Degraded sound quality on AAOS

[ConcernedUser5]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Car - 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge

Operating System

Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS 10)

My Question or Issue

I'd like to report an issue of poor sound quality with the Spotify app on AAOS (Android Automotive Operating System). Something is causing additional compression to occur on all songs. I have compared listening to the same song using a USB port playing a .wav file AND via bluetooth from an Android phone with Spotify - those methods are fine. However, the quality of sound coming from the built-in AAOS Spotify app is degraded even though 'Music streaming quality' setting is set to 'Very High'. The issue isn't with the bitrate, but rather something is messing with the dynamics (level compression).  I have a hunch that the app maybe defaults to 'Normalize volume'. I wish that setting was exposed (in AAOS) so that I could turn it off.  Or, please fix whatever else is causing this degraded sound experience.

[ConcernedUser5]

For what it's worth, a new version of the Spotify app for AAOS became available (v4.2.9.3).  The audio improved greatly to an acceptable perceived quality. Although, there remains a volume level discrepancy where it is lower by about 3dB compared to other apps.  Also, a new issue crept in.  The app is no longer compatible when switching between other audio apps in AAOS.   The symptom in the Spotify app when returning is that the screen will go blank except for the play/pause icon and an animated circle going in an infinite loop indicating "connecting...".  The music plays fine, but no other menu controls are visible to navigate to another song.  The only workaround is to force close the app and clear cache to get everything back to normal again.  This is abysmal.

[ConcernedUser5]

Thank you, it is a lot better now with update v4.2.9.5 on AAOS.   The problem switching between other audio apps has been fixed.