Android Auto and Apple Car Play

[hokie1525]

I did not buy the car based on a future promise of Carplay or AA as that was not even talked about at purchase time. That does not change the fact that HMA (not the dealers who we all expect to lie to us to sell cars) later said it would be coming as an upgrade - they deserve some crap for not following through or even giving any updates on why they might not be able to do it. That's all - just calling them out for poorly handling the infotainment system - both for Carplay/AA and the downloadable apps they touted as a feature!

HMA is also in the business of selling cars. They are going to make promises that they may or may not be able to follow through on. They generally try not to make too many mistakes because it will hurt their reputation.

It's good you bought your car based on what it is, and I hope you're happy with it. As for everything else...meh. If it's available, great. If not, whatever. I've read every forum out there before picking my car. Every single one had people complaining about something or other. Nothing is perfect.

 

[ksoze]

Currently, XM is about $225/year for an all access subscription.

Nobody pays the list price. Paying about $8 a month or about 26 cents a day for All Access.

 

[hokie1525]

Sounds like you need Spotify Premium ($10/month). Make any song(s) or album(s) you want available offline then when you connect it via bluetooth to your car it doesn't stream and use up any data. I love it.

Is there a Spotify app, or would I just play music off bluetooth like I would any other MP3? I wonder what the sound quality is on bluetooth play in this car.

 

[hokie1525]

Nobody pays the list price. Paying about $8 a month or about 26 cents a day for All Access.

How did you manage that?

 

[ksoze]

How did you manage that?

You need to work a little. It is known that they discount pretty heavy if you offer to leave. May require a phone call once every six months or year before the deal expiration, but $100 a year is pretty standard. Just need to catch it before the "special" price ends and the standard price kicks in. I set a reminder a few days before and then call to cancel. For a few minutes on the phone you can cut the price to less than half.

http://www.spoofee.com/how-to-get-a-discount-sirius-xm-radio-subscription/deals/732226

 

[Nikgen]

You need to work a little. It is known that they discount pretty heavy if you offer to leave. May require a phone call once every six months or year before the deal expiration, but $100 a year is pretty standard. Just need to catch it before the "special" price ends and the standard price kicks in. I set a reminder a few days before and then call to cancel. For a few minutes on the phone you can cut the price to less than half.

http://www.spoofee.com/how-to-get-a-discount-sirius-xm-radio-subscription/deals/732226

For sure - I let it expire on my daughter's car and they are barraging me with offers - latest is $25 for 6 months with no re-connection fee!

 

[GenesisAWD]

Is there a Spotify app, or would I just play music off bluetooth like I would any other MP3? I wonder what the sound quality is on bluetooth play in this car.

Just use the Spotify app. It's fantastic. The sound quality is fantastic, especially when compared to the HD Radio or Sirius through the car. I personally haven't uploaded music through the USB option of the car so I can't speak to how it compares there.

With Spotify you can choose your sound quality. In settings you can choose for your "downloaded" songs to be normal (96 kbps), high (160 kbps), or extreme (320 kbps). I set it to "Extreme" and don't have to worry about it again. Sounds great!

 

[srobak]

they deserve some crap for not following through or even giving any updates on why they might not be able to do it. That's all

I hear ya... and for lesser-involved things, I can see taking some pretty substantial action. Case in point... Since November Sprint has been promising the Blackberry Priv. Then a week ago they announced they were not going to do it. After 14 years - I walked & told them as much regarding why. I've been dying for a tactile keyboard ever since I got my Note2 and finally had a glimmer of hope when the Priv was noted to be running Android. When I called Sprint and told them to F off they begged me to stay and have been calling me daily since. I keep telling them the same thing... call me when you pick up the Priv.

For a car however - with a multitude of entertainment options (mp3 via usb, mp3 via on-board hard drive, cabled audio to whatever media player you want, bluetooth audio to whatever other media player you want, xm satellite with any kind of music you want and pandora streaming whatever kind of music you want) - it is certainly not something that is worth getting worked up about, really.

In the end - most of the time I play the mp3s I have loaded on to the hard drives. MY music when *I* want it. No muss, no fuss. Easy. If I need something different for the moment I flip on XM and choose from about a dozen presets that I have... and in 25k miles I have yet to be wanting more. I will happily wait for my 2019 G90 in order to get AA.

