Gizmotoy
Active Member
Sorry to hear that. Right after you posted I ran out to my car to test some stuff out for you.
First, I faded 100% to the rear. The rear speakers are smaller than the front, so this results in some loss in volume (plus they're further away), but the overall sound quality and balance (bass/mid/treb) remained static. Notably, the subwoofer remained in relatively in balance with the volume at the rears, and if anything backed off a bit in the overall mix. Besides that, I couldn't discern any differential besides volume, and certainly wouldn't describe the sound like a cell phone speaker.
Fading 100% to the front, after correcting for volume, sounds bass-heavy compared to my default mix, and I could hear no discernable bass coming from the rear of the car (though I didn't go back and feel the sub to check). Clearly the front speakers are providing significant assistance to the subwoofer in the bass department at low to mid volume (after which the sub clearly takes over in my standard mix). Certainly this fills out the sound, but I'd probably need to reduce the bass in my standard mix to fade more to the front unless I listened at higher volumes more regularly.
Finally, I scrambled my settings, closed my eyes, and fumbled with the display attempting to blindly dial in the sound. I settled on Fade (-11), Balance (0), Bass (+3.5), Mid (-1.5), Treble (0.5). Interestingly, that's exactly my old fade setting, and the Bass/Mid/Treb is within 0.5 of where I had it previously. At least my own preferences are consistent. In my car, at least, the rear speakers don't even begin to introduce themselves back there until somewhere around -7. This is consistent with the volume differences noted above.
So I guess my #1 suggestion at this point is to attempt to compare front/back at equivalent volume. They should be very similar in quality, if not volume.
There's been dozens of these threads, though, with hugely differing results. IMO, there has to be something wrong to explain why results seem to differ so wildly.
First, I faded 100% to the rear. The rear speakers are smaller than the front, so this results in some loss in volume (plus they're further away), but the overall sound quality and balance (bass/mid/treb) remained static. Notably, the subwoofer remained in relatively in balance with the volume at the rears, and if anything backed off a bit in the overall mix. Besides that, I couldn't discern any differential besides volume, and certainly wouldn't describe the sound like a cell phone speaker.
Fading 100% to the front, after correcting for volume, sounds bass-heavy compared to my default mix, and I could hear no discernable bass coming from the rear of the car (though I didn't go back and feel the sub to check). Clearly the front speakers are providing significant assistance to the subwoofer in the bass department at low to mid volume (after which the sub clearly takes over in my standard mix). Certainly this fills out the sound, but I'd probably need to reduce the bass in my standard mix to fade more to the front unless I listened at higher volumes more regularly.
Finally, I scrambled my settings, closed my eyes, and fumbled with the display attempting to blindly dial in the sound. I settled on Fade (-11), Balance (0), Bass (+3.5), Mid (-1.5), Treble (0.5). Interestingly, that's exactly my old fade setting, and the Bass/Mid/Treb is within 0.5 of where I had it previously. At least my own preferences are consistent. In my car, at least, the rear speakers don't even begin to introduce themselves back there until somewhere around -7. This is consistent with the volume differences noted above.
So I guess my #1 suggestion at this point is to attempt to compare front/back at equivalent volume. They should be very similar in quality, if not volume.
There's been dozens of these threads, though, with hugely differing results. IMO, there has to be something wrong to explain why results seem to differ so wildly.
