chilly
Well-known member
- May 13, 2006
- 3,110
- 993
I certainly don't miss the CD changer, in fact I had to borrow a CD from my daughter to try the one in the 2020 because all mine were packed away (I still haven't found them)I miss in-car CD players but the truth is the majority of the car buying public had much more interest in being able to stream from their phones than they did in playing CD's . . . since to play them would require them to buy them in the first place. My 99 corvette had a 6-disc changer in the "trunk" (and a cassette player in the dash!) and my '05 Acura RL has an in-dash carousel that plays DVD-A and CD's. I really like that as the vastly greater storage capacity of a DVD allows me to burn my own with the equivalent of almost a dozen CD's. My '23 Bronco has a crappy sound system with a host of interfaces (but no CD) to input audio which it can then mangle.
Unless Lexus royally screwed up the wireless system (unlikely) I doubt you'll hear any difference playing the same music on the same device between wired and wireless (despite my inner audio purist wanting to say otherwise). Disclaimer: I have no direct experience with Carplay. That out of the way it's my understanding that the wireless streaming protocols available to us (Android Auto and Apple Carplay) are limited to the fidelity of "CD quality", which is what *most* people will have that carry ripped music on their phones (if that, many will rip at a lower quality to save space). It may be possible to play higher resolution quality music via storage plugged directly into a USB port on vehicles that support that (and even *possible* said device could be a phone being used as a storage device, though I'm thinking that's a fringe case). In general this would be using a memory stick or portable SSD with a USB interface. Even with this solution, though, a remaining unknown is the capability of the on-board DAC in the vehicle's audio system and the system itself which may or may not support super-fancy hi-rez formats.
FWIW I keep a 128GB thumbdrive plugged into one of the USB ports just as an alternative should my phone flake out, break, etc. but I almost never use it.
TL;DR - I doubt you'll notice any difference between wired and wireless if you are using the same phone/device to stream music to your car's audio system (esp. between '20 and '24 models). The only differences should be related to the actual source material.
I need to remember to give it back to her

The other day a song came on and I was shocked at the clarity of the music and I made a mental note to remember the song
I've already forgotten
Did I mention I am 69 years old?