[Beemer5to3]

I used CarPlay for the first time today, just because I wanted to use Google Maps to find somewhere quite remote. I found there’s a huge drop in both the overall volume and sound quality using CarPlay vs. using the in-built Spotify app on the iDrive! Will definitely be sticking to that in future. Anyone else found the same?

[witz323]

So which one did you find to sound better?

[Beemer5to3]

Originally Posted by witz323

So which one did you find to sound better?

Sorry I didn’t make that very clear! I’ve edited my first post now - much, much better using the in-built Spotify app on the iDrive.

[hinckley]

Check your smart phone's Audio Quality settings in the Spotify app. If you're like us in the States and have an unlimited cellular data plan, your Cellular Streaming Quality should be set to Very High. This makes a huge difference.

[Beemer5to3]

hinckley yeah it’s set to the highest quality - still night and day different, which I suspect is degradation via the Bluetooth or Wifi connection to the car. There’s noticeably more punch to the bass and the sound is much “fuller” for want of a better word using the Spotify app on the iDrive.

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by Beemer5to3

hinckley yeah it’s set to the highest quality - still night and day different, which I suspect is degradation via the Bluetooth or Wifi connection to the car. There’s noticeably more punch to the bass and the sound is much “fuller” for want of a better word using the Spotify app on the iDrive.

CarPlay just like AA uses WiFi for control/streaming to the receiving device aka iD7 in this case. The WiFi shouldn't have much degradation whatsoever but it makes sense that the built-in Spotify has better sound as it's native in iD7 and the Internet data for the stream comes from the built-in AT&T hotspot of the car with a much better antenna than any cell phone within the cabin.

There was a thread on the native Spotify app having a bug with the "library" function but sounds like that's been fixed. In that thread members on both CarPlay and AA called out the same as you, i.e., the sound quality through either for Spotify is a step down from the native app.

Once again this makes sense as although modern cell phones have decently powerful CPUs but the phone is handling everything with CarPlay or AA active. Handling the control plane for either (communicating on WiFi), handling the data from the cell connection and transmission to CarPlay/AA (via WiFi) to the iD7. Plus, it's running all background apps, notifications, etc. for the phone itself.

I've only used AA on a rare occasion similar to yours, i.e., Google maps for a location BMW's nav couldn't handle. Not a Spotify user outside of the free tier as I have Amazon Music for that which has true high definition support. Even the best Spotify on a paid plan is top tier MP3 streaming.

[snareman]

Originally Posted by bloozemanAZ

CarPlay just like AA uses WiFi for control/streaming to the receiving device aka iD7 in this case. The WiFi shouldn't have much degradation whatsoever but it makes sense that the built-in Spotify has better sound as it's native in iD7 and the Internet data for the stream comes from the built-in AT&T hotspot of the car with a much better antenna than any cell phone within the cabin.

There was a thread on the native Spotify app having a bug with the "library" function but sounds like that's been fixed. In that thread members on both CarPlay and AA called out the same as you, i.e., the sound quality through either for Spotify is a step down from the native app.

Once again this makes sense as although modern cell phones have decently powerful CPUs but the phone is handling everything with CarPlay or AA active. Handling the control plane for either (communicating on WiFi), handling the data from the cell connection and transmission to CarPlay/AA (via WiFi) to the iD7. Plus, it's running all background apps, notifications, etc. for the phone itself.

I've only used AA on a rare occasion similar to yours, i.e., Google maps for a location BMW's nav couldn't handle. Not a Spotify user outside of the free tier as I have Amazon Music for that which has true high definition support. Even the best Spotify on a paid plan is top tier MP3 streaming.

Have you taken this test?
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/spotify-hq.html

Wondering if I'd be able to hear a difference between something like spotify high quality and Amazon highest quality

[witz323]

Originally Posted by hinckley

Check your smart phone's Audio Quality settings in the Spotify app. If you're like us in the States and have an unlimited cellular data plan, your Cellular Streaming Quality should be set to Very High. This makes a huge difference.

Thank you for that Spotify tip. I just made the adjustments in settings.

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by snareman

Have you taken this test?
http://abx.digitalfeed.net/spotify-hq.html

Wondering if I'd be able to hear a difference between something like spotify high quality and Amazon highest quality

I have not but will give it a go. Need to be on a laptop as reading into the doc it as expected pushes FLAC files.

[PappadocM8]

I definitely noticed a drop in sound quality and the need to crank the volume higher with Spotify. This all started after I updated the BMW software. All the settings in Spotify are set to best quality. So annoying.

[Kponti]

That explains a lot, just picked up a 2023 M8c yesterday and the first thing I noticed was a huge drop in sound quality on AA Spotify playback in the M.
I came from a 2021 E63s

I will try using the M built-in Spotify app. My MB did not have a native app.