New user with bluetooth questions

[Bird333]

Hello.  I use a bluetooth to AUX adapter in my car because it doesn't have native bluetooth functionality.

 

Questions

1. How can I increase the bluetooth volume?  My phone songs are quieter than other music sources.

2. How do I stop the short fading of songs when I switch to the next track?

3. After I turn on the bluetooth adapter in my car, PA gives 2-3 high pitched beeps.  I've heard this beep before I installed and I think it is to signal that you are at max volume.  I only heard the beep once before but with PA I hear it 3 times.  How can I stop that?

 

TIA

[andrewilley]

Probably most of that would need to be addressed by the manufacturer of the BT adapter, but a few thoughts anyway:

(1) Many decent headunits have an adjustment setting to balance the input levels of different sources, might be worth checking to see if yours has such a setting.

Try turning on (or off) the DVC (Direct Volume Control) option for Bluetooth output in Poweramp. On is normally better, but worth trying both. Also check that the BT media output setting in Android is at maximum.

You can boost the levels from Poweramp in several ways, but you run the risk of introducing distortion - especially on louder tracks or with any EQ boosts applied. Available headroom would be better with DVC turned on. For example you could increase the Preamp gain in the Equalizer screen. If you are using ReplayGain, remember that the default target loudness is much lower than digital maximum (to avoid the possibility of overloading/clipping) so either turning that off, or adjusting the target level up a bit, might help. 

(2) Look in PA Settings=>Audio=>'Crossfade, Fade and Gapless' and turn off or adjust whichever options you find you don't need.

(3) The only beeps that Poweramp can generate are button-press beeps (PA Settings=>Headset/Bluetooth=>Beep). Other than that, you need to look at either Android or (more likely) the BT adapter itself. My daughter uses a similar adapter for example, and it says "Connected" when the BT link establishes.

Andre

[Bird333]

Thanks for the response.  Number 3 has something to do with DVC.  While I was playing a song, I went into Settings=>Audio=>DVC and while I was sitting on this page the beep kept happening about every 1 second.   It's got something to do with the interaction between this and the 'Disable absolute volume' option in 'Developer Options' in android.  I got it to stop, but I'm not sure exactly which setting did it.  Right now I have 'disable absolute volume' set to 'on' and 'no dvc for bluetooth absolute volume' also set to 'on'.   There is a note under this option that says 'the volume is constantly changed on this page' which would explain why it was beeping every second or so.  It seems like it is pegging the 'max' volume over and over which is causing the beep.  I don't know if this is something that can be fixed but I just wanted to document it.

[maxmp]

@Bird333 beep means command (commands can be checked in settings -> Headset/Bluetooth ->Last processed commands). Commands come from outside Poweramp and Poweramp must comply.
"No DVC for Absolute Volume" is the option which tries to detect Bluetooth Absolute Volume mode and disable DVC if it's detected. On recent Androids it does this by changing volume +/-1 step and noticing if volume actually changes. (Absolute Volume means always 100% volume "inside" Android - volume change happens on the end device only).

This generally works fine on most firmwares and for most devices, but there always can be some buggy firmwares/devices and app environments (apps can interfere into bluetooth commands, for example Google assistant captures and modifies those), that is why there is those options in Poweramp.