Bluetooth vs Flash drive
Club Member
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 7,618
Likes: 10,437
From: Des moines IA
Bluetooth doesn't mess with MP3's. If both Bluetooth devices support MP3's it goes from your phone to the head unit unaltered. Even Bluetooth 3.0 has more than enough bandwidth to move a song without compression. There is zero difference between Bluetooth and USB with respect to playing MP3s.
Uncompressed audio is a different story. You can play WAVs from USB but will be encoded/compressed over Bluetooth. There's AptX but I can't see Harley or HK ever supporting it.
Uncompressed audio is a different story. You can play WAVs from USB but will be encoded/compressed over Bluetooth. There's AptX but I can't see Harley or HK ever supporting it.
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Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 2,580
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From: Tucson AZ
Don't want to step on anyone's toes here ,,,,,
Bates ,, you are correct, at 80mph the differences in audio QUALITY will not be noticed, but thru the late model Harley audio system there will be more volume AVAILABLE with the USB than with the Bluetooth as an audio source ,,,,,
at 50 MPH however you CAN hear the difference in audio quality between WAV on a USB and a Bluetooth link ,,,,,
as for Bluetooth's ability to pass the digital information from the music device thru the air to the Harley radio?
even the BEST Bluetooth stereo profile of A2DP, the CODEC on the source side of the Bluetooth transmitter compresses and manipulates the digital information even more than the normal MP3 standard compression scenarios ,,,,
otherwise it would not be able to pass the 8-bit packets to the Bluetooth receive side fast enough to keep up with playback ,,,,,
this is true whether you are listening thru headphones or external speakers thru an amp, like on a late model Harley ,,,,,
Bates ,, you are correct, at 80mph the differences in audio QUALITY will not be noticed, but thru the late model Harley audio system there will be more volume AVAILABLE with the USB than with the Bluetooth as an audio source ,,,,,
at 50 MPH however you CAN hear the difference in audio quality between WAV on a USB and a Bluetooth link ,,,,,
as for Bluetooth's ability to pass the digital information from the music device thru the air to the Harley radio?
even the BEST Bluetooth stereo profile of A2DP, the CODEC on the source side of the Bluetooth transmitter compresses and manipulates the digital information even more than the normal MP3 standard compression scenarios ,,,,
otherwise it would not be able to pass the 8-bit packets to the Bluetooth receive side fast enough to keep up with playback ,,,,,
this is true whether you are listening thru headphones or external speakers thru an amp, like on a late model Harley ,,,,,
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Club Member
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 11,468
Likes: 3,572
From: Idaho
Bluetooth doesn't mess with MP3's. If both Bluetooth devices support MP3's it goes from your phone to the head unit unaltered. Even Bluetooth 3.0 has more than enough bandwidth to move a song without compression. There is zero difference between Bluetooth and USB with respect to playing MP3s.
Uncompressed audio is a different story. You can play WAVs from USB but will be encoded/compressed over Bluetooth. There's AptX but I can't see Harley or HK ever supporting it.
Uncompressed audio is a different story. You can play WAVs from USB but will be encoded/compressed over Bluetooth. There's AptX but I can't see Harley or HK ever supporting it.
The BOOM Audio WHIM and the BOOM Audio 20S EVO support both A2DP stereo and the AptX audio codec. Any of the other BOOM bluetooth headsets do not support AptX.
To try to clarify the original question, there are three things going on: the bandwidth of the bluetooth connection, the codec being used by the bluetooth devices, and the compression, if any, that was used on the digital file stored in a USB drive.
While uncompressed .wav or similar music files can be stored on USB, and then played back uncompressed, if your player supports that, there is no bluetooth connection that can stream uncompressed .wav files.
All bluetooth connections stream compressed audio data.
