Static-y audio issue with Roon ARC Bluetooth connection in car (ref#65OODE)

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What’s happening?

· I'm having trouble with Roon ARC

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Describe the issue

Hey folks, loving Roon and ARC, just running into an issue only recently.

I use Roon ARC in my car, through a simple Bluetooth connection (no CarPlay). In the past week or so, when I turn my car back on and the Bluetooth reconnects, I’m getting very static-y audio. If I either (1) pause then hit play again, or (2) turn off the audio system then turn it back on, then the static goes away and music plays as expected again. Happens with both streaming and downloaded songs.

I’m on iOS and have tried deleting and reinstalling the ARC, but no difference in behavior. I see there was a new ARC release last week, perhaps that has something to do with it.

It’s like the app gets the signal to start playing and isn’t ready yet. Or misinterprets the signal and sends audio that’s not fully processed yet.

Any help would be appreciated.

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What’s the make and model of your phone?

Restart your phone would be a starting point.

3

Ah you’re right.

iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 17.4.1

Just tried restarting phone and tried again in the car. Same symptom.

I just tried it with a song with a voice track: The song plays, with static, I can hear the voice faintly but it sounds very high pitched.

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I restarted my ROCK server for other reasons, used ARC again in my car, and did not encounter the same issue with an album from Smart Downloads. Unfortunately, every time I tried after the first time, I ran into the same static-y music. Tried rebooting again, then testing again, still static.

Edit: Some more info here. Same static does not happen with streamed audio from Tidal through ARC.

Static happens with both 48k and 44.1k sources.

Edit: I’ve been turning off/on my car to keep reproducing. I can catch it in seemingly random moments when away from my house when the car audio system comes back on and NO static, but for the most part, static happens when car starts up and the car connects to the phone and initiates playback.

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Hi @patcoll,

Thanks for writing in and for the update! A few follow-up questions for you:

Does the issue occur if you use the Tidal app directly?

Have you removed your iPhone as a saved device within your Car Bluetooth settings? Then, re-add the device and test again.

Does this ever happen if you’re still connected to your local wifi? Or, is it only when using cellular data?

Lastly, the next time this happens, please share the specific date, time, and name of track playing. :+1:

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Hey, thanks for the response!

It does not.

I did try that, it didn’t help.

It happens on both.

I’ve recorded a few videos showing what’s happening. The static audio behavior happens the majority of the time, but not every time:

These videos were taken today, May 1, 2024. I put the timestamps in the video file names so they’re more clear. It should be clear from the phone screen when LTE is being used and when Wi-Fi is being used (top right corner). Similar symptoms either way.

If it helps, from a quick search the car seems to be running Toyota Entune version BU.30.21

I hope this helps. Happy to move to DMs if we need to get more specific where a public convo wouldn’t make sense!

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A little more context. Discovered today that no static occurs when streaming MP3 format from my library, whether on cellular or WiFi. It only seems to happen streaming FLAC files.

And it happens with both downloaded and non-downloaded files. I believe the videos show that as well.

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Thanks @patcoll, we’ll share the report with our QA team for further investigation. :+1:

The videos are massively helpful, thank you! As a quick follow-up test, could you check to see if you have lock screen controls enabled? What happens if you temporarily disable it?