mark levinson (1 Viewer)

[pacard17]

Nothing like a good road trip to start dialing in audio. couple things i noticed.

-it really comes alive at higher volumes.
-w surround on, which i thought i liked, rear speakers seemed to have no oompf. fading to the rear to get more balance became a detriment to the front speaker's SN Ratio. however, if you turn off surround, move the fader slighly aft of center (mine was favoring the rear more than this prior) and give your ears a chance to adjust, it definitely sounds better.
-i found the audio needed a lot of adjusting depending on the song AND volume (fletcher munson fx is strong in this system; lower volumes need bass boost), something i havent really needed to do w higher end systems. not a big deal. i just kept the eq up on the screen.

here's my question, is there a relatively easy way to increase the rear speaker volumes by installing another amp? (id likely upgrade the speakers). i just want more volume fr the rear.

 

[185]

have you adjusted the system to your liking?

I follow and improvise a LC diy guide someone made

Sound Levelizer
- Surround Sound
- Treble
- Mid
- Bass
- L R & Fade (Front and Back).

1. The problem with the default settings is that they are quite different from any other cars I've been into. The universal levels and effects from other cars don't apply here at all. At factory settings, the rear speakers have almost no voluem at all. The treble, mid & bass at 0, are all set to the equiavalent of negative values on other vehicles. So unlike other vehicles where you gradually increase the each levels to your liking, the right thing to do here is that you crank all up to 100% (Treble, Mid & Bass), and tune down to your liking.
2. The second issue is that you have almost no sound coming out from the rear speakers, which means most of the sound is coming from the front top and bottom. Almost nothing from the back. And this sounds really weird. And with this setup, the most volume I can tolerate is approx 40. Any more than that, I can hear the sounds crack as if the front speakers aren't getting enough power (which is likely).
3. With the stock settings, the Surround function is enabled by default. I don't think this 'Surround' function is working, or I have no idea what it's for. All it does is kill the sound in the back, and mute signifcant amount of range in the front speakers. Makes the sound get washed out. I've even tried to play some netflix on my phone, and wasn't convinced that the surround function really did anything here.

So the first thing I did, was to turn off surround. And I was able to immediately hear the overall 'punchines' of sound came back, including the level of bass + it's tightness. I then went to the trebel, mid & bass and cranked them up to 100%. I used the following songs to 'ear-tune' the stereo:

-UB 40 (Red Red Wine) - Great bass & other sound engineering. Allows me to test mid & treble limits + the level of punchiness of bass I want
- Guns & Roses (Paradise City): Allows me to hear the sound staging in a live arena environment
- Georghe Zamfir (The Lonely Shepherd) (Theme from Kill Bill): Mostly treble. Allows me to understand the treble limits until the sound tears.
- Kendrick Lamar (King Kunta): Oveall clarity of mid to bass ranges.
- Chris Botti in Boston (I've Got You Under My Skin): Treble, Mid, drums + live concert sound stage.

I know it's a diverse set of music, but I listening almost eveyrthing... Using these songs for every setting change (it was tedious..), I think I finally have the most optimal for car & sound system setup (mine s a convertible, yours may vary).

1. Go directly to the fade settings, and change the fade to Rear by 1 or 2 notch from neutral. For for me, just 1 notch was perfect. That would be -1.
What this does is, it increase the rear volume just a bit more, while not sacrificing the front too much. It actually improves it since this redues the tear at high volumes, and the bass is more natural since you can now hear the rear speakers more. You will find that the sound staging much better, and the high volume tearing is gone up to 55 - 60 volume level. So I believe this is a must.

2. Disable surround. You will immediately hear the speakers come back to life
3. Crank up the treble, mid & the base all the way up. I know this is counter-intutive. But just give it a try with the aforementioned settings set.

When testing this sitting still, be sure to turn off the level levelizer just to get a reference volume level idea. After you're done with the setup, you can turn this back on, and the sound quaity won't change. With these settings, volume level of 45 - 55 is ideal. Before this, 45 was all I can handle. anything above it, I can hear the tearing.

Now you may have the 'ideal' settings (which should've been the factory default settings), From here, you can turn down the treble, mid bass to your liking. As for me, with all 3 cranked up the max, it gives me a simlar sound as I have on my other cars. They are:

Treble: 90%
Mid: 70%
Bass: +1

Yes, that's where I am getting at. In order to achieve these 'typical' sound settings, I had to crank everything up on the LC.

Play Red Red Wine with these settings, and you'll see / hear what I mean. It sounds amazing. The clarity, and the increase punchiness of the bass. From there play your favorite songs to tune in / out other adjustments. But the key is this: You must fade it back towards the rear 1 or 2 notches. This greatly improves bass at louder volumes and eliminates the audio tear in the front. With these settings, I have found that the ideal range is 45 - 60. Depending on the song, I hover aorund 50-55. Now everything sounds great! Of course, it's not at the level of custom systems, or any of the other reference systems mentioned above, but this darn good to me, and I am very happy with the results.

I know this was a long post, but I wanted to share my experiences and findings. So to summarize. Surround off, fade 1 or 2 notches towards the back, crank up the treble, mid & bass. Finally play your music at the volume of 50 to start. From there, fine tune the treble, mid & bass from there.

 

[pacard17]

i have. disagree w cranking mid range. i prefer a bit of a scoop. and more mids seem to create an even wider discrepancy betw F/R.

just looking for solutions to icrease rear volumes/clarity via an amp or speakers.

 

[r2m]

Ha-ha! Best sound is like favorite flavor ice cream. Suggest going to a reliable mobile audio shop and have them look it over for recommendations.
Unless you get an audiophile chiming in, you'll just get a mixed bag of nuts, and I'm one of the biggest nuts!
A mobile audio will help you get the sound you like best with you right there able to hear how it sounds.