# Playing FLAC in a TT mk3



## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

Hello folks. Quick question...I'm looking for my next car and i'd like a mk3 TT, but it's important for me to be able to play FLAC files in the stereo. I've read some conflicting opinions, so does anyone know if all MK3s can play it or if I need the Tech Pack? I have a 2016 A3 but it doesn't recognise it at all sadly and I wonder if it's the same in TTs.

Many thanks for any help


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## cheechy (Nov 8, 2006)

Smeggy said:


> Hello folks. Quick question...I'm looking for my next car and i'd like a mk3 TT, but it's important for me to be able to play FLAC files in the stereo. I've read some conflicting opinions, so does anyone know if all MK3s can play it or if I need the Tech Pack? I have a 2016 A3 but it doesn't recognise it at all sadly and I wonder if it's the same in TTs.
> 
> Many thanks for any help


Yup no problems with high quality flacs.

I've played some Linn sourced music playing at 24bit / 192 and you do notice the increased quality.

Just remember to buy the HUGE memory cards :lol:


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## Reasty (Feb 6, 2015)

I have a 2017 TTS roadster without the tech pack and flac files work just fine and copy to the jukebox with no issues what so ever.


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

A very belated thank you for the responses guys, much appreciated. i love good sound and the Comfort and Sound Pack and FLAC ability is important for me for my next motor - a TT :O)

Ooh that makes me think of another question - can you use a portable HDD in there, or must i buy an SD card?


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## pcbbc (Sep 4, 2009)

Smeggy said:


> Ooh that makes me think of another question - can you use a portable HDD in there, or must i buy an SD card?


There are 2 USB sockets in the cubby hole in the centre console.



Page 154 said:


> Manual Important: An SD card must be inserted in the SD card reader¢ page 192, or a USB mass storage device must be connected to the Audi music in­terface*¢ page 197.





Page 206 said:


> *File system*
> Memory cards: exFAT, FAT, FAT32, NTFS
> USB mass storage devices: FAT, FAT32, NTFS
> USB mass storage partitions: max. 2 partitions per USB connection
> ...


I can confirm this works with USB sticks, and by extension I would assume USB drive as well (they are both just USB Mass Storage Device class devices - so really no different as far as the host is concerned).


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

Thank you, that is good to know and is thus looking promising - i can use my 1TB HDD and not have to transfer everything across nor buy an SD card. Whoop.


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## pcbbc (Sep 4, 2009)

Smeggy said:


> Thank you, that is good to know and is thus looking promising - i can use my 1TB HDD and not have to transfer everything across nor buy an SD card. Whoop.


Is it a SSD?
TBH I'm not sure I'd want to be using a traditional HDD in a moving vehicle. A fairly harsh life for it with all the bumps and jolts.


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

Nope, just an old school hard drive. Hmm you have a point. Maybe i'll have to get the passenger to hold it in their palm and tell them it'll explode if they jolt it


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## pcbbc (Sep 4, 2009)




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## Number86 (Oct 20, 2017)

Honestly, why bother?

The b&o in the tt isn't bad by any stretch, but I'll bet you a million quid there is no way in hell you could distinguish a flac against a 256kbps + or similar variable bitrate mp3. No way. You need monitor grade audio at least, and even then it's negligible


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## ZephyR2 (Feb 20, 2013)

Smeggy said:


> Nope, just an old school hard drive. Hmm you have a point. Maybe i'll have to get the passenger to hold it in their palm and tell them it'll explode if they jolt it


Won't be a problem. I used an old 2.5" drive out of a laptop in my Scirocco and first TT for 5 years or so without any damage to the drive. I just had it plugged in inside the glove box.
This was before big SD cards were available, cheaply.


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

ZephyR2 said:


> Smeggy said:
> 
> 
> > Nope, just an old school hard drive. Hmm you have a point. Maybe i'll have to get the passenger to hold it in their palm and tell them it'll explode if they jolt it
> ...


That's good news, thanks for that. I'll see how it goes then...but will back everything up just in case!


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

Number86 said:


> Honestly, why bother?
> 
> The b&o in the tt isn't bad by any stretch, but I'll bet you a million quid there is no way in hell you could distinguish a flac against a 256kbps + or similar variable bitrate mp3. No way. You need monitor grade audio at least, and even then it's negligible


Hmm i dunno. I do have quite a decent set-up at home and the difference between an HD FLAC vs. MP3 is often night and day. As i have a lot of HD recordings I might as well use them, plus it'd save having to convert them all..

