music spotify,etc question

[redlinehigh]

just wondering, i have a samsung a3 and was thinking of using spotify, but audi informed me that when i was going to purchase the lighting cable that it would only charge the phone!! is it possible to connect your phone, how do u guys put music through the car or onto the duke box???? sorry silly questions, thought it would be abit easier with such a realativly new car!!!

 

[code_it]

As far i remember You need to pair your phone with the car via Bluetooth, then while You will play music on your phone, it will play on car speakers ( when phone is connected to car and in range ).
I am currently not near the car so i can not deliver You a detailed instructions.

This might be helpful through.
http://www.audibeaverton.com/blog/2013/april/19/audi-bluetooth-streaming.htm

 

[Ormesome]

I have Spotify on my Iphone 6s. You can play your music via Bluetooth. Nothing needs to be charging etc. For me, having my phone plugged in or not to the MMI makes no difference to options on MMI. You do have to choose the music on your phone though. You can go forward and back via the MMI system but you cant actually see a playlist or your albums etc. Track album etc.. is displayed but not much else. Well for me this is the case with a PFL with the base end MMI.

 

[Simon L]

.............or you could just stop dicking around with all this bluetooth and phone cable nonsense and stick your music on an SD card or USB stick??

 

[Ormesome]

SD cards or USB are a faf!! how do you put it on the SD Card?! download it from the net, then transfer it from computer to USB, then make sure file is ok, then put in car, then for every new song you want you need to do it again. Then driving along get frustrated cos you forget to add a song you love!! With Spotify you can just have any song you want at any time. perfect!

 

[Simon L]

SD cards or USB are a faf!! how do you put it on the SD Card?! download it from the net, then transfer it from computer to USB, then make sure file is ok, then put in car, then for every new song you want you need to do it again. Then driving along get frustrated cos you forget to adda song you love!! With Spotify you can just have any song you want at any time. perfect!

I take your point but I don't do 'songs' ........listen to quality albums by quality bands, not one hit wonders!! lol

 

[RichardT]

I take your point but I don't so 'songs' ........listen to quality albums by quality bands, not one hit wonders!! lol

I heartily agree!

 

[Ormesome]

I take your point but I don't do 'songs' ........listen to quality albums by quality bands, not one hit wonders!! lol

Yep totally get that. I do have quite a few fav albums so i would and used to do the same. I just find it easier nowadays to pay 6euros a month for unlimited offline music synced across my phone and laptop, especially as space on laptops/phones is limited these days.

 

[SpeedyFrog]

just wondering, i have a samsung a3 and was thinking of using spotify, but audi informed me that when i was going to purchase the lighting cable that it would only charge the phone!! is it possible to connect your phone, how do u guys put music through the car or onto the duke box???? sorry silly questions, thought it would be abit easier with such a realativly new car!!!

I doubt a Samsung phone uses a lightning connector. Bluetooth. Better quality with SD card probably.

 

[Daveotto]

.............or you could just stop dicking around with all this bluetooth and phone cable nonsense and stick your music on an SD card or USB stick??

Or use the CD player

 

[Simon L]

Or use the CD player

Yep true Dave, although CD's almost feel like ancient technology now!!

To be honest that was one of the biggest advantages with the MMI over my last car, no more friggin CD's littering the car, happy to take a slight hit on sound quality and stuff 200+ albums on a USB stick! And yeah, my last car was a bit sh1t on the tech front lol

 

[Daveotto]

i have a samsung a3

I thought Audi made the A3

To the OP question...use Bluetooth

Note with Spotify you can navigate within a playlist via the MMI but not switch between playlists

 

[Daveotto]

Yep true Dave, although CD's almost feel like ancient technology now!!

To be honest that was one of the biggest advantages with the MMI over my last car, no more friggin CD's littering the car, happy to take a slight hit on sound quality and stuff 200+ albums on a USB stick! And yeah, my last car was a bit sh1t on the tech front lol

Bring back 8 track!!!

