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idoc02

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2013
2
0
How do I get the best sound quality out of iphone? When going from the headphone jack to a car stereo, music sounds muffled. When I listen to music from headphones it sounds great. If I have the output come out of the lighting pin connector will it sound better. Or would streaming thru bluetooth be better?
 
I don't know, any analysis would be complete speculation without knowing a lot more about the equipment. So, speculatively: since headphones sound good, that suggests the phone works, and the car receiver is the problem. Or the path into it.

I use a GoGroove bluetooth/fm adapter and it sounds great. (good for fm, not like...SACD)
 
I don't know, any analysis would be complete speculation without knowing a lot more about the equipment. So, speculatively: since headphones sound good, that suggests the phone works, and the car receiver is the problem. Or the path into it.

I use a GoGroove bluetooth/fm adapter and it sounds great. (good for fm, not like...SACD)

yeah, i agree with your opinion.
 
How do I get the best sound quality out of iphone? When going from the headphone jack to a car stereo, music sounds muffled. When I listen to music from headphones it sounds great. If I have the output come out of the lighting pin connector will it sound better. Or would streaming thru bluetooth be better?
Headphone amps tend to be noisy -- especially when the volume is cranked up. Best sound quality is usually attained by avoiding the headphone amp (i.e. using the Lightning or dock connector). Bluetooth is lossy. You have decide if you're happy with the bluetooth audio quality. Some people are, some are not. We can't tell you what you'll prefer. Bluetooth audio quality is going to depend on the audio codec supported on both ends. If the codec is SBC (most common) you'll probably find audio out via Lightning to be better.

I don't know, any analysis would be complete speculation without knowing a lot more about the equipment.
Not completely. It's still speculation without all the details but there are a lot of knowns in these situations (such as "use line out instead of the headphone jack for better audio quality"). Whether the head unit is the limiting factor is an unknown but there is generally a significant improvement in bypassing the headphone amp and the OP needs to start there and then work on through any remaining issues. The biggest unknown though is what the person asking the question is willing to settle for. Not everyone has the same tolerances for sound quality. Some are fine with the poor audio quality of FM modulators. Some are willing to give up varying amounts of quality in exchange for convenience. And so on, and so on.
 
Last edited:
could it be impedance?

Thanks for the replies..I realize without knowing all the specs its difficult to answer. I was just checking to see if this is a known issue. When i plug the phone into the car..going from headphone jack to Aux in on the basic car stereo, the sound is very muffled. I have to turn the volume level up really high to get anything out of it. When I listen to the same music from iphone to my Seinheisser headphones, I don't experience that at all..I can hear everynote and its not muffled. Someone mentioned the headphone out might not have the same impedance as the car stereo and that is why it sounds muffled.

So if I were to upgrade my car stereo..would it be better to have bluetooth connection or a physical connection using the lightning pin instead of headphone out to acheive best auido fidelity?
 
What you have on your car sterero is very ikely a Line-in jack, NOT a headphone-input jack. There are differences in output levels between the two, and that's probably why your sound is muffled.

You're likely better off with a bluetooth audio.
 
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