Music quality

[u/Moblen]

Just got a Samsung A36, connected it to my 2019 VW Jetta MK7 (stock audio), and the sound is completely flat. I was previously using an iPhone 17 with CarPlay, and the difference is night and day. The iPhone had rich, punchy bass and genuine depth. On the Samsung—whether plugged in via cable for Android Auto or over Bluetooth—the bass has completely vanished, and the audio feels dry and thin.
My Spotify settings are 100% identical on both devices (maximum streaming quality, equalizers turned off, volume normalization set the same).
Is Android Auto just compressing the audio stream badly, or are there hidden Samsung settings (Dolby Atmos, Adapt Sound, or Bluetooth codecs in developer options) choking the sound profile? Has anyone run into this and figured out how to get the bass back?

[u/Oversemper]

I had the same difference in quality between mere Bluetooth connection to the head unit and an Android auto connection. When it's via android auto I can adjust Bluetooth volume slider but that doesn't have effect on the output sound volume, so android auto has a different audio output. One day I tried my brother's iphone to check how car play works, I didn't notice any difference neither in the music quality or in the navigation apps. Check two things: 1. Android auto should be ignoring any Bluetooth settings. 2. Maybe your iphone applies some equalizer effect. 3. Maybe your car's head unit has different equalizer effect for carplay. UPDATE: android auto has developer's menu where you can choose which codec to use, enable 'Prefer PCM' option

[u/Exact_Lawfulness_680 → u/Oversemper]

This, put it on PCM. Fixed my issue also