[OriginalFake]

Does the car not play audio from an iPhone (connected via USB) anymore via some native application or is it only Carplay? In my 2019 440i GC, you could still listen to music from an iPhone or other USB source and not use Carplay.

[jpcoop]

Originally Posted by OriginalFake

Does the car not play audio from an iPhone (connected via USB) anymore via some native application or is it only Carplay? In my 2019 440i GC, you could still listen to music from an iPhone or other USB source and not use Carplay.

The manual says it will still work but I haven’t tried it yet on this car. Used to use this all the time on my 2018 230i that didn’t have CarPlay though.

[OriginalFake]

Originally Posted by jpcoop

The manual says it will still work but I haven’t tried it yet on this car. Used to use this all the time on my 2018 230i that didn’t have CarPlay though.

Okay cool. I have an old iPhone that I have a bunch of music on it and I was planning on using that to listen.

[PP3121]

Would an older mp3 player work via the USB connection just as another USB source? Not sure about the formatting on the mp3 player. It does support all files (APE, FLAC, etc...). I have not encountered any issues connecting audio via Android device wirelessly.

Thank you. So much to learn!

[jpcoop]

Originally Posted by PP3121

Would an older mp3 player work via the USB connection just as another USB source? Not sure about the formatting on the mp3 player. It does support all files (APE, FLAC, etc...). I have not encountered any issues connecting audio via Android device wirelessly.

Thank you. So much to learn!

An iPod might still work, I haven’t tried it but they used to have special support for those.

But it would probably be easier to just get a $15 USB drive, copy the same files onto that, and leave it in the car. That’s what I do, and a fairly common approach around here.

[PP3121]

jpcoop Thank you. I am going to order one of the suggested drives.

I think the little Cowon D2 would look really good in the car, and it has a custom leather cognac cover! It's almost as if it were destined for this car!

[OriginalFake]

Originally Posted by OriginalFake

Okay cool. I have an old iPhone that I have a bunch of music on it and I was planning on using that to listen.

This definitely works but only using the USB A connection by the cupholder. It does not work using the USB C connection inside the center armrest, which I find odd. But it's not a huge deal.

[jpcoop]

Originally Posted by OriginalFake

This definitely works but only using the USB A connection by the cupholder. It does not work using the USB C connection inside the center armrest, which I find odd. But it's not a huge deal.

According to the manual the center USB-C on the 2022s only supports data if you have the live cockpit option. Otherwise it’s power-only. Not sure about the 2023s

[OriginalFake]

Originally Posted by jpcoop

According to the manual the center USB-C on the 2022s only supports data if you have the live cockpit option. Otherwise it’s power-only. Not sure about the 2023s

There's no live cockpit option on the 23s since we get the big screen and iDrive 8. Either way, I can confirm it does not play music via USB-C.

[MPR]

Mine has been inconsistent lately. Some days it shows as an option and other days it doesn't. If I remove/reinsert the USB drive a few times it'll eventually show it as an option ..pretty annoying.

[PP3121]

Purchased a Western Digital 500 GB drive. Since, I have had no issues with the car recognizing the drive. Unless listening to radio programming, the drive is my default music player now!

Do not like the way the car organizes the files since I could do it more like windows folders in my previous external mp3 player. I would prefer to have music organized by genre and not alphabetically by artist or album.

Thanks for the suggestions/help, all.

With the EQ settings coming along, very pleased with the audio system.

[PP3121]

After re-ripping all my current music on the USB to have all FLAC files, I have noticed that almost ALL "track 1" for nearly all albums are not recognized. This results in almost all track 1s being listed individually as unknown album unknown artist, yet all the other tracks are in their correct order in the correct album folder.

I have looked at all the metadata and everything seems to be in order. I even did an overwrite to see if that helped. No luck.

Any ideas what I can do?

[LivingInSalt]

get a Spotify Premium subscription

[Redbeemer]

Originally Posted by GWIZ

I'm no audiophile, but this is the first I've heard mention of 3.5 as a fairly bad form of audio signal transmission quality-wise. It has, after all, been the standard connection for headphones and related devices for ages. Perhaps the older systems I experienced were Bluetooth-only for wireless transmission, which the wired aux clearly outperformed. Thanks for clarifying that it is a wifi signal in the newer cars. It thus surely provides a higher quality signal than Bluetooth, though I would think that it is still subject to interference and transmission variances to a much higher degree than any wired connection. I'm going to give the USB a shot and if it works I'll go about conducting a few unscientific comparison tests. In the end, the only judgment of quality that matters to each of us comes from our own respective ears.

