It sounds like you’re experiencing the issue as well. Not sure if this is a result of any new code designed to “protect” the sub from excess use/strain. If it was I would think the Tesla software engineer that was connected to my car remotely today would have thought of that. However I have no idea what background settings he was looking at and potentially tweaking on my 3. At least now I know that the software engineers at Tesla are definitely looking at this issue right now.
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Sound system lost it's "punch" after latest update
- Thread starter skrtskrt
- Start date
It sounds like you’re experiencing the issue as well. Not sure if this is a result of any new code designed to “protect” the sub from excess use/strain. If it was I would think the Tesla software engineer that was connected to my car remotely today would have thought of that. However I have no idea what background settings he was looking at and potentially tweaking on my 3. At least now I know that the software engineers at Tesla are definitely looking at this issue right now.
I have my balance at the default center. If I put it into the rear it's very muffled and I can barely hear it.
I noticed this too. The bass and overall low end was much more noticeable with any song on HD radio vs Spotify on 320kbps.
Using an iPhone mic is not the best way to do this, but this may show what I am doing to try to capture what my ears are telling me:
I think you may be able to hear that some low frequencies are weak from the rear now. In particular, I notice 50hz-60hz seems weak.
I like extra bass. When I first got the car, I used to move the sound positioner slightly to the rear to give more bias to the subwoofer.
After the subwoofer started playing less bass, I now find I am biasing more toward the front to get more bass, but it isn't as deep of bass as I used to get from the rear.
I think you may be able to hear that some low frequencies are weak from the rear now. In particular, I notice 50hz-60hz seems weak.
I like extra bass. When I first got the car, I used to move the sound positioner slightly to the rear to give more bias to the subwoofer.
After the subwoofer started playing less bass, I now find I am biasing more toward the front to get more bass, but it isn't as deep of bass as I used to get from the rear.
Moving balance at all rearward WILL reduce your bass. There is only one set of mid bass drivers and those are in the front doors. 99% of bass heavy music requires those mid bass drivers. The Sub really only covers ultra low frequencies. Below 60 hz. It’s a bug that the balance moves mid bass frequencies away from the only drivers that cover that mid bass range. But for normal use it’s not that big a deal. The sub covers a fairly narrow range and a lot of music doesn’t rely that heavily on it.
Well, if someone else can describe a better test to demonstrate what we are observing here, I am "all ears".
I think too many people noticed a drop in low frequency "punch" for this to be just a psychological effect.
The sound system used to give me goosebumps, now it just "sounds nice".
I think too many people noticed a drop in low frequency "punch" for this to be just a psychological effect.
The sound system used to give me goosebumps, now it just "sounds nice".
Also, for what it is worth, when I play these bass heavy tracks and go in the rear trunk area, I don't feel a whole lot of vibration going on back there. Are least not like I remember when I first got the car.
Note, when one opens the front door, the audio tends to duck lower, so don't make the mistake of going to the back to check subwoofer output with the front door open.
Also, note, I do hear somewhat more bass from the system if I fold down the rear seat-backs. I am planning to do more driving with the rear seat backs down now to recover some of that missing bass.
Note, when one opens the front door, the audio tends to duck lower, so don't make the mistake of going to the back to check subwoofer output with the front door open.
Also, note, I do hear somewhat more bass from the system if I fold down the rear seat-backs. I am planning to do more driving with the rear seat backs down now to recover some of that missing bass.
I also noticed pure 50hz tone could be heard more with front bias. When I moved that to the rear, it is ducked down as well.
( From what I remember hearing, it was even more pronounced in my ears then this recording demonstrates ) :
I get mixed messages from different people with some saying they don't hear any issue in their model 3 audio. I think either they listen to different styles of music, or their hardware is somehow behaving differently.
Another thought - maybe they used to rear bias the lower frequencies to go to the subwoofer, but with upcoming SR model 3 possibly having no subwoofer, maybe they started redirecting lower frequencies more to the front now? Just brainstorming here...
mtndrew1
Active Member
I jinxed it. Back in clock radio mode.
As an aside, if you picked up your Model 3 after maybe September or October of 2018 (edit: November 2018) you may have no idea what the sound system is supposed to be like.
