Facelift B&O = No MID equalisation?

[James Cole]

Hello Guys...

Normally in my audio systems I have "Mid dial" so I can turn it up or down to achieve the sound that I like.... But there is no Mid adjustment on the A3 B&O! I want to turn the mids down a bit.

Is there a way to do this? maybe with Vag Com which I have? Hidden MMI menu?

Thanks!
JC

 

[GSB]

Possibly one for @DJAlix. He seems to know his way around this stuff, and I'd be interested to see this enabled myself if it's missing on my new car.

 

[Mr Mustard]

Annoying isn't it. Even Mrs. Mustards Seat Leon with standard speakers has an equaliser.

 

[DJAlix]

Possibly one for @DJAlix. He seems to know his way around this stuff, and I'd be interested to see this enabled myself if it's missing on my new car.

Not possible, MMIv1 and MMIv2 units, from what I have seen so far. Sub, Bass and Treble are the only settings on option.

 

[WarwickL]

Equalization shouldn't be necessary if the source is good with the B&O ?

Average quality mp3's are muddy but rarely need actual tonal modification unless really poor quality.

Some lesser audio car systems need tonal adjustments to deal with crappy speakers/amps.

 

[James Cole]

User equalisation is to adjust the system to your liking... I like less mid frecuencies when playing my music.

I think the equalisation you mean is the processing at the headunit to tailor the system to speakers and acoustics on the car.

 

[WarwickL]

User equalisation is to adjust the system to your liking... I like less mid frecuencies when playing my music.

I think the equalisation you mean is the processing at the headunit to tailor the system to speakers and acoustics on the car.

No, I'm referring to tonal modifications

With good source, modification on a system like the B&O should not be necessary

 

[James Cole]

Well all my MP3s are 256kbps VBR or 320kbps... Sound Quality should be ok for a car...

 

[WarwickL]

Well all my MP3s are 256kbps VBR or 320kbps... Sound Quality should be ok for a car...

Not the best quality really.

If you must adjust mid range this is better done on the source material, not through the audio system.

There are far more effective tools to use on the source than a clumsy mid range tonal adjustment via the car system.

 

[James Cole]

You mean like processing my MP3 files? Im interested, do you have more info?

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Totally agree with all of WarwickL's comments...The source sound is key and frankly MP3 is rather poor. The old adage garbage in-- garbage out always applies, regardless of the quality of playback system. In fact the higher the quality of the playback equipment the more this will be amplified.

 

[allanmb]

Totally agree with all of WarwickL's comments...The source sound is key and frankly MP3 is rather poor. The old adage garbage in-- garbage out always applies, regardless of the quality of playback system. In fact the higher the quality of the playback equipment the more this will be amplified.

If he's using 320kbps mp3s then they shouldnt be garbage. I use 320kbps mps and can't tell any major difference from flac/CD

 

[DJAlix]

Not the best quality really.

If you must adjust mid range this is better done on the source material, not through the audio system.

There are far more effective tools to use on the source than a clumsy mid range tonal adjustment via the car system.

This is what I do as I didn't have the option to spec a "sound system" when buying my current car and ended up with the basic package. Being a sound engineer, I batch process all my music with an "equalisation" preset I made before dumping on to an SD Card or the old iPod Touch I have in the car. Works well

 

[WarwickL]

If he's using 320kbps mp3s then they shouldnt be garbage. I use 320kbps mps and can't tell any major difference from flac/CD

There is a very big diff in dynamic range

Also depends how the encoding was done and the source used

Easily identifiable on the B&O

The point is though doing the equalisation at the source is a far superior process than some useless mid range tonal deadener

 

[allanmb]

There is a very big diff in dynamic range

Are you saying this from experience? I have sat down with CD, 320kbps mp3, and DTS-Audio tracks before and the mp3 holds up very well if you use a good encoder. Mp3s used to have a bad rep but people used to squeeze them to 112kbps and less

 

[WarwickL]

Are you saying this from experience? I have sat down with CD, 320kbps mp3, and DTS-Audio tracks before and the mp3 holds up very well if you use a good encoder. Mp3s used to have a bad rep but people used to squeeze them to 112kbps and less

Yes to your first question, on the B&O and my home system.

Wife can easily pick the difference - A/B test

I can and my hearing is average, being an old fart.

 

[davc]

FLAC is definitely the way to go if you want to get the most out of the B&O system. I am in the process of ripping my music collection to this format and there is a difference in quality over 320kbps which I didn't think I would notice.

 

[James Cole]

I find it a bit crazy to be able to notice the difference in a moving car but I will try... does the MMI play FLAC?

 

[allanmb]

I've just converted a few tracks from flac to mp3 using Lame encoder at 320kbps and highest quality setting (-q0). I am listening with Bose Noise Cancelling headphones and I cannot make out any discernible difference between the two. I've tried a few tracks too just to be sure.

Either my hearing is poor (in which case I need to stop spending thousands on audio equipment :S ) or something is not right with your 320kbps mp3s.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Dynamic range and or compression in a lot of source material really hamper high fidelity sound. A lot of us have got use to mediocre reproduction of music. Most of us tend to get all wound up about how many watts a system is capable of, which has no bearing on sound quality or even volume of sound. A good quality system comprises of quality components and of most importance, matched speakers.

 

[Simon L]

There is another variable here too. The sound production on some modern music is frankly cr4p to say the very least! As the old saying goes you can't polish a **** lol

Fortunately most of my music is rock/metal which tends to fair a helluva lot better than most, and in some cases the production is outstanding. That will account for a lot in my humble opinion................ MP3's definitely need to be 320 whenever you can and yes in some cases FLAC will drag a bit more clarity out too.

 

[GSB]

I had a chance to directly compare PFL and FL B&O systems today. I drove my 2016 PFL about 100 miles, swapped it out for my FL car, and drove 100 miles in that.

There's some changes in there beyond the missing mid dial. The system as a whole sounds much better in my FL car than it did in my PFL.

Where I was forever trying to dial down the shrill HF sound in the PFL, and drop a little out of the midrange to try to balance the sound, the FL B&O is good out of the box. They sound very different when you compare them back to back. hard to put a finger on it, but the sound is far less harsh and clinical in the new setup on MMI2, which is much warmer and easier to listen to.

 

[James Cole]

I had a chance to directly compare PFL and FL B&O systems today. I drove my 2016 PFL about 100 miles, swapped it out for my FL car, and drove 100 miles in that.

There's some changes in there beyond the missing mid dial. The system as a whole sounds much better in my FL car than it did in my PFL.

Where I was forever trying to dial down the shrill HF sound in the PFL, and drop a little out of the midrange to try to balance the sound, the FL B&O is good out of the box. They sound very different when you compare them back to back. hard to put a finger on it, but the sound is far less harsh and clinical in the new setup on MMI2, which is much warmer and easier to listen to.

Really? I thought both sound systems should sound exactly the same!

 

[WarwickL]

I've noticed differences between vehicles of the same MY

Lots of things come in to play incl material used for seats, window treatments, pano roofs .....