B&O crackling noises

"Whether you are manoeuvring through loud city traffic, cruising down the motorway, or sitting in a parking lot, the high-powered sound from your system remains pristine despite changes in outside noises. This is due to GALA plus, a system that compensates for vehicle noise by using a microphone integrated into the ceiling of the cockpit to measure changing noise conditions and automatically adapt the volume and timbre produced by the sound system accordingly."

Taken from http://www.bang-olufsen.com/car-audio/car-models/~/media/75E56F03C5C34A20B759266947E2523B.pdf
 
Any long-term update from anyone experiencing this issue?
 
Crackling still present on mine. Its much better than it was and now not evident on 90% of the music I play, but I can't say its completely cured.
 
Yes. I noticed it on a few particular songs and as described it's a very specific frequency and only when turned up near 30 or more. I have tried playing the same songs from Bluetooth, SD cards and the AMI and it's always there. I have also tried turning down the input volume (which of the attempts above was only available under bluetooth) and I have also turned off Surround and the other thing (I forget the name but in previous Audis it was called GALA). Nothing makes it go away.

I can see how some may never even notice this as it seems as if you need to have it turned up and it has to be that specific frequency with little to no other accompaniment in order to even hear it (at least for me).

Additionally I have tried fixed and variable bit rates (to see if this had an effect) with no observed effect.

I have the the option to set the focus to "Rear" so I don't think my software is behind, additionally it's a MY2015.

It's not bad enough for me to bring the car in. I would prefer to know when a specific fix has been identified and then I'll make the trek in and request the repair.
 
Just out of idle curiosity (because I don't have B&O) what is the latest on the B&O crackling situation. Are all the problems in the past and is everyone now happy? I haven't seen any comments and wondered where everybody was with the problems?
 
Still crackling slightly on mine. Improved a lot with a combination of software update and 5F unit replacement. Also interested to see if any new cars are experiencing it still.
 
Still crackling here too. It's a minor annoyance so waiting for my first service appointment. I am in the USA and was working with a support person from customer care at Audi North America and he didn't find any useful info on the problem (although I have no idea how much he has access to). He said he's willing to have a technology specialist at the dealer when I bring it in for service to look (listen) at the problem which I am going to take him up on but that won't be for another month or two-- I only have 2500 miles on the car right now.
 
I'll check mine when I collect on friday but it is slightly worrying me given that B&O is one of the main things I'm looking forward to......
 
Had my MY15 for about 2000 miles now and haven't experienced any B&O issues. It's one of my favourite features of the car!
 
What is a shame is how poorly it integrates with the latest iPhone and iOS via the cable. It only really works if you're playing from the Music/iPod app. Any third party apps like Spotify or Soundcloud aren't going to be controllable via the MMI. Through Bluetooth, you can skip tracks, but the quality is worse.
 
How do you guys go setting the volume up and beyond 30? Doesn't it hurt your ears and you definitely don't want to talk to any of your passengers with levels that high.

I don't even have volume higher than 15 on normal roads, ie travelling up to 80km/hr, so can't say I have experienced any crackling, so will crank the system up this afternoon on the drive home to see if I experience any of this crackling that's been discussed here.
 
Yeah I only go above volume 30 if its just me in the car. With passengers its about 20 unless the Mrs wants a sing along!
 
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For reference I was a BW39 car and I have no crackling on the B&O so it is possible.

That said, I only listen to the radio or the SD card so I'm not sure about Bluetooth etc.
 
BW 29, only use SD card, turned it up to volume 30, no crackling, but couldn't leave it that high for very long, no idea how you guys can stand it up that high.
 
Crackling is most prevalent with bluetooth, and/or low bitrate AAC/mp3 coded tracks.

It's the multiple cascade coding and compression that is a major contributor to the problem, as highlighted in posts #69 and #71 in this thread.
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/b-o-crackling-noises.210006/page-2#post-2206727


If you are interested in just how much conversion, coding and compression takes place in the car, read this post:
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/cd-holder.215081/#post-2140450
And then include the additional MOST-DAC conversion that the B&O amp puts in place.
 
Last edited:
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I must be lucky... no crackling sound in my B&O. I have used HDD connected trough AMI(USB), I have SD card (with mostly high bitrate mp3/m4a/flac, but also some old crapy low bitrate 128-160kbs), bluetooth(iphone 5s,samsung galaxy s4) and also on mixed files on the internal hdd(jukebox) on MMI. No crackling sound! I'm really happy with my B&O. My car is build in november 2013..can add that I have MMI touch with navi.

