GR86 Standard audio - my sound settings

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leosayer

Totally Hooked
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Earlier today I made a comment in the confessions thread that I thought the stereo in our cars was pretty good sounding for a standard system. Whilst it doesn't have anywhere near the bass or power of my previous F-Type (with Meridian Surround System) I find our cars have a far more pleasing sound once the settings are tweaked.

Whilst I'm no audiophile, I'm not averse to spending a bit of money in getting a good head unit, subwoofer, amp, speakers and soundproofing to improve sound where necessary. Before I go down that route (which I'd prefer to avoid due the weight gain and of course, the not inconsiderable cost) I thought I'd try to get the best out of the standard system first.

My music taste is generally 80/90s rock - The Police, U2, REM, Alanis Morissette, The Strokes, The Lemonheads, Jamiroquai etc. The settings are of course personal to me and depending on my mood, the time of day and what I'm listening to, I may play around with them, but below is what I have landed on.

To access the sound settings via the infotainment screen, select:
  • Home (physical button)
  • Settings (button on on the screen)
  • Sound (from top menu on the screen)
Then you can select from the following options in the 'Audio settings' menu:

Sound customisation
Equaliser
Bass: -8
Mid: -2
Treble: -9

Balance/Fader
Reset

Vocal Image Control
Reset

Virtual Stage Enhancer
This menu option only appears when you have tapped the Vocal Image Control button mentioned above
Mid

Sound restorer
Off

Virtual Bass
Med

Dynamic Beat Enhancer
Mid

Feedback appreciated!
 
Thanks for spending the time to do this. I’d got it sounding better than I was expecting to myself, but then changing to your settings sounds even better to my ears (I may not be the best judge though, as I’ve been to many hundreds of gigs over the last 30 years). Seems so wrong to turn the bass and treble down so much but with the other settings it sounds just right to me. Only had a quick 10 min listen so far, so looking forward to a longer journey now to really try it out.
 
Cheers for this. I applied the same settings last night, didn't have time to run proper comparisons, but I figure I'll just leave them and see how I get on over the next few weeks. Ramping the bass/mid/treble too low sometimes seems counter intuitive to me, but I guess this helps get rid of distortions on cheaper OEM speakers?
 
Conscript said:
Ramping the bass/mid/treble too low sometimes seems counter intuitive to me, but I guess this helps get rid of distortions on cheaper OEM speakers?
Click to expand...
I pondered that myself - think you are right re. the speakers, plus having the virtual bass and beat enhancer etc. on may well compensate. I'm not with my car until tomorrow so I'll try myself then.
 
Just thought I'd add something to this thread in case anyone else experiences the same - I was finding that my Android Auto was significantly lower in volume than my radio sources. So if I got out of the car after listening to AA at a comfortable volume, the next time I got in, I'd get blasted by overly loud radio until AA reconnected. Changing the phone volume doesn't affect the output...it's all on the HU, so no way to change different source volumes individually.

I did a bit of digging and it turns out this is quite a common problem, and most people said that they'd solved it by turning off the "Normalise Volume" setting in their Spotify settings. I checked that setting and whilst turning it off had no effect, it does have a drop down where you can change the parameters of that setting between Quieter, Normal or Louder. Mine was set to Normal by default (which appears to be the same as leaving the setting off). I changed it to "Louder" and this has alleviated the problem...it's still quieter than the DAB/FM sources, but the difference is much less.

Sorry to hijack you thread @leosayer - this didn't seem worth a whole new thread, so I figured your existing one might be more relevant given its also about sound quality.
 
I've applied the exact settings you have recommended @leosayer , and it certainly does sound much better than the default settings.

Thanks for taking the time to experiment and share your findings.

Why on earth we have to turn the bass and treble right down to improve the sound is beyond me. Perhaps the sound settings were designed by the same people who did the fuel consumption and range until empty, and the ordering and delivery process for that matter...
 
To add to my post above, I realise I've said it "sounds better" without giving any real rationale for this. I appreciate this may not be helpful as sound quality is a subjective thing.

So as an example, on the default settings the below (very bassy) tune made the speakers buzz and it sounded muddy from volume 12 up.

For @leosayer 's settings, I'm able to go up beyond volume 20 and it still sounds great - punchy and clear.



I've also tried some classical (Holst's The Planets) and it sounds much 'wider'.
 
Silver Fox said:
I pondered that myself - think you are right re. the speakers, plus having the virtual bass and beat enhancer etc. on may well compensate. I'm not with my car until tomorrow so I'll try myself then.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I found. The main problem I noticed was that the bass knob operates at too high a frequency and the treble know too low meaning the sound was both boomy and harsh.

Turning the treble and bass right down solved those problems and then the virtual bass and dynamic beat enhancer brought the bass and treble to where they 'should' be according to my ears.

