I’ve got older ears. But unfortunately, they’re the same age as me...
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Best Equaliser Settings
- Thread starter Bootneckshuffl
- Start date
LongRanger
Active Member
I use the immersive max setting with fader set completely to front plus the balance shifted slightly to left - which reduces the effect of being dragged into the right midbass.
So this gives you the feeling of a larger sound “picture” but without the rear speakers muddling everything up.
So this gives you the feeling of a larger sound “picture” but without the rear speakers muddling everything up.
LongRanger
Active Member
Regarding “speech” settings -
Our hearing is tuned for the human voice naturally, so that means we most clearly locate around 150hz through to about 8khz. 2k to 4K is very highly locatable by our hearing, it varies for other types of living creature - and varies broadly with our age.
those of you with older relatives may notice when a woman speaks they can struggle to hear but when it’s a man they often do hear. Which really winds the woman up (usually the elder person’s daughter lol)
So for speech radio, we are looking to highlight the midrange frequencies. Try it out, just do a subtle increase for the 3 middle bands and see if you can hear a difference. There’s no point just lumping one band right up as it will be completely un-natural. You are looking for a connection between all the bands, so subtle and collective is good.
If you do too much, you will find the sound can become “nasal” like and potentially over-highlighting the “S” and “F” sounds in words. That’s not ideal. Equally if the lower into middle into upper midrange is too low overall you will hear people sounding “thin” and less like real people, more like AM radio used to sound.
140-500hz is a real problem areas for making people sound the same size/weight as they are in real life. Adele is a good artist to test with, that girl has lungs. Also try out the soundtrack to Ocean’s Eleven, you have all seen the film and know the actors - so do they sound like the real people when you play back in the car ?
Our hearing is tuned for the human voice naturally, so that means we most clearly locate around 150hz through to about 8khz. 2k to 4K is very highly locatable by our hearing, it varies for other types of living creature - and varies broadly with our age.
those of you with older relatives may notice when a woman speaks they can struggle to hear but when it’s a man they often do hear. Which really winds the woman up (usually the elder person’s daughter lol)
So for speech radio, we are looking to highlight the midrange frequencies. Try it out, just do a subtle increase for the 3 middle bands and see if you can hear a difference. There’s no point just lumping one band right up as it will be completely un-natural. You are looking for a connection between all the bands, so subtle and collective is good.
If you do too much, you will find the sound can become “nasal” like and potentially over-highlighting the “S” and “F” sounds in words. That’s not ideal. Equally if the lower into middle into upper midrange is too low overall you will hear people sounding “thin” and less like real people, more like AM radio used to sound.
140-500hz is a real problem areas for making people sound the same size/weight as they are in real life. Adele is a good artist to test with, that girl has lungs. Also try out the soundtrack to Ocean’s Eleven, you have all seen the film and know the actors - so do they sound like the real people when you play back in the car ?
LongRanger
Active Member
Pull the white circle in the middle of the crossed lines to the top of the image. It effectively turns the rear speakers off, leaving the fronts and the sub. That’s more than enough speakers, all these 14-way or 16-way systems in cars are complete nonsense
On the premium system
-1.5, -1, 0, -0.5, +1 is the most balanced curve I’ve found so far.
The “sub” is not a sub so boosting it means you are just increasing distortion, it will be more boomy but not necessarily better bass. You can’t ask an 8” driver to produce true low end air movement cleanly.
The midbass are not mounted with sufficient rigidity so by increasing you are just introducing resonance through the car materials not improving “punch”
The midrange lacks a bit of body but has pretty good clarity, certainly very good for a factory system
The highs are constrained from factory, I am investigating options.
Try what I’ve posted above then turn it up louder. You will see I have a reference point of 0 for one band, always cut instead of boost if possible and never boost a lot next to where you have a cut or vice versa.
Cutting can actually increase the overall oomph of a system, it’s a pretty typical American preference to have thicker heavy low end bass which is not really that natural but of course everyone’s ears are different and some folks just want to set things to extremes - which is also fine - but not my preference.
But definitely don’t kid yourselves that going +5 on lowest band is a good plan ..... it’s asking an 8” speaker to distort itself to death.
