Here’s what Immersive Sound does in SR+

[youngmcdonald]

I was really curious to find out why the music sounds the way it does when I toggle the Immersive Sound so I did a couple of quick tests.

Several people think that nothing really changes when Immersive Sound is on or off but that’s simply not true. Hopefully this will help settle that assumption. I am almost certain that no matter what the trim is, Immersive Sound works the same way.

Here’s what I did:

Test 1: turn off the Immersive Sound option first.

1) Keeping the volume about 80%, I played a track that has continuously playing strings and clean vocals.

2) All frequencies set to flat 0db in Tone menu

3) Balance white dot Y-axis (vertical) set all the way to the rear and X-axis at the center. This ensures that front speakers are not playing anything.

Now, listen carefully and enable Immersive Sound. You’ll notice that substantial reverberation and some echo gets introduced to the sound coming out of the rear speakers and especially vocals now sound terribly artificial. Disable the Immersive Sound, and the vocals and instruments are again tight and punchy.

Test 2: Disable Immersive Sound. Repeat everything as test 1 except this time:

3) Set Balance white dot Y-axis (vertical) all the way to the front and keep X-axis at the center. Meaning no speakers in the rear play anything.

Listen carefully - when you enable Immersive Sound, nothing changes. This is because the rear speakers are off.



When you combine Test 1 and Test 2, meaning when the balance white dot is brought at the dead center, enabling Immersive Sound gives us a perception of widening of the soundstage like you’re in an auditorium and because this effect isn’t added to the front channels, it still keeps the sound relatively tight and punchy.

To conclude, Immersive Sound is just the addition of echo/reverb like some sound cards offer in their equalizers (eg Creative Sound Blaster) at least in SR+ Partial Premium trim.

Premium Interior owners, you’re supposedly equipped with Full Immersive Sound. If you conduct this test, what are your observations?

 

[AlexM3]

Nice find. I don't like immersive for a lot of music, been wondering exactly what its doing. I'll try this.

 

[ukrainetrain]

Are your A pillar speakers working in your SR+?

 

[youngmcdonald]

Are your A pillar speakers working in your SR+?

No. Pillar speakers and side dash speakers fit on the door by the mirrors don’t work.

 

[ukrainetrain]

Its so funny. I contacted tesla regarding the speakers not working. They checked my VIN and said that all of the speakers in my car should be working. They said to schedule a service center appointment. The service center checked it out and determined that the car needed a new computer. A day later they call and said they swapped out the computer but the speakers still dont work because they dont have power running through them because I didnt get the premium. I have no idea how all these people checked my VIN and my car and only after swapping out the computer did they realize that the speakers arent suppose to be on to begin with.

I hate the fact that they decided to turn off the 4 speakers closest to your face. All of my friends notice that there is no sound coming out of those speakers, looks bad. Furthermore, tesla doesnt say which speakers are suppose to be turned on so you have no idea whether they are broken or just intended to gimp your sound.

 

[flashflooder]

in the premium, it does what you've described with the rear speakers, but also enables minimal output from the A-pillar speakers. It'd really only adding a VERY slight touch of that echo/reverb effect. You have to put your ear on the speaker to even hear it.

The effect, overall, sounds great with some music but makes some albums sound terrible.

 

[Hayden]

Its so funny. I contacted tesla regarding the speakers not working. They checked my VIN and said that all of the speakers in my car should be working. They said to schedule a service center appointment. The service center checked it out and determined that the car needed a new computer. A day later they call and said they swapped out the computer but the speakers still dont work because they dont have power running through them because I didnt get the premium. I have no idea how all these people checked my VIN and my car and only after swapping out the computer did they realize that the speakers arent suppose to be on to begin with.

I hate the fact that they decided to turn off the 4 speakers closest to your face. All of my friends notice that there is no sound coming out of those speakers, looks bad. Furthermore, tesla doesnt say which speakers are suppose to be turned on so you have no idea whether they are broken or just intended to gimp your sound.

It sounds really that bad?
It is not a good idea from Tesla to just turn some speakers off.
They better just left the subwoofer out and left the rest alone.