I'm normally dead against artificial enhancements but in this case they help get the best out of the speakers without the presence of a sub woofer. In other words, it's gone from being a bit painful to listenable.

Here's a few of my reference tunes for testing:

Sting - Shadows in the Rain
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (for those who like bass guitar)
The Strokes - Someday
Placebo - Teenage Angst
Phil Collins - Easy Lover (for those who like drums)
Fairground attraction - Moon on the rain
Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity (is there a better song for driving a sporty car through city streets?)
Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines
Dire Straits - Sultans of the Swing
Blind Melon - No rain
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Madonna - Ray of Light
 
Silver Fox said:
To add to my post above, I realise I've said it "sounds better" without giving any real rationale for this. I appreciate this may not be helpful as sound quality is a subjective thing.

So as an example, on the default settings the below (very bassy) tune made the speakers buzz and it sounded muddy from volume 12 up.

For @leosayer 's settings, I'm able to go up beyond volume 20 and it still sounds great - punchy and clear.



I've also tried some classical (Holst's The Planets) and it sounds much 'wider'.
Click to expand...

Top selection 🤙
 
leosayer said:
That's exactly what I found. The main problem I noticed was that the bass knob operates at too high a frequency and the treble know too low meaning the sound was both boomy and harsh.

Turning the treble and bass right down solved those problems and then the virtual bass and dynamic beat enhancer brought the bass and treble to where they 'should' be according to my ears.

I'm normally dead against artificial enhancements but in this case they help get the best out of the speakers without the presence of a sub woofer. In other words, it's gone from being a bit painful to listenable.

Here's a few of my reference tunes for testing:

Sting - Shadows in the Rain
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (for those who like bass guitar)
The Strokes - Someday
Placebo - Teenage Angst
Phil Collins - Easy Lover (for those who like drums)
Fairground attraction - Moon on the rain
Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity (is there a better song for driving a sporty car through city streets?)
Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines
Dire Straits - Sultans of the Swing
Blind Melon - No rain
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Madonna - Ray of Light
Click to expand...
I agree with all of what you've said and you've expressed it better than I could so I am grateful!

Great song list too. Sabotage in particular - what a tune!
 
leosayer said:
That's exactly what I found. The main problem I noticed was that the bass knob operates at too high a frequency and the treble know too low meaning the sound was both boomy and harsh.

Turning the treble and bass right down solved those problems and then the virtual bass and dynamic beat enhancer brought the bass and treble to where they 'should' be according to my ears.

I'm normally dead against artificial enhancements but in this case they help get the best out of the speakers without the presence of a sub woofer. In other words, it's gone from being a bit painful to listenable.

Here's a few of my reference tunes for testing:

Sting - Shadows in the Rain
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (for those who like bass guitar)
The Strokes - Someday
Placebo - Teenage Angst
Phil Collins - Easy Lover (for those who like drums)
Fairground attraction - Moon on the rain
Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity (is there a better song for driving a sporty car through city streets?)
Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines
Dire Straits - Sultans of the Swing
Blind Melon - No rain
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Madonna - Ray of Light
Click to expand...


Sultans of Swing has to be the alchemy live version though...

This shit is fire.

I will always love this song, my old friend who's no longer alive introduced it to me, and I disliked it at the time... but it grew on me. <3 Mike.
For reference, I'm "only" 30 and my girlfriend calls me old when I play stuff like this :D

 
James-UK said:
Sultans of Swing has to be the alchemy live version though...

This shit is fire.

I will always love this song, my old friend who's no longer alive introduced it to me, and I disliked it at the time... but it grew on me. <3 Mike.
For reference, I'm "only" 30 and my girlfriend calls me old when I play stuff like this :D

Click to expand...

This is my most favourite rock song ever! Mark knopfler redefined the way he played a stratocaster in fingerpicking acoustic style.. as a guitar player it blew my mind when I saw its video for the first time back in college.
 
leosayer said:
That's exactly what I found. The main problem I noticed was that the bass knob operates at too high a frequency and the treble know too low meaning the sound was both boomy and harsh.

Turning the treble and bass right down solved those problems and then the virtual bass and dynamic beat enhancer brought the bass and treble to where they 'should' be according to my ears.

I'm normally dead against artificial enhancements but in this case they help get the best out of the speakers without the presence of a sub woofer. In other words, it's gone from being a bit painful to listenable.

Here's a few of my reference tunes for testing:

Sting - Shadows in the Rain
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (for those who like bass guitar)
The Strokes - Someday
Placebo - Teenage Angst
Phil Collins - Easy Lover (for those who like drums)
Fairground attraction - Moon on the rain
Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity (is there a better song for driving a sporty car through city streets?)
Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines
Dire Straits - Sultans of the Swing
Blind Melon - No rain
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Madonna - Ray of Light
Click to expand...
I created a playlist of your reference tunes and everything sounds better before I even changed any of the settings!
 
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