Bluetooth Audio Issues
 

Ok - I have 2 issues with my Bluetooth Audio. I have a Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Bluetooth Phone is just fine and no issues.

1. A couple of times now the bluetooth audio devices just disappear. I have to pair all the bluetooth audio devices (mine, wifes, kids) all over again.
2. While streaming bluetooth audio it's choppy, like a couple of times per song.

Anyone had these issues?

The bluetooth quality is absolute crap in my 2012 SS. Connects just fine but sounds horrible. I have actually gone back to CD's until I can get an aftermarket head unit put in.

Bluetooth, by its very nature, is not going to sound as good as a direct line, either via USB or a stereo patch cable. It is made for voice, not music. Therefore, the standard dictates a fairly significant amount of compression which strips down the high and low frequencies while downsampling the overall frequency bandwidth to allow the signal to be sent quickly over a bluetooth radio transmission. In other words, it's going to sound compressed because it IS compressed. ;)

I stopped using Bluetooth to stream, even though it's convenient, and it's nice to have the steering wheel controls (or on the head unit) to switch tracks, but, really, it's a lot better in my experience to play on the phone (I use an Android media player called Poweramp, and it's awesome) over line-in, and that sounds the best, I find.

As for why yours is skipping, I dunno, but it's possible it has to do with the source. Try a different phone/media player/format to see if it still skips in all of those scenarios. I'm thinking it's nothing to do with the Camaro's system though.

Bluetooth is not "made for voice." Voice is one the many intended uses for bluetooth. It does not do any any audio processing either, which means that it cannot strip highs and lows from your music. It does have a max bandwidth, which translates to a maximum sample rate.

Edit: From what I can find online, the max bit rate of A2DP (bluetooth music streaming) is between 127 kbps and 345 kbps. Even at the low end, it's the same bitrate as a standard iTunes MP3.

For me, not only does is the sound quality lower than expected, but the volume is crap too. I have to crank the phone all the way up, and turn the volume up in the car way higher than it should need to go. I've also found that the AUX input connected to the headphone jack sounds like crap too, and is too quiet. I can stream Pandora with a good pair of headphones and it sounds good, but with the AUX port and a stereo cable in the car, it sounds horrible. I just stick with USB with my old iPod, or let the car index a stick or my phone. It's not ideal, but it is better then nothing.

Try turning on the radio BEFORE you turn on bluetooth on your phone. (This assumes you had pairing working the last time you were in the car.)

I have the same phone and had to repair often, but that seems to make a big difference.

Not sure if the order of turning things off matter, but I usually turn off the car (with the radio/BT connection running), remove the key (with the radio/BT connection running), open the door (which turns off the radio) and then go in the house before turning bluetooth on the phone off.

My point was it wasn't designed with high quality audio transmission in mind. It was designed with limiting radio interference in mind, and it's a fairly tight band. Your audio gets decompressed by the processor, sent to the bluetooth processor, which recompresses it using another codec, which then gets transmitted to your receiver via radio waves (which, by definition means it's not going to be an audiophile's ideal method), where it then gets decompressed before you hear it reproduced in your speakers. Sometimes, the data stream can be downsampled from 16 bits to 8 bits depending on the coded data format that the transmission device and receiving unit negotiate. MP3 bitrate is completely separate and independent from the Bluetooth bitrate. There is no direct audio processing, no, but the encoding/compression used has the effect of cutting down "less efficient" frequencies.

Long story short: a direct connection will almost always sound better, if the source audio itself is high enough quality to begin with. If you're playing shit-quality 128kbps mp3s, you probably won't notice the quality degradation. Try some at 320, and you will.

Bluetooth is capable of greater than 320kbps transmissions, so unless your phone doesn't support this, there shouldn't be a difference.

Like I said, that's different from the audio compression used in whatever format the files are encoded with. And it's also "in theory," from lab tests with little interference from other radios in the area, or materials the signal has to pass through before reaching its destination.

The audio is still re-sampled at the phone's headphone jack, so unless you give the radio direct access to the file, i.e. the USB port, your music is still being re-sampled.

I rarely use my bluetooth for music stream, and never use the headphone jack. I pretty much keep an iPod plugged into my car with high quality mp3s and ALACs. When I do use bluetooth, it sounds much better than XM. Then again, XM is a mere 44kbps.

The headphone jack is a line out. All it does is play on your phone. I have a much better player on my phone than the head unit is capable of, so it sounds a lot better and I don't have to worry about the 1000 songs limit or whatever it is with the car's USB reader, especially considering it tries to index every single audio file on the phone, including system and app sounds. No thanks. If it were just a music player, that wouldn't be so much of an issue.

I never listen to XM because it sounds like shit, and with all the trees and overpasses here, there is no reception 30% of the time, and it cuts out. I only ever use it when I have a free trial, and after that, I don't miss it. I'd rather stream Slacker or Pandora from my phone at that rate. It sounds better and it doesn't cut out. ;)

1000 song limit? I have a 240GB iPod and have never encountered such a limit, or any indexing issues.


And the headphone jack is not a simple line out. It goes through the DAC (which by the very definition of digital, means it has a sample rate) and then the, likely, crappy phone internal amp, before making its way to the jack. This leaves you at the mercy of your Phone's DAC and stereo's DAC, as opposed to just the stereo's DAC.

Whoops sorry. 10,000 song limit.
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116803

As for the stereo jack, it's a helluva lot better quality than Bluetooth compression, because with that, you're adding at least two more levels of conversion along the way, and depending on vendor, the quality of the audio format chosen can vary within that data stream.

USB is the only other option and that's not very useful with a modern smartphone like mine. You'll end up with a whole lot of audio tracks it thinks is music, but is really just sound effects, cached navigation audio, etc. If you know a better way, let me know.

I've got a 2010 2SS/RS and have NEVER been able to get the streaming audio to work.

The phone pairs basically fine, for the most part, but audio is a no-go.

:(