In my 08 GS Non Mark levinson sound system, when im using the Radio some songs with good Bass sound good and the stock subwoofer actually Hits. Then i use spotify and hook up with my aux cord. the same song i play just does not have the same bass quality. is it because its AUX? I was wondering if i buy the GROM V line if i would have decent music quality vs AUX cord to phone.

 

I have the same system but with the GTA Car Kit for bluetooth and the sound quality is still bad, even after changing the speakers multiple times. It's likely the stereo and not your AUX. Grom VLine is the most reputable and there's tons of models on AliExpress that advertise a built in DSP, not sure about the quality on those though.

 

it could just be Spotify. have you tried songs saved on your device to see if they have the same poor quality?

 

yeah, I had downloaded the HQ files from computer to iTunes and there was still distortion at medium to high volume. seems unavoidable unless I upgrade the stereo.

 

I’m running the Grom vline 2 with the stock non Mark Levinson. Unless you’re using CarPlay or Android Auto, audio quality through Bluetooth is compressed and won’t sound good. For the best audio quality through your stock system, AUX is your best bet (or CarPlay/Android Auto using the Grom Vline). I would check your Spotify settings. Try changing it to the highest quality and see if that helps.

 

Try to use a better AUX cable, am guessing you have a modern phone with Type-C, use 3.5mm jack to Type-C connector with DAC (Anker or UGreen cables are very good quality). What happens is you input your car system with wired analog low quality audio the DAC acts as a USB sound device for Hi-Res Audio and Deep Bass. Most modern phones use their Hi-Res audio DAC chips via BT only streaming because all Type-C headphones already DAC ready and this is why you need Type-C DAC for your AUX input.

 

I'll try that, bought a FiiO KA11 adapter and waiting for it to ship.

From my research the audio quality specs seemed to be Apple < UGreen < Anker < FiiO

 

UPDATE: Using the FiiO DAC the difference in sound quality in huge, even at high volume the distortion is gone. Now I wonder if there's any room for improvement with a newer stereo. Thanks guys

 

is this the one you got? what kind of aux cord do you have?

https://a.co/d/6mcQb55

 

No, I got the KA11 with the lightning end because I'm using an iPhone. They sell it with Type C too and it's a little cheaper on AliExpress. Aux cord is a regular 3.5mm to 3.5mm I had laying around.