rnl

I was using a USB connection to my Iphone to play Pandora, internet radio stations and music stored on the phone. The wire was annoying. This afternoon I discovered (forgive me if this was previously posted, i searched and did not find it) that I can establish two Bluetooth connections with the IPhone, the first being the telephone connection, the second, Aux Bluetooth.

With the phone already connected for my Verizon service, I linked the Aux Bluetooth in the PCM source access. The car had to be restarted to link for the first time.

Now I can keep the phone in my pocket or on a charger in the center console and receive and send telephone calls as well as play music or anything else available on the internet like Pandora, NPR or podcasts and radio stations on a free app called Tunein Radio.

I am "grandfathered" on Verizon and have - until they decide to screw me - unlimited data.

fbroen

But do you think the streaming sound quality is as good? I tried it but wasn't impressed -- I assume the bt stream (any bt stream?) is pretty compressed? I will try again and see if I had settings wrong or something.

rnl

Seems ok to me. Frankly a bit is a bit and I believe but do not know for certain, that the limitation would be in the nature of bandwidth as opposed to sound quality. I'm no audiophile but Boss and Clarence (rest his soul) sound fabulous at 85 mph!

rnl

Perhaps someone really knowledgeable about this stuff will post.

AttilaS

If just streaming music that is on your phone to the car, bandwidth isn't going to be an issue. Even the older Bluetooth versions support much higher bit rates than the typical 128 or 256kbps most music is encoded at. If streaming over your cell network it will depend on the kind of service you have.

SSST

My CC has the same features. The quality of any streaming music over BT is going to be degraded, but it is acceptable if you just want to enjoy a song. It's not audiophile quality, but it won't make your eardrums bleed either.

Palden

I stream all the time with Pandora and Spotify through the BT connection. But I do also listen to my CDs. There is a definite quality difference between streaming and CD, but I accept that. I trade the poorer quality for the convenience of the streaming sources. I have yet to try the USB connection though, so I cannot contrast that with the BT quality.

I have the Burmeister system and also can definitely notice that clarity of sound that CDs provide. You can truly distinguish between the range of sound as well as the clarity. The detail in the instruments and vocals is amazing.

peterm

I hear no problem from bluetooth pandora and I heart- just went from Iphone 4 to 4s and now the pcm displays the song and artist- pretty cool

rijowysock

the music streaming is good, the pandora will depend if you have upgraded to "pandora one" i use pandora to stream airplay to B&W zeppelins in my home.. upgraded to "pandora one" and the quality if much better you can also save so only does high bitrate (it will preload the music so if you lose connection it doesnt break up)

either way, pandora one is worth the upgrade and sounds great in the car... Aux Bluetooth is easy to setup, i saw a DIY once, but not sure where i saw it... will link if found..

rnl

Thanks. Didn't know that One existed. I'm trying the month free trial.

rijowysock

technically pandora is free for life (with commercials) pandora one is the upgraded service 3.99/mon, 12 skips instead of 6, and no commercials and higher bitrate music... also can use on computer w/ app...

i use the computer app to stream to multiple devices since phone can only airplay to one at a time.

Mike in CA

This is what Pandora says about audio quality:

Pandora on the Web plays 64k AAC+ for free listeners and 192k for Pandora One subscribers. All in-home devices play 128k audio, and mobile devices receive a variety of different rates depending on the capability of the device and the network they are on, but never more than 64k AAC+.

For mobile devices, which obviously includes the cell phone in your car, even if you have Pandora One you won't get the same 192KB streaming you get on the web; the best you'll get is 64k AAC+. (64k AAC+ is a 64KB compression scheme that supposedly sounds as good as 128KB mp3) I've been ok with this audio quality but I'm using a USB not a Bluetooth connection.

BTW if you pay by the year Pandora One is $36.