# Car receiver that will play Flac through USB



## ak85lp

I did a search here and found a few older threads and wondered if there are any decks today that will play Flac files through USB? I recently converted almost my whole CD collection onto a 1 TB USB portable drive into Flacs to play through my WD Live media player. I need to get a new car deck so something that would play this format would be great. I think it would be more practical to take just a 32 GB USB stick with me in the car as I can pull off a week's worth of music onto the key. However if there was a deck that could use a 2nd 1 TB drive mounted in the car that would be useful too.


Thanks in advance.

Paul


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## locomo

 http://www.crutchfield.com/S-1MCv99eYnQR/p_113KMM100U/Kenwood-KMM-100U.html#details-tab


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## ak85lp

Great, thanks.

If this also played CDs that would be great but it might be all I need. I did some more research and found that a lot of head Units also play WMA files but in the fine print, it's only the lossy ones up to 192 bit. No mention anywhere of playing the WMA lossless.


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## Montekay

Wow I almost thought I was reading my own post from another forum a few months ago. At that time I didn't find anything. The $79 solution from Kenwood didn't seem like a good option to me, I even sent Kenwood a bit of a nasty e-mail telling them how idiotic it was to put the FLAC capability only in their cheapest deck... a deck targeting a market that wouldn't even know what the capability is.


Anyway JVC is your solution. Interesting JVC and Kenwood are the same company, maybe JVC is meant to be the higher end line. This is a GPS Navigation deck... http://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KWNT310/JVC-KW-NT310.html?tp=20212 that plays FLAC. I have not looked through their other decks but my guess is they have standard decks that do it. I ended up with a Kenwood that plays WAV in my truck before discovering the JVC but put the JVC-KW-NT310 in my Civic. Will probably later put the JVC in the truck.


mk


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## DeLaw

You might want to look at a FiiO X3 audio player. You can play about anything you want and load them on a 64gb card.

All you need is a audio input for your radio and you can take it anywhere. It is also has gapless playback, witch you will have a very hard time

finding a radio that will do that.


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## golferbradbest

I just use my Samsung galaxy s4 with 64gb ext mem card with poweramp. it plays flac


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## ak85lp




> Quote:
> Originally Posted by *DeLaw*  /t/1497935/car-receiver-that-will-play-flac-through-usb#post_24020552
> 
> 
> You might want to look at a FiiO X3 audio player. You can play about anything you want and load them on a 64gb card.
> 
> All you need is a audio input for your radio and you can take it anywhere. It is also has gapless playback, witch you will have a very hard time
> 
> finding a radio that will do that.



Thanks, this does sound very nice. I am also looking into a new smartphone that might do the same as noted by the previous poster.


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## Bob7145

It's not that they put Flac on the cheapest set. It's that the HUs with no CD drive are a LOT less costly to make. There are many new HUs with no optic drive now called Digital Media Recievers.


I found 5 or 6 units by Power Acoustik that will play Flac at Sonic Electronix. Some are 2 Din and others have motorized drive displays.


Here's one of the less costly ones. http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_43650_Power-Acoustik-PD-622NB.html 


This one comes with a desktop dock! http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_43655_Power-Acoustik-PD-718NB.html 


And this has a 9.3" screen and Dock! http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_43653_Power-Acoustik-PD-931NB.html


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## Dougw133

The new Pioneer "NEX" Series all support FLAC through USb and SD.


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## Patrick Collins

While I've been waiting for parts to start my truck install, I've been thinking about this FLAC issue also. My Sony XAV-601BT is out of the box but not installed. It doesn't play FLAC files. While waiting I saw a YouTube of a new Sony XAV-612BT with HDMI. That made me curious if it would play FLAC files. Just to meet the HDMI standards means it has to be able to play hi res audio.


Anybody know anything about this double din HU? Mine should still be considered unused if I were to upgrade it.


I shouldn't loose site of the fact that both my Sony and my Galaxy S3 have MirrorLink and the S3 plays FLAC.


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## Disturbd1




> Quote:
> Originally Posted by *Dougw133*  /t/1497935/car-receiver-that-will-play-flac-through-usb#post_24279981
> 
> 
> The new Pioneer "NEX" Series all support FLAC through USb and SD.


I'm curious how you determined this? I just visited Pioneer's website, and it doesn't make any reference to FLAC on the site, or in the PDF manuals that can be viewed. I could see it playing FLAC via BT, like any other BT-capable DIN, but didn't see anything about FLAC support through USB.


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## Dougw133




> Quote:
> Originally Posted by *Disturbd1*  /t/1497935/car-receiver-that-will-play-flac-through-usb#post_24446924
> 
> 
> I'm curious how you determined this? I just visited Pioneer's website, and it doesn't make any reference to FLAC on the site, or in the PDF manuals that can be viewed. I could see it playing FLAC via BT, like any other BT-capable DIN, but didn't see anything about FLAC support through USB.



Seems they shuffled the site around bit. hard to find the "Compare"


Here is the link, just compare two models and click the "playback" tab. States FLAC is supported by all models.


http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/ch.GPS-Navigation.Compare


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## Michael Sargent

Anyone find any other head units that play FLAC's? Any follow up on the units mentioned above? I'm getting serious about replacing my 15 year old 12 disc player.


Thanks,

Mike


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## Michael Sargent

Michael Sargent said:


> Anyone find any other head units that play FLAC's? Any follow up on the units mentioned above? I'm getting serious about replacing my 15 year old 12 disc player.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mike


Anyone got a good suggestion for a new head unit that supports FLAC (gapless would be best)? 

Thanks,
Mike


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## cpete

Kenwood and JVC also support flac via usb. I just ordered the Kenwood DMX7704S. It supports flac sampling rate of 16-192kHz and Bit count of 16/24. Should work for me. My stuff is all lossless.

Chris

Sent from my SM-T237P using Tapatalk


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## cpete

Confirmed the deck plays flac just fine. It also handles the tagging and embedded album covers correctly. The USB connection also handles portable hard drives. Just tested with a new 1TB WD Passport, no problem. Will report back on how well it navigates and whether it can do playlists. But so far, so good.

Chris


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## Michael Sargent

Have you tried a multi-channel FLAC file to see if it works? It would be nice if it would properly handle surround mixes (using the 4 amps to give FL, FR, RL, RR and mixing the center into FL & FR).

Mike


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## stanger89

cpete said:


> Confirmed the deck plays flac just fine. It also handles the tagging and embedded album covers correctly. The USB connection also handles portable hard drives. Just tested with a new 1TB WD Passport, no problem. Will report back on how well it navigates and whether it can do playlists. But so far, so good.
> 
> Chris


What about playlists, if you put M3U (or something equivalent) files on will it recognize/play them? 

Do you have to do anything funny to get the music to show up? On my KDC-X996 you have to run Kenwood Music Editor Light on a PC to process the USB drive to make it so the head unit can actually find all the music (or at least find it in a reasonable time). And it doesn't support playlists.

There's some discussion here too:
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/160-c...69-most-intuitive-digital-media-receiver.html


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