Apple Carplay and music sound quality deterioration

[Ari]

Recently bought a Mercedes with Apple Carplay. The thing is, useful though it is, the sound quality is noticeably reduced. Mine has the Harmon Kardon with surround sound. But plug the phone in, run it through Carplay and the surround sound is gone, along with the tone controls.

It's not the quality of music on the iPhone because if I plug it in, ignore Carplay and play it through the cable and the normal system as an iPod, it sounds fine.

Is this usual for Carplay or am I doing something wrong? Carplay does seem to take over the entire car, I've found myself ignoring it so I can still access the normal functions.

Trouble is, I lose Siri then, which is quite useful when driving.

[markyb_lcy]

Ari said:

Carplay does seem to take over the entire car, I've found myself ignoring it so I can still access the normal functions.

The entire car?

I think you’re overreacting

I would disable it if it was braking for me, downshifting and choosing roundabout exits!

I think your problem is probably the music app doesn’t output surround sound. Probably never designed to since 99% of the time it’s going to be outputting to a stereo device.

[geeks]

What version of iOS are you on? I had an issue with sound quality in carplay (not Mercedes though) but that seems to have been fixed since iOS 13 dropped.

[Ari]

markyb_lcy said:

Ari said:

Carplay does seem to take over the entire car, I've found myself ignoring it so I can still access the normal functions.

The entire car?

I think you’re overreacting

I would disable it if it was braking for me, downshifting and choosing roundabout exits!

I think your problem is probably the music app doesn’t output surround sound. Probably never designed to since 99% of the time it’s going to be outputting to a stereo device.

Pretty sure the rest of the world knew what I meant.

[Ari]

geeks said:

What version of iOS are you on? I had an issue with sound quality in carplay (not Mercedes though) but that seems to have been fixed since iOS 13 dropped.

It's iOS 13.3.1

[markyb_lcy]

Ari said:

Pretty sure the rest of the world knew what I meant.

Forgive me for having a sense of humour and I’ll forgive you for not having.

[geeks]

Ari said:

geeks said:

What version of iOS are you on? I had an issue with sound quality in carplay (not Mercedes though) but that seems to have been fixed since iOS 13 dropped.

It's iOS 13.3.1

Ok rules that out then. Might be worth a call to your local dealer to see if there is an update on their end...

[Ari]

markyb_lcy said:

Ari said:

Pretty sure the rest of the world knew what I meant.

Forgive me for having a sense of humour and I’ll forgive you for not having.

It was comedic genius, well done.

[Ari]

geeks said:

Ok rules that out then. Might be worth a call to your local dealer to see if there is an update on their end...

Yes, that's a thought.