If you used the 3.5 analog input on earlier model BMW's, you were using the DAC in your phone. The DAC in your phone maybe OK or not. Most Android phones will not output native resolution files either by USB or analog as they convert everything internally to 48 kbps, which may sound decent, but not as good as if playing the native rate, especially for hi-res files. The USB connection will, of course, output a digital file which means the car's DAC will do the converting to analog. I have no idea what DAC the BMW's use or how good it is, so it may sound better or worse than your phone's DAC. Iphones will output the native resolution of PCM files via their Lightning connector, but not DSD files. So if you play a 24/192 PCM file on your iphone, you will get that resolution output to the car for its DAC to convert to analog.

[jpcoop]

Originally Posted by Redbeemer

If you used the 3.5 analog input on earlier model BMW's, you were using the DAC in your phone. The DAC in your phone maybe OK or not. Most Android phones will not output native resolution files either by USB or analog as they convert everything internally to 48 kbps, which may sound decent, but not as good as if playing the native rate, especially for hi-res files. The USB connection will, of course, output a digital file which means they car's DAC will do the converting to analog. I have no idea what DAC the BMW's use or how good it is, so it may sound better or worse than your phone's DAC. Iphones will output the native resolution of PCM files via their Lightning connector, but not DSD files. So if you play a 24/192 PCM file on your iphone, you will get that resolution output to the car for its DAC to convert to analog.

Not really, analog signals were being ADCed back to digital at the headunit anyway (so they can be muxed together with nav instructions, voice commands, etc.).

[Redbeemer]

Originally Posted by jpcoop

Not really, analog signals were being ADCed back to digital at the headunit anyway (so they can be muxed together with nav instructions, voice commands, etc.).

Your response of "not really" is unclear. Exactly what part of my post do you disagree with? I believe everything I stated was correct, even if your remark about the analog signal being converted back to digital (not good) is true.

[jpcoop]

Originally Posted by Redbeemer

Your response of "not really" is unclear. Exactly what part of my post do you disagree with? I believe everything I stated was correct, even if your remark about the analog signal being converted back to digital (not good) is true.

That back-and-forth conversion is the entire issue. You say the headphone jack might be good depending on the quality of your phone's DAC but since it is converted back it will always go through the car's DAC anyway (after a lossy coversion), so it is in all circumstances better to use a digital connection.

The car needs to be able to remux the audio on the fly to add active sound design (fake engine sounds), voice commands, nav instructions, warning gongs, collision warnings, etc. so everything is digital. It's not like hooking up to a pair of speakers at home.

Of course if you go back 15 years you'll find cars that didn't work this way, but they also didn't have USB connections.

[GWIZ]

Bought a lightning to USB A data cable for my Ipod and plugged it in at the cupholder. Sounds good. No issues yet, but just tested it for about 20 mins only. Could be my trouble connecting previously had to do with using a charging not data cable. Not sure, but it works now.

Also copied music files to a USB thumb drive and that works very well.

The HK actually sounds like an HK system now. So many more clean decibels, gobs of tight base... now I have to watch the volume more carefully -- ear-splitting listening levels are no longer metaphorical.

[OriginalFake]

Originally Posted by GWIZ

Bought a lightning to USB A data cable for my Ipod and plugged it in at the cupholder. Sounds good. No issues yet, but just tested it for about 20 mins only. Could be my trouble connecting previously had to do with using a charging not data cable. Not sure, but it works now.

Also copied music files to a USB thumb drive and that works very well.

The HK actually sounds like an HK system now. So many more clean decibels, gobs of tight base... now I have to watch the volume more carefully -- ear-splitting listening levels are no longer metaphorical.

There's no difference between a charging cable and a data cable.

[GWIZ]

Whatever cable I had before, it charged the ipod but didn't transfer music to the stereo. The cable I just bought does both.

[OriginalFake]

Originally Posted by GWIZ

Whatever cable I had before, it charged the ipod but didn't transfer music to the stereo. The cable I just bought does both.

Huh. I'm wrong. Apparently there is such a thing as a charging only USB cable. I've used a ton of USB cables over the years but I've always used the ones that come from Apple or BMW in the car so I've never experienced a charging only cable.

[GWIZ]

Originally Posted by OriginalFake

Huh. I'm wrong. Apparently there is such a thing as a charging only USB cable. I've used a ton of USB cables over the years but I've always used the ones that come from Apple or BMW in the car so I've never experienced a charging only cable.

I've come across plenty of USB charge-only cables in the non-Apple world over the years, which is why I may have postulated that was the issue in this case. Perhaps my previous Apple cable was defective -- as I said, I really don't know what the problem was. My only Apple product is an ipod, which I haven't found success connecting via USB in my G42; that is, until using the cable I purchased the other day from Apple. At any rate, the point of my post was simply to share that this cable does in fact work well with my ipod in the G42 and that the USB thumb drive is an option that is working now for me as well. I'm quite happy about the results and encourage noobs like myself who may be fishing around for connected solutions to give this a shot.