You could of course be right though - we will see. I hope not as i don't have a million quid.


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## ZephyR2 (Feb 20, 2013)

I've tried and I can't tell any difference between FLAC and 320 mp3s. Mind you that's on Audi Sound System not B&O but better quality sound systems certainly show up the shortcomings of low rate mp3s.


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

Tru dat. Also some MP3 recordings are very good and are indiscernible from FLAC


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## cheechy (Nov 8, 2006)

The difference in quality on B&O is definitely noticeable but remember even if a flac is labelled as "high def" it might still be rubbish quality.

Getting good quality flacs makes a big difference - get some stuff from Linn music for example to get some very high quality examples.


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## Tare071 (Oct 27, 2011)

Smeggy said:


> Number86 said:
> 
> 
> > Honestly, why bother?
> ...


Bit offtopic but never the less, no real life diff what so ever between FLAC and good MP3 coding higher than 128kb IMHO - so 256 and 384kbps. And this is coming from Bowers & Wilkins / Denon home user for past 20 y. Night and day difference, nah man.
And also expecting any audiophile quality experience in a metal 1m/1m box is also kinda pointless.
Recode yor HD to 384 kbps MP3 and enjoy, seriously.
Car systems arent nothing to brag about, BO is glorified Philips and they never been audiophile solutions not even for home use. And we shouldnt even discuss BOSE tbh.

cheers


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## Number86 (Oct 20, 2017)

Tare071 said:


> Smeggy said:
> 
> 
> > Number86 said:
> ...


Quite...

The other minor (major?) thing to point out is, while a Flac or similar may technically be better, the other glaring issue is that the source material simply wasn't recorded well enough for it to matter anyway. I have a few specially recorded binnaural flacs that I can tell a small upflit in clarity on, using arguably some of the clearest headphones on the market (Sennheiser HD700s). There's a difference...a small difference. But your standard music album isn't recorded like this in the studio, and those subtle differences if they even exist, are even harder to hear with even the best speakers.


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## Tare071 (Oct 27, 2011)

cheers[/quote]

Quite...

The other minor (major?) thing to point out is, while a Flac or similar may technically be better, the other glaring issue is that the source material simply wasn't recorded well enough for it to matter anyway. I have a few specially recorded binnaural flacs that I can tell a small upflit in clarity on, using arguably some of the clearest headphones on the market (Sennheiser HD700s). There's a difference...a small difference. But your standard music album isn't recorded like this in the studio, and those subtle differences if they even exist, are even harder to hear with even the best speakers.[/quote]

Agree totally and room acoustics can impact listening experience far more than shear difference between FLAC or MP3 recording. Modern music production is shit anyways tbh.
I am audiophile for 20 years and I laugh my arse off when I see cables costing an arm and a leg, "special" XYZ stands and adamantium spikes coming straight from planet Neptune and what not.......
A car acoustics are shit and apart from a good head unit and decent speakers there is actually not much you can do to it. If you avoid FM streamers off a cheapo Chinese tuners - pretty much everything is decent.


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

cheechy said:


> The difference in quality on B&O is definitely noticeable but remember even if a flac is labelled as "high def" it might still be rubbish quality.
> 
> Getting good quality flacs makes a big difference - get some stuff from Linn music for example to get some very high quality examples.


Oh yes Deffo, it's always ultimately down to the recording. I have quite a few albumsfrom HDTracks, Naim, Analogue Productions and lots of SACDs and they really do sound on a different level. Their file sizes can be huge though. like 1GB for an album vs 50MB of MP3.

Of course a car's acoustics and background noise will have a large effect but if i've got good recordings i might as well use 'em


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

> I am audiophile for 20 years and I laugh my arse off when I see cables costing an arm and a leg, "special" XYZ stands and adamantium spikes coming straight from planet Neptune and what not.......


Good lord, it's ludicrous. You can get speaker cables for £50,000 if you're mug enough.

There's a brand new gimmick every day, just to take somebody's money away


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## phazer (Apr 2, 2018)

Smeggy said:


> > I am audiophile for 20 years and I laugh my arse off when I see cables costing an arm and a leg, "special" XYZ stands and adamantium spikes coming straight from planet Neptune and what not.......
> 
> 
> Good lord, it's ludicrous. You can get speaker cables for £50,000 if you're mug enough.
> ...


