Listening to iPhone 4 in the car, interference?

Bill McNeal

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Hello,
Got my new iPhone on Thursday, upgrading from a 3g. The head unit in my car has an aux. input on the front and I've been listening to my 3g on it for the past 2 years with no issues at all aside from the normal GSM interference when not on 3g service.
My 4 has a very noticeable hiss, whine, or buzz when I plug it in. It's very, VERY annoying, basically making in unlistenable. I've tried it with slacker, pandora, MLB at bat, Wunderradio and iPod and it is there just the same on all services.

Is anyone else having this issue? or is something wrong with my phone?

For the record, I've tried headphones, and they are fine. I had a ground loop isolator around and put that on the line and it filters out the whine, but the audio quality is not nearly as it good on my 3g.

If anyone has any feedback it would be appreciated, even if it is just to say you are plugging it into your car stereo and you are not having the issue.

Thanks!
 
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Bill McNeal

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Bump.
If anyone has plugged their ip4 into a radio of anykinds using the headphone jack, did you have a fairly loud hiss or whine in the line?
 

big9erfan

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Get an AUX cable with a ground loop in it. I got one off Amazon last year for use with my 3GS. Works flawlessly.
 

Bill McNeal

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thanks. I have the ground loop cable already, I was just wondering if this was a an issue with my unit or if it was global. Looks like I'm headed for the genius bar.
 

bergman

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Is the interference coming through the cable or is it the phone sending data and hitting the radio/amp directly? I get the latter, but not an issue when listening to MP3's via AUX.
 

CJEscandell

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Hello,
Got my new iPhone on Thursday, upgrading from a 3g. The head unit in my car has an aux. input on the front and I've been listening to my 3g on it for the past 2 years with no issues at all aside from the normal GSM interference when not on 3g service.
My 4 has a very noticeable hiss, whine, or buzz when I plug it in. It's very, VERY annoying, basically making in unlistenable. I've tried it with slacker, pandora, MLB at bat, Wunderradio and iPod and it is there just the same on all services.

Is anyone else having this issue? or is something wrong with my phone?

For the record, I've tried headphones, and they are fine. I had a ground loop isolator around and put that on the line and it filters out the whine, but the audio quality is not nearly as it good on my 3g.

If anyone has any feedback it would be appreciated, even if it is just to say you are plugging it into your car stereo and you are not having the issue.

Thanks!

I'm not having interference when I connect my phone to my aux jack in my car, but ever since I switched to the iPhone 4, it just randomly stops playing every once in a while, so I have to go back and press play again. It never happened with my 3Gs.
 

easyrun99

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I'm not having interference when I connect my phone to my aux jack in my car, but ever since I switched to the iPhone 4, it just randomly stops playing every once in a while, so I have to go back and press play again. It never happened with my 3Gs.

That may be an iOS4 issue. My wife's iPod Touch always worked fine until I downloaded iOS4. It now randomly stops playing...
 

BreakingKayfabe

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Do you use a charger at the same time? The other day I was getting all kinds of interference
and very low volume on the music I was playing from my iPod. Turns out my car charger
conveniently decided to take a dump. So since it was actually plugged in without actually
working to its potential (the charger) it started causing that interference.

I use a Belkin aux cable. Picked it up at Target for $14.99. Been using it since the
beginning of this year.
 

Ned#IM

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Same Problem as OP

Bill McNeal, I am having the exact same problem with my Iphone 4. The main thing I have figured out is that it is at its worst when the phone is NOT set to MAX volume.

I have a JVC head unit with an AUX in and a relatively cheap AUX cord. The problem occurs regardless of whether the phone is charging, in a case, or in airplane mode. It also happens on any song whether I am using Pandora or the Ipod program. I also experienced this problem with my previous AUX cord that I trashed because I thought it was causing the problem. I never had any problem with my older Ipod and this radio. Turning the phone off, by holding the power button and then sliding the icon to the right, and turning it back on does not help.

The problem does not occur with headphones or on any other speakers that I have connected it to (which is not many). The problem did not occur at all when I plugged it into my friends car with a Kenwood head unit even though I used my AUX cord. In fact the audio was very clean.