As an aside, if you picked up your Model 3 after maybe September or October of 2018 (edit: November 2018) you may have no idea what the sound system is supposed to be like.
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mtndrew1
Active Member
If also like to make note that when this is happening my audio does not lower when I open the door to exit. It stays at the same volume it was before I opened the door.
When the stereo is operating properly the audio volume drops when I open the door.
When the stereo is operating properly the audio volume drops when I open the door.
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mtndrew1
Active Member
Mine seems to lower the volume whenever I open the DRIVER's side front door.
I haven't noticed it stop doing that.
Maybe we are actually running into different sorts of issues thus some confusions over the details.
I wouldn't call mine "clock radio mode". I don't think it has ever been THAT bad. Just "weaker bass than I remember" mode.
Playing around with it more just now, I have found that if I fold the back seats down, and boost up the bass EQ all the way up ( +8 ) it gets quite punchy again and is much closer to what I remember from when I first got the car. Normally, with EQs, I don't like to go above maybe +2 because I am used to starting to hear distortion then... But in this case it still sounds quite "clean" even with max EQ boost turned up.
It just feels to me like the amp settings / EQ settings got adjusted to some sort of different scale now.
And the subwoofer seems like it doesn't pump out as much sound as it used to compared to the rest of the speakers.
If I boost the bass on the EQ to +8 and turn up the volume on some tracks with heavy bass, I can definitely feel the trunk liner material right next to the right rear tail-light vibrating to the beat. It is definitely working, just doesn't seem as powerful as before. When I first got the car, if I had cranked up EQ +8, and picked a heavy bass test track, and turned on the volume, I was starting to fear I might break a window or something. Now it just doesn't get that loud anymore.
mtndrew1
Active Member
Clock radio is just for fun, it actually sounds about the same as my 2015 Kia Soul when it decides to take a dive. Fine, but unremarkable. When I bought the car the sound system was completely remarkable and while it was working properly over the last week or so I really remembered how much I love it.
mtndrew1
Active Member
One thing I experience that's consistent with everyone else is that the system gets "thin" sounding and moving the fader to the rear produces less bass (on bass-heavy tracks) than the front door drivers do. When operating properly I can feel the sub in my seatback on bass-heavy tracks and, as noted, this is even more pronounced when I lower one or both of the folding rear seats. But even when both rear seats are raised it hits pretty dang hard.
Also, without fail, when the system switches to "thin" sound mode my immersive sound always reverts back to "standard" from my preferred setting of "high." I can always confirm that something has gone wonky by going into the sound options and seeing that immersive has changed. It directly correlates to experiencing this thin sound issue in my car.
I'll keep a lookout for the situation where opening the door does not lower the volume. I know that sometimes it does lower and sometimes it doesn't lower upon opening the driver door, and over the last few weeks the volume does not lower in "thin" sound mode but does lower in normal sound mode.
mekberg
Member
I'm noticing less punch lately as well on 2018.50. Not sure when it started but it's much less than it used to be. Adjusting balance to the rear sounds worse than the speakers in my Pixel 3XL.
Another thought - what if we lost half our subwoofer? It is a "dual voice coil" set up. Might be good to test if both outputs are working and both voice coils in the subwoofer are responding.
With rear seat backs down, super bass heavy tracks on USB, and bass EQ cranked up to max, I can get that "wow sounding" bass again, but I shouldn't have to drive it this hard to get the subwoofer to push some air.
I just ordered an aftermarket subwoofer, and plan to mount it free-air on the rear trunk deck and will experiment to see if I can get something that sounds better.
( Tuned port subs always sound a little uneven to me anyways. )
It is a dual 4ohm voice coil sub I am going to try driving off the stock amp and see how that goes.
With rear seat backs down, super bass heavy tracks on USB, and bass EQ cranked up to max, I can get that "wow sounding" bass again, but I shouldn't have to drive it this hard to get the subwoofer to push some air.
I just ordered an aftermarket subwoofer, and plan to mount it free-air on the rear trunk deck and will experiment to see if I can get something that sounds better.
( Tuned port subs always sound a little uneven to me anyways. )
It is a dual 4ohm voice coil sub I am going to try driving off the stock amp and see how that goes.
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