yronnen

Hi,

I'm pretty much counting the minutes till I get the car...my question is: can the sound system play FLAC (or perhaps other format of lossless) stored on a USB flash drive?

Thanks.

Mike728

No, it does not play FLAC files.

Truly55

The UK model (and therefore the rest of the World bar North America) supports FLAC.

mcomer

(1) 2 USB ports are provided so that up to 2 of the following items can be available at once: USB memory device, portable audio player (USB type), iPhone, iPod nano or iPod touch.

(2) The USB audio system supports high-resolution sound sources and high-resolution sound sources on USB devices can be played. (A high-resolution sound source has a higher bit rate than a music CD, enabling sound quality closer to that of the original recording. The definition of high-resolution is based on the standards of groups such as the CTA (Consumer Technology Association).)

(3) The USB system enables the playback of video data stored on a USB memory device.

HINT:

• Even if 3 or more USB devices are connected using a USB hub, only the first 2 connected USB devices will be recognized.
• iPhone, iPod nano and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
• The following iPhone, iPod nano and iPod touch devices can be used with this system.

• Made for

o iPhone 7

o iPhone 7 Plus

o iPhone SE

o iPhone 6s

o iPhone 6s Plus

o iPhone 6

o iPhone 6 Plus

o iPhone 5s

o iPhone 5c

o iPhone 5

o iPhone 4s

o iPod touch (6th generation)

o iPod touch (5th generation)

o iPod nano (7th generation)

• This system only supports audio playback.
• Depending on differences between models, software versions, etc., some models may be incompatible with this system.

• USB memory devices that meet the following specifications are supported:

*: Sound source of 48 kHz/24 bit or more is down-converted to 48 kHz/24 bit.

USB Communication Formats

USB 2.0, High Speed (480 Mbps)

File System

FAT 16/32

Correspondence Class

Mass Storage Class

File Format

MP3/WMA/AAC/OGG Vorbis*

High-resolution Sound Source File Format

WAV (LPCM)*/FLAC*/ALAC*

• Video data, which meets the following specifications, is supported:

File Format

MPEG-4/AVI Container/Windows Media Video

Corresponding Screen Size

MAX 1920 x 1080

Corresponding Frame Rate

MAX 60i/30p

yronnen

Thanks, found the info on the Lexus site, looks like it supports FLAC and some other lossless formats.

Mike728

This is interesting. I have tried playing a couple various FLAC encoded music in the 2019 ES with ML audio. It did not play 192/24, or 96/24, which is why I said it wouldn't play. I see from the above, that it should have (sadly) down converted it to 48/24 and played. Is there an update needed in order to do this? The vehicle in the family I'm referring to was purchased back in September.

I know that the files play fine in the new Audi's and BMW's, so there is no issue with my memory stick.

Vi73

I got FLAC 192/24 working on my 2019 ES. I originally had an issue with larger capacity flash drives so I swapped it for an old 16gb drive.

yronnen

Apparently Lexus didn't read the manual. I'm unable to play (or even see) FLAC files on my USB drive. Those tracks were ripped from a CD so they're at a 44.1 rate. I've MP3 and FLAC files on the same drive, maybe that's the problem?

yronnen

So you were unable to see those files with a large drive, and they appeared with the older one?

yronnen

Well, everything works fine now with FLAC (and sounds great). I'm using a 256GB drive formatted as FAT32, and my folder structure is not deep (3 levels max).

All the FLAC files I have are 44.1, so I can't comment on HD FLAC files.

Edit: Works with 24/44.1 too, and sounds great.

markp1798

I tried a few songs in FLAC and they show up under "Unknown" for artist. The Unknown folder thinks there are 250 + tracks when there are actually only 5 or 6. If I select a song it plays at about track 20 or so. If I move the next track it skips to track 46 or so. So all the other tracks are not real data. The other file formats seem to show correctly. I have some WMA music that plays and lists fine and others in WMA format that do not show up at all on the thumb drive when inserted in the Lexus. The manual says it supports WMA so it sort of does. The manual says it does not support M4a files but those seem to work without issue. I find it much easier to sync the music to my iPhone using iTunes, then play them from the iPhone using CarPlay rather than the USB flash drive.

Another thing that bugs me is that if the car is running and in park you can browse the flash drive by artist or album and select a specific artist or album. However as soon as you put the car in drive and try to browse the same way it will just play a song at random rather than the artist or album you selected. It makes no sense.

yronnen

FLAC files have ID tags, just like MP3 and WMA. Perhaps you have a bunch of untagged files? The sound systems uses the tag to browse through the artists, albums etc., unless you browse folders.

Regarding your other comment: whenever I start driving the car, I'm not able to browse using the touchpad, only through the buttons on the wheel, but then if you have a large number of albums or artists it's just impossible. I find it annoying as well, even though it's a safety thing, because the passenger next to me can still do whatever he/she want while I'm driving.

markp1798

Thanks, I will try some other FLAC files and check for tags on the ones that are not displaying correctly now.

mikemu30

Browse is disabled while driving - annoying but its a safety issue I guess.

RickF

I have 2 FiIO (X5 and X9) Hi Def players and 1 Basso Hi Def player. I just got a new ES350h with ML audio.

A couple things - the USB controller only finds the internal SD card on the Basso.
The USB controller doesn't see either of the micro SD disks on the FIIO.

The Basso internal has only 1 album on it - in FLAC format. And it does play it nicely.

But it's a bummer that the car does not seem to know how to index multiple volumes (mulitple SD cards).

My ford fusion could !

Anyone else had experience with USB players on their car?