[SquareWheels]

I have a 2020 440, I got the harman kardon stereo. Oddly, it sounds best with Sirrius XM. I had that in my prior few Toyota's, and that was always the worst sounding option.

In the current car, FM radio works fine (but I never listen due to all the commercials), CD's are very muted, if I download a CD directly to the car, still muted, the USB option is a little worse, the absolute worst option is BT from my Galaxy phone. This makes listening to podcasts awful. I need to turn it almost all the way up.

So the only thing I can listen to with the top down is Sirrius.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

[orbE46]

Following for an answer, I was just thinking about this today. The bass is more prominent with Sirius in my car with Harmon Kardon, and the volume is very low on AUX.

There's gotta be a way to adjust AUX volume and individual settings for each audio source right? My E46 has that, find it hard to believe the F30 doesn't.

[Billfitz]

I have Hi-Fi. The CD playback on mine is also dull compared to FM, I have to boost the treble EQ to get it to sound decent. Despite being made by Harmon, and being absurdly expensive, BMW audio electronics are weak. It may be the Ultimate Driving Machine, but it's not the Ultimate Listening Experience.

[Randy Johnson]

We have a CD player?

[GreenF30N26]

I have the same experience with my HK system. XM radio was the best, followed by FM HD, FM, CD/local HDD then aux/BT.

It is maddening knowing that the system can produce better sound but does such a terrible job with CD and BT audio

[bpwj76]

When listening to BT audio, make sure the volume on your phone is turned all the way up. I thought something was wrong with my car's audio one day, because I had the volume on my phone almost all the way down. I kept cranking the volume all the way on the car and barely any sound was coming through. Classic old man mistake, lol!

[SquareWheels]

Originally Posted by bpwj76

When listening to BT audio, make sure the volume on your phone is turned all the way up. I thought something was wrong with my car's audio one day, because I had the volume on my phone almost all the way down. I kept cranking the volume all the way on the car and barely any sound was coming through. Classic old man mistake, lol!

Thanks for the suggestion. As I mentioned, I have a Samsung, so no native Podcast player.

Have you found a Podcast player that works well for you?

[bpwj76]

Originally Posted by SquareWheels

Thanks for the suggestion. As I mentioned, I have a Samsung, so no native Podcast player.

Have you found a Podcast player that works well for you?

I use my iPhone for BT audio and only for music. As long as I remember to make sure the volume on the iPhone is turned up all the way, I have no issues. My wife listens to podcasts in her X3 and hasn't had any issues as long as she remembers the same thing. Her's is an iPhone as well and I'm not sure which app she uses for podcasts.

Sorry I wasn't much help to you.

[nbay89]

Originally Posted by SquareWheels

I have a 2020 440, I got the harman kardon stereo. Oddly, it sounds best with Sirrius XM. I had that in my prior few Toyota's, and that was always the worst sounding option.

In the current car, FM radio works fine (but I never listen due to all the commercials), CD's are very muted, if I download a CD directly to the car, still muted, the USB option is a little worse, the absolute worst option is BT from my Galaxy phone. This makes listening to podcasts awful. I need to turn it almost all the way up.

So the only thing I can listen to with the top down is Sirrius.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

Interesting. I also have the H/K sound system in my BMW and I frequently think about how shitty it sounds. It's very disappointing that BMW puts these in their cars. My father bought a Z3 M roadster and Z4 M coupe the first year they were produced...the sound system was amazing. I also currently have a Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit with H/K and it sounds awesome. I'm not sure what the story is.

[SquareWheels]

Originally Posted by bpwj76

Sorry I wasn't much help to you.

Don't be silly, I appreciate ll comments / suggestions.

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by Randy Johnson

We have a CD player?

I use mine when I'm out of range of FM up around the Canadian border.

[Gen13 F36]

For samsung s8 and up phones with updated to the news android version, check your phone setting for sound... it got equalizer. Try this

[mcintoshf30]

I always use USB for charging and audio, I do notice a difference between USB and BT for sure, can't say whether XM sounds better or no... USB always sounds great to me.. I've also touched every single EQ slider lol

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by SquareWheels

I have a 2020 440, I got the harman kardon stereo. Oddly, it sounds best with Sirrius XM. I had that in my prior few Toyota's, and that was always the worst sounding option.

In the current car, FM radio works fine (but I never listen due to all the commercials), CD's are very muted, if I download a CD directly to the car, still muted, the USB option is a little worse, the absolute worst option is BT from my Galaxy phone. This makes listening to podcasts awful. I need to turn it almost all the way up.

So the only thing I can listen to with the top down is Sirrius.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

The SiriusXM Chipset was changed in BMWs circa 2016 as I've noted in previous threads.

It went from the Sirius Chipset to the XM Chipset at that time.

Older units show the dog Sirius on the CID and 2016+ with XM chipset shows SXM on CID. iirc, Toyota was also using Sirius Chipsets.