Nobody pays the list price. Paying about $8 a month or about 26 cents a day for All Access.

For sure - I let it expire on my daughter's car and they are barraging me with offers - latest is $25 for 6 months with no re-connection fee!

This is what I do... $25 for 6. Then a few days before it expires I call them up and say "I want to renew at the exact deal I have now. No changes - just put it through, otherwise - I'm gone." Have not had any issues.

I wonder what the sound quality is on bluetooth

"sound quality" and "bluetooth" are two words that do not go in a sentence together. It is decent... and listenable - but not audiophile quality by any stretch. The closest you are going to get in your Genny is to import 320k mp3s into your hard drive... and even that doesn't do true audio quality any justice. Then again - my ears are biased as I use NAD, HK, EMP Tek, Klipsch and Martin Logan at home, and do post-production work using Genelec and JBL 4435's.

 

[Aquineas]

<snip>I've been dying for a tactile keyboard ever since I got my Note2 and finally had a glimmer of hope when the Priv was noted to be running Android.</snip>

Man I couldn't agree with you more. I loved having a keyboard on my Droid1 & Droid2. I despise virtual keyboards. Give me buttons.

<snip>
"sound quality" and "bluetooth" are two words that do not go in a sentence together. It is decent... and listenable - but not audiophile quality by any stretch. The closest you are going to get in your Genny is to import 320k mp3s into your hard drive... and even that doesn't do true audio quality any justice. Then again - my ears are biased as I use NAD, HK, EMP Tek, Klipsch and Martin Logan at home, and do post-production work using Genelec and JBL 4435's.

It's too bad that DVD-A was a non-starter. In any case, if I make another Bears training camp visit this August, would love to grab lunch or something when I'm in the Chicago area.

 

[ksoze]

The closest you are going to get in your Genny is to import 320k mp3s into your hard drive... and even that doesn't do true audio quality any justice. Then again - my ears are biased as I use NAD, HK, EMP Tek, Klipsch and Martin Logan at home, and do post-production work using Genelec and JBL 4435's.

Same camp. I had my old iPod Classic connected for lossless playback and that never was able to connect well to the car. Would freeze up after several songs. Looked into one of the portable FLAC players like Fiio at one point, but never leaped. This audio system deserves quality material for playback and although the 320K MP3's loaded on the jukebox can be fine, would have liked a better option for uncompressed playback.

I also suspect you ears have been trained from listening through quality studio monitors, and can more likely appreciate this cars hardware which gets much flack for it's basically uncolored playback.

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[hokie1525]

I hear ya... and for lesser-involved things, I can see taking some pretty substantial action. Case in point... Since November Sprint has been promising the Blackberry Priv. Then a week ago they announced they were not going to do it. After 14 years - I walked & told them as much regarding why. I've been dying for a tactile keyboard ever since I got my Note2 and finally had a glimmer of hope when the Priv was noted to be running Android. When I called Sprint and told them to F off they begged me to stay and have been calling me daily since. I keep telling them the same thing... call me when you pick up the Priv.

For a car however - with a multitude of entertainment options (mp3 via usb, mp3 via on-board hard drive, cabled audio to whatever media player you want, bluetooth audio to whatever other media player you want, xm satellite with any kind of music you want and pandora streaming whatever kind of music you want) - it is certainly not something that is worth getting worked up about, really.

In the end - most of the time I play the mp3s I have loaded on to the hard drives. MY music when *I* want it. No muss, no fuss. Easy. If I need something different for the moment I flip on XM and choose from about a dozen presets that I have... and in 25k miles I have yet to be wanting more. I will happily wait for my 2019 G90 in order to get AA.



This is what I do... $25 for 6. Then a few days before it expires I call them up and say "I want to renew at the exact deal I have now. No changes - just put it through, otherwise - I'm gone." Have not had any issues.



"sound quality" and "bluetooth" are two words that do not go in a sentence together. It is decent... and listenable - but not audiophile quality by any stretch. The closest you are going to get in your Genny is to import 320k mp3s into your hard drive... and even that doesn't do true audio quality any justice. Then again - my ears are biased as I use NAD, HK, EMP Tek, Klipsch and Martin Logan at home, and do post-production work using Genelec and JBL 4435's.

