PCM Hands-Free Phone Call Quality (Excess Road Noise)

[Mike V]

Hi All,

I have a call quality problem when I connect my iPhone 11 Pro Max to the PCM and use the hands-free feature to make calls.

The people to whom I talk report lots of car-speed related background noise that sounds like I have "the windows rolled down". They can still understand me, but occasionally I have to repeat things I say because of the interfering noise. This is odd because the Taycan seems very quiet to me as I travel down the road.

When I come to a stop at an intersection, the noise vanishes completely. "You can hear a pin drop" is what callers report when I'm stationary. The noise gets worse the faster I go. It's not too bad at 20-30 mph, but becomes obnoxious by 60-70 mph.

My previous 2018 Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid did not have this "road noise" problem when connected to its PCM hands-free feature. I never received any complaints in that car.

Does anybody else experience this issue?

Thanks in advance.

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[Genau]

When I come to a stop at an intersection, the noise vanishes completely. "You can hear a pin drop" is what callers report when I'm stationary. The noise gets worse the faster I go. It's not too bad at 20-30 mph, but becomes obnoxious by 60-70 mph.

Not sure why it would matter, but curious: do you have the same problem tethered with the USB-C cable and wireless with Bluetooth? I have not experienced this on calls but am tethered for Apple CarPlay.

 

[Mike V]

Not sure why it would matter, but curious: do you have the same problem tethered with the USB-C cable and wireless with Bluetooth? I have not experienced this on calls but am tethered for Apple CarPlay.

I haven't tried a call during CarPlay use, so I don't know the answer.

However, I have played around by tapping and finger-scratching the perforations in the plastic cover just aft of the rear-view mirror/camera assembly and it makes quite a racket according to callers. It seems quite sensitive to touch.

I assume the microphone for the PCM-hands-free system is hidden beneath that particular plastic cover, since it's so sensitive to mechanical events. Either there is some assembly error in that area that affects acoustic pickup of extraneous noises, or it needs a field-expedient, experimental dose of limp-mass damping or acoustic isolation from conducted noises.

 

[sulaiman]

My previous 2018 Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid

how do you compare it to taycan ?? I had the same car and I traded it in for the taycan turbo s "deliver Feb 2021 I hope "
I hope I made the right choice

and sorry if I'm off-topic

 

[Joni]

Hi All,

I have a call quality problem when I connect my iPhone 11 Pro Max to the PCM and use the hands-free feature to make calls.

The people to whom I talk report lots of car-speed related background noise that sounds like I have "the windows rolled down". They can still understand me, but occasionally I have to repeat things I say because of the interfering noise. This is odd because the Taycan seems very quiet to me as I travel down the road.

When I come to a stop at an intersection, the noise vanishes completely. "You can hear a pin drop" is what callers report when I'm stationary. The noise gets worse the faster I go. It's not too bad at 20-30 mph, but becomes obnoxious by 60-70 mph.

My previous 2018 Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid did not have this "road noise" problem when connected to its PCM hands-free feature. I never received any complaints in that car.

Does anybody else experience this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Did you find a solution yet? My husband's Porsche Cayenne has the same issue with wind noise. However one thing I noticed that could be related is that when I'm outside the car and he is inside on the phone, I can hear him clear as day as if he is amplified on a speaker outside the car. So I'm wondering if the speaker system is somehow vented to the outside, thus causing the wind noise.

 

[XLR82XS]

Just the other day I had a 30 minute hands-free/bluetooth conversation while driving with the windows down. No issues hearing - no issues with them hearing me. Speeds up to ~65mph.

 

[Mike V]

Did you find a solution yet? My husband's Porsche Cayenne has the same issue with wind noise. However one thing I noticed that could be related is that when I'm outside the car and he is inside on the phone, I can hear him clear as day as if he is amplified on a speaker outside the car. So I'm wondering if the speaker system is somehow vented to the outside, thus causing the wind noise.

My issue eventually fixed itself in the Taycan Turbo.

I'm an electrical engineer, so I like to speculate on both the original condition and the resolution.

1) The original condition seemed to be caused by "too much gain" in the handoff between the PCM microphone and the innards of the iPhone. This caused "clipping/compression" overload distortion and emphasized weaker microphone background sounds in the mix. In essence the internal software/hardware of the PCM plus iPhone chain had the "mic gain" turned up way too high.

2) The issue was resolved by either a Taycan PCM software update or an iPhone software update or some combination of both.

I now get comments of how good my audio sounds when conversing hands free.

Who knew???

 

[Coco27]

Just got my new 2024 taycan 4s and i am having the same problem. Could anyone find a solution? My car has the latest software.
I

 

[Mike V]

Please see my post above from Nov 19, 2021.

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