Bluetooth quality issues
Thread Starter
AudiWorld Junior Member
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 19
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Bluetooth quality issues
Hey all,
New A4 B9 owner here and I'm loving my car! I use CarPlay mainly, however, sometimes I'm lazy to plug in and rather do my music via Bluetooth. One thing I've noticed is I am hearing dramatic quality changes while listening to music over Bluetooth. Is this normal with Audi? I've never had the problem on other cars but while listening to any music, you can hear a very noticeable change to the quality as it goes in and out, almost like you're watching a YouTube video and you started the video in HD but your internet dropped off and the quality got pixelated but then came back to HD.... the same thing but obviously via audio.
Curious is this is a known issue or not.
Thanks all! Glad to be an Audi owner!
New A4 B9 owner here and I'm loving my car! I use CarPlay mainly, however, sometimes I'm lazy to plug in and rather do my music via Bluetooth. One thing I've noticed is I am hearing dramatic quality changes while listening to music over Bluetooth. Is this normal with Audi? I've never had the problem on other cars but while listening to any music, you can hear a very noticeable change to the quality as it goes in and out, almost like you're watching a YouTube video and you started the video in HD but your internet dropped off and the quality got pixelated but then came back to HD.... the same thing but obviously via audio.
Curious is this is a known issue or not.
Thanks all! Glad to be an Audi owner!
AudiWorld Member
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 138
Likes: 25
From: Minneapolis, MN
I agree fully with this comment, and feel like it had not been much of an issue in other cars I've owned. If I were to take a guess at what's going on, I'd think that the Bluetooth feature is compressing down to Codec 3, where most devices nowadays are running 4.2.2 or atpX instead. Again, no evidence to support this, but Bluetooth is basically un-listenable in my car.
AudiWorld Super User
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 3,324
Likes: 47
From: Illinois
I have a 2017 A4 and 2018 SQ5 and I haven’t noticed a significant change in quality between Bluetooth and car play or android auto. In fact, to an untrained ear, it’ll sound the same but I used to be into ICE a while back and to my ears, while I can notice a slight difference in quality, which is normal, I don’t hear a significant difference.
Audiworld Junior Member
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 42
Likes: 1
Hey all,
New A4 B9 owner here and I'm loving my car! I use CarPlay mainly, however, sometimes I'm lazy to plug in and rather do my music via Bluetooth. One thing I've noticed is I am hearing dramatic quality changes while listening to music over Bluetooth. Is this normal with Audi? I've never had the problem on other cars but while listening to any music, you can hear a very noticeable change to the quality as it goes in and out, almost like you're watching a YouTube video and you started the video in HD but your internet dropped off and the quality got pixelated but then came back to HD.... the same thing but obviously via audio.
Curious is this is a known issue or not.
Thanks all! Glad to be an Audi owner!
New A4 B9 owner here and I'm loving my car! I use CarPlay mainly, however, sometimes I'm lazy to plug in and rather do my music via Bluetooth. One thing I've noticed is I am hearing dramatic quality changes while listening to music over Bluetooth. Is this normal with Audi? I've never had the problem on other cars but while listening to any music, you can hear a very noticeable change to the quality as it goes in and out, almost like you're watching a YouTube video and you started the video in HD but your internet dropped off and the quality got pixelated but then came back to HD.... the same thing but obviously via audio.
Curious is this is a known issue or not.
Thanks all! Glad to be an Audi owner!
Thread Starter
AudiWorld Junior Member
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
I am using it with iOS 12. That would be amazing if it's only a software bug! I hope to update this thread when an iOS update comes out.
AudiWorld Super User
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 3,028
Likes: 776
From: Switzerland
Yes, bk6000 is correct in that there is a Bluetooth issue (several issues it seems) with iOS 12. And iOS 12.0.1 was released last week, and supposedly addressed Bluetooth issues, but early reports suggest not very successfully. Worth doing some desktop research on "iOS 12 Bluetooth issues" and deciding whether you want to risk the 12.0.1 update, or wait another couple of weeks for 12.0.2, or wait another 4 weeks or so for 12.1, which should be more robust.
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AudiWorld Super User
Joined: Nov 2016
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From: Illinois
Oh. iOS reminds me. My wife has 3 iPhones and all three, when connected to both my A4 or SQ5 via Bluetooth, and when playing music using the YouTube app (this issue is only with the app), disable the car volume control. As in, I cannot increase the volume on the MMI and it says currently unable when I try to increase the volume but I can decrease it till I no longer hear it. Only way to increase the volume is to change over to radio and then increase the volume and come back to media or use chrome to play from YouTube. It happens every single time with her iphones. I was wondering if all her iPhones are faulty or whether both my cars have messed up MMIs. Has anyone else noticed this issue?
AudiWorld Member
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 150
Likes: 36
I've had no issues with bluetooth sound quality in my 2018 A4 with base sound system. I am using it with a Samsung Galaxy S9. It seems the Audi system supports both the SBC and AAC audio codecs. As long as your phone supports AAC, I don't see why you should have issues with sound quality. All iPhones should support that, but many Android phones may not. Thankfully, my S9 does, because it sounds like I'd be disappointed if it didn't.