 32gb. The player works flawlessly on my Linea - but my audio preferences have changed. I now listen a lot of Podcasts especially from Spotify. Now my Ipod doesn't support spotify and my car doesn't support bt streaming from android. This was getting on to my nerves now.

But I had previously bought this BT Receiver. This one plugs to the USB and when you stream your music to this device - converts it to MP3 which is then picked up by the car HU. The catch is the lag - at least 3-4 seconds. This was a bit irritating for me when playing songs where I would like to skip a track - but in podcasts which are mostly 15 mins to even an hour, this one works well. The Audio quality is good too - unlike traditional BT to Aux units or BT to FM units.

With the decision to stick to the Stock Audio system being a compromise, everything else fell in line to that compromise - and whatever I do I will not get a perfect solution unless I change that HU to a modern unit that supports IPod Connectivity, Bluetooth with High Res Codecs like AptX HD, LDAC etc, Ability to play lossless audio and integration with Fiats Steering controls.

So thats that - the Ipod touch is pretty much in my glovebox all the time. That is how I listen to music in my car in 2020 - age of android auto, apple car play, blah blah.

[viXit]

Originally Posted by GTO

Have my entire music collection neatly organised in iTunes and used to be an iPod guy for a decade. But with smartphones evolving so much, have moved entirely to Bluetooth or Android Auto via my phone.

Out of curiosity, if your phone is connected to your ICE via a cable (either USB or Android Auto), would you not get the same sound quality?

Same sound quality as Bluetooth? Definitely not. I have a substantial loss of depth in the music when I stream over Bluetooth. But that’s just my head unit. With Bluetooth 5.0 the gap is slowly closing.

[neerajsharma48]

I have an old 80 GB ipod full of my favourite music. Since the battery was on its last legs, i put it in my XUV 500 with a USB connector. The interface worked great and I could also update the music from my imac to ipod.

Last year I changed to a XUV 300 and since then I have been using the same Ipod. However there is a problem in switching from one play list to another. The music index can be accessed and displays in the car display, but cant be selected to play. The car system stays on the preselected playlist. The only solution is to unplug the ipod, select the desired playlist and then reconnect ipod to the car system.

Ipod servicing facilities have dried up and the Mahindra service centre associates are clueless.

Can any BHP member suggest a solution or troubleshooting idea?

[itwasntme]

Great timing. Any tips on how I can connect an ancient iPod Classic (60gb) to a modern infotainment system lacking an AUX-IN port? I have a bunch of high quality music on my dinosaur but unable to connect it to my new 330i.

Am looking for a high quality interface so no FM streaming type workarounds please. :-)

[bsdbsd]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Great timing. Any tips on how I can connect an ancient iPod Classic (60gb) to a modern infotainment system lacking an AUX-IN port? I have a bunch of high quality music on my dinosaur but unable to connect it to my new 330i.

Am looking for a high quality interface so no FM streaming type workarounds please. :-)

Convert your iPod to a BT Transmitter using:

https://www.amazon.in/docooler-Bluet.../dp/B00KT4YLMU

Since your HU seems like a modern unit, it must have BT. Problem solved.