PlexAmp

Plex Labs
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PlexAmp has become completely unusable through CarPlay. It used to happen, then it was fixed. Now it’s happening again. While listening to music out of nowhere the volume drops and the song loses all its Dynamic Range. It sounds like I’m listening through 2 cans connected by a string. Thank God I still have my iPod!

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Thanks for posting in here, I think we saw you leave a review in the app store :wave:

Hopefully we can get others to chime in, but that doesn’t sound like something we’d have control over. The next time it happens, please capture Plexamp logs and post them in here and we’ll have a look just in case there’s anything weird.

A few questions:

  • Has this ever happened not on CarPlay?
  • How are you connecting to CarPlay?
  • What car make/model?
  • If you disconnect from CarPlay does the audio return to normal?
3

Elan, yes it was me who posted that review and I apologize but the frustration just hit and I will edit it assuming we can get this resolved. That said:

I use PlexAmp mostly in the car so I don’t have any recollection of the volume changing and the sound flattening at any other time.

I connect to CarPlay with a USB to Lightning Connector cable.

The Car is a 2021 Subaru Forester.

When I disconnect then reconnect the iPhone, the Volume sometimes returns to normal but mostly it does not. If I go and press the button that takes me to the previously played track, sometimes the volume corrects itself and sometimes it doesn’t.

I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful but it’s the inconsistency that is so maddening. I will grab the logs for you the next time I am in the car.

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Based on what you’re saying, it sounds like there’s some disagreement between the phone and car in terms of audio. I haven’t seen other reports of this issue either.

Disconnecting and reconnecting the phone to the car shouldn’t be something which “registers” with Plexamp or that it’s even aware of.

Please ship over the logs over in case there’s anything obvious that stands out, obviously! Different cars do things differently, and the logs will either exonerate the app or point to what’s going on.

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Thanks again for your reply. I do not think the phone is the problem as I do not have the audio issues when I listen to Apple Music or Pandora. Both Apple Music and Pandora are going through the same cable, into the same CarPlay, from the same Phone. I will get you the logs the next time I get into the car.

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Most valuable would be capturing them right after you hear the change in audio. My suspicion is that the sample rate is changing and that’s what you are hearing, but no clue why/how :slight_smile:

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Elan,

Today it happened again and I was able to download the logs. They are in a .zip file attached. Here is some background on what happened. I was listening to Kim Wilde - Never Trust a Stranger. It was playing fine then out of nowhere the volume drops and the song becomes flat. I hit pause and downloaded the log. After I run an errand I get back in the car, I have the paused location appear on the screen, I select the arrows to return to the beginning of the song and now it plays through completion just fine. So I know it’s not a bad file. I hope you can see something in the logs.

David
Plexamp-Logs-2022-11-16-2.zip (704.0 KB)

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Thanks for the log and explanation!

I’m sorry to say, nothing appears amiss, the log shows:

  • 11:13: app startup
  • 11:13: audio route switches to CarPlay
  • 11:13: audio resumes, device opened at 44.1 kHz

…presumably audio works fine…

  • 11:29: audio switches over to CarPlay again (which is kind of weird, it was already on CarPlay) — is there where the audio goes bad?
  • 11:29: audio paused (presumably for capturing logs)

So I’m a bit puzzled, and looks like something is happening out of our control which is causing the audio to go south.

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Elan,
For the rest of today, PlexAmp behaved as it is designed to. That made me quite happy. I am not sure how much history you can get from the logs, but I think the next time this behavior occurs I will not hit the pause button and let it play longer since you found an unexpected connection behavior. Sometimes the sound does return to normal after dropping and flattening, maybe that can show you more in the logs. Thanks for following up.

David

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