Best audio sources for SSP

Hey folks. I'm picking up my car on Saturday. I have a 5 hours drive back home from there. I really 2ant to out the SSP to the test, so i wanted to know what would be the best way to take advantage of the SSP full potential?

1. Music stream from my phone via bluetooth? (Amazon Music and downloaded files)
2. Music stream straight from infotainment system?
3. Usb with audio files?
please let me know if there is anything specific I should try, like a specific type of file or a specific streaming service.
Thank you in advance!

Audio quality for me is 1 - tidal (make sure to download the app to your phone and add albums or playlists to your favorites in the app so they show up in the car as you can't do that effectively in the car interface. 2 - Bluetooth steam from my phone; YouTube music hq setting which the car then gets as aac (codec) 44.1 khz sampling. 3 - SiriusXM. You can also plug in a USB drive I believe if you have lossless tracks to play. I notice a clear difference between 1, 2 and 3. 3 is still serviceable. Congrats and enjoy!!! Great car.

Congratulations!

- I know that a fair number of folks on this forum use the USB for high-quality audio.
- My personal preference is to use Apple CarPlay which streams lossless audio over 5G, and which will play lossless audio if connected via a wired USB connection to the car. This provides the highest-quality audio possible.
- Note that this is only applicable for audio quality in terms of bitrate, not Dolby Atmos playback.
- My understanding is that Dolby Atmos does not work with CarPlay, and that the native Tidal app (through which Atmos tracks can be played on SSP) does not have the highest possible bitrate.

Enjoy your new vehicle and your drive home!

Assuming you have access to ATMOS encoded audio files, a USB stick will provide the best source, with the Tidal app a close second. However, people with less discerning ears like myself think SiriusXM sounds just fine.

New owner. Is it possible to get Dolby Atmos through the USB cable? or Apple Spatial?

wally4602 said:

New owner. Is it possible to get Dolby Atmos through the USB cable? or Apple Spatial?

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From what I understand, yes

Source is king. As they say in scientific research: garbage in = garbage out.
First thing to consider is whether you’re able to tell the difference between fidelity while driving in a car on a highway. We have the best audio system in any car but the highway noise, the listening space (the car) are less than ideal spaces to judge quality so I am not sure you’re able to tell the difference in the same track whether it is streamed in FLAC from a usb drive vs from Apple Music through CarPlay (wired or not).

For me, most of it comes down to how the music was mastered and recorded in the first place. Crappy recordings will sound as such regardless how you listen to them. Once you’ve established that your music is well recorded, then the USB>wired streaming>bluetooth streaming principle applies.

As to native Tidal, I have done a couple of A/B/X trials with my family and each time, I’ve found that wired streaming from Qobuz has sounded better than my native Tidal in the car. That does not apply to some of those same albums in ATMOS. For example: Tango In The Night (Fleetwood Mac). This album sounds AMAZING through Tidal ATMOS and is better than my wired Qobuz (non-ATMOS). I acknowledge that it isn’t exactly apples to apples but the listening pleasure is what counts.

Lastly, don’t be fooled by the ATMOS label. It is not easy to find those albums in the phone app and even harder in the native app. Some albums are truly gems but a lot carry that ATMOS label but are really nothing special sonically. I heard that music companies/artists get paid more for ATMOS files by Apple so they’re incentivized to deliver that format but don’t know that for sure. The amount of time and energy to create the ATMOS energy is often not worth it to the companies but the payments are.

Have fun.

wally4602 said:

New owner. Is it possible to get Dolby Atmos through the USB cable? or Apple Spatial?

Click to expand...

You can play Atmos from a USB drive if you manage to find it in the right format (compressed MP4/M4A format, not BluRay-quality MKV), but not from your phone. Apple Spatial won't work yet either. Tidal is still far and away the easiest way to get Atmos in the car.

Thank you. Testing Tidal

Yes, the native Tidal app its what you need for streaming. Be sure to try a range of different Dolby Atmos tracks since there is a wide range of quality depending on the track even within an individual artist's albums. Some tracks sound likely slightly higher quality versions of standard stereo mixes, while other tracks are simply mind-blowing and phenomenal!