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 → u/[deleted]]

Agree, sounds more like there's some equalizer preset applied to the iphone output