Strangely, when I plugged my friends Iphone 4 into my JVC head unit with my AUX cord the problem did not really occur, though it was not as clean as when mine was plugged into the Kenwood. There were minor high pitched wines and static interference especially when I changed the volume but it was not persistent like it is with my Iphone when the volume is below 100%.

My conclusion is that the JVC unit is especially sensitive and that my Iphone may also be generating a bit more interference than others. I probably won't return because I can play the audio just fine in my car through the dock port, but I am curious if others are having this problem.
 

iVenom

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i hear this on my i4 when on a call using the car speakers i think its the second mic or its picking up interference
 

ElecBlueFish

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I have this problem too

I can confirm what seems to be the same problem on my new iphone 4. Like you, I didn't have this problem with my 3G or 3GS

My car doesn't have a factory aux port though. I added that myself with a Blitz Safe Aux Adapter from Enfig:

enfigcarstereo.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/VW_AUX_DMX_V3.html

This allows one to patch the iPhone headphone audio into the CD changer port of the car. But, now I have this dreaded hiss and interference that gets worse when I turn the volume down on iPhone.

For what its worth, I have a Genius bar appointment today. I will let you all know what I find out..
 

TechJunky#IM

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I joined the forums just to reply to this topic, as I found it while googling. I am having the exact same issues with my iphone 4 while using a Blitzsafe Aux input. I have tested it on 2 older 3G's, one with 3.2 and one with 4.0, and I could not duplicate the issue. With both mine and my wife's iPhone 4, the hissing noise is there and can be heard best when the music is low or in between songs. So this leads me to believe it is a hardware problem on the iphone 4's. However, I cannot duplicate the issue in a different car with an alpine v-link aux input adapter.

It could be that the output volume of the iphone 4 is just too low and could possibly be bumped up by a software fix. There is a jailbroken app called 'volume boost' that does something with the values programmed for the max output on the phone. Other than this, I'm out of ideas.

Anymore thoughts? What did the genius bar say?
 

iNitvizn

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I had my iP4 hooked up to my car all day today and had no issues with what you describe. My car didn't have AUX, so I added one via a USA Spec unit. It's an ipod unit so I can control it through my steering wheel controls, but I forgot that cable so I had it plugged in through the AUX.

Sound was crystal clear through it...mp3's and streaming. I didn't notice any difference between my old 3G and the new 4.
 

TechJunky#IM

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Interesting. It has to be only when a certain set of circumstances are present, because like I said, I CAN NOT duplicate the issue on an Alpine head unit with just an Aux cable into the CD changer port. This is only on my car with a Blitzsafe audio adapter with RCA inputs, on a factory head unit. I'm still leaning toward an overall low output theory. Maybe different head units receive different levels for aux inputs.

Mine is best described as a very faint white noise, mainly heard between tracks or on really quiet music. If you pause a track, you can hear it hiss, then a couple small pops followed by a whine...then it stops. Hit play then pause again, and it will do it again. It only does it when audio (ipod or streaming) is playing, but stops approximately 5 seconds after you pause or stop the music.

Another thing I've noticed, if I wiggle the headphone jack, I can change the noises slightly.
 

understando

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When I plug in via aux I don't have problems unless it is plugged into the charger. When charging I get alot of interference. Although I would say connecting via Bluetooth audio will give you far better quality than an aux cable. If you can't do that and it's still an issue try changing the cable out, it could be something as simple as a bad cable.
 

Rolf

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I plug my phone into my car via a cassette adapter with no trouble at all. Occasionally it'll skip to the next song automatically which is odd, but that's iOS4 of course. I also can't have my volume on my phone at max or I get some distortion, but I believe that's due to a very cheap adapter/stereo. Having the charger plugged in makes no difference. EDGE and 3g both cause no feedback through the speakers. I drive a 1997 Malibu, by the way.
 

cardfan

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Use a cassette adapter in my wife's car with no problem. That skipping to next song may just be shake to shuffle...i usually turn that off.

In my car, i use a BT stereo. No issues there except when i get a phone call. It's a bit screwed up and have to switch to phone speaker. Hopefully 4.1 fixes the BT issues.
 

Bill McNeal

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I never did wind up taking my phone to the genius bar. I was able to "solve" the problem on my own. If I turn the EQ off and turn the volume all the way up, the noise stops and everything is all good.

Hopefully that can help out anyone else having the issue.
 

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