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MCU2 Upgrade Audio EQ Balancing - Coming From MCU1
- Thread starter agtdDelirium
- Start date
Great work and very informative post. I’m fairly confident after reading this and other threads about the change in audio performance with the MCU upgrade that we’re all hearing the same change and that some of us love it and some of us hate it. Substantially expanded bass that requires turning it down to get to a neutral sound stage, if that’s what you prefer, resulting in people saying it’s muffled and it’s a downgrade. Significantly enhanced power on the low end resulting in those who prefer that loving it. Without intentionally implying anything about age, just personal preference, my dad would hate the change, while I love it
RossBrindleyAU
Member
Maybe someone should ask Elon to get the equalizer ramped up to 11... Then it would match all the other controls.
Well, I think I'm a good 6 hours from you in SW Colorado. I do have a friend with a Model 3, so maybe sometime I'll do this, but no promises.
The build date of the car is October 2016. That was the month Tesla changed over to autopilot hardware 2.0 with all the extra cameras and such. I didn't buy my car until early 2017 when it was an inventory model and selling for a discount because it now lacked some of the interior changes that had been made with current vehicles. The way Tesla works, your car literally could have been built a week before mine and had older hardware.
I think you're correct to some extent, but more than the listener's age, I would say it represents the type of music you listen to. Listening to a nice jazz quartet with the bass cranked to "11" would be atrocious. But listening to some of that music "those young whippersnappers" are listening to these days, some chest-thumping bass is enjoyable.
Hmm, same problem @smilepak then. I don't even have an appointment for them to look at it till next month. But if you have the identical problem it could be software or hardware related and they might not be able to figure it out. Let me know what they find as a fix for yours please. If they can't fix it or say that is the way it is, what are you going to do? Ask for a refund? Put MCU1 back in?
I'm a 2015 MCU1 and with my "base" audio system I don't have much bass coming out from the two rear doors right now. I'm slated to get MCU2 this Thursday, and now you have me wondering if I have an existing issue already. I recently bought this used and just thought that's how the system is. So you're telling me bass from the rear doors is supposed to be normal or at least the same level as the front doors? If so then it's one thing I can add to the list to have them look at Thursday. This would seem to support that:
Audio Systems for the Tesla Model S and Model X | TeslaTap
@oldpueblo ,
Let me know what they say or find out on Thursday. But as far as I can remember having the car for 2 years with MCU1, I did have bass out of the 2 rear door speakers and after the upgrade I do not.
Let me know what they say or find out on Thursday. But as far as I can remember having the car for 2 years with MCU1, I did have bass out of the 2 rear door speakers and after the upgrade I do not.
Followup to my post about preference...
If I understand the technical portion of the initial post and the results, the bass is substantially enhanced with the MCU upgrade so that some listeners need to turn down the bass significantly to get to their preferred sound. I love the extra bass so I'm happy with no adjustment to the equalizer.
It seems like @CraigE1965 and @smilepak have a very different situation - sound has been flattened with a loss of bass. Interested to hear how the SC resolves it.
If I understand the technical portion of the initial post and the results, the bass is substantially enhanced with the MCU upgrade so that some listeners need to turn down the bass significantly to get to their preferred sound. I love the extra bass so I'm happy with no adjustment to the equalizer.
It seems like @CraigE1965 and @smilepak have a very different situation - sound has been flattened with a loss of bass. Interested to hear how the SC resolves it.
Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
Not sure how this applies but our first car had the base sound system. I thought it was immersive and decent. The 2nd one had UHFS and I noticed right away that the sound was brighter and fuller with much better low end but there was next to no sound coming from behind. I thought maybe my factory amp had lost the rear channels and was getting ready to make an appointment to have it replaced under warranty. as a last ditch effort before doing so, I checked another friends UHFS equipped car and was surprised to see that theirs was basically the same with little or no sound coming from the rear door speakers. I've owned several UHFS system cars now and I still wish the rear speakers had more sound. I think that ideally you want sound staging to come from the front musically so I get this but I still would prefer the ability to have full sound out of all four doors and then fade to the front if that's what I'm into. I feel like I'm being shorted by nearly half of my potential sound although deep inside I know better.
If this is intentional, I guess it makes sense that they would limit bass or the sub frequencies to just two speakers rather than four. There's a reason people typically have only 1-2 subs and not 4. This allows the penetrating bass to not overwhelm the rest of the frequencies, and maybe is a better distribution of frequency load (not having he same crossover for all four door speakers). I mean I can't say mine sounds bad at all, I just wanted to know if I have an issue. I'll definitely ask them on Thursday how it should be.
Good rear fill should be pass band of roughly 300hz-3000hz and delayed a bit. If they are doing true rear fill then that is why you don't hear any bass. I'm talking about rear fill to compliment and widen a properly set up front stage, not just having the rear "play music" along with the front.
