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Sound system lost it's "punch" after latest update
- Thread starter skrtskrt
- Start date
silentcorp
Member
I'm willing to bet this is more widespread but most will think it's fine since the door subs do such a great job. Everyone saying this isn't happening to them, put on a song with some heavy low frequencies and move the balance to just the rear. Are the mids firing on the shelf and nothing, literally nothing coming from the trunk?
Exactly - ignorance is bliss especially if you never sit in the back seats. I really want Tesla to fix this ASAP!
nogassnorlax
Member
Perception of sound quality is not a simple topic and is not readily repeatable from session to session. I'm not convinced that this is a real issue yet. I'm not ignorant but I am skeptical.
silentcorp
Member
This isn't about sound quality, it's about the subwoofer in the trunk not working. Read half the posts here and try our steps and let us know what you hear. This isn't a subjective thing at all, my sub went from going BOOM to doing nothing.
This is a rather hard issue to determine if things are working properly, at least for me. Not all of the songs I listen to have tons of bass, so it can be difficult to tell if the sub is cranking properly. However it does seem that at least on my 3 the problem continues but can come and go randomly. I recently updated to 2018.46.2 so the problem still appears to be there.
stayfocus18
Member
Just updated to 46.2 and it’s back to its glory. Faded the balance to the back and all is well. I hope the update fixes the audio problems for others too.
Ok I did one more Tone Generator Test combined with the "Balance Set to Rear" test.
I set the tone generator to 30hz, Balance in Center and cranked things up, then panned the Balance to the Rear. No Change (audibly in bass level).
Then
I set the tone generator to 50hz, Balance in Center and cranked things up, then panned the Balance to the Rear. Huge change (audibly in bass level).
The whole set balance to rear and hearing lack of bass is a bogus test (on this system). The sub really handles very low frequencies. And it's output power and location are fine.
What it shows is the music you're testing with isn't that low. Most music does not go that low, and music that does go that low often has a lot of content just above 50-60hz. So yeah with a ton of music you will lose bass if you pan it to full rear.
With Balance in Center you should hear plenty of bass from the Mid Bass Drivers and the Sub in any seat (front or rear).
I have NEVER ever set my Balance anything other than center in any car or home audio system. Except "Speaker Cal in Home Theaters" which is not a balance but a level.
Now the only valid argument here is the balance shouldn't move the "Mid-Bass" frequencies away from the only Mid-Bass drivers. Technically that is a software bug. But it's a fairly low priority in my opinion.
Now as far as sudden lost bass from a recent upgrade I have not experienced that as well as many others. But there certainly might be some cases that something is malfunctioning. I'd also be careful blaming a software update too. It could be a coincidence.
The tests I did are very easy to compare systems rather than use some music and subjective ears.
I set the tone generator to 30hz, Balance in Center and cranked things up, then panned the Balance to the Rear. No Change (audibly in bass level).
Then
I set the tone generator to 50hz, Balance in Center and cranked things up, then panned the Balance to the Rear. Huge change (audibly in bass level).
The whole set balance to rear and hearing lack of bass is a bogus test (on this system). The sub really handles very low frequencies. And it's output power and location are fine.
What it shows is the music you're testing with isn't that low. Most music does not go that low, and music that does go that low often has a lot of content just above 50-60hz. So yeah with a ton of music you will lose bass if you pan it to full rear.
With Balance in Center you should hear plenty of bass from the Mid Bass Drivers and the Sub in any seat (front or rear).
I have NEVER ever set my Balance anything other than center in any car or home audio system. Except "Speaker Cal in Home Theaters" which is not a balance but a level.
Now the only valid argument here is the balance shouldn't move the "Mid-Bass" frequencies away from the only Mid-Bass drivers. Technically that is a software bug. But it's a fairly low priority in my opinion.
Now as far as sudden lost bass from a recent upgrade I have not experienced that as well as many others. But there certainly might be some cases that something is malfunctioning. I'd also be careful blaming a software update too. It could be a coincidence.
The tests I did are very easy to compare systems rather than use some music and subjective ears.
silentcorp
Member
Nope, just did this now and even when the balance is set in the middle (white circle) and opened the trunk there is no sub bass. Zero. I'm playing songs that used to rattle my entire car, now the mirrors don't even shake. They changed the EQ settings and aren't feeding as much power to the sub is my guess.
Here is a great example. At 20 seconds in the bass hits. This used to be so thick in my car my wife was uncomfortable. Now it literally doesn't even shake the rear-view mirror when turned up all the way. T
I don't disagree your system might have an issue. No reason to disagree with my post which is correct
My post isn't saying you shouldn't be disappointed with your cars current behavior. It's just statements from what I measured on a system that one person has not noticed any missing bass.
I'm also not gonna waste time with tunes I know nothing about what they should do.
Run a tone generator at 30hz and see if anything comes out of your sub. It should be the only thing producing sound at that frequency.
