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      10-06-2019, 01:40 AM   #1
jumpingpint
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The Bowers & Wilkins, aka Buffalo Wing, BW Speaker in X5

How does it sound? would the satelite radio be enough or should I prepare some CDs?
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      10-06-2019, 02:21 AM   #2
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How does it sound? would the satelite radio be enough or should I prepare some CDs?
Car has no CD Player
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      10-06-2019, 04:59 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by sjak92 View Post
Car has no CD Player


The car had 30GB of storage for media files so if you still have a pc with cdrom player you can rip your cd’s to FLAC and enjoy losless audio quality in the car (I suppose FLAC is supported?)

I own my B&W nautilus speakers for 20years now and with all high end speakers it’s sh*t in sh*t out, so you will hear a low quality source
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      10-06-2019, 09:54 AM   #4
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Quote:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sjak92 View Post
Car has no CD Player


The car had 30GB of storage for media files so if you still have a pc with cdrom player you can rip your cd's to FLAC and enjoy losless audio quality in the car (I suppose FLAC is supported?)

I own my B&W nautilus speakers for 20years now and with all high end speakers it's sh*t in sh*t out, so you will hear a low quality source
^ THIS!

I have the B&W system in my X5, and B&W 800 series speakers in my home theater. IMO, it doesn't get much better. With a quality source, of course.
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      10-06-2019, 10:35 AM   #5
Aimster82
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I have this system.

Satellite Radio = Joke
Bluetooth streaming Spotify on highest quality = Okay
USB = Amazing
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      10-06-2019, 10:56 AM   #6
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Anybody tried Amazon Music HD yet with the B&W?
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      10-06-2019, 11:01 AM   #7
VTENGR
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Anybody tried Amazon Music HD yet with the B&W?
With Amazon HD, I wonder if the controlling factor is going to be the transfer from your phone to the B&W system. If it's through Bluetooth, not sure BT can handle that bitrate. If it's USB, I'm guessing you're OK.
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      10-06-2019, 01:37 PM   #8
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Yeah that's a good point. I just tried to experiment in my i3 with HK system and couldn't get Amazon music to work through the USB. I get my X5 in a few weeks so will have to try some more then.
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      10-06-2019, 01:50 PM   #9
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Yeah that's a good point. I just tried to experiment in my i3 with HK system and couldn't get Amazon music to work through the USB. I get my X5 in a few weeks so will have to try some more then.
Looks like there an amazing music app for idrive so that would be your best bet I would think
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      10-06-2019, 06:06 PM   #10
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FLAC is supported, DSD is not. FLAC or ant lossless codec are 110Z% the best way to do things. j have 600-700GB if FLAC audio and keep ~30GB on the car and the rest on external flash drives or my SSD
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      10-06-2019, 06:29 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VTENGR View Post
With Amazon HD, I wonder if the controlling factor is going to be the transfer from your phone to the B&W system. If it's through Bluetooth, not sure BT can handle that bitrate. If it's USB, I'm guessing you're OK.
Bluetooth isn’t great. USB is the winner for sound quality. I’ve streamed Tidal and it sounds great. Amazon HD should be similar.
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      10-07-2019, 07:44 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VTENGR View Post
With Amazon HD, I wonder if the controlling factor is going to be the transfer from your phone to the B&W system. If it's through Bluetooth, not sure BT can handle that bitrate. If it's USB, I'm guessing you're OK.
I don’t think it uses Bluetooth but rather Wi-Fi.
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      10-08-2019, 08:46 PM   #13
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HD radio sounds pretty good, compared to my 19 land rover meridian sound system its sounds about the same if not better . also love that it lights up i'll have to try USB but most of my streaming is from google play so its not super high quality either
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      10-09-2019, 02:14 AM   #14
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Just found out that the CD player is gone.
I had been advocating for this. But, the buffalo wing speaker might need it
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      10-09-2019, 03:48 AM   #15
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How does DAB+ compare to other sources?
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      10-09-2019, 04:36 AM   #16
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How does DAB+ compare to other sources?
With DAB+ you wont experience any static noise like you would in FM. It also has more channels. However, the range tends to be shorter than FM and it may drop out in some areas.
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      10-09-2019, 09:15 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VTENGR View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by The J-Man View Post
Anybody tried Amazon Music HD yet with the B&W?
With Amazon HD, I wonder if the controlling factor is going to be the transfer from your phone to the B&W system. If it's through Bluetooth, not sure BT can handle that bitrate. If it's USB, I'm guessing you're OK.
CarPlay uses wifi actually for music (althought BT and wifi have to be turned on the phone), sounds way better than BT for sure. CarPlay should be a very high quality as long as the source quality on ur phone is of high quality. There are ways of having higher quality music files on ur phone. USB Flac files are always great.
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      10-09-2019, 09:18 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1230vani View Post
CarPlay uses wifi actually for music (althought BT and wifi have to be turned on the phone), sounds way better than BT for sure. CarPlay should be a very high quality as long as the source quality on ur phone is of high quality. There are ways of having higher quality music files on ur phone. USB Flac files are always great.
So I know with Amazon HD, if you stream over wifi to say a Sonos speaker, the max output is HD not UltraHD. Seems for UltraHD you need to be playing the music directly from the device. Or maybe that's just specific to Sonos and nothing to do with casting the signal.
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      10-09-2019, 05:11 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VTENGR View Post
So I know with Amazon HD, if you stream over wifi to say a Sonos speaker, the max output is HD not UltraHD. Seems for UltraHD you need to be playing the music directly from the device. Or maybe that's just specific to Sonos and nothing to do with casting the signal.
Hi Res Audio has a minimum bit depth of 24 bits and sampling rate of 48kHz. Not sure what HD and UHD means.
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      10-09-2019, 07:05 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by edtreo View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by VTENGR View Post
So I know with Amazon HD, if you stream over wifi to say a Sonos speaker, the max output is HD not UltraHD. Seems for UltraHD you need to be playing the music directly from the device. Or maybe that's just specific to Sonos and nothing to do with casting the signal.
Hi Res Audio has a minimum bit depth of 24 bits and sampling rate of 48kHz. Not sure what HD and UHD means.
It's Amazon's terminology. They have SD, HD and UHD. HD 16 bit / 44.1 kHz. UHD is 24 bit / 192 kHz
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      11-17-2019, 02:03 PM   #21
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I'd like to think I'm a discerning music listener. I converted all of my music to ALAC (apple flac) onto my iphone. I don't have any of the streaming music services because I still only really listen to all the music I grew up with and I have all of it on my phone. In any case, so all of my library is as high quality as it can be.

