Crackling and distortion on songs which never happened before :(

[me1820de]

Hi,

I recently bought a car and now the music I'm playing through Spotify in the new car is crackling and distorted.  I've isolated it down to my phone (iphone5) because I installed the app on my husbands (samsung galaxy 3) and it plays beautifully.

Any ideas what is causing this or how to fix?  The sounds is horrible like my speakers are blown, I can't even listen to my music on spotify any longer.

Thanks!

[robzim737]

Hey there @me1820de - so you've isolated the problem to your iPhone 5- how are you connecting it to your car's sound system: through bluetooth or the audio-in jack.  All I can suggest (which sorrily isn't much) is that if you have both, and have been having the issue over bluetooth, try switching to the audio-in jack, or vice versa.  Or, if you purchased the AppleCare plan with your iPhone (which I think covers it for two years), you can try having your device replaced.  I've used Spotify on the iphone 5 in my car over both bluetooth and audio-in with no issues, and the same for the 4s and now the 5s, so I don't think is a problem with the iPhone 5 "in general"..

[jeremygoh]

Try to test out with other iPhones?

Have you tried with the default music app on the iPhone?

Is your iOS on the latest version?

[juippis]

Try to debug the problem.

 - does it happen if you listen to Spotify with headsets connected? Or without headsets, just using phone speakers. Your AUX input might be broken

 - does it happen with iTunes?

 - what happens if you lower the volume from iPhone and raise it in car sound system? Or vice versa? There might be some equalizer stepping in.

I hear a cracking sound in every tune where syncing gets cancelled by the phone being idle for more than 10 minutes. I have to remove and re-add those songs to library for re-sync. Although, that is not continuous, the song kind of gets muted for 1-2 seconds where syncing pauses, and it clicks during that pause.

[me1820de]

Hi I'm connecting through my bluetooth.  For some reason my car (MBenz E350) doesn't have an audio jack??? or I haven't found it I should say it is a new car.  Maybe I should look for that.  I didn't purchase the apple care with my phone unfortunately.  It is the strangest thing I also used my Spotify with my iphone 5 with my Acura MDX so I originally thought it was the Benz that was the problem (that would not be cool).  We took it to the Benz dealer and we hooked up my sales reps iphone 5 who also has spotify to the bluetooth connection and the music coming out of the speakers were crisp and clear!

[me1820de]

Hi yes I tested another iphone with spotify with the same song and it comes out clear on his phone.

I have tried the default music app on the iphone and it plays clear.

Yes I have updated my iphone with the latest version, thanks for the input!

[steveturner0906]

Kill the equalizer. Settings/Playback/Equalizer

[georgelasealva]

this fixed a similar problem i was having. I had the bass CRANKED in the custom eq playback settings on spotify for my crappy apple headphones and it was throwing my HI-FI bluetooth studio monitors for a loop.  it's all about isolating problems and narrowing them down...

[serney-us]

I've been having this problem and it's been driving me nuts. I thought I might've blown speakers in my car. You saved me. Thanks!