I am trading in my 2016 RDX for a new 2019 RDX Aspec. I had a CD player and HDD in the 2016. I am not very tech savvy and have no idea what the best way to play music is. I have read great reviews about the new system and want to hear great sound but have no idea how to do that other than play a stereo channel that has HD. Please help!

 

Don't plan on using an ipod or USB stick unless you want to unplug and plug it in everytime you listen to it.

 

I have .AAC files sorted as album folders on a 64GB USB flash drive and only have had to unplug it and plug it back in once. The flash drive works great most of the time, but every once in awhile it gets lost and you have to re-select the album that you want to listen to. A lot better than my 2013 BMW X3, which required a lot of unplugging and plugging.

 

So what do you suggest then? I really want to hear good music. Should I save my CDs onto my iPhone and play that way? Apple Music?? Suggestions?

 

Thanks for your reply. Again, being non tech savvy, what is a .ACC file and where did you save the music from?

 

Honestly Bluetooth from an iPhone sounds great and 99% of people won’t be able to tell a difference from some non lossless audio format

 

I get the .AAC files from iTunes. .AAC files are higher quality .MP3 files.

 

It depends on the vehicle. I use a USB stick and only had an error 3 or 4 times in my seven months of ownership. Those were the only times I needed to unplug.

 

There’s an app call VOX. Highly recommend it. It launches in carplay and it has a parametric eq with alotnifnoresets and fully customizable. It’s increible. I have a lot of live concerts recorded in High quality and tneu sound like a concert hall through vox. Alter bridge with the symphony for example is an awesome experience.

 

Thanks for the tip, I will check out VOX. The only thing that looks a bit bad is that you can only upload 250Mb files unless you have a MAC. I am going to test this out over the next few days to see if it will work with 24/48 5.1 .flac files. This should be interesting.

 

Or use USB flash drive 32GB or less and you will be fine (in my experience)

 

VOX was a nightmare. Signed up, uploaded 3 .flac files, all under 250Mb then attempted to play them in the car. Not only did they not play in 5.1, they stuttered and skipped and sounded horrible. Very poor implementation, IMHO. It would take forever to upload HiRez albums to their cloud, let alone a few songs. And with that stuttering playback, horrible.

YRMV, but I say "AVOID"

 

try just syncing your iTunes library to vox through the vox phone app. That’s all I did and it worked fine. It also syncs and plays your Spotify playlists

 

Just a thought that if you are not tech savvy, A RDX may not be the right vehicle for you. It has amazing technology buy unless you are willing to invest time learning how to use it, you may become very frustrated. I love this machine but my wife considers all these features just major distractions.

 

Yes, save to your phone or transfer your music to a thumb drive.

 

This is hit or miss.. this last Friday I switched to USB Audio and the system just sat there "Initializing" for several minutes, so I pulled the drive out, then reinserted it. I then started listening to an artist's album (non5.1 Riverside Out Of Myself), every time I shut off the car then restarted it, it picked right up where it left off. This morning, (Monday), it did the same... picked right up where I had shut off the car..

 

I use Apple car play most of the time when I listen to my own music, but I will use blue tooth if I'm running errands and driving short distances. Apple Car Play provides excellent sound over blue tooth and the difference is very obvious. I have a very large CD collection (and I'm one of the few who prefers CDs to downloaded music), so 90% of my music is loaded into iTunes using Apple Lossless setting. The only AAC files I have are the songs I have purchased on iTunes. The difference in sound between Apple Lossless files and AAC is very minimal and most people can't tell the difference, but I do notice that the AAC files are slightly less crisp than Apple lossless files.

 

Apple carplay needs your phone to be plugged in. So are you really sure that music is bluetooth?

 

Yes. When I'm using bluetooth my phone is not plugged in.