I purchased an Audi factory bluetooth adapter so that I can stream music from my iPhone 4 over BT on a 2008 S8 (That's another story) with AMI. I have the B&O stereo.

-I verified that I have the correct US MMI version to allow the AMI to be updated (41.4.0 0709)
-I updated the AMI, per Audi's directions through the included USB key
-I verified on the Audi.de site (with Google Translate) that I had the newest AMI update on the key
-I'm not being picky, but the sound quality is unacceptable. Literally worse than AM radio.
-It sounds like every speaker is blown, even at low volume - especially the tweeters.
-I tried to play music directly through the iPod app, as well as through the Pandora app and a couple others
-I experimented with different bitrates for the streaming apps that allow you to change the settings
-I tried the full range of bass/treble settings, as well as different DSP and surround settings in the MMI
-I deleted the iPhone from the AMI settings and vice versa then repaired the phone with the AMI
-I deleted the pairing for the bluetooth telephone connection in case that was interfering
-I reset the phone, and turned BT on and off repeatedly
-I even tried an older iPhone 3GS
-Nothing works!

Any other suggestions?

I do understand that this isn't going to be CD quality but I swear that it's completely unusable and that I'm not being picky. I understand that Apple has throttled down the bitrate for A2DP streaming but I think I have a bigger problem and here's why - I rented a Ford F150 a few weeks ago and streamed music from the same iPhone over 8 days and 1200 miles... And it sounded great - Zero complaints.

I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

Mike

 

Sorry to hear you're having trouble.

I have AMI and Audi bluetooth dongle in my W12. The sound quality though A2DP streaming is great in my car. I can't seem to tell the difference between the A2DB streaming and a direct iPod/AMI cable connection. All my tracks are either Apple Lossless for 256kbps AAC. This is with B&O and an iPhone 4 as well btw.

I'm at MMI 4610 though. I think my AMI had already been upgraded 4610 when I bought the Audi bluetooth dongle.

I honestly have no idea what to suggest other than maybe the Audi Dongle is bad?

See if you can troubleshoot it at a dealer. I had trouble when I got my kit in that the USB stick in my kit was bad so my dealer flashed my AMI using a USB stick from a kit they had in stock. Maybe a dealer close to you will have one in stock and will let you test with their dongle to see whether it's your dongle or something else.

 

That almost sounds like a bad amp. But I'm assuming other media work/sound fine (i.e. CD).

If everything is actually working correctly, I would say the next most obvious culprit would be the bit-rate. You say you tried different bit rates. But, was that in the BlueTooth settings or the audio files themselves. Transmitting 1000 bit rate over a 128K connection nets you 128, which is crap to some people, and gold to others. So it wouldn't matter how good the source is. Then end result is whatever it's been choked down to.

Modest W12 mentions 256 kilibippies. That's better than most MP3 samples at 128. But (sorry, this is going to sound snobby but it isn't meant to be...) Apple Lossless is kind of pointless at a sample rate that low. Most of my tunes are Apple Lossless at 950 kilibippies or higher. CD quality is 1411. And the Audi sound system makes use of every little bit (every pun intended ). Of course that makes for huge file size, which most folks don't seem to like. Lower bit quality means more songs can be stored on the device.

There have been some (heated?) discussions on this forum about music quality. Frankly, some folks can hear the difference and some can't. I can honestly say that BlueTooth was terrible for me. Although I understand the comparison to the Ford 150, please keep in mind that the range of sound generated in that vehicle isn't nearly as wide as in the Audi. That makes poorer quality music "sound better."

I'm not sure this will help. I guess, in a sense, I'm hoping for a technical problem that can be fixed. But, if not, you may have to resort to a wired connection to get the quality you're after.


Carry on...