I wish I could use usb but the car won't recognize My LG G4. Another ratso

 

[srobak]

I wish I could use usb but the car won't recognize My LG G4. Another ratso

Aux cable? BT? USB drive? There are options...

 

[srobak]

Same camp. I had my old iPod Classic connected for lossless playback and that never was able to connect well to the car. Would freeze up after several songs. Looked into one of the portable FLAC players like Fiio at one point, but never leaped. This audio system deserves quality material for playback and although the 320K MP3's loaded on the jukebox can be fine, would have liked a better option for uncompressed playback.

I also suspect you ears have been trained from listening through quality studio monitors, and can more likely appreciate this cars hardware which gets much flack for it's basically uncolored playback.

As quiet as it is - I still don't think the Genesis would give any audibly appreciable benefit from using FLAC over 320. Too much other noise that will color it for sure.

While the system itself is pretty good - it is still a car system, any way you shape it. There is only so much quality you are going to be able to squeeze out of any car system - no matter who's name is on the equipment... including Lexicon, B&O, Mark Levinson, etc.

I actually hate listening to things flatly - and the production work I do reflect as much. I don't go overboard - but I do weight the final recordings just enough to give it a hair more punch. I have the Genny eq'ed pretty heavily away from flat and will be adding a 10in sub for the far bottom end. I also think the tweets are just a little bit too harsh and cause ear fatigue a lot earlier than I would like them to. I have actually been toying around with swapping them and the mids out for some higher end JBLs or even cannibalizing an old set of Genelecs I have to see what it would sound like. Not sure exactly where I am going with it all just yet.

 

[srobak]

I despise virtual keyboards. Give me buttons.

Roger that. Damn me and my practicality. Heck - I actually just received an old IBM clicky keyboard in the mail to replace my 22 year old one on my PC at home... which isn't yet broken or worn. I simply wanted another one just in case it ever did break. Best keyboards ever made.

In any case, if I make another Bears training camp visit this August, would love to grab lunch or something when I'm in the Chicago area.

Sure... sounds good. Let me know when you are around. I will also probably be back in Houston once or twice before the end of the year.

 

[hokie1525]

Aux cable? BT? USB drive? There are options...

So it works over BT, however the volume is quite low. I have to crank the volume all the way on my phone, and go to about 3/4 on the car volume to get to the level I like.

I wonder if aux or USB is any better with regard to volume. The problem is the car won't recognize my LG G4 on USB, and if I use aux then I have to control everything from the phone (I believe).

 

[GenesisAWD]

So it works over BT, however the volume is quite low. I have to crank the volume all the way on my phone, and go to about 3/4 on the car volume to get to the level I like.

I wonder if aux or USB is any better with regard to volume. The problem is the car won't recognize my LG G4 on USB, and if I use aux then I have to control everything from the phone (I believe).

I have an LG G4 as well. I use BT all the time and don't have any volume issues whatsoever. Usually keep the volume in the car around 20-25 range if it's just me in there and I'm listening via BT. If I'm "rocking out" I turn it up to 35 and the stereo sounds fantastic even though it's very loud. Anything above 35 and it's too loud to enjoy.

 

[Nikgen]

I have an LG G4 as well. I use BT all the time and don't have any volume issues whatsoever. Usually keep the volume in the car around 20-25 range if it's just me in there and I'm listening via BT. If I'm "rocking out" I turn it up to 35 and the stereo sounds fantastic even though it's very loud. Anything above 35 and it's too loud to enjoy.

35? That is REALLY loud - better start saving for a hearing aid if that is a commonly used volume setting for you

 

[ksoze]

35? That is REALLY loud - better start saving for a hearing aid if that is a commonly used volume setting for you

Yikes. There is a noticeable difference in volume needed for BT sources versus other inputs. For MP3's in the jukebox, 10-15 is pretty loud, for BT sources like my phone, I do have to turn it up much more for the same output.

 

[GenesisAWD]

35? That is REALLY loud - better start saving for a hearing aid if that is a commonly used volume setting for you

What ksoze said....

I'm specifically talking about when I use BT. It's different depending on which source is used.

 

[Nikgen]

What ksoze said....

I'm specifically talking about when I use BT. It's different depending on which source is used.

OK, I never use Bluetooth so was going by CD, iPhone or Jukebox: 35 is really loud for those sources!