If you get nothing, that is a better way to show the service department the sub is broken rather than some arbitrary tune they know nothing about.
I think there are two issueshere. The first is a possible eq or power bug/change that doesn't let the sub play at all or at extremely low volumes.
The second is how quiet is quiet to each individual. As a driver who had two 12in subs in their last vehicle, the sub in this car simply does not produce notes below 50hz at any acceptable level due to the rolloff. This will be personal preference. A 8in sub physically cannot produce notes down to 30hz. Period. It's a law of physics. There are probably ways to get there, but not with somethingthat will fit in your car and be at a reasonable volume.
I already talked to someone who will install a 12in sub attached to an OEM cleaner/dsp box like the Rockford fosgate 360.3. I'll report back when this is installed.
What I'm starting to realize is that people get really, really defensive when discussing the bass in audio systems. There is some misconception that if you get a powerful sub that you'll be that guy shaking the neighborhood. In reality, you are simply playing the entire frequency range of songs without a rolloff/loss of volume as it gets lower. And yeah, if you aren't listening to rap, edm or metal, there probably isnt a reason to care as much as people who do, but you literally will not be reproducing certain aspects of the song.
The second is how quiet is quiet to each individual. As a driver who had two 12in subs in their last vehicle, the sub in this car simply does not produce notes below 50hz at any acceptable level due to the rolloff. This will be personal preference. A 8in sub physically cannot produce notes down to 30hz. Period. It's a law of physics. There are probably ways to get there, but not with somethingthat will fit in your car and be at a reasonable volume.
I already talked to someone who will install a 12in sub attached to an OEM cleaner/dsp box like the Rockford fosgate 360.3. I'll report back when this is installed.
What I'm starting to realize is that people get really, really defensive when discussing the bass in audio systems. There is some misconception that if you get a powerful sub that you'll be that guy shaking the neighborhood. In reality, you are simply playing the entire frequency range of songs without a rolloff/loss of volume as it gets lower. And yeah, if you aren't listening to rap, edm or metal, there probably isnt a reason to care as much as people who do, but you literally will not be reproducing certain aspects of the song.
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silentcorp
Member
I don't need to run a tone generator to know something is broken here. I have a SC appointment in 3 weeks for this and a few other issues.
Is this a discussion on a custom install or getting to the bottom of why some people think they have SUDDENLY lost a lot of bass due to an update or whatever.
The only "bug" I see is the balance control sucks the bass away from the mid drivers and it should not. But who cares. And for that reason using the balance control to test anything (other than this bug) is gonna be very misleading.
The sub most certainly outputs below 50hz. It starts to roll off around 30hz.
Before you do anything I think you should get a base line if your system is working as designed or not. If you were never happy with the sound then go for it. But that should be separate topic.
I would be curious if you followed through with your saying you'd try a similar test with a tone generator to see if your setup if functioning the same. I'd certainly do that before throwing money at it.
stayfocus18
Member
^^^THIS. I've said the same thing multiple times now in this ginormous thread. People are spending way too much time trying to diagnose the bug. You either have it or dont. Enya has enough bass/low freq for me to know that the sub is not working, or the amp isnt sending lower frequencies. Still no response from Tesla, but I do have an upcoming appointment.
Candleflame
Active Member
you guys think im just making stuff up on the fly as I comment. This is literally what I said without having ever listened to the model 3s soundsystem
it is fairly obvious that a tiny 160w subwoofer cannot adequately reproduce the entire subbass spectrum in a sedan (or even compact).
The system will be very cleverly matched with the sub just providing a bit of bottom end on the ultralow frequencies and the majority of the subbass i.e. anything above A sharp (which has also been semiconfirmed in an earlier post where the crossover seems to be around 60hz) will be produced by the door woofers.
you can even see the bell shape frequency volume the woofers produce on the frequency response graph and the background subbass from the subwoofer:
https://bn1302files.storage.live.co...3_Freq_Curve.jpg?psid=1&width=1627&height=858
you can also see nicely that the subbass port rolls off at 30hz which hopefully ends those arguments as well.
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Car is in the shop to fix tint but I'll probably end up testing it, unless I actually get them to install the aftermarket stuff while it's still there.
What I tried to say above is that whatever is going on, it's not going to fly with me in the long run. For now I'll have to wait to see if it's just the poor volume/weak sub or if it's not producing sound at all like others are saying.
The fact that I cant tell the difference isn't good for me either way. I know two 12in subs at 1500 watts is insanely different, but even with them cranked all the way down they produced more low end than this thing.
I also need to make sure I flatten the bass EQ when I test, as the door subs were hitting way too hard when the lowest eq bar was at 0.
When I got my car back in September and was sitting in the back seats while everyone I knew (and even some I barely knew) were doing test drives I could feel the bass thumping in the back of my seat. I was the envy of my teenage nephews with the awesome thumping in the back seat... This is gone now... A full reset of the system may bring it back for a bit, but then it will stop working again.
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