TBH I only use Spotify and 2-3 DAB stations. Have got an SD card installed with about 8gb of stuff and forgot it was there until this post

 

[WarwickL]

I take your point but I don't do 'songs' ........listen to quality albums by quality bands, not one hit wonders!! lol

Well and also because Spotify audio quality makes the B&O sound cheap, well cheaper than it is

I've got a Spotify sub and also Apple Music. Usually end up reverting back to my ipod connected via MMI (has autoupdating playlists that I connect up to iTunes now and then).

If I really must have a song not on the iPod, I'll put up with Spotify quality but it is a rare event.

Offline playlists are OK but again, much prefer the quality via MMI (cable, SD cards etc) versus BT from songs I've encoded at high BR or FLAC.

 

[WarwickL]

Bring back 8 track!!!

I've still got an 8 Track in the back of our wardrobe. Along with a reel to reel tape player and a few Walkmans

 

[testcard]

Spotify uses the org vorbis codec which is more efficient than MP3 for the same bitrate. Try setting the download quality in Spotify settings to Extreme and you'll get 320kbps.

 

[WarwickL]

Any music I'm truly interested in is played as flac

Edit - as for streaming if a song isn't in my Spotify offline, we still get plenty of non mobile coverage here. Sad huh

 

[redlinehigh]

thanks for your input, was concerned when audi said spotify wouldn`t work! Does any body use amazon music, just wondered if this was any good, or better than spotify etc?

 

[Ormesome]

Amazon music in my opinion is shocking. i did a one month pay option cos needed lots of deliveries and it included music and video with prime. it was really fiddly and just confusing. didnt have the easy layout of apple music or spotify. In theory the Amazon package is amazing. but in practice,for me it just didnt work.

 

[Ofarlig]

I just use Spotify through bluetooth, the B&O system isn't really good enough for it to be worth the hassle with flac on SDcards and such. Just put my phone on my magnetic mount between the air vents and put music on.

 

[WarwickL]

I just use Spotify through bluetooth, the B&O system isn't really good enough for it to be worth the hassle with flac on SDcards and such. Just put my phone on my magnetic mount between the air vents and put music on.

Oh dear .....

 

[Ofarlig]

Oh dear .....

?

 

[redlinehigh]

interesting comments! thanks for your help! Curious what do u mean WarwickL?????

 

[SimpsonTide985]

Yeah, there's pros and cons for sure between Bluetooth, SD, and Lightning/direct interface.
All 3 work slightly differently and I use the three differently.

For podcasts and very new stuff, I use Bluetooth since it's the fastest. For archiving all of my music, I usually use the SD card, which I update less regularly. For a backup collection of special mixed tracks, playlists, and faves, I'll use the direct/ipod/lightning interface.

 

[Simon L]

I think what Warwick's saying (and he'll correct me if I'm wrong) is if you feed the B&O $hit you'll get $hit out of it!! lol

At the very least play ripped music at max bitrates. It's a superb system certainly amongst the very best factory fitted anyway.

 

[Ofarlig]

I think what Warwick's saying (and he'll correct me if I'm wrong) is if you feed the B&O $hit you'll get $hit out of it!! lol

At the very least play ripped music at max bitrates. It's a superb system certainly amongst the very best factory fitted anyway.

Of course bluetooth would be a bottleneck, but it's far from a high end system and not something I would bother with getting high quality materials for. Spotify works decently even on home systems costing a big part of what the car is costing, is it worse than lossless? Yes, is it terrible? No.

 

[SimpsonTide985]

It's considered high end only within the segment that it competes in.

 

[WarwickL]

I think what Warwick's saying (and he'll correct me if I'm wrong) is if you feed the B&O $hit you'll get $hit out of it!! lol

At the very least play ripped music at max bitrates. It's a superb system certainly amongst the very best factory fitted anyway.

