ls4302006

I can plub my phone into the usb and it will charge... however "usb" is not "lit" up as a source and cannot be sourced like fm, disc, bt...
thanks

LuxuryCar1

What kind of phone do you have? Some phones for example an iPhone may need to unlocked and then a prompt will popup asking you to "trust this computer".

Check this out for iPhones, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202778

I know androids also do something similar but I am not familiar with them.

DerrickM

Try a USB drive with MP3 files on it. That's how I listen to most music in my '15.

ls4302006

Ive got a flash usb made.. will give it a try

R Z

Never tried my iPhone in the usb. I found in a drawer an old 16 gb flash drive and I loaded it with music. It works great. Just be sure there are no errant files on the drive. I made that mistake and the disk wouldn’t work.

Duck05

We use a USB thumb drive in the arm rest for music which the wife employs. I am disappointed by how unfriendly the UI is for maneuvering amongst the folders so when I drive the car I prefer the BT connecting to the iPhone for Pandora or Amazon Prime.

The sounds quality is nice in these cars.... Enjoy.

DavidinCT

I just got a 2014 LS460(and loving it so far) but, wondering about the USB music as well. Is the best it can do 320kbs ? Is there a way to get higher bit rate audio from a source from a iPod, or old iPhone (something I can burry in the center console with no SIM) ? Really would like to avoid Bluetooth music, and stick with hard wired.

What does the car use to get meta data ? It's it the ID tags in the songs, or is based on file name ? Is there a better folder layout that the car will read quicker ?

If there is not a way to get higher bit rate audio, is there an optimal program (Windows) to convert my FLAC music to the BEST and highest bit rate the car will support ?

I've looked through the book and searched like crazy on here but, not fining the answer to what I am looking for... Is possible to get higher bit rate MP3/WMV audio into the LS460 ?

Dolph1

The best you can do is convert any flac files you have to apple lossless. I have a few old iPhones and iPods I have loaded up with apple lossless files. I will not use a thumb drive since since the ML system can only read lossy mp3s. There are some free programs you can download that can help you quickly convert music files from one format to another.

DavidinCT

So, I can take a old iPhone (I think I have a iPhone 6 or even a SE (with a broken screen)that is not doing anything) and I can burry it in the center console. If I take my FLAC music and convert it to Apple lossless, will it be better sounding than the max (320kbs?)on the USB ?

Is it true lossless audio over the ML system (high bit rate) ? I know the iPhone will go "do you want to connect to this computer" type things. I do want a set and forget option so I don't want to have to play with it. Will I have to deal with this stuff every time I get in the car ?

Is it a better experience on the ML system than a USB drive ? I see an option to show album art from iPod so I assume it might be better.

Is there a way to show Album art off a USB drive ? Windows uses folder.jpg for covers, I was wondering if there was an option here.

Dolph1

I use an old iPhone 6 for my music. It shows up under the iPod tab. I also have an old iPod I use. I have noticed the iPhone needs recharging once in a while but am not sure whether there is something wrong with the iPod or if it’s using more power than it’s getting. I just leave the iPhone connected and there is no special procedure needed once it is connected.

Which file to use is subjective. I want the best available so I use Apple lossless (equivalent to cd quality in terms of bits). MP3s are lossy so they have less bits than a cd contains). I converted my flac files to apple lossless using something called dbpoweramp. It’s free but than you can pay for the upgraded features if you want them.

If you use a USB drive you are listening to something that is less than cd quality from a bits perspective but you may not be able to tell the difference.

DavidinCT

Cool, Thanks for the info. Does it show Album art ?

Think I have a 64gb SE phone with a broken display (still works but, display is cracked) and I think that would work prefect for this...

I'm not an apple person but, If I can get lossless audio and possible Album art, I'll try it...

DerrickM

This is not necessarily true; depends on the bitrate and how carefully the MP3 was made (and the quality of the DAC inside the Lexus stereo of course). Most MP3s you get these days tend to be high bitrate and/or variable bitrate.

Dolph1

You will get the album art with both the iPhone and IPod

MP3s are what is known as a lossy format. So from a mathematical perspective you are getting less data per song compared to what is contained in the original source file. A lossless format like Flac or Apple lossless will have the same data as the source file. Whether a listener can hear a sound quality difference between a lossy file and lossless file made from the same source and played on the same system has been debated at length on audiophile forums.

DavidinCT

I've been playing with this for the last 3 days, trying formatting and different bit rates. I tried converting my high bit rate FLAC files to MP3 and WMA. I got them both to the highest bit rate I could go (tried about 20 different formats and bit rates to see if there was a undocumented format it could use).

I had a copy of NCH Switch Plus 7.15 (in case your wondering). After finding about the highest each format could go, I did them to both formats. I was using Windows Media Audio 9.2 and the built in MP3 encoder.

I converted 2 albums to the best on MP3 and WMA. Listening to them one by one, The WMA sounded more fuller and clearer, if I am going to use a USB drive, I would not even do any in MP3 (unless the original format was MP3) and WMA would be the choice.

I am going to try to get some files converted to Apple lossless and use the damaged SE 64gb phone I have, it should do perfectly. Do I need iTunes installed to convert and upload to the iPhone ?

The ONE thing I noticed about MP3 and WMA... the volume needs to be MUCH higher than XM or radio, I blasted the radio when switching from Media to Radio...

You are not kidding, I am/sort of a audiophile and I can hear the differences but, I have been reading some of those threads.... crazy

Dolph1

I am by no means an Apple expert but yes, you will need iTunes to put the lossless files on your old iPhone.

If you have high res FLAC you should have no problem getting high res files on your old iphone. Just today I loaded some high res wav files into iTunes and then to an old iPhone se I have laying around. I was able to play these files on the ML system no problem and they sounded darn good. The only thing is you really don’t know if Apple is feeding out high res files or down converting to cd quality. Apple does not have a good reputation with high res music as their Dacs can’t play it. It is also an unknown whether the digital to audio conversion is happening in the iPhone or ML. I did attempt to find out from the ML car audio division the answer as to where the digital to audio conversion is happening but had no luck.