B&O crackling noises

^
While you were at it you should have set in A3/S3 there to test. That would have gave you process of elimination conclusion among it just being an issue with the MQB A3/S3s.
 
I had no choice. They set me an S5 just for the test. There was no other car with B&O. It seems that a car with the B&O system is hard to find here in Spain.

But yes, I guess it could only be a problem with A3/S3...
 
I think it is an A3/S3 MMI issue, and has nothing to do with Bang & Olufsen as others in this thread, including myself had the same issue on the Audi Sound System.

I since got my A3 back from the dealer, they had for nearly 2 months. They replaced a component chip on the MMI that had to come Germany. I haven't experienced any crackling/hissing-pop sounds (or worst total speaker loss) since the repair on my A3's MMI.

and I've tested just about every audio component, from the Nav (although I don't recall that ever hissed), Telephone, SiriusXM radio, Media (Audio CDs/.avi MPEG4 encoded Music Videos) and haven't encountered it yet.
 
gamegenie said:
I think it is an A3/S3 MMI issue, and has nothing to do with Bang & Olufsen as others in this thread, including myself had the same issue on the Audi Sound System.

I since got my A3 back from the dealer, they had for nearly 2 months. They replaced a component chip on the MMI that had to come Germany. I haven't experienced any crackling/hissing-pop sounds (or worst total speaker loss) since the repair on my A3's MMI.

and I've tested just about every audio component, from the Nav (although I don't recall that ever hissed), Telephone, SiriusXM radio, Media (Audio CDs/.avi MPEG4 encoded Music Videos) and haven't encountered it yet.
Click to expand...

Got mine back from the dealer this afternoon. Apparently the electronics ECU has been replaced. So far so good (only driven it back from the dealer but it was playing up all weekend/this morning).

Not impressed that the new unit didn't have the latest maps on, which I found out when I realised the SD card was missing with them on, minus points against Audi derby!
 
So was the change of that "electronics ECU" a fix?
I'm turning in my car to the dealer on Thursday for the B&O issue. I can hear some faint hiss and "crackle&pop" sounds in some songs/music.
Also if I use a test tone(sweep), it can be easily heard...

Any good music/songs that I should share to my service guy, where you hear this easily? I know, I'm going to play that test tone to them... But I guess he/she wants also the hear it in some music.
I have a few songs that you can hear it somehow, but I wonder if any of you has some better music that you can really easily hear it?
Some classic music perhaps? I wan't them to hear it clearly so I don't need to fight with them.
 
Hi,

We have identified the same problem here on a french Audi forum
http://forums.audipassion.com/topic/153130-gresillement-tweeters-bo/

What we understood so far:
- It is reproducible on A3/S3
- It is not linked to the B&O system, you have that crackling noise with the standard audio system, Audi Sound System or B&O
- It is only reproducible with MMI 3G+/Advanced MMI (the one with the big screen and the 20GB hard drive), not with the cheapest one
- We get the noise when the music is played from the hard drive, the SD card, or the bluetooth. Not from an iPod or iPhone plugged on the AMI. It suggests that the pb is at the MMI DAC level, as it is ok when using the iPod DAC.
- The pb is here whatever the file format / compression method: WAV, MP3, AAC, FLAC etc.

From here I understand that:
- It is linked up with the sampling rate, this pb is only reproducible with 44.1kHz files, not 48kHz. I have converted a few files at 48kHz with iTunes and no more crackling noises. Not a real solution in my opinion, but it confirms that the pb is with the Digital to Analog converter.
- It can be fixed with a "Electronic ECU" replacement ?

Can anyone confirm that it is worth trying to have that ECU replaced to fix the pb ? I've spent so much time at my Audi dealer, trying to explain that it is not linked with my files, compression rate, SD card etc... without any satisfactory answer, I'm a bit discouraged... My solution so far was to use an iPod nano on the AMI, and not using the hard drive anymore.

Thank you for your help, sorry if my english is not so clear.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Daytonapig
I got an answer from Audi...should try with and CD. If that works fine... it's ok :D haha
They say that the system is optimised for CD. What a load of crap!!!
"Nobody" uses CD anymore. And this system is "new".

I tried with one classic CD and it sounded ok... I think there is no issue?
So how shall I go further then. I guess they should not give out any advertisement that our system support bluetooth or SD card or anything else than CD then. And if you want to use those, sorry but they will sound crap :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: phil1824
Keumar said:
Hi,

We have identified the same problem here on a french Audi forum
http://forums.audipassion.com/topic/153130-gresillement-tweeters-bo/

What we understood so far:
- It is reproducible on A3/S3
- It is not linked to the B&O system, you have that crackling noise with the standard audio system, Audi Sound System or B&O
- It is only reproducible with MMI 3G+/Advanced MMI (the one with the big screen and the 20GB hard drive), not with the cheapest one
- We get the noise when the music is played from the hard drive, the SD card, or the bluetooth. Not from an iPod or iPhone plugged on the AMI. It suggests that the pb is at the MMI DAC level, as it is ok when using the iPod DAC.
- The pb is here whatever the file format / compression method: WAV, MP3, AAC, FLAC etc.

