Premier units support lossless formats?

[GetMeMyStogie]

Anyone know if any of the Pioneer/Premier head units support lossless digital formats, like WAV, or FLAC?
Even the highest bit-rate MP3's are dissappointing, especially when played through a quality Premier head unit and low-disortion, high S/N ratio amps.

Oh, and what about hooking up a hard drive? The units that have USB - will they control a 250GB USB hard drive? That would be nice - especially for lossless formats, since they're so big.

[Pops]

Anyone know if any of the Pioneer/Premier head units support lossless digital formats, like WAV, or FLAC?
Even the highest bit-rate MP3's are dissappointing, especially when played through a quality Premier head unit and low-disortion, high S/N ratio amps.

Oh, and what about hooking up a hard drive? The units that have USB - will they control a 250GB USB hard drive? That would be nice - especially for lossless formats, since they're so big.

Magindat would be your best sorce on these questions. The Avic Z3 has a pretty big hard drive in for music storage.

[Windsor58]

Just looking at the Pioneer site, and picking a couple of Premier CD receivers - DEH-P700BT and DEH-P600UB, they say they work with Codec SupportMP3, WMA, WAV, iTunes AAC

The AVIC-F90BT supports MP3, MPEG-4, WMA, DivX and iTunes AAC (probablymore, but that was what I could find).
It can use a USB flash drive. I don't know if that means it could also use a USB hard drive. I would think it should.
Also, with the DVD capability, you should be able to make direct CD format music DVDs with a lot more music, than a CD.

[illwood]

Oh, and what about hooking up a hard drive? The units that have USB - will they control a 250GB USB hard drive? That would be nice - especially for lossless formats, since they're so big.

No dice on hooking up to a big hard drive. :shake:
I was going to do the same, but I decided to call Pioneer tech support to find the capabilities. The USB port will only communicate with a 2Gb or smaller drive. It won't even work with my 8Gb Sandisk thumbdrive. The support person told me that they don't support big hard drives because when the unit shuts off, it just turns off power to the USB which can be potentially damaging to a hard drive.

The front SD card slot will handle up to a 8Gb card.

I ended up buying a used 60Gb iPod on Craigslist and used the included iPod interface. Personally, I don't care for iPods, but it works well with the headunit and the voice control is pretty awesome. At that point, you're only limited by the formats that the iPod will take.

[GetMeMyStogie]

I ended up buying a used 60Gb iPod on Craigslist and used the included iPod interface. Personally, I don't care for iPods, but it works well with the headunit and the voice control is pretty awesome. At that point, you're only limited by the formats that the iPod will take.

Sounds reasonable - iPods might be able to play FLAC or WAV with some tweaking. But, how does it sound? Do you get full-range sound from an iPod connection? How does it compare to playing a CD, wrt bottom end, and top end (the most common parts of music lost to compression)?


Thanks for the details, as well.... very helpful

[illwood]

Sounds reasonable - iPods might be able to play FLAC or WAV with some tweaking. But, how does it sound? Do you get full-range sound from an iPod connection? How does it compare to playing a CD, wrt bottom end, and top end (the most common parts of music lost to compression)?


Thanks for the details, as well.... very helpful
According to the PDF manual for the iPod Video I have (5th Gen iPod), the device will play WAV files and ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec).

Before I speak to the quality of the sound, my system is not finished yet for me to completely analyze the sound quality of the setup. I am still running my stock speakers and they are powered through the headunit's internal amp. My eventual plan is to use component speakers in the front locations, components or 2-ways in the rear deck (powered by a 4-channel amp), and a 10" sealed sub (powered by a single channel amp).

With my current setup, the iPod sounds good. I do use MP3 files, but I use the LAME encoder set to VBR, so I'm doing better than a standard 128Kbps file (I configured my compression settings by listening to my original CD and then the same section on the MP3 through my Grado headphones). The iPod transmits sound and video to the headunit through RCA connections to AV1. The USB is only used on the iPod for remote control.

I hope this helps.

[Vortech347]

I'm leaning towards the F90BT.

I just wasn't to excited when I called Pioneer a few minutes ago and found out to update the GPS will likely cost about 120$ish and will only come out yearly. Also I was told "we havn't thought about upgrading it yet"

[GetMeMyStogie]

I'm leaning towards the F90BT.

I just wasn't to excited when I called Pioneer a few minutes ago and found out to update the GPS will likely cost about 120$ish and will only come out yearly. Also I was told "we havn't thought about upgrading it yet"

Wow! That's effed up! I'm used to buying a couple of MapArt mapbooks once every decade or so, for about $20.
It would suck if you're forced to update (because, say, the maps 'expire' and stop working).

[Pops]

Wow! That's effed up! I'm used to buying a couple of MapArt mapbooks once every decade or so, for about $20.
It would suck if you're forced to update (because, say, the maps 'expire' and stop working).

I have never seen them expire. I know that you can not get away with copies anymore on the updates as you have to call or go on line and register now.

[magindat]

Maps don't expire, they just age and become less accurate, especially in growing areas.

Best bet is F90 which can play data DVD DL. Drop your WAV's on DL DVD's by category and carry a small collection of say 15 or so disks which fit nicely in an overhead visor disk wallet. Each DVD will hold HOURS even at WAV.

No dice on HD. Tried it.