The "standard" bluetooth codec is SBC, or sub-band coding. This has always been adequate for streaming a music file over a bluetooth connection, because, as was stated above, riding a motorcycle at 75 mph isn't exactly the same as your dedicated stereo listening room at home. The higher quality codec is the AptX codec, but unless BOTH the sending bluetooth device and the receiving bluetooth device support it, the connection will default to SBC.
If you have a 64kb .mp3 loaded on and played directly from a USB drive, or you are streaming a 64kb .mp3 over a bluetooth connection, you won't be able to hear any difference whatsoever.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Tourer
Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 279
Likes: 23
From: The Falls
I should clarify AptX HD (No relation to Harley Davidson) is the only useful implementation of AptX for music as it's lossless and supports 24/96.
I'd love to debate this but I'm willing to bet the farm most will agree it doesn't make a lick of a difference if the recording just plain sucks. We all have songs we love that sound like **** at high volume compared to others. Over the years I've subconsciously built my playlists excluding songs that sound like garbage. **I am a true audiophile. Pretty sure it contributed to my divorce lol.
Go look at car audio competitions and see what they use. MESA used the Focal masters series CDs and now use a Chesky CD. The recording quality is paramount for SQ competition.
I'd love to debate this but I'm willing to bet the farm most will agree it doesn't make a lick of a difference if the recording just plain sucks. We all have songs we love that sound like **** at high volume compared to others. Over the years I've subconsciously built my playlists excluding songs that sound like garbage. **I am a true audiophile. Pretty sure it contributed to my divorce lol.
Go look at car audio competitions and see what they use. MESA used the Focal masters series CDs and now use a Chesky CD. The recording quality is paramount for SQ competition.
Thread Starter
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Tourer
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 259
Likes: 11
Thanks for so many responses. I have the Sony xav-ax100 with apple carplay. I was just wondering because most of the songs that I play directly off of my iPhone does not have the same sound quality when same the same song is played with a flash drive.
Club Member
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 11,468
Likes: 3,572
From: Idaho
I should clarify AptX HD (No relation to Harley Davidson) is the only useful implementation of AptX for music as it's lossless and supports 24/96.
I'd love to debate this but I'm willing to bet the farm most will agree it doesn't make a lick of a difference if the recording just plain sucks. We all have songs we love that sound like **** at high volume compared to others. Over the years I've subconsciously built my playlists excluding songs that sound like garbage. **I am a true audiophile. Pretty sure it contributed to my divorce lol.
Go look at car audio competitions and see what they use. MESA used the Focal masters series CDs and now use a Chesky CD. The recording quality is paramount for SQ competition.
I'd love to debate this but I'm willing to bet the farm most will agree it doesn't make a lick of a difference if the recording just plain sucks. We all have songs we love that sound like **** at high volume compared to others. Over the years I've subconsciously built my playlists excluding songs that sound like garbage. **I am a true audiophile. Pretty sure it contributed to my divorce lol.
Go look at car audio competitions and see what they use. MESA used the Focal masters series CDs and now use a Chesky CD. The recording quality is paramount for SQ competition.
Since there are very, very, few consumer level Bluetooth devices that support even "base" AptX, I'm guessing that there are no Bluetooth headsets that support AptX-HD.
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Intermediate
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 29
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From: Illinois-USA
I am an MP3 junkie, I've found that the flash drive is the way to go. Blue tooth can fade off at different points. If you use a higher grade download when recording the file it may sound better but really you won't know the difference.
I did find that making albums with the songs you want works pretty good. Like all your rock tunes you want in one album named Ex ( Bill's 2018 Rock ) or (Bill's 2018 Country)ETC. You have to go into properties and change each songs album to Bill's 2018 Rock. Or what ever genre your listening to.
It doesn't matter what you name the album, all of those songs
I did find that making albums with the songs you want works pretty good. Like all your rock tunes you want in one album named Ex ( Bill's 2018 Rock ) or (Bill's 2018 Country)ETC. You have to go into properties and change each songs album to Bill's 2018 Rock. Or what ever genre your listening to.
It doesn't matter what you name the album, all of those songs
