Lend27

Can the ELS system play audio files off a USB flash drive?
Where would you plug it in?
I have the 12 speaker audio on the SH-AWD/Tech.
Thanks!

Funz51

You plug the thumb drive in the front usb connector under your right hand. It works great. I have probably 1000 lossless FLAC recordings, and a few mp3's on a 256 gig drive. The RDX will play a Host of other formats also. Search for 'audio' on this site. I have the higher version of the ELS so theret might be a difference.

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/for...-system.25174/

Lend27

Thanks for the info!

Padre Dave

There are some issues with long initializing of th eUSB drives, but there are some workarounds on the forum for the sound system. I finally got some 5.1 files converted from Yes album Fragile....sounds amazing!

Cazman

Just don’t expect it to play Apple lossless .m4a files. The owners manual says it will but it won’t.

Padre Dave

I save files as .FLAC, which are considerably larger than .mp3, and they play just great. The 5.1 files are also saved as .FLAC files.

The .m4a is actually what iTunes files come in, so I'm not sure why they wouldn't play. I should try it.....

Lend27

.m4a files play fine for me.
Copied from iTunes to USB.

Madd Dog

I can be listening to a song, and in the middle of a random one, I will get a beep and it says unknown file type. It was playing that file all along, all of a sudden a part of it is unknown?

The USB playing has yet to be properly sorted.

Lend27

IMO the entire system needs fixing.
The "Engine Idle Stop" would not activate for me this am.
I turned it off, then back on again, and it reset and worked fine.
You're right about the USB music system. It is really buggy. I had a song get caught in a loop and wouldn't stop repeating no matter what I did. I had to wait until I could turn off the whole system. When I turned it back on
it went back to normal.
Let's hope they get these issues fixed soon.

Cazman

I think you will find that iTunes files come as .mp3 files. Apple lossless is .m4a and unfortunately for me I ripped my entire music collection to .m4a files. I had to convert everything to .mp3, very time consuming but it is done. I would be interested in knowing if the recent build of the RDX plays .m4a files. If it is a software codec it may be possible but if the codec is hardware then it will never happen without an upgrade to the radio.

Lend27

IIRC, The default file type in iTunes is .m4a.
If you desire, you can change it to .mp3 in Preferences.
My 2019 RDX plays both.

arjaykay

Both Apple Lossless files (ALAC, Apple Lossless Audio Codec) and iTunes music files (AAC, Advanced Audio Codec, higher performance MP3s) both have the .m4a extension. The AAC .m4a files play fine in the RDX. The ALAC .m4a files do not play, even thought they have the .m4a extension. The ALAC files have to be converted to FLAC files to be played in the RDX.

Cazman

Thank you for this explanation!! I did not realize that .m4a files could be lossless ALAC encoded OR lossy AAC encoded. Since I ripped my music library using iTunes from cd’s to Apple Lossless it is ALAC and wouldn’t play. I just purchased an album from iTines without specifying .mp3 and indeed it downloaded with songs that were AAC encoded with an .m4a suffix. I also confirmed that they do play while ALAC files do not.

Funz51

Nice, care to share where you got the 5.1 'Yes' album from? would love to get hold of it myself.

Stew4HD

Amazon.com has it on Bluray in 5.1

DriverOne

If you're playing a song off USB, is there a way to fast forward or rewind within the track? As far as I can tell, there's only the option to go to the next track on the USB.

Funz51

Yes, hold down the left or right arrows and it will rewind or FF.

DriverOne

Ah, OK, thanks!

Padre Dave

One thing that I am noticing when I am driving with the USB drive inserted is that the port in the console is really sensitive to movement. If I bump the drive it will start to initialize again, which is weird. I have a hunch that the USB port is not the best quality and I will likely be at Acura of Tempe some time when I can spend a day (oh yeah, these are premium dealerships, so we get a free loaner! Cool!) to have the genius’ there replace the port....stay positive, Dave, stay positive.....

Padre Dave

I think it depends on how you made your files on the USB drive. When I use the BluRay disc reader for my 5.1 type files it records the whole album as one track. I am sure there is a way to fix that, but I haven’t come across it yet. All of the .mp3 files and even the stereo .FLAC files are separated from each other by a directory.

Cazman

I don’t know if this is relevant to your situation but the owners manual advises USB drives should not be plugged directly into the port. Some of them get pretty hot. I use a short extension cable.

NooYawkuh

Thanks, I'll have to try that. I have some entire album sides and I'd like to be able to jump ahead sometimes.

As for file formats, I have stuff on USB in full CD-quality WAV format, FLAC, and MP3. All have played just fine. They're all open formats. And I think all have been ripped or recorded from open source programs like fre:ac or Audacity.

acelow

I use a program called dvd-audio extractor to convert dvd-a and some Blu-ray discs that are not protected to a 5.1 wav files, the output are the individual songs as individual files. I then use another program "HD audio solo ultra" to convert those wav files to flac files so I can add album art. For the protected Blu-ray's I use makemkv to create a backup that is not encryted. The dvd-a extractor is still available at dvdae.com, but the HD audio solo ultra by cirlinca may not be.

Empro

I have the same problem (sensitive to movement) but it doesn't stop there. Long initialization lags...then failure to launch, "no data on the drive" messages, every error msg imaginable...but not every time. It's the worst problem to have because you take it to a dealer and they can't isolate a problem. IMO the whole system needs to be re-worked. And whatever happened to Android Auto? Acura is seriously failing its customer base here.

Padre Dave

I hear your frustration. I get the same crazy messages about my USB drives....I switch between my 2 USB drives and my iPhone 8+ for Apple CarPlay. When I get the crazy “No Data” messages I shut the power to the sounds system off on the steering wheel. Then I remove the drive in the USB and wither reinsert it or swap to the other one. Then I turn the power to the system back on and it usually does a quick (15 second) initialization and then starts playing music. That has worked every time for me, but sometimes I just switch back to my phone for ACP.

I pray this helps the situation at least until Honda can come up with an OS revision, as this unit is not very stable. My Mazda sound systems were never as good as this one, and once I learned why it was doing what it was doing it was easy. I don’t know how Nissan or Toyota systems are, but hey....the RDX is not equivalent to a Murano or Highlander......please. This is a performance vehicle!

NooYawkuh

Never had that happen but I do have a few MP3s that just don't show up at all. I'll have to try to recreate / re-export the files.

Yup, that works. I should have known that but I was looking for a way to just jump to a certain point in the track.

DriverOne

The only problem is the rewind and FF are so slow. I had a 30 minute podcast I was listening to and I had been near the end (say, 28 minutes in) on my computer. I put it on USB and then tried FFing to the 28 minute mark and it was taking so long I just said forget it.