Quote:
Originally Posted by sotti
That was my point. The bandwidth is there, the capability to playback hi-res should be there.
But at the end of the day it's about making sure you've got the right feature set to support high-quality audio and it is a frequent oversight in consumer electronics in general, not just auto.
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The reason BMW doesn't support hi-res is because it'd be complicated & expensive as hell for not much (likely zero) benefit.
(1.) How many consumers are interested in high-res? Not a ton
(2.) Of those who are, how many actually know what it means AND have experience with what it means? I can tell you that number is exceedingly small. Even audiophile people spending $4,000 for a single pair of headphones don't really know what it is / how it works (those who do use pretty complicated software / apps) ... and I've never met a single one who can reliably tell the difference between a 16/44.1 and any higher stream. Not one. And that's in perfect conditions, not the very imperfect listening environment that's an auto interior ...
(3.) What kind of system would BMW have to build to take advantage of high-res? A pretty expensive one ....
Beyond all that, however, both Android & Apple are capping "high res" at 48kHz in the car (and effectively with their software unless you specifically know how to get around that) so the bandwidth is kinda moot anyway.
Therefore, in order to make it work, BMW would have to add a Wi-Fi streamer into its electronics and, unless they're gonna use a Raspberry Pi, those are pretty expensive, and most consumers aren't gonna be running Roon or some other expensive streamer app.