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      11-16-2017, 08:27 PM   #1
DrunkPandaBear
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Audio Booster?

Like most of you, I'm unhappy with just how quiet the stereo is when listening to music via my iPhone (whether it's iTunes or Spotify). I understand it's less having to do with the car and more-so the USB-C Cable having extremely low output.

Is there some sort of audio booster / preamp device that I can plug into the car's USB and just leave in the center console (and the iPhone cable would plug into that) that isn't mega expensive and meant for situations like these?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by DrunkPandaBear; 11-16-2017 at 08:27 PM.. Reason: glovebox = center console
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      11-17-2017, 10:24 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DrunkPandaBear View Post
Like most of you, I'm unhappy with just how quiet the stereo is when listening to music via my iPhone (whether it's iTunes or Spotify). I understand it's less having to do with the car and more-so the USB-C Cable having extremely low output.

Is there some sort of audio booster / preamp device that I can plug into the car's USB and just leave in the center console (and the iPhone cable would plug into that) that isn't mega expensive and meant for situations like these?

Thanks in advance.
In short: no.

USB sends a digital signal. It's 1s and 0s. You can't amplify that. Also: the cable type has nothing to do with volume. USB-C transfers the same data as any other USB interface; USB-C simply allows for faster data transfer.

Check iDrive for a source volume adjustment option while Aux/USB is selected; I'm pretty sure there's one.
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Last edited by Viffermike; 11-17-2017 at 10:30 AM..
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      11-17-2017, 10:30 AM   #3
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If your car has aux-in available you can use a headphone amp but you could lose ability to charge if your iPhone doesn't have headphone jack.

None of this is optimal from a sound quality perspective but purely to make your questionable source content sound louder which was your original ask.
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      11-17-2017, 12:09 PM   #4
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Thanks guys.

I did some snooping and troubleshooting and came up with some solutions:

1. Turn off "Sound Check" in iPhone
2. Turn on "Late Night" EQ in iPhone
(gives a slight db boost)
3. Turn off Audio Normalization in Spotify
4. Close Facebook before plugging phone into iDrive
(the app, for some reason, cuts audio signal / lowers it).

Doing all those seemed to help slightly.
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