Help me pick my music source options

[Dr_jitsu]

Greetings,

I am trying to set up my music source for my new GT2. I am a bit of an audiophile, so sound quality (sq) is a big consideration. I have the HK 15 speaker set up. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give the system a 6 or 7 in terms of sq. I can live with it assuming I get some decent source material. I am considering either Sirius or Apple car play. I know I can get both with Apple, but I could be happy with just Sirius. I would only want Apple in order to pick specific songs and create playlists.

EDIT: I am also considering ripping CD's to lossless USB.

I am not what one would consider tech savvy.

I have a massive CD collection I play on my home systems. Vinyl has the best sq, CD's are a step down and of course compressed audio is very bad. Lossless is better. Of course the Stinger does not have a CD player, so I am looking at Sirius and Apple car play.

I have an eclectic music taste, but for the Stinger I am looking at primarily classic rock (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Heart etc.) New Wave and Punk.

Ideally, I would create perfect play lists, but there are some good channels on Sirius for the music I like. I do like the option of picking specific songs to play, but I also like that Sat DJ's often play good music I forgot about.

OK, so please advise me as to what you would recommend.

Thanks!

 

[Pnbnationsbest]

Skip satellite and just use pandora on android auto or apple CarPlay

 

[Dr_jitsu]

OK....tell me more about car play. I just hook my phone up, yes? I can use C play to create play lists and can I also use SIRI to find specific songs?

What about Sound Quality (SQ). Compressed audio sounds terrible. Can I get lossless?

 

[SteveCo]

I ripped my CD collection into lossless FLAC files, and play those from my phone's music storage. Excellent sound quality, along with album art and the ability to voice select titles.

 

[Dr_jitsu]

Thanks Steve: Can I just rip my CD's to a USB with lossless files?

 

[SteveCo]

Thanks Steve: Can I just rip my CD's to a USB with lossless files?

Yes, that's what I did with mine, then transferred the files from the USB stick to the phone. The music plays fine from either.

 

[Pnbnationsbest]

You can also purchase something called the dragonfly by audioquest. It will take compressed audio and decompress and re-layer the audio. I think it's 150$. It plugs right into your player, good option if you are not tech savvy enough to rip and recode your music

 

[Dr_jitsu]

I think I can rip my CD's to USB...just looked at some DIY vids. No more complicated than making them in the first place. Hmm. Sirius would have to make me a cheap offer to keep them as a back up source.

 

[Kamauxx]

I think I can rip my CD's to USB...just looked at some DIY vids. No more complicated than making them in the first place. Hmm. Sirius would have to make me a cheap offer to keep them as a back up source.

If they think you're going to cancel they offer great deals.

My current 6-month subscription, including the added on Howard Stern channels, cost me $51 and they gifted me an Amazon Echo dot ($50 value). $1 for 6 months of service ain't bad.

 

[Dr_jitsu]

Yes, so I have heard. I actually will cancel, and if they have the dot offer jump on that. Otherwise I will rip to USB. Are there any overwhelming arguments for having Apple Car play? I would enjoy the voice commends.

 

[AV8R]

If you rip cd then rip song at least at 256mbs mp3 as the sound quality is better. Bigger files though. Flac type files are good quality too. You can set the size and type in setting of software you use to rip songs.
The sound in the car will get better too as bass speakers take a month or two to loosen up and break in.

 

[RandallK]

Satellite radio is pure garbage for sound quality.... you have two options for streaming music..

1. Tidal using their master quality libraries..

2. Qobuz

Using the Audio Quest Dragonfly is a great option, but the problem is that the Stinger will not play any high res formatted music from USB and will down convert most audio.. I tested the digital signal and this is the highest bit rate it will see.

 

[LegacyGTv2.0]

Satellite radio has pretty terrible sound quality, as bad or worse than the basic tier of streaming services.
Convert your CD's to 16/44 FLAC files and toss them on a USB drive. The Stinger won't recognize anything higher than 16/44 so higher res stuff will need to be converted.
Also, there was a discussion on here about the HK audio system. There's a good chance that the system has a A/D attached to the AUX input (probably running at 16/44) so that it can do all the DSP processing.
Basically, 16/44 FLAC off a USB drive is the best quality you're ever going to get.

 

[airborne82]

Ya, Sirius/Xm pretty much sucks for sound quality anymore. I just switched from Pandora to Spotify, I like the ability to set the bit rate for Spotify.

 

[Kazz]

I use Spotify, storing locally to my phone at the highest setting. It works - but I'm no audiophile.

 

[Dr_jitsu]

My first move will be to burn my CD's to USB. SQ on Sirius is terrible will only keep if I get it for cheap. Tidal looks good but is expensive.

 

[mfenske]

Not a Stinger owner (yet) and what I've found to be helpful was to buy an old 5th or 5.5th generation iPod and removed its old HD and replaced it with SD cards and I can fit up to 50,000 songs and in AAC or high bitrate mp3 you should be more than happy. Here's a link with more info www.iflash.xyz