[2022M550i]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

😂😂😂

My daughter thinks it's not fair. I'm like, you can pay the $55,000 a year and have Spotify if you want.

Only 55K, you got away cheap. Thank God my son just graduated 2wks ago. He already landed a job… He doesn't feel like starting until mid July….and his employer embraces that. Must be nice. I tell you, the kids today are much different than we were when we were at that age. At that age, I had a car that wouldn't go past 65 mph, made 85 hp on a good day, used 1qt of oil per week, our mobile phone was $.10 in our pocket to make a call on a payphone. My college tuition was $11,000 per year. My first real job paid a whopping $21,000 per year. You make more than that pouring coffee now.

All right back to the music. I tested Amazon, Spotify and Apple Music back to back on my home system…. Apple Music was noticeably better (clearer and louder). I couldn't really tell the difference between Amazon and Spotify…. The sound quality was good between all of them. We've beat this dead horse in to the ground already, it's down to whatever interface you can live with.

It's good to hear the feedback on Tidal…. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by 2022M550i

Only 55K, you got away cheap. Thank God my son just graduated 2wks ago. He already landed a job… He doesn't feel like starting until mid July….and his employer embraces that. Must be nice. I tell you, the kids today are much different than we were when we were at that age. At that age, I had a car that wouldn't go past 65 mph, made 85 hp on a good day, used 1qt of oil per week, our mobile phone was $.10 in our pocket to make a call on a payphone. My college tuition was $11,000 per year. My first real job paid a whopping $21,000 per year. You make more than that pouring coffee now.

All right back to the music. I tested Amazon, Spotify and Apple Music back to back on my home system…. Apple Music was noticeably better (clearer and louder). I couldn't really tell the difference between Amazon and Spotify…. The sound quality was good between all of them. We've beat this dead horse in to the ground already, it's down to whatever interface you can live with.

It's good to hear the feedback on Tidal…. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

Yup, Apple Music sounds the best at home or in the car.

Don't get me started on kids today. I literally could not wait until I graduated to start making some money so I could someday have nice things. There was no break. I started out making $18,000 per year, but it was non-exempt (paid overtime) and I went into work the very first Saturday after I started. Heard some guys talking about coming in Saturday and I said to myself, I probably should. Naïve me shows up in a suit on a Saturday. They got a kick out of that.

My daughter has had an off campus arrangement (really on campus but not subject to rules) and it's a 12 month lease. Going into year two of this and she is "supposed" to pay for the summer non-school months. That ain't going to happen because she didn't want to start her job until after her "Birthday Week" in mid June.

Trust me, it's more than $55,000 when you take into account all the Venmo's, parking tickets, parking pass, etc.

[AmooManiak]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

I'll try that, but honestly, it's the Bluetooth streaming that is the issue. I only play their Master files and I can't really tell a difference. Streaming can only support so much bandwidth. Tidal definitely sounds better on my home system using wifi and AppleTV.

I don't think that Carplay uses Bluetooth for streaming, but Wifi. It uses bluetooth for the initial setup only. That also explains why your quality would suffer and you not being able to tell a difference.

Carplay is a bit better than bluetooth and on par with CD quality - which is better than bluetooth but of course not the same as having FLAC files on your usb stick.

[AmooManiak]

Originally Posted by 2022M550i

All right back to the music. I tested Amazon, Spotify and Apple Music back to back on my home system…. Apple Music was noticeably better (clearer and louder). I couldn't really tell the difference between Amazon and Spotify…. The sound quality was good between all of them. We've beat this dead horse in to the ground already, it's down to whatever interface you can live with.

To me Spotify, Youtube Music and Amazon all sound the same. Never tried Apple Music but I also don't like to be constrained in a specific eco system.

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by AmooManiak

I don't think that Carplay uses Bluetooth for streaming, but Wifi. It uses bluetooth for the initial setup only. That also explains why your quality would suffer and you not being able to tell a difference.

Carplay is a bit better than bluetooth and on par with CD quality - which is better than bluetooth but of course not the same as having FLAC files on your usb stick.

That's right, it uses BT for the handoff and then wifi. So, what do you mean by this explains why the quality would suffer? I would imagine wifi should be able to stream at a much higher bit rate than BT. You know, I have been in threads that explain why CarPlay can't stream lossless files or even realize the super high streaming lossless settings of Apple Music and Tidal, but I can't remember why they don't work over CarPlay.

[2022M550i]

I was tinkering around with Spotify and came across this in the Settings/playback section. An equalizer, sound presets. I'm interested to see how this impacts the sound

[530iDriver]

Originally Posted by 2022M550i

I was tinkering around with Spotify and came across this in the Settings/playback section. An equalizer, sound presets. I'm interested to see how this impacts the sound

I turned the EQ off in Spotify.

I like sound reproduction that is not artificially colored if it makes sense.

[2022M550i]

Originally Posted by 530iDriver

I turned the EQ off in Spotify.

I like sound reproduction that is not artificially colored if it makes sense.

Yep, totally get it. I screwed around with the presets and the change isn't really dramatic. It is noticeable though.

[AmooManiak]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

That's right, it uses BT for the handoff and then wifi. So, what do you mean by this explains why the quality would suffer? I would imagine wifi should be able to stream at a much higher bit rate than BT.

I thought you may be streaming over bluetooth instead of carplay - which would explain some quality degradation. I remember you saying you are an Android guy so not sure if you use Carplay.

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by AmooManiak

I thought you may be streaming over bluetooth instead of carplay - which would explain some quality degradation. I remember you saying you are an Android guy so not sure if you use Carplay.

Nope, I'm an Apple guy through and through. I drink the Apple cool-aide!

I don't think wireless CarPlay supports high bit rate lossless streaming.

[G35c6MT]

How does one get the latest update? I think I'm on 07/2021 via OTA and so far haven't received a notice to update ('21 LCI)