escapedcon

Thanks.

Giving Tidal a try right now...listening over my Beats earbuds the difference is noticeable next to Google Music...for a lack of a better word the quality on Tidal sounds "deeper" with more detail (I'll test on my ML as well)

Downside being (so far) it's buffering too much over 4G Sprint connection plus their search and interface is not as intuitive as Google Music's

I have 7 days to decide (free trial)

My ears LOVE the HiFi quality but I need a reliable service..

PS: another downside is selection...I already found a favorite song/album Tidal does not have (not new and not mainstream for sure)

nsaldanh

Yeah, it keeps buffering for me as well on my home computer. There is no option to download to the computer on the PC version. You can however download to an iPhone or Android and then stream that to your car via blue tooth or USB.

thelawnet

44khz is a 16-bit format.

Devh

It can also be in 24bit format especially with the early stuff.
I have Rush's Moving pictures in 24bit 44khz taken from the original master that was used for CD encryption. I haven't seen much in this format but a quick internet search show more titles available.
http://abelganz.bandcamp.com/album/a...nz-24bit-44khz

Regardless Rush Moving pictures is a phenomenal when listen to in the higher format being played through my Grado 325e and sounds every bit as good as the LP vinyl I remember.
I have a top of the line Eclipse head unit in my other car which has a 24bit DAC but only for the EQ processing in the digital domain but I can still pipe in 24bit decoded audio into the inputs.

roadfrog

Another Rush fan.....no wonder I like you!

Devh

Your not going to believe this but I figured you would be a Rush fan too not just because you live in Canada.
Get yourself one of these.


And a pair of these

And revisit your favorite Rush Albums in 24bit audio and be blown away.
On some albums you can hear artifacts from the studio which is quiet spooky.

Devh

I wonder if the newer Lexus with ML has a hidden egg in it so it can play DVD-A like some of the earlier PlayStation 3 consoles .

jamodeo

iTrader: (1)

I could swear I have played DVD-A in my 13 LS. Maybe I am just thinking back to the days of my 09 GS460 but I think it can.

-Joe

Devh

Make sure it wasn't a hybrid SACD format that might only be playing the CD layer.

nsaldanh

The 13+ LS models can no longer play DVD-Audio discs. They can however play DVD-Video discs. The DVD-Video spec allows for you to play 24bit/48 KHZ audio even if no video is present. I have recorded a few DVD-Video discs and play them in the car. On the 2008 and 2012 models you could play DVD-Audio discs.

An easy way to tell if you have a DVD-Audio disc is to examine it on a computer and look at the directory structure. A DVD-Audio disc will have the files in the AUDIO_TS directory while a DVD-Video disc will have the files in the VIDEO_TS directory. Hybrid discs will have files in both AUDIO_TS and Video_TS.

also Sony just came out with an audiophile walkman the NWZ-A17. It was launched in the US last week and list price is $299. Plays several lossless formats and sounds good.

williakz

Is this unit AirPlay compatible? Can the USB port be used to send hi-res tunes digitally to the ML or a home receiver? Not too much info on the unit online yet. I see it's backordered, so someone must like it! Thanks for the heads up.

nsaldanh

Williakz: It's not Airplay compatible. It does not have wi-fi capability. You copy music on to it via USB.

I can connect the unit to a Denon 4520 amplifier and control it from the amplifier's remote. It's clunky though and the amp can only see individual songs and not playlists. It treats the unit as a USB drive and will use the amplifiers software to play the files. The same thing happens on the ML and given that the ML head unit can't play anything other than MP3 and WMA files it will not read any lossless formats stored on the Sony device.

You can connect via bluetooth to the ML system in the car. However it uses the basic bluetooth profile not the aptx (I think that's what it is) profile that is meant for high quality audio transfer via bluetooth. That's a limitation of the ML unit though and not this unit. All the same uncompressed music played through this unit sounds better than any mp3 you can play via an iPhone connected via bluetooth.

You can also download Apple Lossless files to an iPhone and play that through the car. The iPhone will send a lossless stream to the car's head unit.

williakz

Thanks for the info. Looks like this gizmo has just missed the mark. Oh well, the wait goes on. In the meantime, I'll stick with a 160gb iPod Classic connected to ML via USB. iPod has its screen turned WAY DOWN, its click wheel turned off, and it lives inside a nice soft fabric sleeve at the bottom of my console. Always charged and ready to rock and roll, Apple Lossless, of course. Whenever I've ripped my 5th new CD, it gets an iTunes re-syncing.

Pamperme

Snap, crackle, pop. I want my Rice Krispys at the dinner table, not in my car.

Devh

I got to sample Spotify today bit steaming through my friends Mac Air into my high resolution audio player on DAC mode. I could clearly hear the compression. The music was veiled and lost a lot of it's fullness.
The same music played in 16bit audio was clearly better and there was no contest. I could clearly point it out in a blind comparison during heavy construction.

I was also told about Tidal and it looks promising because they are able to pipe 16bit audio which I think is a dream come true and what digital radio should have been in the first place.