 

[SMAlset]

From a production standpoint at this point it probably makes sense, like with the cameras around the car, to install them through out and use software enabling to turn on as needed for the car’s configuration. This way should they decide to make audio a purchase-able upgrade option down the road for additional cash revenue, it’s an easy thing for Tesla to do and convenient for the car’s owner.

I have premium audio in my car and when the immersive sound came up on an earlier thread, checked my car out. Some music is definitely better suited to it being on. For example if you play the Romance playlist (what is that from Slacker? If you activate your Romance Easter Egg it comes up), the majority of those recordings are really great with immersive.

Turning up the volume you can pretty much hold your finger on the spreaker grill and tell if there’s any sound emitting from it, be low or high.

 

[tomas]

I was really curious to find out why the music sounds the way it does when I toggle the Immersive Sound so I did a couple of quick tests.

Several people think that nothing really changes when Immersive Sound is on or off but that’s simply not true. Hopefully this will help settle that assumption. I am almost certain that no matter what the trim is, Immersive Sound works the same way.

Here’s what I did:

Test 1: turn off the Immersive Sound option first.

1) Keeping the volume about 80%, I played a track that has continuously playing strings and clean vocals.

2) All frequencies set to flat 0db in Tone menu

3) Balance white dot Y-axis (vertical) set all the way to the rear and X-axis at the center. This ensures that front speakers are not playing anything.

Now, listen carefully and enable Immersive Sound. You’ll notice that substantial reverberation and some echo gets introduced to the sound coming out of the rear speakers and especially vocals now sound terribly artificial. Disable the Immersive Sound, and the vocals and instruments are again tight and punchy.

Test 2: Disable Immersive Sound. Repeat everything as test 1 except this time:

3) Set Balance white dot Y-axis (vertical) all the way to the front and keep X-axis at the center. Meaning no speakers in the rear play anything.

Listen carefully - when you enable Immersive Sound, nothing changes. This is because the rear speakers are off.



When you combine Test 1 and Test 2, meaning when the balance white dot is brought at the dead center, enabling Immersive Sound gives us a perception of widening of the soundstage like you’re in an auditorium and because this effect isn’t added to the front channels, it still keeps the sound relatively tight and punchy.

To conclude, Immersive Sound is just the addition of echo/reverb like some sound cards offer in their equalizers (eg Creative Sound Blaster) at least in SR+ Partial Premium trim.

Premium Interior owners, you’re supposedly equipped with Full Immersive Sound. If you conduct this test, what are your observations?

I’ve loved the very flat Tesla sound quality since I got my 2012 S. I know most people are used to very highly colored sound, especially in cars. So I understand why Tesla offers this setting. But for me, I like to hear as close as possible to how artist/engineer intended it.

 

[Glamisduner]

Its so funny. I contacted tesla regarding the speakers not working. They checked my VIN and said that all of the speakers in my car should be working. They said to schedule a service center appointment. The service center checked it out and determined that the car needed a new computer. A day later they call and said they swapped out the computer but the speakers still dont work because they dont have power running through them because I didnt get the premium. I have no idea how all these people checked my VIN and my car and only after swapping out the computer did they realize that the speakers arent suppose to be on to begin with.

I hate the fact that they decided to turn off the 4 speakers closest to your face. All of my friends notice that there is no sound coming out of those speakers, looks bad. Furthermore, tesla doesnt say which speakers are suppose to be turned on so you have no idea whether they are broken or just intended to gimp your sound.

Maybe they will offer the option to turn them on next time they need to make some easy money.

 

[youngmcdonald]

I’ve loved the very flat Tesla sound quality since I got my 2012 S. I know most people are used to very highly colored sound, especially in cars. So I understand why Tesla offers this setting. But for me, I like to hear as close as possible to how artist/engineer intended it.

Then switch off the audio and step out of the car

Just kidding - I share the exact sentiment as you. That’s why I don’t care much about car audio as long as it isn’t fatally flawed in sound output. But it’s not the place to cater to the level of audiophile in some of us.