Grom AUDU3 FLAC player for RNS-D
 

Hi guys,

I've just bought and fitted a Grom AUDU3 unit to the S8, and I have to say I'm very impressed.

I wanted a CD replacement solution without replacing the factory RNS-D. I don't like lossy music formats (MP3, AAC, WMA etc) as under decent amplification they become flat and lifeless, lacking depth and clarity. So I wanted something that could play FLAC.
I also wanted Bluetooth.
The Grom is the only one of these units to play FLAC and having installed it, I would rate the sound quality from the unit as excellent - easily as good or better than a CD player, especially as there's no problems with track skipping.

All the solutions I initially looked at a few years back (Dension, Yatour, XCarLink, and Grom (at the time)) didn't play FLAC, so I figured keep the CD player, and find a Bluetooth solution. The only unit to offer the ability to switch between it and the CD player was XCarLink, so that's what I bought.

Then I discovered the PhatBox! This unit was truly ahead of its time (early 2000's). It is a largish unit which replaces the CD player in the boot, uses a small hard drive (60Gb max) and can play just about any music format you care to mention (including FLAC).
As my CD player didn't work, I abandoned any attempts to repair or replace that and started looking for a PhatBox instead!
Found one in New York, and had it sent over... to this day it is still sitting on a shelf above my desk, having never been fitted!
(Well, my daughter was born and I lost my spare time for a couple of years!)

I did write to XCarLink at one point and suggest that FLAC support was a good idea and had no licensing fees, but that fell on deaf ears...
After finding out that Grom units now play FLAC, I thought "bugger the XCarLink and PhatBox, I'll have one of these"!

https://gromaudio.com/store/all-aud.html

Nice +++

How do you select the stored tracks? Presumably it emulates the CD changer?

I have an XCarLink unit but I use a phone/tablet to play FLAC files over Bluetooth, which works fairly well.

I thought about that, but I'm not sure how good the sound quality is over A2DP?

Selecting tracks is similar to XCarlink. It plugs in to the CD plug and emulates the CD player. CD/Folder selection is right hand rotary knob, track selection is the left and right arrow buttons top left.

Still experimenting with it and where to run the Aux/USB lead to, but as far as I'm aware, the RNS-D will only recognise 6 CDs.
So that limits it to 6 folders on a USB stick. So far I've got 1 folder set up and for testing purposes I've put Muse Simulation Theory on it (great for base).
So I can set up another 5 folders on the stick.
I don't know about limitations on files in the folders. That's probably 99, but I don't know that for sure.

As for the base, the Bose amp has impressed me so far. I ran the volume to uncomfortable levels where I could feel the music in my chest, and it was crystal clear, totally distortion free. I'm happy with that!

Just a thought:

After upgrading from RNS-D to RNS-E I immediately noticed significant uplift in sound quality. Perhaps due to better pre-amplifier in RNS-E (the car has had Bose option with an external amplifier). I listened to same set of MP3 files to compare.

Ha ha! I’ve got a PhatBox, too, sitting on my garage shelf. I bought it to fit when I retired (along with a host of other car jobs), but we bought a house that needs a lot of work, so it’ll be on the shelf a while longer. :)

Ditto. Bought mine from Scott five years ago, and still sitting in it's box.

They seem quite popular!

Now that the Grom does FLAC, the PhatBox is pretty much obsolete for me.

Anybody interested in it? I forget what I have - it's two boxes worth of stuff. Has a HDD IIRC, and I think the 60GB was a hack - standard they were 20 or 40 when new or something.
As I understand it, it swaps straight into the CD changer location with little or no bracket mods, and may have a fitment issue with the boot side trim cover when the HDD is fitted (It fits into a housing, which slots in the side like a Nintendo cartridge). I think the fix is to vertically mount the PhatBox, which involves altering the bracket with the TV tuner etc on it, where fitted. I dont think it's all that difficult to do.

Otherwise I might take it to "Day of the Volkswagen" later this month and see if anyone there is interested.