In our F15, we have the Harmon Kardon system, and its perfectly fine. It doesn't distort unless you get to ear splitting levels. The bass could be a bit more but its still perfectly fine at reasonable listening levels. We want to get a g05 but there's no real way for me to audition the B&W system, none of the X5s they stock at the dealership has that option, nor would they appreciate it if I sat there trying to listen to my music for a long enough time or at a loud volume to justify its price point. My question is, how good is the B&W system? is it really worth the price?
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      11-17-2019, 02:21 PM   #22
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I'd like to think I'm a discerning music listener. I converted all of my music to ALAC (apple flac) onto my iphone. I don't have any of the streaming music services because I still only really listen to all the music I grew up with and I have all of it on my phone. In any case, so all of my library is as high quality as it can be.

In our F15, we have the Harmon Kardon system, and its perfectly fine. It doesn't distort unless you get to ear splitting levels. The bass could be a bit more but its still perfectly fine at reasonable listening levels. We want to get a g05 but there's no real way for me to audition the B&W system, none of the X5s they stock at the dealership has that option, nor would they appreciate it if I sat there trying to listen to my music for a long enough time or at a loud volume to justify its price point. My question is, how good is the B&W system? is it really worth the price?
Had the HK system in my F15. It's a good audio system, and a good enough in-car audio system with nearly every source. Nearly. For streaming audio, it's more than enough, and if that's all you use I wouldn't upgrade. That said, with acoustic glass and a recorded source on USB or HD, the B&W is the best stock in-car system I've heard. Better than the B&O system I had in one car, and audibly better than the HK - with the appropriate source. Whether it's worth the several-thousand-dollar premium is of course up to the listener, but the combination of the super-quiet cabin and the B&W sound system actually makes listening to quality recorded music feasible in a car now.
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