Audio Files and Thumb Drives for SYNC 4

[BroncoDave24]

Since I am not at all impressed with the satellite radio service packaged with the vehicle (You know who I'm talking about), I have been working on getting my extensive CD collection ripped to a thumb drive for the Bronco. I thought I would share some of what I have learned.

I was surprised to find that SYNC 4 will recognize a 128 GB drive and even a 256 GB drive. This opens up a whole new world for the mobile audiophile.
These drives have been tested on my '24 Wildtrak with the LUX package with SYNC 4. If you don't have SYNC 4, I can't say for sure that these drives will be recognized.
They access quickly, play smoothly and work flawlessly, even with huge uncompressed files. I am very impressed!
Here are some links:
128 GB: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015CH1PJU?ref=product_details&th=1
256 GB: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XG9XP49?ref=product_details&th=1
512 GB https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083ZS4HYD?ref=product_details&th=1 (Tiny Form Factor)

The SYNC 4 player will play a multitude of file types. Apple Lossless, FLAC, WAV Lossless, of course, the lowly MP3 and others. All my files are lossless WAV files. Those are as true to the original as you can get. Apple Lossless is also a very good format, but it is not yet as universally recognized as the WAV format, so I am sticking with that for now. Forty minutes of WAV music is usually around 400 MB. So, the 256 GB will hold about 640 standard LP length albums! That's about 426 hours or nearly 18 days of non-stop music in uncompressed WAV format! Why would anyone want to use MP3s? Memory is so cheap now, the crappy MP3 should be becoming obsolete. Plus, WAVs really bring the B&O system to life!

FYI, I have used the dBpoweramp CD ripper in my home recording studio for years. https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm All my old masters were archived on CDs. This program makes it easy to retrieve my older stuff. It's absolutely the best out there for too many reasons to go into here. They offer a 21 day free trial. You can rip a lot of music in 21 days! If you want to buy it, it's reasonably priced. P.S. I have no affiliation with the dBpoweramp people.

If anyone has tried different size drives in SYNC 3, let us know what you have found that will work.

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[OmahaKevin]

Nice! I've been meaning to try this.
I haven't done this yet on the Bronco but did it quite often on my Sync2 equipped Edge. The experience there was iffy.
What is the folder structure you are using? Any issue with Sync properly indexing everything? About how many songs do you have on the USB drive?

 

[Smalltomato]

Nice, I just have a small media server I use to stream flac files from but the thumb drive would be more reliable with not needing internet.

 

[beetle]

Since I am not at all impressed with the satellite radio service packaged with the vehicle (You know who I'm talking about), I have been working on getting my extensive CD collection ripped to a thumb drive for the Bronco. I thought I would share some of what I have learned.

I was surprised to find that SYNC 4 will recognize a 128 GB drive and even a 256 GB drive. This opens up a whole new world for the mobile audiophile.
These drives have been tested on my '24 Wildtrak with the LUX package with SYNC 4. If you don't have SYNC 4, I can't say for sure that these drives will be recognized.
They access quickly, play smoothly and work flawlessly, even with huge uncompressed files. I am very impressed!
Here are some links:
128 GB: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015CH1PJU?ref=product_details&th=1
256 GB: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XG9XP49?ref=product_details&th=1

The SYNC 4 player will play a multitude of file types. Apple Lossless, FLAC, WAV Lossless, of course, the lowly MP3 and others. All my files are lossless WAV files. Those are as true to the original as you can get. Apple Lossless is also a very good format, but it is not yet as universally recognized as the WAV format, so I am sticking with that for now. Forty minutes of WAV music is usually around 400 MB. So, the 256 GB will hold about 640 standard LP length albums! That's about 426 hours or nearly 18 days of non-stop music in uncompressed WAV format! Why would anyone want to use MP3s? Memory is so cheap now, the crappy MP3 should be becoming obsolete. Plus, WAVs really bring the B&O system to life!

FYI, I have used the dBpoweramp CD ripper in my home recording studio for years. https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm All my old masters were archived on CDs. This program makes it easy to retrieve my older stuff. It's absolutely the best out there for too many reasons to go into here. They offer a 21 day free trial. You can rip a lot of music in 21 days! If you want to buy it, it's reasonably priced. P.S. I have no affiliation with the dBpoweramp people.

If anyone has tried different size drives in SYNC 3, let us know what you have found that will work.

This is amazing. I purposely use a LightPhone but that means I don't get Spotify. This is a great solution to my music problem.

 

[Johnny Mo]

Since I am not at all impressed with the satellite radio service packaged with the vehicle (You know who I'm talking about), I have been working on getting my extensive CD collection ripped to a thumb drive for the Bronco. I thought I would share some of what I have learned.

I was surprised to find that SYNC 4 will recognize a 128 GB drive and even a 256 GB drive. This opens up a whole new world for the mobile audiophile.
These drives have been tested on my '24 Wildtrak with the LUX package with SYNC 4. If you don't have SYNC 4, I can't say for sure that these drives will be recognized.
They access quickly, play smoothly and work flawlessly, even with huge uncompressed files. I am very impressed!
Here are some links:
128 GB: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015CH1PJU?ref=product_details&th=1
256 GB: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XG9XP49?ref=product_details&th=1

The SYNC 4 player will play a multitude of file types. Apple Lossless, FLAC, WAV Lossless, of course, the lowly MP3 and others. All my files are lossless WAV files. Those are as true to the original as you can get. Apple Lossless is also a very good format, but it is not yet as universally recognized as the WAV format, so I am sticking with that for now. Forty minutes of WAV music is usually around 400 MB. So, the 256 GB will hold about 640 standard LP length albums! That's about 426 hours or nearly 18 days of non-stop music in uncompressed WAV format! Why would anyone want to use MP3s? Memory is so cheap now, the crappy MP3 should be becoming obsolete. Plus, WAVs really bring the B&O system to life!

