Anemic rear speakers and sub in my M3P

[TBrownTX]

I’ve always been unimpressed with the sound in my M3P since I got it. If I get in the car and mess with the fading, the rears are probably 50% the volume compared to the fronts at the same volume, and the sub is hardly noticeable.

It sounds like nearly all the sound is coming from up front w/ very little fill from the rear, and virtually nothing from the sub. The woofers in the door totally drown out the big subwoofer in the back.

I got out there tonight and closed my eyes, moving the slider from rear to front until I could hear the soundstage shift in front of me. This is where it landed. Is there something up with my system, or have others noticed this?

It actually sounds pretty good at this setting and the bass thumps hard at high volume levels. But it still could use that “loud” setting that boosts the bass and what not at lower volumes.

Tim

 

[Tdriver]

Try using the equalizer to boast the bass to suit your taste. The car has an excellent system.

 

[TBrownTX]

Try using the equalizer to boast the bass to suit your taste. The car has an excellent system.

Have not tried that since I made the fading adjustments, will go ahead and do so. Prior it just made the doors louder too, drowning out the rear sub.

Tim

 

[nstig8]

The rears are really quiet in my '21 M3P as well. I do recall when buying a nice component aftermarket system for my old car that the front sound stage is much more important. Some shops even recommended not getting rear speakers at all because it causes more issues with imaging and sound quality than it helps.
I did have to boost the lower two bass sliders a bit to be happy with the sub response. I've had aftermarket subs in all my vehicles until now but going to go with the "good enough" M3P sub this time, at least until someone makes a straight drop in replacement that is noticeably better.

 

[jjrandorin]

FWIW, Op, that spot on the slider is almost exactly where I ended up setting it on my car as well. With it in that spot, it sounds significantly better to me. Its "perfectly fine" to me for car audio.

With that being said, I am a home theater enthusiast when it comes to sound, not a music enthusiast. I dont even have my home system setup for 2 channel listening, and will happily stream spotify on my home stereo (but refuse to watch any movie I actually care about on streaming media... I buy 4k BluRays instead).

 

[TBrownTX]

FWIW, Op, that spot on the slider is almost exactly where I ended up setting it on my car as well. With it in that spot, it sounds significantly better to me. Its "perfectly fine" to me for car audio.

Got back in there last night and tinkered around some more. What got me started, was a recent drive with my Wife's Cadillac. I was amazed at how much better it sounded than my car, especially noticeable was a proper sound stage, without the left front speaker blaring too loudly like in my Tesla.

So I went out and actually shifted the sound up and to the right, now it sits towards the passenger and still to the rear, although not as much as my original picture. I also aded in a little more bass to liven up the sub and I think it sounds decent now, certainly on-par w/ the Caddy.

Granted I did a lot of high end audio back in the day, and I don't expect the car to sound THAT good, but until now I have not been impressed and can't understand why everyone raves about the premium audio. Maybe now that I took some time to set it up to my liking I'll be more appreciative.

Tim

 

[Candleflame]

this is kinda normal that the Model 3 has this slightly forward left shifted (or right shifted in a RHD) soundstage. Also the subwoofer is not big. It is tiny by car audio standards and just creates some superlowend rumble for what the doorspeakers cant create. most of the bass comes either way from the front door speakers.

Shifting the sound a bit backwards and then to the right (or left) alleviates this but makes the problem worse for the passenger.
I just leave it on default.

 

[Apathy]

I just picked up my MYP and I can tell you the audio in the car is subpar. The immersive settings and EQ settings don't seem to help much. Front speakers definitely sound better and more full than the rears. The audio quality is tinny and feels flat overall. I've tried a few different songs that I know well, but I can't seem to get the sound where it should be. I think we should all post pictures of our EQ and balance/immersive settings for what we have found works best.

We all listen to different genres which likely benefit from different EQ settings, so maybe we should post our listening preferences/genres as well.

The bass is great in the speakers, but the mids and highs are awful compared to the Harmon Kardon, Pioneer, Alpine, and JBL aftermarket sets I've had in previous cars.