From here I understand that:
- It is linked up with the sampling rate, this pb is only reproducible with 44.1kHz files, not 48kHz. I have converted a few files at 48kHz with iTunes and no more crackling noises. Not a real solution in my opinion, but it confirms that the pb is with the Digital to Analog converter.
- It can be fixed with a "Electronic ECU" replacement ?

Can anyone confirm that it is worth trying to have that ECU replaced to fix the pb ? I've spent so much time at my Audi dealer, trying to explain that it is not linked with my files, compression rate, SD card etc... without any satisfactory answer, I'm a bit discouraged... My solution so far was to use an iPod nano on the AMI, and not using the hard drive anymore.

Thank you for your help, sorry if my english is not so clear.
Click to expand...
Changing the MMI unit is NOT a solution I'm afraid. I've had 4 in my first 8V, and another unit in my second 8V, and they have all had the crackling issue.

IMO it is a design issue with the DAC in the MMI unit, either software or hardware I'm not sure. A new unit will have the same issue until Audi actually address and correct the issue of the 44/48khz sampling issue.
 
Yes, you do not get the pb with the CD player, or the FM radio... "Optimised for CD", that would be a nice slogan for an 80s car...
I thought reading from @marshalex and @gamegenie that changing that ECU could be a solution... It would be nice to have their view before going to Audi's, once again.
 
audi upgrades
It's to do with the sample rate with which your recording has been recorded. I suspect the b and o amp is of poor quality which is surprising.

Try recording the song at a lower bit rate and see if that sorts the issue.
 
I haven't experienced any crackling noise since they replaced the component chip in my MMI.

One of my SD cards loaded with music videos I converted them all to the 48K sample rate.

My other SD card is loaded with a bunch of mp3s some date back to the old Napster/KaZaa days and those mp3s play just fine.
 
Any news on this topic? I also have this noise and I don't know what to do. Don't want Audi to exchange any parts if I already know it won't solve the problem.
 
Problems is with bluetooth,SD-card, pretty much any other source than CD. :)
One of my friends says also that he does not have this problem, so I'm going to compare my and his car, what is the difference. Probably also scan it with vcds and record some sound samples(as evidence). If it's like that, he does not have it...then I'm going back to Audi dealer and tell them, please fix. This should be like this on all cars, it must be a fault when it's ok on one car and not on another.

I think everyone should go and complain about this if they have this problem... I mean you pay money for good sound and you don't get that.
Now, when I know about the problem...I can hear it all the time and it's really annoying. Ofcourse, I can re-sample all music to 48khz. But don't think that should be needed and Spotify for example, nothing you can do about that.
 
I only get it when listening to Absolute radio recently, their DAB signal is pants. Can't hear anything when playing my music through SD card though but it tends to be quite load which might drown any crackling out :)
 
I don't get it with mine :) it's weird how some people get it and some don't yet there's no fix. Much like the waste gate rattle some people have on there turbo cars. I wonder if Audi will say the crackling sound is a characteristic of B & O lol
 
Yes that is true... :) well I don't have an iPod and not getting one.
 
I've had my iPod through four cars now and originally got it to use with the AMI on my 8P where the functionality provided by it simply wasn't available via any other source.

I still use it and find it a good solution. It's a 32GB iPod Touch which has enough storage for my needs, tucks away in the under-armrest area inconspicuously (have mine in a case vecro'd to the side of the box) and no crackling issues :)
 
Since I am now for some weeks in contact with the technical department in Ingolstadt, I wanted to let you know what they told me.

The crackle when playing via Bluetooth, internal hard disk and SD card is known at Audi. It is because the MMI only transcodes the outputs from CD and AMI to 48kHz before it passes the audio stream to the amplifier. And because the amplifier only handles 48kHz properly....
-> Crackle

They also confirmed to me that every Audi A3 regardless of the model year, MMI, or sound system has this problem and only with model year 2017 (when Carplay / Android car is introduced) the problem is resolved. With B&O the crackle is just easier to hear. Audi will not remedy the deficiency in older vehicles, because too few clients complain about the issue, either because their ear does not notice or the service provider also likes to ignore the problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Daytonapig and mjcourtney
That's very interesting to know. The conversion from 44.1 to 48 kHz alone doesn't produce any crackle, only if the conversion is done in a wrong way or if the converter has some software bugs.
 