That makes no sense. I have had various cars over the last 40 years and installed high end stereo systems in some of them with dual subwoofers, ect. Other cars I just had factory. But in EVERY case the sub woofers were ALWAYS in the REAR of the cabin. Now, my non-premium sound system Tesla used to have bass coming out of the 2 rear door speakers at good volume. Now after MCU2 upgrade it has no bass AT ALL and is about 1/2 the volume of the front speaker even when balance is slid all the way to the back. Meanwhile I got a ton of bass/distortion coming out of the front center speaker. Bass/subwoofer should not be coming out of the front center a foot from your face. It should be coming out of the rear doors, especially if you slide the balance all the way to the rear seats. But it doesn't. Something is not right, I've had the car for 2 years on MCU1 and the stereo was just fine with bass in the rear 2 doors and 100% volume, as soon as MCU2 put in I ended up with the problem described. There is no way you can tell me that it is supposed to be that way for a sound stage. If that was the case they would only have the 3 front speakers, no back speakers, and no front to back balance slider. They'd better come up with a fix, software or hardware. #SMH
It does make sense, but I am also just guessing, since I haven't had the MCU upgrade yet and I can't hear the difference myself. From everyone's description of the problem, it does sound like they changed the whole tuning of the system.
I get that you and probably many others have had the sound signature you describe with aftermarket systems. It just depends on how you like your system tuned. Typically a sound quality (SQ) tune will have the speakers timed (usually you need a DSP) so that they project the sound stage in front of and around you, even the bass will sound like its coming from the front center. The sub can be in the rear and still sound like it's coming from the front. What you're describing (the sound signature of the "new" MCU) is a typical high end 3 way system with a DSP and rear fill for ambiance, depth, immersion etc. Tuned so that the sound is wide and in front and/or around you. The rear speakers only play within a certain passband (between 300-3k ish, again no bass) and at a delay so that it doesn't pull the front stage rearward, but only adds a little extra to make the stage wider and fuller.
Now, you may prefer how it sounded before, and that's OK, it's your preference. I do agree, the fact that they changed it and it's not something they informed you of (whether in person or on the list of "improvements" for the MCU2 install) is a problem and I think they should do what they can to rectify it for you.
I get that you and probably many others have had the sound signature you describe with aftermarket systems. It just depends on how you like your system tuned. Typically a sound quality (SQ) tune will have the speakers timed (usually you need a DSP) so that they project the sound stage in front of and around you, even the bass will sound like its coming from the front center. The sub can be in the rear and still sound like it's coming from the front. What you're describing (the sound signature of the "new" MCU) is a typical high end 3 way system with a DSP and rear fill for ambiance, depth, immersion etc. Tuned so that the sound is wide and in front and/or around you. The rear speakers only play within a certain passband (between 300-3k ish, again no bass) and at a delay so that it doesn't pull the front stage rearward, but only adds a little extra to make the stage wider and fuller.
Now, you may prefer how it sounded before, and that's OK, it's your preference. I do agree, the fact that they changed it and it's not something they informed you of (whether in person or on the list of "improvements" for the MCU2 install) is a problem and I think they should do what they can to rectify it for you.
After my MCU upgrade my front doors only play bass notes 80-100hz and below. (Opposite of what others are describing) No vocals or higher frequencies at all. Back door speakers are the opposite. They play all the higher frequencies. My sound is now sort of muffled even with settings turned way down in the eq to combat distortion. I routinely listen to hard rock at high volumes. The sound just hurts now with distortion that was not there before the upgrade. I agree with WASD that they messed around with a great sound system and ruined it for me at least. The UHFS system was one of the best parts of my Model S. I believe they need to either give more control or put it back to where it was otherwise I almost want my MCU1 back. Don’t really need to pay $2500 to make my sound system worse.
Wanted to make some corrections. I actually used some known sound files from the Sheffield /A2TB Test Disc "My Disk" tracks 47-52 "1-3 Octave Pink Noise" (which by the way is free if you have Apple music or Pandora) to do some sound observations and not guessing what i think the speakers are producing. This is obviously not scientific but what I hear. I did the test by putting my ear directly next to the door speakers and listening for the drop offs.
My observations found that the front doors produce sound from around 50hz to around 375hz at which I can tell the sound moves to the front speakers in the dash with no sound at all after 450HZ. The rear door speakers pickup sound around the 125hz and up range. I think but not sure I want the rear door sound in the front as I often drive around alone and do not care what the back passengers hear. As a experiment I am thinking of moving the wiring so the back door speakers signal is in the front. Should be easy to do by just popping of the door panels and rewiring temporarily the speakers to be opposite. If I like the sound better I can get under the dash and make a permanent change. Do any of you with extensive sound knowledge think this is a valid test? One think I am worried about is I could make this change and in a future update they could decide to change the sound again?
I would love it if some people would do the same experiment with both MCU2 and people who have not upgraded and have MCU1. There seems to be a difference of opinions what type of sound is coming out of the door speakers front and back.
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