Partly that Si but also the phone on the dash comment

The B&O responds well to slightly better '****', remarkably so.

I don't view the B&O as high end or even that great but feed it Spotify at normal rates and it sounds crud.

 

[Ofarlig]

Partly that Si but also the phone on the dash comment

The B&O responds well to slightly better '****', remarkably so.

I don't view the B&O as high end or even that great but feed it Spotify at normal rates and it sounds crud.

What do you consider normal rates in Spotify? I would not consider listening to anything except their highest bitrate, so thats the same or better than a 320 kbps MP3 due to the compression differences. At that point there aren't really night and day differences between Spotify and whatever lossless material you like, even when listening to a proper good home setup. When we add bluetooth to it it will go noticeable worse though and I would not use it for my home setup but since the system sets the bar quite low I don't find the hassle of SDcard/USB memory to be worth it, the sound cannot get proper good either way.

Don't get me wrong though, I do think it is one of the better factory audio systems I have heard in a car (especially at this price point) but it is not something I would ever consider doing a "listening session" on, I have my stereo at home for that. And to be honest, even at home on a considerably better system I do play mostly Spotify because even than the differences are too small to be worth the hassle. Me and my dad have done quite a few ABX tests to try to see what we can actually hear in our different setups and you'd be surprised how hard it is to identify lossless vs Spotify.

As for the mount I usually agree but I do like to have proper navigation up there though and I found a mount I actually do tolerate and looks as much as a stock thing as it can I guess. Bought this one: http://clearmounts.com

 

[WarwickL]

I can identify extreme and flac easily, repeatedly. ABX. Wife can too. On B&O

That is, when we can actually get extreme. Not consistent enough to continue with it.

As for mounts, no, hate them all. The S3 dash needs to stay minimal and spoken cues (via phone or MMI) are perfect for the times I use Nav which is not often.

Still, gotta do what works for you.

 

[Ofarlig]

I can identify extreme and flac easily, repeatedly. ABX. Wife can too. On B&O

That is, when we can actually get extreme. Not consistent enough to continue with it.
.

When you did that, did you do that through Bluetooth? Because if so, than I would agree with you it is easy to. All im saying is that feeding it with flac still sounds pretty bad (but good for a factory car) so I might as well not bother. The same reason I have gone over to Bluetooth headphones while at work, the DAC/amp in the iPhone is crap either way and I couldn't be bothered to carry a Lightning DAC/amp with me so might as well go Bluetooth. I won't do work just to get a half assed result which I won't be able to just sit and enjoy.

 

[Mianl]

Play Spotify music in your car? You can do that through Bluetooth, Android Auto, or USB.
With Bluetooth:
1. Activate Bluetooth on your Samsung and the car stereo respectively;
2. Pair your device with the car stereo;
3. Launch the Spotify app and play any Spotify song. The playing audio tracks will be streamed to the car’s audio system.

With Android Auto:
1. Launch Spotify app on your Samsung and login to your registered Spotify account;\
2. Connect Samsung to the car stereo system compatible with Android Auto;
3. Start to play Spotify songs or playlists on your stereo display for listening.

With USB:
If the above ways fail to work for you, you can try to play Spotify music in a car through USB. This method requires you to use a Spotify playlist converter to convert Spotify songs to common audio formats and save them as local files with original quality. After that, you can transfer downloaded Spotify songs to USB and plug USB into your car to play Spotify music offline without hassle.

 

[JohnWeems]

Rather than directly playing online streams from Spotify, I'd like to download Spotify as local files then play Spotify offline in my car. The music streaming is more stable and smooth. Most importantly, it is free. Here is how I do.

TOOLS: A Spotify playlist downloader and a Spotify free account.
STEP 1. Use the downloader to download Spotify playlists.
STEP 2. Import the downloaded Spotify music files to the phone.
STEP 3. Stream the Spotify files to the car audio system from the phone via Bluetooth.