How can u hear these headrest speakers??

[gtotco]

I have found it most pops up in certain frequencies - mostly on guitar riffs. I hadn't noticed them for months and then one day was listening to a Neil Young playlist on Spotify and was like OH THERE IT IS. I've only noticed it on a handful of songs but it provides neat atmosphere when it does pop up.

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[BlackCloud]

Great tips, Spud! How would you suggest I create the highest possible sound source? I have an Apple iPhone, MacBook Pro, and access to Apple Music. I am pretty techie, but have never really paid attention to the finer details of maximizing audio quality. For example, is a thumb drive, or directly wired connection required, or, in contrast, does BlueTooth choke the sound quality? Thanks for any additional insight!

Well, as usual, I went whole hog playing with the techie details of the B&O Unleashed sound system.

I started with a fast 64GB thumb drive formatted in ExFAT, and then went in search of high quality music. On the thumb drive, I had folders embedded in folders to see if the B&O system could navigate a typical file structure.

Since the song Bubbles by Yosi Horikawa was mentioned in the forum thread, I did a search for that and ran across Bandcamp.com, where you can purchase and download a wide variety of music in several different formats. For just $20 I was able to buy all of Horikawa’s music, in any format I wanted.

I copied Bubbles onto my thumb drive in the following formats: MP3 V0 (13.6 MB), MP3 320 (14 MB), AAC m4a (9.6 MB), ALAC m4a (37 MB), AIFF (61.3 MB), FLAC (36.8 MB), Ogg Vorbis (13.5 MB), and WAV (61.3 MB).

A brief description of the formats available from Bandcamp are at: https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/en-us/articles/360007803374-Which-format-should-I-download-

A more detailed description of audio file formats in general is in Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

The B&O system was able to find all my folders, including sub-folders, and play all my music files in all the formats I tested.

I had the truck inside a quiet garage, with all other sounds like fans, etc. turned off - dead silence. I found the best B&O system settings for my preference were Surround Sound, with Fade and Balance set 4 steps back from center (just behind the front seats). I also added a little more base.

The only limiting factor I could find was my ears. Maybe it had something to do with flying noisy jets off an aircraft carrier for too long (ya think?). Now I need to find a finicky audiophile to agree to a blindfolded test to see if they can discern the differences.

Bottom line - I personally found the B&O Unleashed system, with all its speakers, to be a spectacular immersion in sound.

 

[Tosh]

you can pretty much tell which formats are higher fidelity by their respective file sizes.

WAV & AIFF are uncompressed, so they're the largest. OGG and MP3 are virtually the same. FLAC & ALAC are a "lossless" compression, which means it really is compressed, but in such a way that you can't hear it under normal circumstances. AAC is horrible and to be avoided, IMHO.

Thanks a lot for running this test and posting the results!

 

[BlackCloud]

you can pretty much tell which formats are higher fidelity by their respective file sizes.

WAV & AIFF are uncompressed, so they're the largest. OGG and MP3 are virtually the same. FLAC & ALAC are a "lossless" compression, which means it really is compressed, but in such a way that you can't hear it under normal circumstances. AAC is horrible and to be avoided, IMHO.

Thanks a lot for running this test and posting the results!

My one surprise in the file sizes was that the AAC file was even smaller than either MP3.

 

[Leadfoot11]

B&O sound incredible. I agree with adjusting it a few notches to the rear. Only problem for me is rear electric window rattle with bass and my bass isn’t turned up its just on the standard setting. Anyone else experience this or have a fix?

 

[BlackCloud]

B&O sound incredible. I agree with adjusting it a few notches to the rear. Only problem for me is rear electric window rattle with bass and my bass isn’t turned up its just on the standard setting. Anyone else experience this or have a fix?

I had mine turned up pretty loud, with extra base, and I listened around for any rattles - couldn't hear any. That was with all windows closed.

 

[Daleberk]

We have the upgrade family plan with Spotify which comes with higher audio characteristics. With Apple CarPlay it works very well. I can tell a significant difference switching between Sirius XM and Spotifiy in the truck.

I would like to know this too! What's the best way to get the highest quality audio in the truck?
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[F150fan]

Well, as usual, I went whole hog playing with the techie details of the B&O Unleashed sound system.

I started with a fast 64GB thumb drive formatted in ExFAT, and then went in search of high quality music. On the thumb drive, I had folders embedded in folders to see if the B&O system could navigate a typical file structure.

Since the song Bubbles by Yosi Horikawa was mentioned in the forum thread, I did a search for that and ran across Bandcamp.com, where you can purchase and download a wide variety of music in several different formats. For just $20 I was able to buy all of Horikawa’s music, in any format I wanted.

I copied Bubbles onto my thumb drive in the following formats: MP3 V0 (13.6 MB), MP3 320 (14 MB), AAC m4a (9.6 MB), ALAC m4a (37 MB), AIFF (61.3 MB), FLAC (36.8 MB), Ogg Vorbis (13.5 MB), and WAV (61.3 MB).

A brief description of the formats available from Bandcamp are at: https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/en-us/articles/360007803374-Which-format-should-I-download-

A more detailed description of audio file formats in general is in Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format

The B&O system was able to find all my folders, including sub-folders, and play all my music files in all the formats I tested.

I had the truck inside a quiet garage, with all other sounds like fans, etc. turned off - dead silence. I found the best B&O system settings for my preference were Surround Sound, with Fade and Balance set 4 steps back from center (just behind the front seats). I also added a little more base.

The only limiting factor I could find was my ears. Maybe it had something to do with flying noisy jets off an aircraft carrier for too long (ya think?). Now I need to find a finicky audiophile to agree to a blindfolded test to see if they can discern the differences.

Bottom line - I personally found the B&O Unleashed system, with all its speakers, to be a spectacular immersion in sound.

So you were able to access and play the lossless audio files (FLAC and ALAC) from a USB drive plugged into the truck?

My question now is - I have lossless FLAC songs on my iphone - Can my apple car play via bluetooth play the FLAC songs (or maybe ALAC for Apple) over the B&O system? Or do i pretty much have to use a thumb drive or other corded method?

Google answered my question with a resounding no. Looks like thumb drive it is.

 

[Jerry Can]

My question now is - I have lossless FLAC songs on my iphone - Can my apple car play via bluetooth play the FLAC songs (or maybe ALAC for Apple) over the B&O system? Or do i pretty much have to use a thumb drive or other corded method?

Google answered my question with a resounding no. Looks like thumb drive it is.

Bluetooth doesn‘t have the needed bandwidth for FLAC, however, wireless CarPlay doesn’t use Bluetooth for data transfer. It actually creates a wifi connection, so technically it should play FLAC songs without any added compression. However, I have no idea if the iPhone does to the file before passing it to the sound system. I just wish these trucks still had aux jacks so that I could use my own DAC

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