What you listen in your car audio?

[audiventory]

I spend in car 1-2 hours everyday.

In car I listen CD-audio disks only. As qualitative source.

 

I'm interested who use like and other sources in your cars?

Tell about your equipment (head device only, iPod, iPad etc.), prefferable formats, why you listen this formats?

[PopPop]

I seldom use my car for any travel other than commuting 1/2 hour to and from work. I almost always have the radio on NPR news. I never invested in upgrading the "sound system" with the OEM $800 upgrade. There's nothing I hate worse than getting home, half way through a piece of music and having to turn it off (or sit in the garage and make the neighbors talk). When I'm touring on my motorcycle I wan't no distraction of any kind in my ear.

[HIFI]

My mobile 12volt system has a Windows Netbook loaded Itunes and aif files, no compression. I use a USB powered external DAC connected to the AUX inputs of head unit. Control is Ipad Mini using iTunes remote application. This works well for me.

[Savage]

When I'm touring on my motorcycle I wan't no distraction of any kind in my ear.

 

I've seen people do track days with music. I do know how they ride that way, especially with excellent combustion music playing through all cylinders.

[Musicophile]

I'm connecting my Iphone to my car stereo via USB. I'm listening exclusively to AAC256 downconverted on the fly by Itunes. Given the quality of my car stereo, I don't feel lossless is needed, so I trade off some quality for more capacity.

[PopPop]

@ Savage

 

The exhaust note of my parallel twin at 5,500 rpm is music for my soul. "Black Betty" is a close second. My problem is that I find my mind wandering if I'm listening to music and that's not a risk that I want to take when riding. Other people with sounder minds than mine can probably navigate more safely. I'm an old fart.

[Jsmith]

I go back and forth between three sources. Most of the time I listen to Sirius. This is my primary way of finding out about new music. Second, I have an SD card loaded with 260 kps MP3 converted from my lossless FLAC files. Finally, sometimes I just turn the music off and listen to the sounds of the engine.

[elcorso]

When my kids are not yelling, then alone... some FM Jazz radio station (95.5 always the same). No Sirius yet this side of the world. No iPod in the car, the transit are so heavy and crazy than I have to put all my attention on driving!

 

Roch

[PopPop]

Isn't there some confusion here, in the choices? It's just me being pedantic, but FLAC may or may not be hi-res. It's just a format. Hi-res could be FLAC, WAV, etc. Apples and oranges aren't they?

[Cycleman]

For a car stereo, I love mine.

 

The system itself, in a Volkswagen GTI, is made by Dynaudio, the Danish company that makes some true higher-quality speakers and such. The sound with the windows shut is often quite lovely.

 

And the music, while MP3s, are ALAC files from my main at-home music system converted to 320K bit rate -- best quality MP3s -- and put on a 32GB SDHC card on my work computer. I use a rock-solid Macintosh program called Switch to convert the ALAC files I've copied from one of my music drive (always work on copies).

 

(The Dynaudio system will only play lossy files, so those 320K MP3s are the best bet.)

 

That's about 140-plus albums on one tiny card, and I put the Dynaudio on total shuffle to surprise me as I drive. If I don't like or am not in the mood for what comes up, I just click the next button on my steering wheel.

 

So, I love this system for three main reasons:

• Pretty darn good sound quality
  
• Lots of albums ready at my fingertips
  
• The media is inexpensive, so if it get stolen, lost or damaged, no big deal.
  

Dave, who actually has several SDHC cards with music in the car's glove box to give him even more to choose from

 

P.S. Just like Jsmith writing above, sometimes I too "just turn the music off and listen to the sounds of the engine." I also love the GTI.

[One and a half]

Given up on good audio reproduction on cars. Too boomy, not enough res, brittle treble, acoustics of a tin can, bah.

 

Listen to talk radio, sometimes pop on FM. I find transferring FLAC, DSD to MP3 waste of time and effort when the travel times can be short. There's some effort to setup and position the players, smartphones are far from intelligent, with only the front screen to navigate and you need to look at that screen while driving is dangerous.

 

The players like the AK120 play hires, but once again rely on using the display to change music, so are only useful for the passenger to change while driving. The upcoming players from Sony have buttons on the side, like previous models, so with a bit of practice, FF stop RW functions can be completed without looking at a screen.

 

As for lugging a notebook, maybe a portable DAC for really long drives for hours on end, you need good batteries, an inverter, somewhere to put the notebook safely...quite frankly, all too hard.

