Music Streaming Quality

[Rackdoctor]

Hi, I have a Air Pure on order and I submitted some questions about the stereo system to Lucid. Being and audiophile and musician and working with sound for a living, I have always wanted to shape my audio experience by choice of speakers, head unit, source, cables, tweaks, etc. on all my cars I have owned. My ultimate goal was to modify my Lucid for analog, new powemps and speakers. It would seem that might not be possible given the current configuration of the sound system in the Air. I submitted the following suggestions and questions to Lucid and was wondering if anyone shared my feelings about the current options? Below is the e-mail.
To whom it may concern.

A percentage of Lucid's future clients are producers, engineers, musicians, and audiophiles.

Therefore, sound quality and options concerning the audio playback in the Air and Air Pure is more important than your regular consumer.

I think a car of Lucid's quality would benefit from more options to meet the customer's audio needs than just Bluetooth.

Unfortunately Bluetooth is not the highest quality of play back because:

Due to Bluetooth’s limited bandwidth, it’s impossible to send audio without some lossy data compression techniques. Some audiophiles believe that lossy compression degrades audio quality inherently, and Bluetooth audio is therefore unacceptable to these listeners. Bluetooth compresses and distorts audio data as well.

If possible, can there be option of:

1. Streaming higher quality audio thru the USB port with a cable from your Ipod, phone, thumb drive or media storage device to ensure the highest quality of source playback of the owners choosing.
2. An analog audio 1/8 stereo input jack for portable music storage players and devices.
3. Ability to upload and store music (FLAC, MP3, WAV) on the car's computer.

Here are some additional questions as well:

1. Can the car speakers be upgraded to aftermarket without voiding the car's warranty.
2. Is the car's power amp separate from the main computer?
3. What are the speaker sizes in the Air Pure.
4. What are the EQ frequencies of the Treble, Mid and Bass of the Lucid's sound system EQ.

Thanks.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I’m glad you sent them that email. I think a 1/4” hardware input is unlikely, but can’t USB function as an analog input? If I’m not mistaken isn’t that how the Astell &Kern works, where you’re using their D to A converter? Of course we know a multi-channel analog signal can’t fit down a 1/4” pipe so that would be most useful for 2 channel audio.

And yes I would be curious which bands are affected by their low/mid/high EQs. I think the tuning on the car is amazingly well done but I still put the bass at +4 just because I do like the extra it adds at lower volume listening.

 

[Rackdoctor]

Unfortunatley the USB ports in the Lucid can only be used for charging-not streaming. When I listened to the Air Stereo, I noticed the front speakers lacked botom end. They were mainly mids and highs.

 

[pam4_AGT]

A percentage of Lucid's future clients are producers, engineers, musicians, and audiophiles.

Time for a poll? Anyone?

 

[zkhan2]

So I started doing some research into the music quality on the Lucid Air and discovered something interesting. When using Tidal via the built-in application, the stream is limited to 320kbps. However, if you use Alexa to play the same song via Tidal, it seams to play at max quality > 1411kbps. This applies to other services as well, Tidal, Amazon Music, etc. If you play the same song using each method, the version playing via Alexa is noticeably better quality. My guess is Lucid limits the stream quality with the built in application so they do not use as much data but is not able to with Alexa. Thoughts? https://lucid324632209.wordpress.com/.../24/media-overview/

Thank you, it worked for TIdal.

 

[Haggy]

Unfortunatley the USB ports in the Lucid can only be used for charging-not streaming. When I listened to the Air Stereo, I noticed the front speakers lacked botom end. They were mainly mids and highs.

I'm sure that this is covered elsewhere, but for the benefit of anybody coming across this thread after doing a search, USB music is supported.

Hey sorry I just tested Apple Music with Alexa and it says it’s not currently supported in this device :/ just Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon Music

If I ask Alexa to play something, it seems to be getting it from Amazon music just fine, but I don't see Amazon as one of the listed streaming services so I don't have an interface on the screen. Am I missing anything?

 

[MorganB]

If I ask Alexa to play something, it seems to be getting it from Amazon music just fine, but I don't see Amazon as one of the listed streaming services so I don't have an interface on the screen. Am I missing anything?

No you aren't missing it. It is just playing via Alexa streaming. You can enable Tidal Skills on Alexa however if you want it to play on Tidal:

 

[Rackdoctor]

As an update. I am enjoying playing my vinyl rips with a thumb drive. I am very impressed with the stock Surreal Sound Pro in my Air. Might upgrade the power amps, but the speakers sound great. The stereo performance really relies on the source material. It is unforgiving. I have the balance set slightly more forward for better mids.