FYI, I have used the dBpoweramp CD ripper in my home recording studio for years. https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm All my old masters were archived on CDs. This program makes it easy to retrieve my older stuff. It's absolutely the best out there for too many reasons to go into here. They offer a 21 day free trial. You can rip a lot of music in 21 days! If you want to buy it, it's reasonably priced. P.S. I have no affiliation with the dBpoweramp people.

If anyone has tried different size drives in SYNC 3, let us know what you have found that will work.

I went with this - much smaller footprint and works flawlessly:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D7PDLXC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[BroncoDave24]

Nice! I've been meaning to try this.
I haven't done this yet on the Bronco but did it quite often on my Sync2 equipped Edge. The experience there was iffy.
What is the folder structure you are using? Any issue with Sync properly indexing everything? About how many songs do you have on the USB drive?

I was surprised at how fool proof it really is. File structure didn't matter. Any folder that has a playable audio file in it will show up in the menu. Folders without audio files did not show up. I did it this way. I dedicated a drive just for audio files. In the root directory I put the Band names. Under those are individual album names. Under the album name are the individual tracks. dBpoweramp will also add the metadata automatically or it will let you edit it to your preference. That includes track names and embedding the cover art into the file so it shows up on your display while the file plays. Really slick!

I went with this - much smaller footprint and works flawlessly:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D7PDLXC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

That looks like a great option for a 128 GB of data. It's hard to believe that I already have more files than a 128 can hold!

I bought my first CD in 1983. It was Hendrix's Electric Ladyland with the original banned in the US cover art, pressed in Germany. I have quite a large collection. My goal is to rip 'em all. I'm not trading, selling or even gifting them. I'm just converting them to a format that I can use in 2024. So far I have about 3000 tracks on one drive.

 

[brkdncr]

Throwing out an alternative: I use the CarPlay DSAudio app to stream my music from my home Synology storage device. It’s not perfect, but I don’t worry about a usb drive.

 

[DriveAllNight]

I've been doing this for many years with serval different car manufactures. Some support more file types and different drive sizes but over the years it gets better. I have somewhere between 6 and 7 thousand songs ( I believe) as my personal jukebox. My big complaint with Ford is that the only port you can plug in the drive is the one where the charger is, I'd prefer to have it in the center console or even the one on the dash to free up that one for a phone when needed.
What I really wish is that manufactures allowed us to upload all our music into an SSD internally, but I know people like me are few and far between and a dying breed so that will never happen.

Streaming music is just another nail in the coffin of the music industry - very sad.

 

[CoastieN70]

I've been doing this for years with both my vehicles. Sync 3 in my older vehicles worked fine as does sync 3 in my wife's Bronco Sport.
Sync 4 does it a smidge better...

 

[BroncoDave24]

I've been doing this for years with both my vehicles. Sync 3 in my older vehicles worked fine as does sync 3 in my wife's Bronco Sport.
Sync 4 does it a smidge better...

Do you know the size of the largest drive you use on the SYNC 3? Just curious.

 

[CoastieN70]

128GB and 256GB
Both hold a "Sh*t Ton" of music and the 128 has the same amount of music as the 256 with room for more.
With the 128 and set to straight play, song 1 to song 500 something it would take somewhere like 24 hours or so to play them all.

 

[DriveAllNight]

500 songs is nothing, I've got way over 6000, I forget the count.
None of this should be an issue, nor has it been in cars older than Ford's sync 3

The one factor is the compression you use, which obviously changes the file size. But going to the highest quality is a mistake in a Bronco, you get no sound benefit from it, and you also run into long indexing times.


I have several versions of my music on my computer, and I pick based on the source and load my memory stick accordingly.

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

500 songs is nothing, I've got way over 6000, I forget the count.
None of this should be an issue, nor has it been in cars older than Ford's sync 3

The one factor is the compression you use, which obviously changes the file size. But going to the highest quality is a mistake in a Bronco, you get no sound benefit from it, and you also run into long indexing times.


I have several versions of my music on my computer, and I pick based on the source and load my memory stick accordingly.

OP is using WAVV which is uncompressed.

 

[DriveAllNight]

OP is using WAVV which is uncompressed.

Yea, I honestly think that's over kill, you're never going to hear that kind of quality in a Bronco, and the tech in these things isn't really up to the challenge of handling that much data. I save that for my home system only.
It's a lose / lose.

 

[BroncoDave24]

The one factor is the compression you use, which obviously changes the file size. But going to the highest quality is a mistake in a Bronco, you get no sound benefit from it, and you also run into long indexing times.

This was the reason for my OP. I was surprised myself how well it works with WAV files. You would think indexing would be slow, but it is truly instantaneous with the drives I tested and gave links to. There is no reason to worry about the file sizes.
Maybe I don't need WAVs in the Bronco, but I do in the house and in my studio. Thank goodness the Bronco is not my only listening environment. If I am going to spend the time to rip, it's going to be WAVs. The only reason I can think of as to why anyone could want MP3s today is so they can share them easily. The bass is so hollow. Rip a track to a WAV or m4a. Then rip the same track to an MP3 and listen in your Bronco. You will never look back. The satellite services use heavy compression also, which is one reason I am not a fan.

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