CarPlay Music Quality

[ryan_g]

So I updated my infotainment system the other day and wanted to see what the new Media interface looked like, so I turned off CarPlay. To my surprise, when I played my music through the standard infotainment system, the quality was MUCH crisper and fuller - deeper lows, higher highs, better overall balance and clarity. I cycled through with CarPlay on vs off a couple times, and it really is a noticeable difference - I’ve even shown it to a few friends now who agree, and there are threads about it in various vehicles from various manufacturers. Just something I found very interesting and very disappointing; not sure what’s causing it, but I assume CarPlay is compressing the music files for whatever reason? I tried living without CarPlay for a day to see if I could get used to the built-in system for the sake of better audio quality, but it’s just so far behind that I don’t think I can do it.

Anyways, just wanted to bring this issue up and see if anyone else has noticed this or has a fix!

 

[YaBoyJordy]

Make sure you have the correct settings on your iPhone. Check an make sure your music settings have EQ OFF and Sound Check OFF. Also check in Cellular Data that High-Quality Streaming is ON. This should help improve sound quality.

 

[joschneider]

I don’t understand. CarPlay is just an interface, so there’s not enough info here. What app are you using for your music? Spotify, iTunes, etc? When CarPlay is off, how are you playing your music? BT?

 

[videopho]

I do not know enough or next to nothing about Car Play but I stream music thru my Spotify account via Android Auto and it sounds pretty good to me. And using a flash drive playing the same tune I could not tell the difference.
I agreed. BT does suppress bandwidth quite a bit so I never listen music via BT.
Whatever you're currently using try to set it to the highest quality streaming possible and see it may help.

 

[pulsar]

I listen to car play via my iPhone and stored music and it sounds pretty good, crisp and clear. If I disconnect my USB cable and run BT, sound quality goes to crap and is flat. Can’t listen with BT for lack of sound quality just bugs me too much.

 

[ryan_g]

I don’t understand. CarPlay is just an interface, so there’s not enough info here. What app are you using for your music? Spotify, iTunes, etc? When CarPlay is off, how are you playing your music? BT?

CarPlay may just be an interface, but for some reason it seems to be compressing music files. I use Apple Music, and I always play music through the USB rather than Bluetooth streaming. Try cycling between CarPlay and the built-in infotainment while listening to the same song and I promise you’ll hear what I’m talking about.

 

[ryan_g]

I listen to car play via my iPhone and stored music and it sounds pretty good, crisp and clear. If I disconnect my USB cable and run BT, sound quality goes to crap and is flat. Can’t listen with BT for lack of sound quality just bugs me too much.

I’m the same as you; Bluetooth still isn’t up to the sound quality of a wired connection Try turning off CarPlay in settings and listen with the USB cable; you’ll hear what I mean if you compare it to CarPlay.

 

[joschneider]

CarPlay may just be an interface, but for some reason it seems to be compressing music files. I use Apple Music, and I always play music through the USB rather than Bluetooth streaming. Try cycling between CarPlay and the built-in infotainment while listening to the same song and I promise you’ll hear what I’m talking about.

So are you hitting the source button to cycle between the two? I only have spotify and no songs downloaded locally so I wont be able to replicate unfortunately

 

[pulsar]

I’m the same as you; Bluetooth still isn’t up to the sound quality of a wired connection Try turning off CarPlay in settings and listen with the USB cable; you’ll hear what I mean if you compare it to CarPlay.

Did not even know that was an option? I just let my phone do it’s thing when playing music stored on it. I’ll try your recommendation and see what all I come up with. Thanks