Amazon Music / Apple CarPlay: Poor Quality
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Joined: Nov 2024
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Amazon Music / Apple CarPlay: Poor Quality
I continue to have issues with the quality of the sound of Amazon Music in Apple CarPlay in my 17 991.2. I have searched this topic and it seems to be a known issue overall for CarPlay. Amazon simply sounds horrible when compared with Sirius and other services. I have tried adjusting the settings in Amazon, playing though Bluetooth etc. yet nothing seems to work.. The only good news is it reminds me of my “custom” sound system in my 72 Dodge Dart Swinger.
I may simply be missing something in my searches so apologize if Ive missed a thread in advance. Does anyone have a similar experience or a solution that they can point me to?
Thanks to everyone as always for their help!
I may simply be missing something in my searches so apologize if Ive missed a thread in advance. Does anyone have a similar experience or a solution that they can point me to?
Thanks to everyone as always for their help!
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Joined: Jun 2024
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Did you know that there are Bass/Treble/Balance/Fade settings per source?
Try This, While carplay is active, press HOME (Physical head unit button), then SOUND (On screen button after HOME). You should see settings for the 4 things I mentioned and they should say "carplay" try changing those and see if it helps at all. IIRC I run Bass 6, Treble 7 and Fade/Balance at center.
Try This, While carplay is active, press HOME (Physical head unit button), then SOUND (On screen button after HOME). You should see settings for the 4 things I mentioned and they should say "carplay" try changing those and see if it helps at all. IIRC I run Bass 6, Treble 7 and Fade/Balance at center.
Last edited by user 93281574; Jun 17, 2025 at 02:46 PM.
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2015
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What about other audio sources through CarPlay, e.g., does Pandora, Spotify, or just an MP3 still sound like garbage? MP3 can be a very wide quality range, because it is a lossy data format, unlike FLAC (lossless), but as long as MP3 is at higher sample rate it should be acceptable. I’ve found streaming services can have very wide variation in sound quality. If your connection speed drops most will reduce the bitrate down and the quality plummets, similar to YouTube/Netflix/etc. reducing resolution to potato quality when the connection is poor. Personally, since the PCM supports lossless memory formats (FLAC, ALAC, also maybe the Apple format M4A), you will get the best quality out of these file format for music, so I would recommend loading up an SD memory card with your favorite tunes in a lossless format, bypassing the Apple CarPlay all together. You’ll never get the best quality from any streaming services, so if sound quality matters to you, lossless format and SD card.
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Joined: Nov 2024
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What about other audio sources through CarPlay, e.g., does Pandora, Spotify, or just an MP3 still sound like garbage? MP3 can be a very wide quality range, because it is a lossy data format, unlike FLAC (lossless), but as long as MP3 is at higher sample rate it should be acceptable. I’ve found streaming services can have very wide variation in sound quality. If your connection speed drops most will reduce the bitrate down and the quality plummets, similar to YouTube/Netflix/etc. reducing resolution to potato quality when the connection is poor. Personally, since the PCM supports lossless memory formats (FLAC, ALAC, also maybe the Apple format M4A), you will get the best quality out of these file format for music, so I would recommend loading up an SD memory card with your favorite tunes in a lossless format, bypassing the Apple CarPlay all together. You’ll never get the best quality from any streaming services, so if sound quality matters to you, lossless format and SD card.
