Recommended Equalizer Settings

[sduck]

Possibly a deep reference, but there is a certain Metallica album that requires the bass settings to be maxed out

There's a cool interview with one of the engineers of the black record about that. and why it came about - the engineer had set up a great mix with everything audible, and then at the last minute before everything got finalized Lars pulled the bass way down for some reason, and now those parts are lost to time.

 

[MountainPass]

There's a cool interview with one of the engineers of the black record about that. and why it came about - the engineer had set up a great mix with everything audible, and then at the last minute before everything got finalized Lars pulled the bass way down for some reason, and now those parts are lost to time.

\../ Nice to see another metal head on here! As a bass player, Metallica can be very love/hate for me!

- Jesse

 

[Kevy Baby]

That sounds so gross.

What sounds gross? I have an aftermarket system that is properly tuned and sounds a heckuva lot better than the Premium system. It is super clean sound with a full range output (without resorting to a horrid "V" setting of the EQ) yet can rattle your innards without much effort.

 

[Candleflame]

What sounds gross? I have an aftermarket system that is properly tuned and sounds a heckuva lot better than the Premium system. It is super clean sound with a full range output (without resorting to a horrid "V" setting of the EQ) yet can rattle your innards without much effort.

without a V or at least \ setting the bass wont rattle your innards..... if you just turn the volume of your subwoofer up that is the same as turning the EQ up...

 

[Kevy Baby]

without a V or at least \ setting the bass wont rattle your innards

In a stock system: I have a complete aftermarket system (as in MUCH more than a subwoofer thrown in)

if you just turn the volume of your subwoofer up that is the same as turning the EQ up...

Okay, this just makes no sense at all. Turning one of five adjustments up is not the same as turning all five adjustments up.

 

[Candleflame]

In a stock system: I have a complete aftermarket system (as in MUCH more than a subwoofer thrown in)


Okay, this just makes no sense at all. Turning one of five adjustments up is not the same as turning all five adjustments up.

you dont get it. a flat curve wont rattle the cabin unless you turn it up so looud that your ears bleed. even if you haven an aftermarket system with a 10000000000000000W subwoofer.

By turning up the subwoofer you are essentially just doing your own V or \ shape.

If you do a V shape you are not turning all five adjustments up.

 

[holmgang]

full range has to do with the reproduciability of wide frequency spectrum... has nothing to do with V shape so not sure what was meant by that.

since subwoofer plays in the low range, with filter/crossover typically in the 80-120hz range, pushing up the subwoofer volume is in effect similar as pulling up the low end of the EQ, i.e. boosting that range relative to others. once again not sure what the guy meant by that.

 

[Candleflame]

full range has to do with the reproduciability of wide frequency spectrum... has nothing to do with V shape so not sure what was meant by that.

since subwoofer plays in the low range, with filter/crossover typically in the 80-120hz range, pushing up the subwoofer volume is in effect similar as pulling up the low end of the EQ, i.e. boosting that range relative to others. once again not sure what the guy meant by that.

exactly what i meant.

 

[Kevy Baby]

If you do a V shape you are not turning all five adjustments up.

I misunderstood your post: I thought that you were saying that. I need to read more carefully; my apologies.

you dont get it. a flat curve wont rattle the cabin unless you turn it up so looud that your ears bleed. even if you haven an aftermarket system with a 10000000000000000W subwoofer.

This is what a lot of people don't get: with a solid, well designed, built, and tuned system, you CAN rattle your intestines with a FLAT EQ setting. Yes, I have to have the volume up, BUT even when I do that, my ears are not bleeding.

The purpose of an EQ is to compensate for inadequacies: in the system or in the music. Running a "V" pattern is popular because most systems don't do a good job with the full range, typically with the two ends of the audible sound spectrum (generally, humans can hear in the 20 Hz to 20000 Hz range). What happens is the output starts to diminish as you get towards the highs and lows. It's not (usually) a sharp cutoff, but a rolloff. When you push the V pattern, you are attempting to compensate. Unfortunately, what is usually happening is that (for example) when you want more bass (because the system isn't pushing much below the 60-80 Hz range) and you push up that far left slider, you're increasing the volume in the 80-120 Hz range to trick your ears into thinking you've got more "bass."