These settings didn’t work for me at all. I guess we all have different tastes. I found the ‘shallow v’ the most pleasing
LongRanger
Active Member
^^ that's good. can you explain more with some examples to give folks an alternative opinion. There is no one right answer, mine is based on experience of how audio works in cars from a certain set of viewpoints - it doesn't mean I have all the right views about everything.
interbear
Active Member
Thanks @LongRanger those settings seem good to me. Until now I’ve left everything on default. It does actually make a difference. Sounds “brighter” to my ears if that makes sense.
LongRanger
Active Member
It does, the aim was to try and find a balanced setting. I’m not sure if audio settings align to saved profiles, if so you could set different subtle differences then do A/B compare but I’ve not bothered with that as pretty happy with my own settings. Especially in lockdown, I haven’t been in the car since Monday lol.
LongRanger
Active Member
jimbo_hippo
Member
The Model 3 SR+ sound system is what I would call ‘pleasant’ out of the box if you’re used to mid to higher (bit not madman specialist) home sound systems, especially those aimed at being a jack of all trades like a full Sonos setup or other sound bar type systems. The SR+ system doesn’t do anything startling but it’s a pleasant setup for voice and everyday music. It doesn’t like being pulled all over the place with EQ so if you’re looking for boombox bonkers bass or treble that’s like having needles poked in your eyes, it won’t do it anyway. I have several Sonos surrounds in different rooms with either Beam or Arc at the heart plus Sonos subs so I’m fussy but not fanatical. (My days of NAD and Acoustic Research and Quad stuff set my standards but are long gone). I share this to give some balance to my views as you never know what people’s references are when it comes to in-car.
I’ve done 13k miles and I tweaked the minimal settings a little in the first weeks and haven’t been inclined to change it at all (I’d almost forgotten how the EQ presents itself visually it’s been that long) with a mix of BBC radio 4 and 5 for news and stuff and some Spotify (mainly classic rock) and occasional podcasts. It copes well with minimal changes for taste.
The comparatively high road noise (our LEAF is quieter at speed!) means you’re not going to hear the nuances that some systems might tease you with. With the usual streamed sources we have access to, in that context, it performs well. It’ll go loud enough for clarity with enough umph to make some banging rock tracks come to life but it won’t rattle your house windows when you pull up. It’s a system adequate for the occupants, not a system to fill a McDonalds car park rammed with lowered Corsas.
I’ve been dying to do a comparison with my pal’s Long Range system but COVID has put paid to that for months. However, I never hate it and it occasionally surprises me for an entry level factory system.
I’ve done 13k miles and I tweaked the minimal settings a little in the first weeks and haven’t been inclined to change it at all (I’d almost forgotten how the EQ presents itself visually it’s been that long) with a mix of BBC radio 4 and 5 for news and stuff and some Spotify (mainly classic rock) and occasional podcasts. It copes well with minimal changes for taste.
The comparatively high road noise (our LEAF is quieter at speed!) means you’re not going to hear the nuances that some systems might tease you with. With the usual streamed sources we have access to, in that context, it performs well. It’ll go loud enough for clarity with enough umph to make some banging rock tracks come to life but it won’t rattle your house windows when you pull up. It’s a system adequate for the occupants, not a system to fill a McDonalds car park rammed with lowered Corsas.
I’ve been dying to do a comparison with my pal’s Long Range system but COVID has put paid to that for months. However, I never hate it and it occasionally surprises me for an entry level factory system.
First of all to point out, the sound settings are individual to your own hearing preferences. What works for me, may not work for my wife (and certainly not for my teenage son!). Generally, on my non-Tesla music systems I also follow a shallow V shape, which works well for my ears. However, on Tesla I applied an unusual setting for me: -1.0, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0 - a linear increase. Unexpectedly, it worked for me, but again - the sound settings are very individual.
Once again it is personal but I generally set my equalizer something like: 4-6, 2-3, 0-1, 3-4, 5-7. I tend to increase the treble higher than bass just because I Iike higher pitch. Increasing bass makes sense on a proper subwoofer, otherwise it will only increase the distortion.
