FYI - Lossless FLAC comes to car audio

I rip all my audio to FLAC for playback on my Pioneer Elite A/V receiver.  I’ve been looking for an aftermarket unit for my car to address some issues with an add-on Sirius radio I’ve had for a while.  I wanted one with a CD changer but being the cheap old curmudgeon that I am I didn’t like the price tag.  I didn’t like the idea of re-ripping my collection to MP3 and frankly don’t like the idea of MP3’s in general (lossy). 

Enter the Kenwood KMM-100U (KMM-100 for the Euro zone).  A new receiver in single din with no CD that plays MP3, WMA, WAV, and … (trumpet, please) … FLAC

:smileyvery-happy:

And with front panel USB (2.0 limit) I can have iPod like convienience (I don’t own an iPod) on one of these:

Cruzer Fit comes in sizes up to 32Gig which should hold about ~90-100 CD’s at FLAC compression.

The AUX port solves my Sirius radio issue (FM station crowding in the local area).

Only problem is I have to wait till my birthday (next month) to get it

Not sure if anyone cares but I thought I’d toss it out there.

GCG

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Nice, thanks for sharing. 

I originally posted this in the WDTV Live Hub forum but the Mod moved it here.  This development is very relevant to me and I thought it might be for others. With the exception of  some high $$ NAV/VID units this is the only car head unit to play FLAC that I’ve been able to locate.  For those of us that have a library ripped entirely to FLAC for lossless playback and want to carry that on their commutes and other places this is really big.  It has a 24 bit DAC and gets very good reviews for sound quality. Add Pandora support,the USB port for iPod interface and mass storage, and an AUX for SAT/MP3 Player/OTHER for less than $90 with a full install kit and it’s hard to beat

  http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertainment/In-Dash_CD_Receivers/1-DIN_CD_Receiver/KMM-100U

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While I’m not currently looking to replace/upgrade my car stereo system, it’s very good to know there is now available an in-dash FLAC compatible solution! Now if only I can find a multi-terabyte Cruzer drive…

My music collection is currently residing on a 21.4 TB FreeNAS server built on an ASUS P8Z77-V Pro Motherboard, i7-3770k CPU, 32 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM and NINE WD30EFRX drives in a RAIDZ configuration. Not quite portable enough to take to the car for a drive.

The USB WILL source 1 amp as opposed to the more common 500 milliamps.  That’ll easily power any of the 2.5 inch drives.  So the best you’ll be able to do near term is about 2TB.  Guess you’ll have to settle on your favorite 30,000 - 40,000 tunes and just make do.:stuck_out_tongue:

Guess I should update.  I have it.  Early B’day present from my wonderful wife.

In a nutshell, Nice.

Came with the double DIN to single DIN adapter and cable harness adapter gratis. $80 and just to prove I’m not spamming you’ll have to Google it yourself to find where to get one.  I had an 8G flashdrive and xfered about twenty CD’s from my WDTV Live Hub, IN FLAC, over; bought a patch cable to go to my SAT; and I was in business.  Got the 32G Cruzer Fit comming Thursday.  So glad I have the Hub.  Lossless audio in one format in the house and on the road, Priceless.

The app to create the DB on the stick is a free download from the Kenwood site and is so simple to use it doesn’t even rate mentioning.  Literally wait for the app to see the stick, one click, wait, done - remove the stick. Search on any of the usual criteria - artist, album, song - don’t recall seeing genre. 

As for sound quality three people (me, my wife and my son) all agree - very noticable improvement over the factory unit.  I’m still on the factory speakers so at higher volumes I’m getting some noticable strain.  it’s delivering much better bass so the stock 6x9’s are thumping nicly and the cahnnel sep is laying out a nice sound stage across my dash (the stock speakers include dash mounted tweeters). There’s a feature to select the size speakers you have.  4 or 5 inches, 6x9 or 6 inches, OEM, and off (no specific selection).  Kenwood suggested OEM but that didn’t sound as good as “off” so I tried 6x9/6 since that’s what I have and so far it’s working out.

One thing I have noticed is that if you don’t fully seat the AUX cable from the SAT or MP3 player or whatever you apparently get a weak ground and engine whine.

All-in-all a very nice match for carrying FLAC audio files from the Hub to the car.