Lossless Audio through CarPlay?

[new_media]

My car has Apple's CarPlay interface but no aux port/analog audio input. I use my iPhone to listen to music in my car, but I am using Apple Music/iTunes Match on my phone, which of course is all lossy.

 

I would like to have a separate DAP to listen to lossless music in the car. I think that I could just plug a memory stick into the USB port and play back music that way, but the car's standard interface is very clunky compared CarPlay, especially when it comes to navigating to artists/albums while in motion.

 

I was going to buy an iPod Touch, but apparently CarPlay does not support them. I have been using my old iPhone 5 (without a sim card) and syncing ALAC files to it via iTunes. This does work with CarPlay, but the old phone only has 64 GB of memory. I have about settled on getting a refurb, unlocked iPhone 7 with 256 GB to use in the same way. iTunes will only allow me to sync files up to 24/48, but I can use the Onkyo app for hi-res files. (My car's DAC only supports 24/48 anyway, apparently, and hi-res else gets downconverted on the fly.)

 

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone knew of any other CarPlay solutions before I spend $350 on a refurb iPhone.

[miguelito]

I would expect CarPlay to use the same type of audio streaming as AirPlay, ie lossy AAC at 16/44. To be honest, that should be quite enough for a car.

[Ralf11]

I would expect CarPlay to use the same type of audio streaming as AirPlay, lossless if that's what you have in storage, e.g. Apple Lossless, or lossy AAC or mp3 if you have those on there.

[ecwl]

25 minutes ago, miguelito said:

I would expect CarPlay to use the same type of audio streaming as AirPlay, ie lossy AAC at 16/44. To be honest, that should be quite enough for a car.

Hmmm... AirPlay support lossless 16/44.

[ecwl]

46 minutes ago, new_media said:

I was going to buy an iPod Touch, but apparently CarPlay does not support them. I have been using my old iPhone 5 (without a sim card) and syncing ALAC files to it via iTunes. This does work with CarPlay, but the old phone only has 64 GB of memory. I have about settled on getting a refurb, unlocked iPhone 7 with 256 GB to use in the same way. iTunes will only allow me to sync files up to 24/48, but I can use the Onkyo app for hi-res files. (My car's DAC only supports 24/48 anyway, apparently, and hi-res else gets downconverted on the fly.)

I actually don't know the answer to your question as to whether CarPlay supports lossless 16/44 streaming. It probably does for ALAC 16/44 or 24/48.

Even though I own Onkyo HF Player, for some music I own, I usually just convert them to 24/44 or 24/48 in ALAC so I can play them in iTunes on my phone for convenience. I'm not sure CarPlay can access Onkyo HF Player either.

I think before you run out and purchase your 256GB phone, your best bet actually is to take 100 songs, convert them to ALAC and put them on iTunes in your phone first. You can figure out from there whether you want to bother to convert the lossless music you own into ALAC (because it's time-consuming) and whether you think the audio quality improvement is worth it. My phone is only 64GB because I only put 10-20 albums at a time on it and just rotate the ALACs.

 

[new_media]

My CarPlay is hardwired through USB, so I was assuming it was passing lossless ALAC/PCM.

 

The Onkyo Player does work, but it shows 24/96 FLAC files playing as 48kHz PCM. I assume this is a limitation of the car’s DAC.

[ecwl]

33 minutes ago, new_media said:

My CarPlay is hardwired through USB, so I was assuming it was passing lossless ALAC/PCM.

Sorry. Because of other people’s responses, I too misread your original post.

Sounds like you already know you want to play music in the car using the CarPlay interface and would like a portable device that can store all your music. Then sadly, I know of no other cheaper solution than a refurbished or used iPhone with more storage space.

[new_media]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

[AudioDoctor]

I went outside and connected my iPhone Xs to my car via a Lightning to USB cable and tried playing Hi-Res Qobuz files and got a pop up that said my phone would only output 16/44 without the lightning camera kit, or whatever it's called, if that helps.

 

Here is the pop up.

[kirkmc]

Only a handful of cars have wireless CarPlay; they're almost all wired. So you can't "stream" anything. 

[new_media]

Well, I ended up buying a factory unlocked, refurbished iPhone 7 with 256 GB. Externally it looks almost brand new and the battery health is at 93%, which should be fine since it will be plugged into USB most of the time anyway. I paid about $350, which is only $50 more that the largest capacity iPod, but with twice as much storage. The phone works with iTunes and with CarPlay without a SIM card, and I didn't even have to sign into my iCloud account. (I did have to briefly to download Onkyo HF Player, but then I signed right back out.)

 

I had been experimenting with an old iPhone 5, but it turns out that iTunes will sync ALAC up to 24/96 with the iPhone 7, so I only have to use the Onkyo player for 24/192 or DSD. 24/96 ALAC plays back just fine through Apple CarPlay, though I can only assume that hi-res files are getting downconverted. I don't believe the car stereo's DAC will support anything about 24/48.

 

Anyway, very pleased with this purchase. Plenty of storage capacity and I can now listen to lossless files while using the CarPlay interface, which is much easier to navigate while driving. Everything up to 24/96 syncs with the phone, so I don't have to worry about converting files for use in the car.

[AudioDoctor]

eagerly awaiting Qobuz CarPlay compatibility.

[AudioDoctor]

I have a question though, can you hear the difference in your car, while driving, between a lossy and a lossless file?

[new_media]

2 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

I have a question though, can you hear the difference in your car, while driving, between a lossy and a lossless file?

Honestly, I haven’t made an apples-to-apples comparison. I use iTunes Match/Apple Music on my main phone, so the masters are probably different.

 

I do hear more clarity with the lossless files when driving in town. Probably not a lot of difference on the freeway.

[new_media]

Just to confirm one more thing. The iPhone Music app can definitely pass 24/96 natively to an external DAC. I tried it at home with the camera kit and my DAC is showing the input to be 24/96.