[maelob]

I love music and don't care if it's not the perfect music environment. I love singing and jamming inside my car while driving to work. Sorry but that's me and off course I upgraded my audio. Source permanent iPod Classic 160 g with lossless files connected via USB to a kenwood head unit with dynaudio component speakers front and back and a 10 inch sub in the trunk. And guess what it is not the perfect set up but it is fun. To be honest I listen to more music in my car than with my mini Magnepan, benchmark and mcintosh desktop combo. So if you like to have fun driving is up to you if you want to upgrade. But my recommendation is go for it.

[AudioDoctor]

Minnesota Public Radio, if anything at all.

[maelob]

And lately I also downloaded Npr music app and stream my local classical station via Bluetooth to my kenwood unit and Sounds way better than Fm. also lately the new cars have Hd radio a big improvement in sound assuming your favorite station transmits on hd.

[AudGuy]

I use a Fiio X3 with a 64gb mSD card loaded with FLAC files from my library. Actually I have a number of these cards and they are another of the backups for my main library.

Output from the X3 is sent via line-level analog out to the head-unit Kenwood NAV deck then to four door speakers. The speakers could be better and will be someday, but the X3 player is charming. It plays random selection from the root of the mSD card and will run for more than 8 hours without a glitch.

 

So, really I listen to my entire library of music ... like at home.

I think of it as my own personal radio station.

 

Note: For those that don't know, a Fiio X3 is a portable high res music player that plays FLAC files up to 24/192.

Here: FiiO X3

[Snowmonkey]

I spend quite a bit of time driving and prefer to see what's on the radio before playing my own music. I see it as my chance to hear music with which I may not be familiar and which I may not have chosen to play, based on my preconceptions. I have discovered many gems over the years this way, which have then become part of my music collection.

[Fokus]

128k MP3s on iPod Video, integrated into Bose system in Audi A6.

[jhwalker]

I commute weekly (2 hours each way) to my parents' house (my mother is critically ill), so listen this way a lot.

 

I typically listen to SiriusXM (Howard Stern), CDs (anything from jazz to bluegrass), or iPod classic (loaded with several hundred MP3 albums, all genres). If I'm wanting new music, I typically load up my iPhone or iPad with music from MOG before heading out - I have a 50MB Internet connection at home, so only takes a few minutes to download all the new releases .

 

My car stereo sounds good, but not great, and I haven't upgraded it, so no need for anything more high quality

[NOMBEDES]

In re poll. DVD Audio in a car? Does that require a laptop? I can't get DVD Audio to play on my DVD player, which is not top of the line or purchased in this century. Weird.

 

Anyway, Sat radio for me. As many have mentioned above. Good way to find new music. Oh, and my Lexus has the Mark Levenson option. Good sound for a car.

[Krutsch]

Sat radio for me... mostly BBC World Service.

[audiventory]

In re poll. DVD Audio in a car? Does that require a laptop? I can't get DVD Audio to play on my DVD player, which is not top of the line or purchased in this century. Weird.

 

I heard some time ago about car DVD-audio by Alpine (not exactly, may be other manufacturer). But I don't know one who have same device in a car.

[esldude]

I prefer cars loud enough I couldn't notice the difference, and fun enough I don't care.

 

While I have other options, mostly FM is what I listen to, and that probably only 20% of the time behind the wheel. Recently drove 120 miles, late evening, stars out, top down, radio off. The music was only in my head.

[AudioDoctor]

I prefer cars loud enough I couldn't notice the difference, and fun enough I don't care.

 

While I have other options, mostly FM is what I listen to, and that probably only 20% of the time behind the wheel. Recently drove 120 miles, late evening, stars out, top down, radio off. The music was only in my head.

 

Now that's the way to drive!

[Boris75]

I listen mostly to FM radio in my car, so I selected "other".

[WINDIANRECORDS]

I use Subsonic (Subsonic » Free Music Streamer) to stream my library; it encodes on the fly to whatever you set in the iSub iOS app (I can often use 320kpbs, but sometimes have to go down to 256 depending on the data coverage where I'm driving).

 

I absolutely love the Subsonic app, since I don't have to interact with any iTunes library or encoding files that are on my hard drives so that they take up space twice at home. I installed a JVC dual-din touchscreen, and it works somewhat well with the Subsonic app; its easier to pick albums on the phone (not while driving!), but you can use the dash to skip/pause/etc quite easily.