Getting to grips with AMI

[1781cc]

Just getting to grips with the AMI system in the S8, so far an 8GB USB stick with MP3's plays fine, but I only have a limited selection of those. Being a bit of an Audiophile I have a full library in FLAC and AIFF lossless file formats, and I am thinking (probably optimistically) that because the car has B&O it might support higher end formats - is this the case?

Also, is there a definitive list anywhere about the max size USB it can handle and what all the supported file formats are? i.e., video as well as audio?

Thanks

[tc4332]

I have used 64GB thumb drives and a 250GB hard drive.
The drives MUST be formatted in FAT32.
My vehicle is a 2004 3.0 TDI and the MMI is at 5570 with Bose.
The only files mine will read are MP3s.

[mattylondon]

Originally Posted by 1781cc

Being a bit of an Audiophile I have a full library in FLAC and AIFF lossless file formats, and I am thinking (probably optimistically) that because the car has B&O it might support higher end formats - is this the case?

Sadly not. Most of my music were lossless files. Unfortunately I had to re-rip them to MP3 to use through the AMI.

[Johnmed]

The CD changer will be your best bet for sound quality in the D3.

[1781cc]

Thanks for the reply guys, I find it shocking the B&O is a £6K option and you can only push lossy mp3s through it. CD is fine, but a lot of my stuff is bought from bandcamp in Flac as I have eclectic tastes

So now I need to back burn onto cd or convert using XLD to mp3

Good news about the 250gb hdd though, when I get back I might see if I can hook up my FiiO X5 II into it

[Johnmed]

It is disappointing isn't it. I wonder if they could be hacked and flashed with SW to add the function or if there's another way to get lossless files into the system. I'm not too concerned myself/don't have B&O, but if I had the B&O I'd definitely want to be playing lossless files.

[tonupkid]

Yep I was also shocked to find B&O could only paly through MP3. It's not like we've been lacking Gb's of storage for years now.
I use 320GB HDD, and I guess an SSD would be fine too.
The idea of hacking it to play lossless is very appealing. We need an OCD audiophile with a D3 B&O and IT skills... someone?

[mannyo]

The problem is AMI has been around for years, back when the storage requirements of FLAC were a big issue as when AMI was conceived a 32GB USB stick was unheard of and a 1TB hard drive would set you back a small fortune.

You have to remember that the technology in the D3 is now 13 years old, and little has changed in that time. MMI got a few firmware updates as did AMI, and the analogue tuners had digital added, but MMI 2G remained largely the same. Only at the end of the D3 production run did MMI 3G make its appearance.

I re-encoded all my FLAC files to 320kbps MP3 for AMI and they sound pretty decent, which given a car is not an ideal environment should be good enough and its all stored on a 500GB portable USB HDD.

[Architex_mA8tey]

Hmm I wonder if Guy's modified D4 system will play FLAC files? I'll ask him. . .

[Adrian E]

320 Kbps MP3 works ok for me with B&O in the S5. It's a noticeable improvement over the next best default MP3 but I agree it should be capable of dealing with lossless.

Our 2011 car can only cope with 32GB SD cards......