3rd GEN - USB Media Port - Supported Audio Formats (MP3, FLAC, WAV)

I've loaded up a 512GB micro SD and am quite surprised to see that the stock media system supports FLAC - even more surprised by the supported sample/bit rates. I have several albums in 192kHz/24 Bit playing nicely with zero lag or issues loading.

Upon initially plugging in the USB drive, I did notice about a min or so delay in being able to access the music folders. I assume the system was indexing in some fashion. Sorting by albums is also nonexistent (likely due to indexing). As long as I can access the albums via folders I'm fine with it. The indexing is also odd, as I've noticed not everything is in alphabetical order... Not sure why it does this. One other complaint while searching the folders is the number of readable characters on the display is.. limited, to say the least. Keep your folder names short and it'll be easier to find things.

Although the JBL system isn't perfect, it's far better than I expected. The imaging in the cabin is done well. I find myself preferring surround sound turned off for most of my listening as I feel it lessens the sound field and depth of the audio. The Treble/Mid/Bass adjustment is very limited and I wish some sort of EQ and subwoofer level control was available. Overall, I find the system to be a bit bass-heavy.

Audio formats I've run:

FLAC, WAV, MP3

Audio formats I will be trying:

OGG, ALAC, AIFF

 

if you look in the multimedia manual it lists all the formats it supports. start at page 224 (8-1 appendix)

USB communication format USB2.0 HS (480MBPS)
File format FAT 16/32
Communication class Mass storage class
Maximum number of folders 3000 (including root)
Maximum number of folder levels 8
Maximum number of files 9999 (maximum of 255 files per
folder)
Memory capacity Up to 32 GB
Maximum size of one file 2GB

 

Nice! Didn't see that. Saves me the time testing. I'm all FLAC for the most part

Reads perfectly fine off the 512GB SD card formatted to FAT32.

 

that was my point above, does super high fidelity audio really matter that much through a stock JBL system thats tuned like shit and have cheap ass speakers and hardly any amp power?

I think it would not be much different, but alas, all my JBL stuff is sitting in a pile in the basement.

I have to put it back in this truck if/when they find a match for me

 

As a sound engineer, I hear a difference. It's not a matter of the speakers, but more surrounding how much data you can feed a DAC. The source signal from any of the music streaming apps is highly compressed and must go through additional conversion before it gets to a DAC. Throw in Bluetooth, and there's another level of signal conversion prior to any amplification circuit. I won't even get into S/N ratio with all of these circuits and then the circuits to "filter" that noise out.

With native lossless FLAC files sitting on a jump drive plugged directly into the head unit, you're feeding the DAC with a higher quality source. Sample rate has more to do with this DAC conversion than how many watts or whether your speakers are made from woven kevlar or silk from a donkey's ass... There's a saying in the AE world - "Garbage in = Garbage out." It doesn't matter if you have Focal's and a gold-plated 2-channel 1000w amp under your seat - all your going to do is amplifying hot garbage (if that's what your feeding it).

Would I like to have a 32-band EQ on the T-panel with a dedicated Subwoofer EQ cutoff and level control - YES

Is it perfect - NO.. At least it's better than limiting a DAC to 44.1/16 which they could have very well done, or not even giving us a USB option (although I would've preferred a dedicated SD slot, or two..)

Speakers are rarely the weak point. The fact that the USB 2.0 port accepts FLAC/WAV/ALAC/OGG is great. What's even more shocking is that the DAC is supporting and converting 192/24.

I don't know what the amp specs are, speaker impedance, how many watts per channel, etc... It's plenty loud for me. Give it a good source signal and enjoy!

 

sadly for me i gave up the the audiophile phase about 30yrs ago. i can tolerate music/spotify some times, otherwise i am just as happy with no music at all. i use to have a 4k music file collection on my phone but i quit that about 7 years ago. use to like to watch tv also but meh, cant stand it anymore. which leads into the dvd situation. have just started a dvd collection on my media server, up to about 140 movies and i only use dvd quality. never saw a need for blu-ray since i only watch them on my phone when i have to travel or camped in the motel room during business trips. sometimes i throw one up on my secondary 34in widescreen display when playing on my main 43in 4k for background effect or in between lulls in gameplay.

for my use case the quality wasnt the driving factor for my situation since its mostly background noise most of the time.

 

Good information here! I have everything ripped in flac but having a brain fart about my settings. Also thanks for the thread about formatting the thumb drive. I'm adding here for 1 less thread to search for. My truck is getting the TRD lift right now so I'm not in possession of it.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/3rd-gen-usb-media-port-limitations-sd-card-usb-jump-drives.113695/

 

UPDATE: Yet ANOTHER Nanny feature of the '22... Cycling through music folders via USB is limited WHILE IN MOTION and a little helpful message appears... What really pisses me off is this doesn't happen while searching via Spotify, Tidal, Radio, and XM Radio

Wonder if there's a disable option via Techstream?

 

UPDATE: So started searching through my USB stick via "Artist" option vs. "Folder" and whaddya know - doesn't lock me out from scrolling endlessly while the truck is in motion! You can also drag up and down on the A-Z bar for quicker reference, not bad.

 

Silly question - does the system recognize .m3u playlists?

 

i think is only recognizes audio formats per the mm manual.

 

Although this thread is mainly audio formats, I have a related question. Even if parked there appears to be no way to play a movie file of any type for my kids or myself for that matter. Why not since I have a massive screen in this thing.

Compared to my friends taco turd pro the upgraded audio is a lot better. You can't even tell he has a sub and it's really similar to the Tundra setup. The lack of any good EQ options also confuses me. There is a LOT I love about my 3r gen Tundra and my previous 3rd gen Taco but Toyota just isn't nearly as advanced when it comes to user friendly software. I looked at F-150s in the year I waited for my Tundra and they operated better as does my wife's Hyundai Palisade. It's actually FAR superior in its user interface/function.