getakey

I was looking at a higher end audio player that can connect via Bluetooth. However, what happens to the phone HFL if you pair a second device. Can the RLX support a Bluetooth device for audio and separate phone at same time? It is not addressed in the manual - or at least I could not find it in the manual

TampaRLX-SH

You can pair multiple devices to the RLX. And example would be multiple phones. You can pair a Bluetooth audio device, but in order for it to stream to the car I believe it must have handsfree profile in the Bluetooth stack. It needs that gateway for the AD2DP profile to stream the music. It is a one way data transfer profile (device to car via the HFL profile). To my knowledge only phones have the HFL profile. Any other device would need be connected via the USB port.

getakey

Thanks - I'm thinking Bluetooth is going to compromise the sound quality anyway.
The USB would only look at the device as a storage unit and therefore use the RLX reader/player - isn't that correct?
Is there an Aux In? I'm going to go look now

There is.
Now question is how do I compare the get the specs for the RLX MP3 reader to compare to other devices?

One more thing - I have the Krell system, but I don't think Krell provided the head unit. Can anyone confirm that?

TampaRLX-SH

The RLX head unit is made by Alpine. Krell does speakers, sub-woofer and tuning.
There is an AUX IN as Apple devices connect via USB cables. But yes, you can plug in a thumbdrive with music files.

http://owners.acura.com/utility/down...onnections.pdf

Last, I may not agree with you on Bluetooth streaming definition. Streaming Pandora and Aha (with HD settings in the apps) equals or exceeds HD FM and waaaaay better than Sirus / XM (which I did not renew).

getakey

Thanks for more info.
I'd rank the following:

Best Actual CD
Better HDD
Good FM HD
Bad XM

But there is a big diff between the HDD and CD. Would you say Pandora is as good or better than HDD or inbetween FM HD and the HDD? You could also use the Aux in with Pandora. Have you compared that with Bluetooth? I got to believe that is better than Bluetooth.
A USB device would play same quality as HDD because it is the same reader/converter. I was looking for something better than HDD.

TampaRLX-SH

I would agree with your ranking. I believe HD streaming Pandora is in between FM HD and HDD. Android phones will not play Pandora via Aux cable - only via BT HFL and the embedded app of the head unit (same for aha).

fsmith

I would put USB-connected iPod or iPhone (with music ripped at your choice of quality) above the HDD compressed audio. Also you get the artist/album/track info that you do not get with music on a USB-connected flash drive. Just my penny or two.

getakey

what is the restriction on the Aux in from Android? Isn't it just like hooking up a wired headphone?

I did a comparison on Bit rates for various sources before - can't find it right now. I'm surprised the HDD doesn't support a higher quality file. I think the "High" quality is 192. I was hoping for 320. So the question is can the Alpine Head unit read MP3 files stored at 320 bit rate? I'm assuming it should. So at least with USB, we can get source quality higher.

getakey

why don't you get artist/album/track on flash drive?

fsmith

Because the head unit knows how to read the metadata from the Apple system. A flash drive just has a bunch of files in folders.

getakey

The MP3 files have meta data as well. The head unit will display these - just like the files stored on the HDD.

Is the Apple interface digital or analog, i.e., is the Apple device decoding or is the RLX Head unit decoding?
I know for USB, the Head unit reads the files and decodes. For Aux in, the device decodes and sends analog input.

getakey

After thinking about it, The Apple interface must be digital like USB. Apple just uses different connector, not USB

fsmith

It may be just that the head unit knows how to display the Apple iOS metadata in reads from an iOS device in a useful way so that you can scroll through artists, albums and songs, while the data on a flash drive connected to the same USB input is displayed only as a series of file and folder names. At least that's how it appears to work in practice. The iOS interface in the car looks like an old scroll-wheel iPod interface.