[jdstein11]

I've read that iOS 12 will permit using Waze through Apple Car Play, but I don't know whether it will solve my issue: whenever Waze is active and I'm trying to play music through my Apple Music app, the audio quality is atrocious and only improves if I switch to "Now Playing" through Car Play. It's EXTREMELY noticeable that something is different when Waze is active on my phone than when it isn't, and I'm considering bringing it in for the dealer to figure it out. It doesn't make any sense to me why this would be so, and I'm reaching out to this group to see whether others have experienced the same challenges.

Thanks in advance.

 

[phroenips]

I've read that iOS 12 will permit using Waze through Apple Car Play, but I don't know whether it will solve my issue: whenever Waze is active and I'm trying to play music through my Apple Music app, the audio quality is atrocious and only improves if I switch to "Now Playing" through Car Play. It's EXTREMELY noticeable that something is different when Waze is active on my phone than when it isn't, and I'm considering bringing it in for the dealer to figure it out. It doesn't make any sense to me why this would be so, and I'm reaching out to this group to see whether others have experienced the same challenges.

Thanks in advance.

I don't use Waze, so I won't be able to 100% answer your question, but I'm wondering if the audio is somehow actually going over bluetooth? If so, and if Waze is using a different bluetooth profile (headset (HSP) vs A2DP), that could certainly make a difference. You might try disabling bluetooth on the phone to rule out this possibility.

 

[Viffermike]

I've read that iOS 12 will permit using Waze through Apple Car Play, but I don't know whether it will solve my issue: whenever Waze is active and I'm trying to play music through my Apple Music app, the audio quality is atrocious and only improves if I switch to "Now Playing" through Car Play. It's EXTREMELY noticeable that something is different when Waze is active on my phone than when it isn't, and I'm considering bringing it in for the dealer to figure it out. It doesn't make any sense to me why this would be so, and I'm reaching out to this group to see whether others have experienced the same challenges.

Thanks in advance.

First: iOS 12. Just do it. Be sure to backup your iPhone first in case you want/need to revert.

Second: It's a well known fact among Apple aficionados that recent iPhones -- ones without a headphone jack -- do not have a viable DAC. Is yours one of these? If so, that guarantees that the conversion from digital to analog is happening inside PCM4. (This is a good thing, because PCM4's DAC is not a bad one at all -- it can decode most high-resolution audio files.)

Basically, if you're using Waze and playing music through Apple Music outside of CarPlay -- even if the phone is connected to PCM4 via USB -- you're almost certainly streaming it via Bluetooth, which is not capable of high resolution at all.

Third: What the shift between not using CarPlay and using CarPlay does is tell PCM4 to use the datastream from the USB connection instead of Bluetooth. Your issue almost certainly has nothing to do with PCM4; it has to do with how CarPlay manages data transfer while tethered to PCM4.

I would try iOS 12 and see how you like it. You can play music and use Waze/Google Maps/Apple Maps simultaneously. I'm somewhat anti-Waze, and even I don't mind it too much as part of CarPlay.

 

[jdstein11]

First: iOS 12. Just do it. Be sure to backup your iPhone first in case you want/need to revert.

Second: It's a well known fact among Apple aficionados that recent iPhones -- ones without a headphone jack -- do not have a viable DAC. Is yours one of these? If so, that guarantees that the conversion from digital to analog is happening inside PCM4. (This is a good thing, because PCM4's DAC is not a bad one at all -- it can decode most high-resolution audio files.)

Basically, if you're using Waze and playing music through Apple Music outside of CarPlay -- even if the phone is connected to PCM4 via USB -- you're almost certainly streaming it via Bluetooth, which is not capable of high resolution at all.

Third: What the shift between not using CarPlay and using CarPlay does is tell PCM4 to use the datastream from the USB connection instead of Bluetooth. Your issue almost certainly has nothing to do with PCM4; it has to do with how CarPlay manages data transfer while tethered to PCM4.

I would try iOS 12 and see how you like it. You can play music and use Waze/Google Maps/Apple Maps simultaneously. I'm somewhat anti-Waze, and even I don't mind it too much as part of CarPlay.

Yup, that solved it. I upgraded later the same day as my original post and the sound is exactly as I expected, no matter what app I'm using in Car Play.