What settings do people use in the car where surround, balance and front/back are in play, plus varous other settings, including surround, that are defaults?
My Audi has B&O and the “focus” of the sound is a dot on the screen, defaulting to somewhere between the front seat (presimably the exact middle of the interior).
But as at home, I want the sound to be “authentic” rather than distorted by clever tech. Does that mean sound out of the dashboard/front doors only, or is that an outdated view? I know B&O are masters of clever sound tech. And now Bentleys have audio by Naim. I wont be hearing that any time soon!
What do others do? I know trust my ears is the ideal approach; but I don’t spend enough time driving to try many permutations, so I’d like to have some basic do’s and don’ts if possible.
Sitting in the drivers seat with engine off. Forward of centre and to the left seems to give me a central balance. I do have a separate bass speaker though in a rear side panel.
Thanks. I use the Audi/Android via Bluetooth/USB with Tidal downloads or streamed from 'phone. And BBC radio on DAB. But there are so many audio settings for the car itself that I would run a mile from on a Hifi.
A few years ago i replaced the OEM fit Radio/CD player in my 2004 Toyota with an FM Alpine Radio/CD which had infinite ways of adjusting settings helped by a graphic equaliser, amazing choice of lit up colours in the dash too.
Anyway for the next couple of months i experienced the haphazard pushing of the wrong button in an attempt to change radio station whilst on the move with a sudden silence, and then being totally unable to fumble upon the correct button(s) to get any sound back until later; parked up and referring to the owners manual.
Had the Alpine removed and the OEM Radio/CD (Toshiba i think) reinstalled back in place which is far more basic with bigger chunkier buttons (and fewer of them) but easy finding the radio station i want on the move without needing to take eyes off the road.
It has L/R balance, F/R fade, treble & bass easy to use and all that’s needed
I have a nice 2019 Ford Fiesta ST-line which drives great. The standard stereo sounds clear but only has settings for balance/fader/treble/mid/bass and DSP mode. Tried playing around with treble/mid/bass and dsp. Found the default settings and dsp to driver sounds best.
A car is a fundamentally poor or in many cases bad listening environment, and playing music that is truly engaging is a fundamentally bad thing when driving… all that matters in a car is a setting that doesn’t distract or dull the senses of the driver, doesn’t deafen any occupant, but is loud enough for quiet passages to be clearly audible whatever the speed or road surface. Best is probably a system that heavily compresses the music, or only play heavily compressed music, and a balance setting that is most comfortable for all occupants, so different if a sole driver or if there are passengers.
We have two cars fitted with a variation of the Ford B&O play system. The larger car (Focus MK4 estate) enables the system to sound better/more spacious etc. Both systems have stereo or surround settings - I prefer stereo - more natural/punchy. They stage quite well with the fader set centrally but slightly forward of the front seats - the dash-mounted centre speaker helps here too.
My MK2 Focus ST has a more simple Sony system with basic DSP. In that car I prefer option right (RHD car). Like many factory systems it rolls off the lowest bass to protect the OE speakers - one failed, therefore I replaced the front set with JL Audio component speakers - considerably better but these show up a mid-bass hump in the system that is in the factory DSP to give the illusion of more bass from the standard speakers. This is why there are many aftermarket devices available to re-sum and bass correct factory systems for use with aftermarket amplifiers and speakers.
Thanks for responding. I agree with you that music shoild not distract from attention on driving, however I suspect the Naim people working with Bentley will have sound quality as their main objective.
Thanks for responding. Part of me is minded to switch every feature off and set all the e-sliders to the middle, as I used to do with my basic Sony amp’s tone controls in the 1990s once I realised they and the loudness button were a bad thing!
