A couple nice audio features improved or introduced within iOS17. I realize they have been mentioned on other blogs/posts on Apple Vis, but I wanted to ad a few findings.
Bluetooth:
We now don't need to worry Voiceover will come up to full volume over the IPhone handset when music is playing over a different Bluetooth source, such as a speaker. Voiceover Volume stays consistent when switching tracks in the music app, and when raising and lowering the music volume with the side volume keys. This also takes place in Voice memos, no volume spikes. This is a very welcome improvement, and I now find myself using a Bluetooth speaker daily.
Apple Music now includes crossfading, this one I believe still has some work that Apple may do.
In the Music section of Settings, we now have a Crossfade toggle switch, and a time slider.
Crossfade quality. Honestly, it's one of the better crossfade setups I've heard from a non-radio playout/DJ system. tracks, though they do fade up in volume, it is not always noticeable. It seams like the incoming track fade up stops when the outgoing track is finished. Playlists crossfade, though Apple Music albums do not, this is good. I have noticed though that crossfading with Apple Music is not consistent. about 75% of the time it works, but we have tracks that with the default 4 second setting on the slider, don't crossfade.
I've done some testing and I am not totally sure as the slider is labled x amount of seconds if it is labled incorrectly or what Apple means by this. Tipically, when I see a seconds slider in regards to crossfading, it is the amount of time one track will fade, or overlap on another. This isn't true, at least, in regards to seconds though it may be more true in milliseconds, but this is still a big hypothesis on my part.
I have loaded a non-apple music album through ICloud music library and album playout does crossfade. Wanting to know if the DB, volume level of audio when it is coming to the end of the track, or the length of silence at the end of a track had anything to do with the decision to start playing the next track. At this time neither nessasarily seam The same to Tracks 12 DB lower fade the same as the tracks at normal volume. Putting 4 seconds at the end of each of the same tracks, you don't have a noticeable crossfade. So it's not a DB falls to that makes a difference.
The crossfade slider:
When the offline tracks were in an album this made a difference when the fade would start. Higher value fades earlier and the currently playing track didn't ade down. These same tracks in a playlist, the slider made no difference. I had played with it some within the Apple Music envirement, but not fully grasping how it works, didn't play much. It seams a higher value, causes the tracks that wouldn't fade within Apple Music to fade. Though, it's not like the offline tracks where the fades are super long, at least in my limited testing. If a track has more of a segway abrupt stop, vs fade out, the fade seams to be treated differently.
I would rather we not have a slider at all, and smart AI algorithms to be used which would cause each fade to be as it should. Not so much complaining, it's a start and a great one at that.