The XM Satellites use a better Codec than Sirius did pre-merger and sounds much better. The Sirius Codec was developed over 25 years ago for lowbitrate digital over copper wire telephone lines. Much has changed since then.

That's why you hear the difference in sound quality now.

[Jvac]

The Bluetooth sound quality definitely sucks and that is the most disappointing because I have a huge music collection on my phone, not to mention the streaming services. I copied some of my mp3 files to the car's hard drive and they sound a thousand times better than when playing over Bluetooth. But the hard drive isn't big enough. Audio system is a little subpar, as others have said

[Wgosma]

Source is critical, uncompressed audio (CD quality or better) will trump mp3. Willing to pay to stream?...get Tidal or Qobuz subscription.

[Gen13 F36]

I'm not a sound aficionado, so I set my volume low most of the time and with my exhaust on the background...I can't tell if it's really bad.

All I can say is that the volume switching from FM, am, xm, bluetooth and CD go up and down, that is the thing I hate the most.

As for bluetooth with streaming like pandora and spotify, there is seem to be difference between song channel or genre. Example when I listen to pandora today's Hit l...it sound great.... then I go switch to hip hop /r&b and all goes to shit..also when going to classic rock... fkn volume is very low and I have to turn un the volume on the car about 80% just to hear something past my exhaust.

That is just my experience.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by Jvac

The Bluetooth sound quality definitely sucks and that is the most disappointing because I have a huge music collection on my phone, not to mention the streaming services. I copied some of my mp3 files to the car's hard drive and they sound a thousand times better than when playing over Bluetooth. But the hard drive isn't big enough. Audio system is a little subpar, as others have said

Bluetooth has always sucked

Don't take my word for it.

search "Steve Wozniak Bluetooth"


https://lmgtfy.com/?q=Steve+Wozniak+Bluetooth

[Gen13 F36]

BMW hasn't adopted BT5.0, I don't even think BMW have BT4.0

[Jvac]

Originally Posted by IK6SPEED

Bluetooth has always sucked

Don't take my word for it.

search "Steve Wozniak Bluetooth"


https://lmgtfy.com/?q=Steve+Wozniak+Bluetooth

I'm just butting in out of boredom, so apologies for the thread drift. I understand that Bluetooth is never going to sound as good as a hard wire or other hi-fi audio input, but for a comparison, I also have a pair of Bluetooth headphones that I use with the same phone and songs. Over the headphones, the songs sound quite good compared to when they stream over the car stereo. And as I mentioned, those same tracks also sound much better when they play off the car's hard drive system. But over the car Bluetooth system they are just tinny and lo-fi. It's obviously some low quality or low bandwidth equipment in there. Not fitting of what was originally a 60,000$ car. I've just been reading another thread where they outline a hard drive upgrade to the head unit so I can fit my whole music collection. The one I have now only allows like 20gb for music storage which isn't very much.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by Jvac

I'm just butting in out of boredom, so apologies for the thread drift. I understand that Bluetooth is never going to sound as good as a hard wire or other hi-fi audio input, but for a comparison, I also have a pair of Bluetooth headphones that I use with the same phone and songs. Over the headphones, the songs sound quite good compared to when they stream over the car stereo. And as I mentioned, those same tracks also sound much better when they play off the car's hard drive system. But over the car Bluetooth system they are just tinny and lo-fi. It's obviously some low quality or low bandwidth equipment in there. Not fitting of what was originally a 60,000$ car. I've just been reading another thread where they outline a hard drive upgrade to the head unit so I can fit my whole music collection. The one I have now only allows like 20gb for music storage which isn't very much.

https://www.pymnts.com/apple/2016/st...pple-iphone-7/

[Liandri]

Originally Posted by Gen13 F36

BMW hasn't adopted BT5.0, I don't even think BMW have BT4.0

This. 5.0 allows Sony LDAC (and other) high bitrate codecs to work if BOTH devices support the specific codec. SBC (sub band codec) which is what the majority of bt4.x devices use limits somewhere around 320kbps. I have a pair of earbuds which are bt5.0, but when I try to force my Samsung s9 to use LDAC in the dev menu it reverts back to SBC. I'm guessing the earbuds don't support LDAC since they're Chinese knockoffs

Anyone asking questions about this, I definitely recommend you research the current state of Bluetooth and hifi audio. It's very revealing. Basically hifi Bluetooth isn't a thing, the closest thing you'll get to hifi and wireless are in the proprietary lossless 2.4 connections found on some wireless headsets. But 5.0 is here and adoption is coming, so I imagine wireless hifi is just over the horizon.

I'm waiting for this to release: https://www.qudelix.com/

That should solve the problem on smartphones that support 5.0, you can then output the audio from the qudelix to whatever headphones or powered speakers or aux input you have. There is already a predecessor version of this out on Amazon, I forget the name though. Same guy behind the scenes making them