Hi All,
I'm new to the G37 and new to this forum. I recently got into a 2011 sport sedan with nav and Bose. The bluetooth streaming quality from my phone is not good quality and there is no 3.5mm aux port. I read the manual and it said the USB Jack does not support any files that are above 320 kb/s. This is OK, but I'd rather listen to better sounding files like FLAC or WAV. If I get an iPod touch and run Tidal on it will this work through the USB port? Or does it only read files in the device's memory. I know I could re-invest in a large portfolio of physical CD's again, but I thought those days were behind me. Any help understanding this would be appreciated before I make investments in new equipment. Thanks in advance for your response!

 

Congrats on the new ride, hope you're enjoying it.

Sound quality... First I have to say that while I do like the sound of the Bose system I don't feel like the car is a nice enough environment to fully appreciate the benefit of uncompressed FLAC or WAV files. Too much noise from motor, tires, wind, etc... Just my opinion.

I would agree that Bluetooth might be the worst of the audio crunching alternatives but it is also the most convenient for "casual" listening in our cars (with NAV). In addition to standard CDs, the optical drive can also read data CDs with files in mp3, wma, aac & m4a formats.

The USB port would seem like a direct way in but I believe the DA conversion is still done by the head unit and so limited to only those same file formats. It's also badly implemented and sometimes unresponsive or displays incorrect data onscreen.

I'm presuming your car doesn't have RCA jacks next to the USB jack? If it did all you need is an adaptor. But presuming it does not, your next best bet would be to look into adding an aux input with an adaptor like this:
https://gromaudio.com/store/aux1_ada...emulation.html
This would give you an analog audio input which would appear as the SAT source. I don't know if that means you have to give up the satellite radio and/or if it gives you steering wheel control over track selection, I didn't read the details... With the right collection or cables and adaptors you could then stream audio from any analog source.

 

Thanks for the info, 13_SkylineSedan ! That looks like a great adapter, but unfortunately it says it does not work on models with Navigation. The Vline 2 looks great, but a bit more coin than I'm willing to invest at this point. Honestly if I could just find a way to stream Spotify at 320kb/s, I'd be OK with that, but I don't see a way to do that without investing the time and money in the Vline. Any other suggestions before I go on a CD shopping spree?

 

Ah, sorry, didn't know that about the GROM. Try plugging your current phone into the usb port just to see if the car will cooperate. You may need to start music playing or streaming from the phone first, then plug it in, then choose AUX as a source, then go back to the phone to hit "play" and see what happens...

I think there should be a way to tap the analog input to the head unit as it comes from the satellite receiver... But it would be a custom mod and somewhat complicated. And maybe I'm wrong and even that is a digital audio input, I'm not sure.

Is your car a sedan? If so, here's the FSM for the audio rig:
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-man...an/2011/AV.pdf
coupe is here:
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-man...pe/2011/AV.pdf
at the bottom of the document's window you can "click to download"

In the meantime, take the easy path and play some music via Bluetooth!

 

I have a 128gb microSD card currently loaded up with about 68gb of mp3 and mp4 (divx) files (and growing). Yes, the interface can be "clunky" at times, but for the most part the USB runs fine. For me, it is a "set it and forget it" deal. I, personally, would never go back to a bulky book full of CD's... but that is a independent choice.

Adding the RCA (analog) jacks to the headunit is super easy. The pinouts are there, just not used. The problem is the headunits software which can't be unlocked and reconfigured to utilize the RCA's. This is why companies use the SAT radio input. It is easier to tap into the existing input than try to unlock the software and "recognize" the RCA jacks.

Agreed!

Just my 10¢...