I have had a 2010 TL w/ tech package for about four months, and have been pleased so far with the sound system. I just put in the sample ELS CD that I got from the dealership and was somewhat blown away by the quality of DVD-audio. I usually listen to music that I purchase from itunes on my iphone plugged into the USB adapter, so I did not have any experience with this type of sound.

After doing some research, it seems like I missed the craze of DVD-audio. So I thought I would get some opinions on how I can maximize the quality of my music on my iphone. I know there are more than few formats that you can convert a CD into in itunes. I am just not sure which one will give the near DVD-audio quality. I am assuming that digital formats probably do not come close.

Thanks for any help or opinions.

 

You've got a couple of issues.

One is the format. You want a lossless format. WAV and FLAC are two options, but there are others.

Second is you need a format that your system can read/play. I don't know what options you have for the iPod/iPhone.

Finally, don't expect anything to sound like DVD-A, except DVD-A (and possibly DTS or SACD). The reason is 99% of the music you buy is 2-channel stereo. No matter how good the recording is, it won't have the same channel effects as a 6-Channel mix.

Even some of the DVD-A I've bought sounds more like 2-channel re-directed to 6-channel, not mixed as 6-channel like the sample disc.

 

true DVD-A sounds so much better than MP3/CD inmost cases. It's not for purists but neither is MP3 or even CD, for that matter.

That said, I really enjoy my DVD-A collection and luckily, a few bands still still support it, Porcupine Tree comes to mind. They release double disc sets DVD-A and CD.

 

IU, there's not much of a way to make MP3's sound good because they are squished about 7-1/2 times to get them to fit on your iPhone. You can still find some DVD Audio discs online. Unfortunately, they're few and far between...

 

I thought Apple had a lossless or low loss format - aaf or mp4 or something?

 

Apple does have lossless; Go to Preferences, general, & import settings. There you will find Apple Lossless; WORD of ADVICE: The files are HUGE, & take up tremendous amounts of space on your Ipod. Yes, the sound is somewhat better, but IMO, not enough of a difference, to change from AAC.

 

Thanks for the replies. It looks like Apple might make an announcement in the near future that they are going to upgrade their itunes library to include higher quality digital files. I thought I saw that they would be 24 bit/96 khz quality.

I got this info from a cnntech article, so I am not sure when this will be officially released. I guess 24 bit/96 khz is close (still depends on how the sound in engineered) to DVD-audio quality. I am sure I am going to have to upgrade my hardware to play these files.

I guess we will see.

Thanks

 

New hardware will be needed for playback of those files, for sure. We would need hardware to decode the new format and all bluray players and receivers will need to be able to play a new format.

Speaking of bluray, we have yet to see bluray players in autos and bd has been out for 5 years now.

 

I stumbled upon this as well http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/02/...nes/index.html

Since ipod technology is not quite there, theoretically, I guess I could purchase a USB drive (for the time being) download these HD tracks, and play them through the USB option. Not sure if you will lose some integrity doing it this way.

I will let you know if I make a move. I have limited experience with DVD audio, so I am not sure if I would be able to tell a huge difference between Itunes and this option.

 

HD Tracks is a VERY cool website. Many of the DVD Audio discs I have are available for download on HD Tracks. I also get their e-newsletter, which you can sign up for for free. I just got an e-blast from HD Tracks announcing the Stones availability. I'm anxious to see what and how it's offered.

 

If you are a fan of progressive rock, Amazon.com still sells DVD-A's. There are many titles that really seperate out the 5 distinctive channels. Toy Matinee has a great DVD-A that has to be heard! Porcupine Tree's Deadwing is phenomenol as well on DVD-A... you can search Amazon for DVD-A or DVD Audio and see a large selection of titles. Fl-eBay has them as well.

I wish the format had taken off but maybe if Sony et al. didn't have to muddy things up with SACD (or vice versa), we'd have had an HD audio/multichannel standard.

What i am getting at, it might be worth you while to look into DVD-A since we do have a sound system that can utilize it. BTW, my bluray player also plays DVD-A's.. which sound fricken awesome in a home theater!..

 

Hi Steve,

Do you think the head unit will be able to decode the HD audio via USB? I don't know enough about the electronics to know if it can read the format then decode it.

That does sound like a great future tech instead of just super-crunched MP3's, especailly with memory getting larger and and cheaper all the time... Wouldn't it be great if we could plug our portable 1-2TB HDD's into our systems, use voice to nagigate and play our favorite playlists?.... okay, I will wake up soon..

 

Stew,

I emailed support at HD Tracks last night about this issue. I will update you when I get a reply.

 

Stew, I don't think the head unit will be able to decode these HD track via USB. However, there are a number of software apps (discussed on Acurazine) that allow you to burn the tracks to disc. Those would probably play in your TL!

NOTE: Guys, if you go to HDtracks.com, the Stones are available on the site. Through March 8th, you can get a 10% discount using the code: stones10

 

I have done that before.. well, used .WAV and MP3 files to create the multi-channel. It worked pretty good.. Made my own Pink FLoyd DVD-A's I like them.

One day we'll have the latest tech

 

Here is the response from HD Tracks:

"Thank you for your inquiry. We are not able to offer support for third party devices at this time. However, the scenario you’ve presented appears to be reasonable. I would contact the audio player device manufacturer to confirm that the device is competent of playback at high resolution playback such as 96/24 or 176/24. There files are generally too large to fit on to CD, however you can burn them on to DVD."

Not sure how to find that out. Burning these to a DVD might be the right move.

 

It depends on the file format for the player to read it. I am not sure how much benefit we'd get in our cars anyway because of road noise to make it worth going all HD though some will 'have to have it'.

I certainly get a lot of enjoyment form the multi-channel DVD-A.

 

Update:

Purchased an Rolling Stones album on HD Tracks. I purchased the highest bit/ghz they had. I tried uploading .wav/aiff files onto a USB flash drive, and plugged it into the TL. I did not have any luck with that attempt. To keep the integrity of the FLAC files I purchased, I ended up converting the files to .wav and burning them onto a DVD-audio disc. I think they sound great. They only have 2-channel files, but he said they are planning on releasing surround, therefore, there might be a way to reproduce DVD-audio discs.

Due to the limited amount of music on HD Tracks, I will probably purchase CDs for current artists and mess around with the bit rate for ACC or try to burn them into Apple Lossless for my ipod. Thanks again for everyone's input.