If the system is good, then it already gives you what you want when the EQ is flat. THEN you can use the EQ from time-to-time to adjust for inferior source material.

And don't get caught up in the "watts" trap when it comes to amps: not all are the same. Back in the late 80's when car stereo companions were first showing up, I was getting higher SPLs in my under 250 watt class system than some of the guys in the 1,000 watt and up class. The components make a world of difference. When I was reviewing the system I ended up putting in, they gave me a demo of their tweeter (which they designed and had custom built for them), we compared the Tesla pillar tweeter to their replacement and they were able to get 3-5X the output with the exact same signal.

 

[Candleflame]

I misunderstood your post: I thought that you were saying that. I need to read more carefully; my apologies.


This is what a lot of people don't get: with a solid, well designed, built, and tuned system, you CAN rattle your intestines with a FLAT EQ setting. Yes, I have to have the volume up, BUT even when I do that, my ears are not bleeding.

The purpose of an EQ is to compensate for inadequacies: in the system or in the music. Running a "V" pattern is popular because most systems don't do a good job with the full range, typically with the two ends of the audible sound spectrum (generally, humans can hear in the 20 Hz to 20000 Hz range). What happens is the output starts to diminish as you get towards the highs and lows. It's not (usually) a sharp cutoff, but a rolloff. When you push the V pattern, you are attempting to compensate. Unfortunately, what is usually happening is that (for example) when you want more bass (because the system isn't pushing much below the 60-80 Hz range) and you push up that far left slider, you're increasing the volume in the 80-120 Hz range to trick your ears into thinking you've got more "bass."

If the system is good, then it already gives you what you want when the EQ is flat. THEN you can use the EQ from time-to-time to adjust for inferior source material.

And don't get caught up in the "watts" trap when it comes to amps: not all are the same. Back in the late 80's when car stereo companions were first showing up, I was getting higher SPLs in my under 250 watt class system than some of the guys in the 1,000 watt and up class. The components make a world of difference. When I was reviewing the system I ended up putting in, they gave me a demo of their tweeter (which they designed and had custom built for them), we compared the Tesla pillar tweeter to their replacement and they were able to get 3-5X the output with the exact same signal.

But you dont have a flat EQ setting if the cabin rattles at normal (to even loud) listening levels.

To give you an example, if I mix a track at home to barely "feel" rather than "hear" the subbass I would need to turn the system up to about 90db levels. But to really get vibration I would have to turn it up to around 100db. That will cause hearing damage. I am sure my studio monitors at home have a flatter response than what you could get in a car.

I think by default (flat eq) the Model 3 already has a 5-10db boost on the bass. And that barely vibrates at 70-80% volume but definetely does if you apply another 6db or so to the subbass. So essentially when you listen at 80db you now have the bass sitting at 95db equivalence.

Tbh even if you do have a completely flat system in real life you will NOT get a flat response curve due to the fletscher mundson curve. You technically would need to have a \ shape in the lower end unless you listen at extremely high volumes (110db+) which will cause pain in your ears from the mid/high range. 35hz simply wont sound as loud as 60hz to the ear. It is not always about having a flat response curve on paper, it has to be fitted to the human hearing too.


Also for a car system the Model 3s sound system is actually very flat I might add. there is an artifical scoop around 200hz due to the lack of a midrange woofer which the 3 would really benefit from and a boost in the highend which I think Tesla uses to manipulate the direction of the sound so it sounds like it is coming directly from the front for all passengers....

 

[downtime]

Coming to the subject.

I spent some time tuning my fresh M3 premium audio using UMIK MiniDSP calibration mic and REW software with Audiofrogs frequency response curve as target.

I got it quite close to the reference curve and this is what the settings look like. I did the calibration with immersive sound off and it’s put to Auto setting afterwards (yes I like it )

Like already written by the previous poster, the curve is actually quite ok already by default against the target curve. A bit of a boosting in lower frequency and some in higher area. Also there's a strange bump in midrange (about 1kHz). However that is not very dangerous as those bumps are not so easily differentiated by human ear like deep holes / pots in the frequency range would be.
From factory the system is quite bass heavy.

After the setup the system sounds quite natural. I intentionally put the sub setting to middle as I like a bit more punch in the lower end.