Or...it could be that my ears can filter these "crackling" sound out :D
 
I'm pretty heavily reliant on Spotify these days and I sync all my music with 'Extreme' quality selected (320 kbit/s) so hoping that doesn't give me any problems
 
audi upgrades
veeeight said:
Crackling is most prevalent with bluetooth, and/or low bitrate AAC/mp3 coded tracks.

It's the multiple cascade coding and compression that is a major contributor to the problem, as highlighted in posts #69 and #71 in this thread.
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/b-o-crackling-noises.210006/page-2#post-2206727


If you are interested in just how much conversion, coding and compression takes place in the car, read this post:
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/cd-holder.215081/#post-2140450
And then include the additional MOST-DAC conversion that the B&O amp puts in place.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm sure that does count for majority of crackling and distortion. That said, all my music is high bit rate (32kbps) stored on SD card, and it still crackles. So either something else is also at fault, or its just a very sensitive system.
 
Another part of the problem is of course the conversions that the B&O MOST amplifier does internally, so this will be coping with the all audio artifacts associated.

Having had a chance to do a ABX comparison with Audi Sound System and B&O, the *** is a very good system, neutral (transparent), adequate volume levels, whilst the B&O has slight colouration (this can be EQ'd out), but offers much more power (volume). It is much louder than ***.

Unless the "surround" feature is turned off, the B&O has a vague stereo image.
 
In my new A3 Saloon I am very satisfied with Audi Sound System. The quality is great.As far as the volume, it is more than loud enough----there is no way I can put it anywhere near the top number. (without hurting my ears)
 
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Picked up the car Saturday and I'm happy to report that there is no crackling from my B&O so far!
 
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Got over 30GB on SD card and never experienced a crackle yet on anything.
 
It is more prevalent on Bluetooth streaming
 
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Wasn't there some suggestion that it was worse on the S3 / Quattro vs. non-quattro due to a different MMI module or am I imagining it?
 
I believe I've also got this issue and have been doing some research over the past couple of days. Using a WAV file as the starting point, I've put it on various different sources and concluded the following so far:
Bluetooth (from both an iPhone 5S and Galaxy S3): problem exists
SD card: problem exists
Internal jukebox (file copied from SD card): problem exists
Burned to an audio CD: works perfectly
Apple lightning connector AMI cable: works perfectly

Based on the above, it seems to me like if the MMI system needs to decode the audio in any way, then you see the problem, whereas if it's supplied the audio, it's fine. I'm guessing from the size of the AMI adaptor it converts to audio in the adaptor, and equally I'm guessing the DVD player possibly has audio out from it. I am just guessing though.

My next plan is to get hold of the AMI USB adaptor and try that. I suspect that will have the issue, as it'll be the MMI doing the conversion
 
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Interesting read and a nice logical diagnosis, thanks for that. Not had any problems with mine (aside from a blown speaker early on) but with a new car coming soon I've been a bit concerned that might exhibit the problem. Given that I use a dedicated iPod via the AMI cable though I think I'll be ok. As you said, in this case the iPod is playing the files and simply piping the audio to the AMI.
 
Bit more of an update from me:

Firstly I borrowed a USB AMI cable from a friend, and the problem remained using both the WAV file on a USB memory stick, and also with my Galaxy S3 plugged into it (iPhone 5S didn't work).

Next on the list was to start generating tones and trying to narrow down which exact frequencies cause the issue. Unsurprisingly, it's much easier to hear the issue with a constant tone, rather than it getting disguised by everything else that's going on in a song. It turns out that the problem actually exists across quite a wide range of frequencies, but on my car it's at it's worst around the 700-900Hz range, with the volume set to anything above 20

If anybody is interested, here's a 30 second file of a constant 750Hz tone: https://www.dropbox.com/s/heyawa8b59itr4z/750hz.wav?dl=0
Playing this from an SD card (or bluetooth, etc) you hear a crackling/clicking type noise. Playing it from an audio CD and I can turn it up until my ears can take no more and it sounds as it should

Would be very interested to hear whether others have issues with the above file, in particular those who have had their cars fixed
 
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I'm too scared to even try it to be honest! Think I'll stick with my iPod and just circumvent the problem :)
 
Quick update on my car: it was in at the dealers last week to have this looked at, and they decided it needed a software update. Unfortunately the disk is on back order in Germany (whatever that means?), so will be 2-3 weeks. I'm not sure whether this is the same update mentioned in camoto's link. I'll let you know how I get on once the disk arrives.

Quite why in this day and age we have to wait for disks to be sent around the globe, I'm not sure!
 
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Current software version is: MHIG_EU_AU_P1048

I'll let you know what the new version is in a few weeks
 
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