Frenetic

Can anyone confirm that Apple Music will stream and play spatial audio in the base 3D Burmester system?

I wasn’t going to bother with the in-car T-Mobile data plan unless the 3D system is indeed capable of playing spatial audio through the native MBUX Apple Music app.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/...ers-worldwide/

emilner

It plays through my W222 so I don't see why it wouldn't in the W223. What they added was a native app for it.

crabman

Just set your phone up to be the connection via its Wi-Fi hotspot, you don't have to use the in car data connection. If the result is what you're looking for, you can always set up the in car plan.

Frenetic

I couldn’t get it to work streaming through my phone. I think you can’t have CarPlay active while the phone is being used as a tether. The car kept fighting me. I’ll try again.

I was just curious if the base 3D system in our car is actually capable of spatial audio, which is only possible via direct streaming through the Apple Music app in the car versus CarPlay. Anyone with the base system confirm it works?

crabman

Yeah, you have to use the onboard app that way, no car play.

Frenetic

Yeah there’s no way that I know of that will allow me to tether and do CarPlay at the same time. I don’t want to lose CarPlay so I need to get the T-Mobile plan.

However, once I set that up, is it simply a matter of selecting streaming music in the media? I assume so, but it wouldn’t let me select it without a data plan.

crabman

I'm not sure what you're going to find there, I like the cars GUI and I'm not using Android auto for that reason. For me with Android auto lit up I couldn't get the cars stuff (Tidal, Amazon, in my case) to work. It's possible there is a way, I can only say I didn't find it. Based on what you're saying I'm starting to wonder if it's a thing.

Frenetic

I actually got streaming to work through my phone but it wasn’t consistent. I’m not sure if the connection inconsistencies were with my phone tether or something else. It would on occasion tell me there’s no connection available.

However, it did sound better, although it could be a placebo. There were no visual indications that Atmos was active unfortunately.

One thing that is nice with the CarPlay audio is that I have an Apple Watch ultra and I can skip tracks on my watch, which is easier than reaching for the center screen or forcing the instrument cluster to media. I can’t do that with streaming music.

Frenetic

I got CarPlay and tether to work at the same time…once. But the tether connection is really sketchy, at least for me. Anyone else having tether issues?

Also, the sound quality streaming is definitely better. I have no idea what the bitrate is with streaming vs CarPlay but it’s noticeable.

Sleeper Benz

If the vehicle is equipped with the MB thermal reducing metal coated and heated grid glass any GPS/phone/data transmissions, or reception for that matter, inside the cabin will be noticeably reduced. As in like it barely works. Seems like a backdoor way to push you into using MB communication services although the thermal heated glass is beneficial.

There are companies that sell really good external cell phone boosters. A bit pricey but I may try one:

https://www.weboost.com/boosters/vehicle-car

Frenetic

Hmm maybe that’s why I’m having intermittent tethering communications issues. I assume the built in wireless connection through T-Mobile isn’t affected by the windows.