 

[Candleflame]

you dont always want flat in a car as its an imperfect environment i.e. road noise and wind noise. with such strong subtractive eqing youll also struggle to get pumping volume when you want it loud as the model 3 amp isnt that strong

 

[downtime]

That curve is not flat as you see. That Audiofrog curve is a frequency response for car environment. In home you would want to see as flat as possible curve but in car it looks and should look like that.

And I don’t agree with the statement about substractive equ. It’s actually vice versa. Dropping a frequency range is not an issue but pumping it up to an extreme causes exactly what you wrote. It tends to overdrive the amp and that causes clipping which then is heard is sound degration.

Here’s a very good guide on how to do the tuning process. This is for stereo system so with multichannel you need to get a bit creative

https://testgear.audiofrog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/A-Straightforward-Stereo-Tuning-Process-and-Some-Notes-About-Why-it-Works.pdf

 

[downtime]

Here's another option which has a bit less agressive dampening but with this one you can clearly hear hissing a bit on the high vocals

And I have the sub at the middle instead of what it was on the time I took the picture. Other settings are the same.

 

[Candleflame]

That curve is not flat as you see. That Audiofrog curve is a frequency response for car environment. In home you would want to see as flat as possible curve but in car it looks and should look like that.

And I don’t agree with the statement about substractive equ. It’s actually vice versa. Dropping a frequency range is not an issue but pumping it up to an extreme causes exactly what you wrote. It tends to overdrive the amp and that causes clipping which then is heard is sound degration.

Here’s a very good guide on how to do the tuning process. This is for stereo system so with multichannel you need to get a bit creative

https://testgear.audiofrog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/A-Straightforward-Stereo-Tuning-Process-and-Some-Notes-About-Why-it-Works.pdf

the model 3 doesnt clip at max volume as per previous tests. subtractive eq is ok but with such heavy subtracting you probably will struggle to get decent in your chest bass and loud volume driving at speed.

 

[Mario Veras]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the high end of the EQ is not what it should be. Most EQs I've seen manage frequencies beyond 10K. For some reason, the Tesla M3 EQ highest band seems to be around 8K, which is not appropriate. I like my highs crisp and I find that moving up the "Treble" control makes music sound cheap.

The bass on the other hand is plentyful and I love it as well as the mid range. But the highs leave a lot to be desired. I have to compensate for the lack of highs with an app on my phone.

Tesla should consider adjusting that Treble control up to at least 14K and adjust the other controls as well. They should also label which frequencies the sliders control. Right now, the highest EQ control (Treble) seems to be controlling frequencies around 8K which is a poor choice for the highest. Therefore, I find that my music sounds better when that Treble control is at 0 or into the negative range.

In my view, with 6 sliders to play, the best frequencies on those sliders should be 50, 120, 400, 1K, 6k, 15K. However, Tesla chose some odd numbers for those sliders.

 

[Kevy Baby]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the high end of the EQ is not what it should be. Most EQs I've seen manage frequencies beyond 10K. For some reason, the Tesla M3 EQ highest band seems to be around 8K, which is not appropriate. I like my highs crisp and I find that moving up the "Treble" control makes music sound cheap.

That's because the tweeters they put in the car are crap.

 

[Mario Veras]

That's because the tweeters they put in the car are crap.

I actually thought the same thing. However, I neutralized the Tesla EQ by flattening it and used my phone to send audio via Bluetooth with PlexAmp which has an awesome 10-band EQ. Music sounds much better when that EQ bumped the extreme highs at 16K. So I doubt the tweeters are crap. It’s the EQ in the Tesla.

 

[Kevy Baby]

I actually thought the same thing. However, I neutralized the Tesla EQ by flattening it and used my phone to send audio via Bluetooth with PlexAmp which has an awesome 10-band EQ. Music sounds much better when that EQ bumped the extreme highs at 16K. So I doubt the tweeters are crap. It’s the EQ in the Tesla.

I've heard the tweeters outside of the car on a bench test - they are crap.

 

[Candleflame]

I've heard the tweeters outside of the car on a bench test - they are crap.

the door tweeters are supereasy to replace though. are there aftermarket ones for the door?