Yeah, that is just lovely! Biggest problem is, bluetooth... At least some streaming services. There is nothing you can do about the 44.1 kHz quality. Mp3 etc. you can resample.

It's so nice when you thought you bought a good sound system in your car (pay extra), and it has issues like this.
 
@Spacemarine There is no conversion done for Bluetooth, SD, Hard Drive. So the amplifier gets 44.1khz but expects 48khz.
 
secondsky said:
Since I am now for some weeks in contact with the technical department in Ingolstadt, I wanted to let you know what they told me.

The crackle when playing via Bluetooth, internal hard disk and SD card is known at Audi. It is because the MMI only transcodes the outputs from CD and AMI to 48kHz before it passes the audio stream to the amplifier. And because the amplifier only handles 48kHz properly....
-> Crackle

They also confirmed to me that every Audi A3 regardless of the model year, MMI, or sound system has this problem and only with model year 2017 (when Carplay / Android car is introduced) the problem is resolved. With B&O the crackle is just easier to hear. Audi will not remedy the deficiency in older vehicles, because too few clients complain about the issue, either because their ear does not notice or the service provider also likes to ignore the problem.
Click to expand...

That's more or less what I was told. its the bit rate issue with the source recording. record the song at 48khz and the problem should disappear. I was told this almost a year ago but I haven't tested it and quickly I have better things to do with my life so ive just put it with the odd song where I can hear the flaw. Its pretty poor from Audi's perspective as I don't get this issue on any other device
 
I know this is off topic slightly, but can anyone tell me if the B&O speaker grills should light up in the back of the S3 saloon? My front grills light up but noticed my back ones don't.

Thanks in advance for your replies.
 
So I had BandO for a while and haven't noticed any weird noises from different genres of music. All I played was .M4A AAC 44khz. I own a 2016 Audi S3.
 
I'm also getting a crackling noise on my A3 Cabriolet with B&O...but mine happens ONLY when my iPhone 5 is plugged into AMI, when the top is down, and I am driving faster than 50mph or so. It does not crackle when the iPhone is connected through bluetooth, or when I am playing the radio.

Another tidbit, if I cover the drivers' side microphone(no effect when I cover the passenger side microphone), the problem mostly goes away, which leads me to think the "crackling" is caused by wind going over the microphone. Crackle is loud enough that I really can't listen to music plugged into AMI when driving on highways....

Suggestions...I'm going to go into dealership (under warranty) soon....
 
  • Like
Reactions: phil1824
I
JPP said:
I'm also getting a crackling noise on my A3 Cabriolet with B&O...but mine happens ONLY when my iPhone 5 is plugged into AMI, when the top is down, and I am driving faster than 50mph or so. It does not crackle when the iPhone is connected through bluetooth, or when I am playing the radio.

Another tidbit, if I cover the drivers' side microphone(no effect when I cover the passenger side microphone), the problem mostly goes away, which leads me to think the "crackling" is caused by wind going over the microphone. Crackle is loud enough that I really can't listen to music plugged into AMI when driving on highways....

Suggestions...I'm going to go into dealership (under warranty) soon....
Click to expand...
I got that when I was doing the same a couple of days ago. i.e.roof down, cabriolet iPhone 6 plus AMI 60 MPH connected directly, Apple Music Downloads, sounded like large electrical discharges, or large rain drops hitting the screen.
 
Sorry for re-incarniting this, possibly dead, thread... but i haven't seen the APT-X bluetooth codec mentioned anywhere else and wanted to ask if it's implemented.

Waiting on delivery of an A3 which i've added the B&O sound system, along with the Tech Pack. Hopefully i won't suffer the issues detailed in this thread.

Does anyone know if the bluetooth in the A3 uses APT-X codec? I really hope so. If not i'll have to go and buy the AMI cable.
 
YES!!! Woohoo!

Thanks for the rapid response Spacemarine. I had seen it mentioned briefly on the first or second page of this thread, but it's good to know it's in there.

So many things i want to know... I may be back if my Googling skills aren't up to scratch. Does anyone know where i can find a full and detailed description of the interior specs? Maybe even a detailed video review on youtube?

Cant wait for the car to arrive!!! To be fair half of the fun should be finding all of the new gadge and learning how to use it.
 
I haven't heard any crackling in my car when using Bluetooth, and I have been trying to find it.
 
Hi All, sorry to revive an old thread, but are these the sort of crackling sounds you were referring to?

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

a3_phil
B&O Crackling - How common?
Replies
77
Views
12K
veeeight
veeeight
R
B & O
Replies
28
Views
9K
RVP20
R
Richyboyp
B&O
Replies
24
Views
7K
Daveotto
Daveotto
T
B&O sub
Replies
18
Views
2K
toaophil
T
G
B&O issues
Replies
3
Views
1K
DJAlix
DJAlix
Top
Back