Very poor sound quality when playing in my car

[Nurdyguy]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

Samsung Galaxy S10+

Operating System

Android version 9

My Question or Issue

I purchased a new 2019 Chevy Colorado over the weekend and when I tried to connect my phone to stream Spotify the sound quality was terrible, hollow and flat sounding.  I'm hoping someone can help me figure this out.  Here is what I tried so far:

1. I compared the bluetooth vs usb cable connection and there was no difference in quality
2. Bluetooth connection to bluetooth headphones sounds good, as expected, not at all like the connection in the car.
3. I did a side-by-side comparison of a youtube video for a song and then switch over to spotify for the same song and youtube sounded significantly better than spotify.  (I did this with multiple songs of different types.)
4. When comparing the SeriusXM or regular FM sound quality, SeriusXM was by far the best, then regular FM, then youtube, and last by a lot was spotify.
5. I tried the "clear cache, uninstall the app, and reinstall" trick but it made no difference at all.
6. I turned on the "highest quality" setting (was on "automatic") but it made no noticable difference.
7. I installed the app directly in the car's head unit but it made no difference at all.  It seemed to still be playing through my phone.
8. I noticed that spotify was noticably quieter so I tried to increase the volume on my phone but the volumn bar would just blink and not actually change the volume.

Any assistance is appreciated!

[Guido]

Hello @Nurdyguy,

Thanks for getting in touch!

Have you tried checking the equaliser? Perhaps it's set in a way that make the sound in your car sound not so good. You can also try toggling the 'enable volume normalization'

Hope it helps! Let us know how it goes.

Have a nice day.

[GalaxyWalker]

I am having the exact same problem with the bluetooth connection in my KIA. I have tried the same things as OP and I have reset the car sound settings to the default. 

I have tested between SiriusXM and Spotify. Spotify is MUCH quieter. I keep the volume at 15ish for the radio but need to double it for Spotify. My Google Play app does not have this problem. I'm disappointed because I pay for Premium but the sound quality is muffled and quiet. 

Edit: I also have a Samsung Galaxy. I have an S9

[TheOriginalZee]

Issue described technically... only the mids are coming out of the speaker. I used to think it was my vehicle but I have tried it in multiple vehicles now when I rent them. However, I did notice that every vehicle I use has Apple Play installed. This could be the issue? (Spotify not being correctly compatible with a new Apple update or something.) Usually I can go to the Bluetooth connection listed at the bottom of the app in green font, switch connection from my Apple play device to my phone speakers, and then switch it back to my Apply Play device (car). Although it’s super annoying and inconvenient... doing this once or twice might do the trick to solve your issue as it does for me. 

They will figure it out as soon as enough people complain about it hopefully.🤠

[Ver]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out to us 🙂

@GalaxyWalker Could you share with us if you also experience bad sounds quality? We'll look into this further.

@TheOriginalZee It's a good idea to try the steps mentioned in the original post. In case the issue persists, could you share with us the device + OS version? We'll investigate this further.

Keep us in the loop! We'll be right here if you have any questions.

[TheOriginalZee]

Sorry, I forgot to mention my device is an updated iOS. Although it has been happening for the last few months through different Apple updates.

And yeah, I’ve already attempted the equalizer steps from the OP. I’ve ran through about as much trouble shooting tactics as I can.

Thanks for looking into it.

Brendon

[Ver]

Hey @TheOriginalZee,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂

In case you've tried the steps @Nurdyguy mentioned, it's also a good idea to give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. This one is more thorough than the usual one.

Could you try with another phone to check if the issue persists? That way we can check if it's a device-related issue.

Let us know how it goes. If you have questions, you know where to find us.

[RiveDroite]

The volume normalization seems to cause so many issues overall, it should be disabled by default in my opinion. 

[missdb]

Same issues! 

[MihailY]

Hey @missdb,

Thanks for reaching out.

Can you give us a bit more info about your particular case like for example:

• The model of your car stereo and the model, OS version, and Spotify version of the phone connected to it.
• What type of connection are you using?
• Have you tried any troubleshooting steps?
• What happens when you use a different phone/account?

Keep us posted.

[Reggae4Life]

Ok so I have this issue too and was about to get new speakers and head unit! I just got this car last month and don't listen to the actual radio so I didn't realize that it sounds much better (volumes better!) listening to AM/FM than with Spotify playing. I thought it was because I'm using an adapter for Bluetooth since the car is an '05 but the difference between the radio and anything Bluetooth is a TON. It sounds muffled and too low of volume with the phone volume and car volume all the way up. I have an iPhone 13 Max Pro with the latest 18.2 update, and I don't play it through Apple anything. I play it straight from the phone using Bluetooth. The car is an '05 Chevy Equinox LS with factory stuff in it but I'm thinking of switching the head unit and speakers out today, for backup camera and real Bluetooth capabilities vs adapter.