Quite. Someone thought putting a golf in a dress would sell for £20k more :lol:


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

Shuuuuuush don't tell anyone


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## ross_t_boss (Feb 28, 2017)

I'm playing FLAC and lossless streaming (Tidal) through the B&O and it's considerable uplift over DAB/128k but as above a well encoded 192+ may as well be the same in the car system. Maybe slightly more control in the bass.

It's sad how crap many modern recordings are. I think they are all equalised for iPods with Beats. My home system is a Linn Akurate/Akubarik - as far a I could ever justify going, and that was bought at just under 1/2 price as a bit of a one-off - I find myself listening to music outside my typical genres, simply because it is properly recorded and sounds good!

On the cables... I have a bag of Russ Andrews' top shelf material I'd say. A pair of analog interconnects RRP at £2,100. A USB cable with hand-carved ebony wood insulators, £850. There's half a dozen power cables at £300-odd a pop too. I don't know what to do with them, my mum dropped some bits off along with with some of hifi bits 'n' bobs. My step-Dad was always sold on them, and hooked up with his Chord Toby amp I was quite taken back by how good the kit was. But then using my 'mere £300 of cables to do the same job, it still sounds just as good to me. I can't justify keeping them, but at the same time can't bring myself to flog off his old stuff for pennies in the pound...


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## Smeggy (Aug 20, 2018)

Oof Linn stuff doesn't come cheap so I'm glad you got a bargain. They're meant to be great. I splashed out years ago on a Naim pre/power combo and it sounds fantastic, and buying second hand meant it hasn't depreciated much so I don't regret the splurge.

Yes the difference in recording quality is vast. Yes I too have ended up finding many great artists I'd never have come across just from reading how amazing the recordings were and sniffing them out. It can really bring the music to life like they're right in front of you.


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## Number86 (Oct 20, 2017)

ross_t_boss said:


> I'm playing FLAC and lossless streaming (Tidal) through the B&O and it's considerable uplift over DAB/128k but as above a well encoded 192+ may as well be the same in the car system. Maybe slightly more control in the bass.
> 
> It's sad how crap many modern recordings are. I think they are all equalised for iPods with Beats. My home system is a Linn Akurate/Akubarik - as far a I could ever justify going, and that was bought at just under 1/2 price as a bit of a one-off - I find myself listening to music outside my typical genres, simply because it is properly recorded and sounds good!
> 
> On the cables... I have a bag of Russ Andrews' top shelf material I'd say. A pair of analog interconnects RRP at £2,100. A USB cable with hand-carved ebony wood insulators, £850. There's half a dozen power cables at £300-odd a pop too. I don't know what to do with them, my mum dropped some bits off along with with some of hifi bits 'n' bobs. My step-Dad was always sold on them, and hooked up with his Chord Toby amp I was quite taken back by how good the kit was. But then using my 'mere £300 of cables to do the same job, it still sounds just as good to me. I can't justify keeping them, but at the same time can't bring myself to flog off his old stuff for pennies in the pound...


Sell them on headfi or whatever and laugh all the way to the bank.


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## Tare071 (Oct 27, 2011)

ross_t_boss said:


> I'm playing FLAC and lossless streaming (Tidal) through the B&O and it's considerable uplift over DAB/128k but as above a well encoded 192+ may as well be the same in the car system. Maybe slightly more control in the bass.
> 
> It's sad how crap many modern recordings are. I think they are all equalised for iPods with Beats. My home system is a Linn Akurate/Akubarik - as far a I could ever justify going, and that was bought at just under 1/2 price as a bit of a one-off - I find myself listening to music outside my typical genres, simply because it is properly recorded and sounds good!
> 
> On the cables... I have a bag of Russ Andrews' top shelf material I'd say. A pair of analog interconnects RRP at £2,100. A USB cable with hand-carved ebony wood insulators, £850. There's half a dozen power cables at £300-odd a pop too. I don't know what to do with them, my mum dropped some bits off along with with some of hifi bits 'n' bobs. My step-Dad was always sold on them, and hooked up with his Chord Toby amp I was quite taken back by how good the kit was. But then using my 'mere £300 of cables to do the same job, it still sounds just as good to me. I can't justify keeping them, but at the same time can't bring myself to flog off his old stuff for pennies in the pound...


On cables matter, pretty much anything with decent cross-section sounds top notch. 5mm split and more and you are good to go, 300 or 30 or 3 pounds cable - which is understandable if you know basic signal currents transfer and electric stuff.
Decent copper 5mm cable is basically all you need, with good gear, good speakers, headunit and room or place acoustics.


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