Nope, with the iPhone at least it will play whatever is playing on the phone through USB just like over BT, so Tidal, Pandora, Spotify, whatever. Through Apple CarPlay you can control Tidal through the screen which is a huge plus.

You can download music to the app over WiFi and play those downloaded files through the Tidal app without using data.

And "tons of data" is relative. I use it on Master quality every time I'm in the car and I drive a lot. My data usage before I started using Tidal was probably 20GB, now its like 30GB. So, it uses ~ 10GB a month. If you have unlimited data its a non issue.

 

I was wrong, it doesn't work I played with the USB options on my phone and I couldn't get it to recognize it. I think the only option is streaming over Bluetooth.

 

I have never owned an Android device. Is not being able to connect via USB to listen to music a common issue with all car manufactures or just with Lexus?

 

It works fine in my wife's CX-5, but it also has Android Auto.

 

I'm not sure, I've only owned GM and Lexus. It worked with my GM vehicles...

Maybe Lexus/Toyota will follow through with adding Android Auto to the '19 ES. I think it will be on the 2020 models since it's on the RX refresh.

 

This is a post I made in a different thread on this site:

My experience is that when the system is left at the factory settings the sound is aggressive, there is far too much energy (volume) coming from the front and the system overall lacks sufficient dimension or size. To my ears, the best adjustments I've found so far are: Treble -2, Mids -1, Bass 0, Fader -3 towards the rear, Sound Leveler set to Off and Surround set to Off. The system is also very revealing of the source material. Tidal is good but when I play well recorded FLAC files with my preferred settings the system sounds quite exceptional and exhibits many of the sonic qualities normally associated with "High End Audiophile" systems.

I suggest that you or anyone else who owns or is interested in the 2019 ES with the Mark Levinson system go to HDTracks and download the $4.98
Audiogon Wake Up Your Ears sampler in FLAC 192kHz/24bit, Link: https://www.hdtracks.com/audiogon-pr...sampler-134226
Put those files on a USB stick (FAT 32 formatted), adjust the system as I've described and play it at 52 to 57 on the volume control. Please let me know what you think. I believe you will be very impressed.

Suggested tracks: St. Louis Blues, Stank, Dancing Flute and Drum, Mozart Ave Verum and You Haven't Done Nothin'.

 

I'm obviously way behind the tech curve on this; for those who know, how would the audio quality of an iPod plugged into the system via USB compare in quality to Tidal and other newer technologies?

 

Wasnt there a protype/pre production amp that was apparently being tested as a resolution to this issue supplied by a service center?

 

Any audio device you have has an audio recording file that is made in a certain format. It could be the original studio file, or some crappy highly compressed file. Tidal is a streaming app, that promises all their music files you listen to on their application is close to the original studio file.

So if you have great audio system, and require great a audio experience, you want something like Tidal, or an iPod that contains as close to the original studio recording as possible.

If your like the rest of us, and dont really care and just need music to fill up the silence while driving, ignore and enjoy lol