Sound quality through Apple Carplay is Terrible!

Siri and navigation volume is proper on my Pioneer. It has a separate volume control for navigation. I'm not sure if it affects Siri as well. I'll have to try it. What HU are you using? I assume you only have one volume control.

 

This is the stock 2020 JBL Head unit

 

Sounds like you have a HU problem, not a CarPlay problem.

 

the new ios upgrade seems to have corrected my "no sound from rear speakers" issue while using carplay

 

carplay in general seems to be tremendously improved. not sure if it was the apple update, or the recent entune update. both everything is working much better. carplay starts up very quickly (used to take forever to start up and recognize on the HU), and I haven't had a crash even while switching between multiple apps (waze, apple maps, Amazon music, apple music, etc). good going toyota and/or apple!

 

YMMV but I think I might have solved my problem. There’s an option in the sound settings (on the head unit, not on your iPhone) for “sound equalization” or something similar. Turning that on seemed to do the trick.

 

"Sound equalization" is NOT EQ. Its' volume level w/ road noise, speed, etc. It doesn't even seem to function properly... not to mention the subject of this thread.
I've just gotten my new 2021 Tacoma...JBL package, etc.

CarPlay: EQ setting on phone (general) thru "music" does NOTHING. Ergo sound is all "mid tone-y" and bad thru Truck sound system. Nothing changes it. Volume on phone is not in control either. Built in EQ to truck only does so much.

Bluetooth: EQ functions as if the phone is actually in control. You can change EQ on phone to different settings all day long at what comes out of the speakers reflects it in real time, ergo it sounds better - just a previous poster said.

Sorry, but all the advise/try this in this thread does not work. I hold out a sliver of hope there is a current solution out there...?

This is a very disappointing "feature" of CarPlay (flat sound, despite truck unit EQ). I literally will not use it over clunky bluetooth - the sound is that much better. A shame.

 

I've had similar issues with CarPlay in my 2020. FM/Sirius sound great. Seems to be an issue with Apple music for me. When I use YouTube music, the sound quality is excellent through CarPlay, but when I use the Apple music app that is when the sound quality is terrible. There is a night and day difference with the same song played with YTM vs Apple.

 

Yep...
And get this... not sure when it started but I know w/ Big Sur Mac desktop, you play a song w/ iTunes, you have to hit your EQ preference (click it back on) for EACH song you play. Apple message board was full of this absolute BS (thought I was surely doing something wrong)... c'mon Apple, this is basic user satisfaction level stuff. CarPlay audio SUCKS in this regard. Fix it! - spend less time being woke...

 

I've searched all over and can't find anything, so this might be the best place to start.

Details:

• 2021 with the premium JBL HU
• primarily using Spotify
• iPhone 12 with the latest OS.

Is anyone having any issues with Carplay audio just not working. It is randomly a ton of different things. Sometimes the music actually skips, sometimes the sound is intermittent, it won't play at all, it plays (see the song progressing in the UI), but no sound, can't get it to launch, etc. Sometimes if I disconnect it from the USB port, it will correct the situation, others it won't and requires powering down the head unit.

If I just change to the standard audio user interface (no carplay), it will sometimes correct the skipping/intermittent sound.

I use Waze when I'm on the road, and want to continue to do that, so I'm stuck with trying to use Carplay vs. just abandoning it.

Any ideas?

 

Sorry if this sounds like "is it plugged in?" - due to the randomness, have you tested it w/ another chord? Also, as we know, the the iPhone ports can get a lot of lint etc (mostly from our pockets) in them. That's at the root when I charge my iPhone on my desktop and the connection gets wonky. I face the port down and gently go around the port w/ an unfolded paper clip tip.

 

Came here to say this. Try another cable and check back. But also, seeing that you're also getting intermittent sound without Carplay, I'd say this is probably a headunit/amp issue. I'd contact your dealership and also record a video of the issue just in case it suddenly decides to behave at the dealership.

 

yep, same recommendation here. try using the original apple cable. I think the toyota headunit is particularly sensitive to the cable. I have other cables that work fine for other cars, but was getting the symptoms you described earlier on. Switched back to a real apple cable and it is working much better.

 

Thanks for the quick responses. Given my background with gadgets, software dev, etc., I can't believe I didn't think of trying this first. I will give it a shot and see what happens. The cable is after market because, you know, who wants a bright white cable in their black interior?

I like the idea of recording video as well...sometimes, as you can see from my original post, it is difficult to explain the situation, and the dealer isn't likely to believe you if they don't see it for themselves.

 

Truth.

 

So, replying to my own post...the cord maybe, kinda, sorta, partially solved the problem. It still skips some, doesn't load, etc. Just a pain.

 

iOS update seemed to fix equalizer problems. Truck now recognizes it in CarPlay.

 

i have similar issues with my JBL system. first thing i did was get a new cable. it kinda helped, but not really. the phone still constantly loses connection. to be fair, my phone is old and has had, on at least one occasion, dirt packed into the jack. that could explain the intermittent connection. but it doesn't explain the skipping audio playback when it does have a solid connection. at one point my phone storage was completely full so i tried clearing up a few gig. seemed to work for a while, but now i'm getting skipping again but with no apparent changes to storage level or other conditions.

Siri and Waze are completely inaudible when i have music cranked. on other vehicles, Carplay will adjust relative volumes when another app's audio input asks for priority.

Bluetooth audio is both muffled and barely audible, it's completely useless. and i lean pretty hard on Waze to keep my contributions to the local constabulary down, so i really do need to stay hardwired.

 

Old thread, but I was having the same issues as those on here. 2020 with JBL. Fortunately I was able to find a solution that should help. Under Settings - Music there is an option for Sound Check. Make sure that is off. I've also found the music quality is better when the EQ is off as well. I'm not sure if this helped or not, but under Audio Quality I have lossless audio turned on and each of the 3 options under it set to Hi-Res Lossless. Audio quality through the apple music app is now as good as Sirius, FM and You Tube Music. Hope this helps those with the same issue.