Ask us Rivian R1T owners ANYTHING [AMA]!

[astonius]

I was wondering if folks could get around having to use your phone for streaming music from alternative sources (partial mitigation for lacking Apple Play / Android Auto). Alexa has built-in skills for accessing Apple Music and other services that works on the Echo devices.

Ben Sullins actually demos this on his latest video. He uses Alexa to stream Pandora. Hopefully Apple Music works, too.

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[godfodder0901]

I didn't see this in the thread, so apologies if I missed it...

Have any of you tried using Alexa to play a music service other than Spotify that you've linked to your Alexa account? Say the SiriusXM skill or the Apple Music skill?

I use her for Amazon Music. I felt the audio quality for Amazon Music through Alexa was WAY better than Spotify, even with the highest quality selected.

 

[Riviot]

I use her for Amazon Music. I felt the audio quality for Amazon Music through Alexa was WAY better than Spotify, even with the highest quality selected.

Boooo to the truck favoring quality of one app over another.

Have any of y'all tried plugging your phone in to the USB and playing music from there?

 

[electruck]

Boooo to the truck favoring quality of one app over another.

Doubtful this is Rivian playing favorites. Could be Spotify is quicker to reduce bitrate based on signal strength. In general though, Amazon is capable of serving higher quality source than Spotify (Spotify HiFi has yet to launch). If they were really trying to push Amazon Music, Rivian would offer a first class app for that instead of only playing through Alexa.

 

[crashmtb]

Boooo to the truck favoring quality of one app over another.

Have any of y'all tried plugging your phone in to the USB and playing music from there?

It’s more than likely just how spotify is. We recently switched from Spotify to tidal. Sound quality is noticeably better on equivalent settings

 

[Matty J]

I use her for Amazon Music. I felt the audio quality for Amazon Music through Alexa was WAY better than Spotify, even with the highest quality selected.

Does the GUI on the Rivian shown the actual bit rate you’ve selected, or just low, med, high, very high?

On my Model S we used to have the option to stream at 320 kbps, but they later removed it on all models and now streams much lower and doesn’t sound good.

 

[Iwantatesla]

Does the GUI on the Rivian shown the actual bit rate you’ve selected, or just low, med, high, very high?

On my Model S we used to have the option to stream at 320 kbps, but they later removed it on all models and now streams much lower and doesn’t sound good.

It does not yet.

 

[Iwantatesla]

It’s more than likely just how spotify is. We recently switched from Spotify to tidal. Sound quality is noticeably better on equivalent settings

Music from external drives are no supported yet via USB C

 

[godfodder0901]

Boooo to the truck favoring quality of one app over another.

Have any of y'all tried plugging your phone in to the USB and playing music from there?

Spotify is limited to 320kbps and uses Ogg Vorbis, Amazon Music HD is up to 3,730 using FLAC.

Doubtful this is Rivian playing favorites. Could be Spotify is quicker to reduce bitrate based on signal strength. In general though, Amazon is capable of serving higher quality source than Spotify (Spotify HiFi has yet to launch). If they were really trying to push Amazon Music, Rivian would offer a first class app for that instead of only playing through Alexa.

This.

It’s more than likely just how spotify is. We recently switched from Spotify to tidal. Sound quality is noticeably better on equivalent settings

And this. Tidal can reach over 4,600kbps

Does the GUI on the Rivian shown the actual bit rate you’ve selected, or just low, med, high, very high?

On my Model S we used to have the option to stream at 320 kbps, but they later removed it on all models and now streams much lower and doesn’t sound good.

No, just Automatic, low, medium, high, and very high (like the app) though 'very high' is only 320kbps...

 

[Matty J]

Spotify is limited to 320kbps and uses Ogg Vorbis, Amazon Music HD is up to 3,730 using FLAC.

This.

And this. Tidal can reach over 4,600kbps

No, just Automatic, low, medium, high, and very high (like the app) though 'very high' is only 320kbps...

Thanks very much, this is encouraging! I was hopeful we could stream Amazon HD! Is there an interface via GUI for music other than Spotify, or just through Alexa?

 

[Riviot]

Spotify is limited to 320kbps and uses Ogg Vorbis, Amazon Music HD is up to 3,730 using FLAC.

This.

And this. Tidal can reach over 4,600kbps

No, just Automatic, low, medium, high, and very high (like the app) though 'very high' is only 320kbps...

For simpletons like me, what should we use for best sound quality? And can you download songs to the local storage, like over WiFi, to prevent constant streaming? My basic brain says downloads can play at higher quality.

 

[godfodder0901]

Thanks very much, this is encouraging! I was hopeful we could stream Amazon HD! Is there an interface via GUI for music other than Spotify, or just through Alexa?

Just through Alexa, and it is limited. It could/should improve in the future. Of note, there is no 'Now Playing' screen, just a small overlay on the right for the current song. So even when using built in Spotify, if you select play a playlist from the 'Browse' tab, and then navigate away from that screen, you can't just go back to that playlist without searching for it again. The interface has the basics, but obviously needs work still.

 

[thrill]

For simpletons like me, what should we use for best sound quality? And can you download songs to the local storage, like over WiFi, to prevent constant streaming? My basic brain says downloads can play at higher quality.

The highest bitrate is generally the highest quality, setting aside other factors such as a high bitrate recording of a crappy recording session, the road noise environment you're listening in, the fact that my old ears would miss the difference anyway, etc. Downloads cannot play at higher quality than the music was recorded at, so if bandwidth is sufficient then it'd be the same. But downloads do prevent dropouts.

 

[godfodder0901]

For simpletons like me, what should we use for best sound quality? And can you download songs to the local storage, like over WiFi, to prevent constant streaming? My basic brain says downloads can play at higher quality.

Tidal has the highest quality, but Amazon Music Unlimited with HD is probably the most pervasive, high-quality source. And while you are right, downloads typically have higher quality, it is usually just because of the settings. For example, Spotify defaults to 'Very High' for downloads over Wi-Fi, but 'Automatic' for cellular. Even after changing all settings, Spotify currently maxes out at 320kbps no matter what.

And no, no downloads to the vehicle yet.

 

[crashmtb]

Spotify is limited to 320kbps and uses Ogg Vorbis, Amazon Music HD is up to 3,730 using FLAC.

This.

And this. Tidal can reach over 4,600kbps

No, just Automatic, low, medium, high, and very high (like the app) though 'very high' is only 320kbps...

I find tidal even on the "hifi" setting sounds clearer than spotify's highest quality setting.

related question: no support for audio over USB as far as you can tell so far, I take it?

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