You know those presets, “Rock, Jazz, Classical, Voice, Pop”. Is the bass just way too unrealistic on some of those options? I’m asking this since you folks are musicians and may have more evolved preferences.
My car isn’t fancy enough for presets. I have found that many car stereo systems are exceedingly bass heavy and no fiddling with the adjustments can make it quite right. It’s as if there’s an adjustment for the bass levels but there’s also a low pass filter built in. They often get muddy and rumbly at levels where the mid to high frequencies are just loud enough to really hear everything. Maybe I just don’t know anybody with enough money to buy a car with a nice sound system, myself included. In fact, that’s incredibly likely. Still, coming from a background as a sound tech, that kind of thing really bothers me.
Edited to add: I think a big part of the problem is the choice of speakers used, but every component adds character to the overall sound so it could be an issue anywhere from the source audio to the broadcasting station (if you’re listening to the radio), to the receiver, amplifier or speakers in the car. But most likely it’s one or more of the components within in the car.
I’m glad someone finally gave me an excuse to get that rant out.
And the short answer is yes.
One man’s ‘too unrealistic’ is another man’s ‘bomb-the-bass kickass’.
And another man’s “Ye Gods, make it stop!”
Those presets aren’t the same as the UK-market presets, and it was on a mini-system in the living-room. But it died. They all die. We have no good record on sound-systems. There’s the old walkman, the iPad and the computers, but actual open-space sound-systems… no. We make our own music. In the car I listen to BBC Radio 4. In Yanqi terms that would be “talk radio”.
So what does Limbaugh have to say in the UK?
I wish you could just program individual channels. NPR/MPR tend to crank up the base and have a lower volume, while other stations have higher volume and treble. It makes going through channels a real pain.
Our equivalent would be Melanie Phillips. She writes for the Daily Mail. She doesn’t say anything that I pay attention to. Please Gods the Levenson Enquiry will propose something to make her head explode.
I can’t stand presets. I understand why they have them on something like an ipod, but I have no idea why a boom box or car would have them, since there’s plenty of space for buttons. Many years ago, I got a Sony boom box that had great sound. It had three sliders for bottom, mid, and highs. I wanted another box for my workshop and tried to get the same one, but they were no longer making that one. I couldn’t find one with standard bass and treble controls, only presets. My car, thankfully, has a push-button menu that gives control over bass and treble to the volume knob. I couldn’t stand it if all it had was presets.
The one I cannot understand is why you need a third party program to have a proper equalizer for your computer.
That may help me make my point. I don’t think they’re adjusting those presets for me, soccer Moms, and the older generation but who do they think is buying those cars? Do they think 16 year old boys are buying all the cars in the universe? I could understand having Plenty O’ Bass in sports cars. Is the car stereo market so controlled by 16 year olds that no matter what kind of car we buy, we all have to put up with the boom boom boom?
I can select which preset I use and I can also personalize the settings but when I’m switching from NPR to Classic Rock and switching from Voice to Classical (because Rock has too much bass), I have to go through the choices of Jazz, Country, Rock, and whatever, so I have to hear that heavy bass for just a bit, unless I remember to pump down the volume.
Tom added a separate amp (Omega) for the bass and got a better bass speaker (Rockford). The amp has separate controls and active filter. High and low band pass. The speaker is a dual coil, but that’s so you can drive it from either channel, but he installed a cross over to mix left and right channel into one.
He also installed soundproofing (Dynamat) in all panels of the car, which involved removing all interior panels, seats, etc.
There are still times that certain songs have a “rattle” were trying to chase down. We think it may be the connection of the speaker to the rear deck. I told him to just hold off on “Innagadadavida” for the time being (he blew up house speakers in the 70’s on that one).
I’m guilty of not touching the equalizer much if at all (I figure, I’m either listening in the car and surrounded by road noise, or on the iPod at the gym where I’m running on the treadmill and trying to ignore the music they’re piping in at the gym and the clank of weights and other peoples’ voices. Either way it’s not like I’m going to be getting concert-hall sound quality, so why bother fiddling to make it “perfect”?). Presets? Never. Certainly not on the iPod, where you might hear, in succession: CCR, electronica, the Beatles, Sarah Brightman, bagpipes, Aerosmith, a show tune, a Brandenburg concerto, U2, etc… which preset would I pick??
Fighting the iPod right now, though… my new headphones make the treble (and drumbeats) almost painful, even with the “treble suppression” setting on. Yeah, I could throw them out and get a new pair, but I do so hate waste… wonder if I could find someone who likes music with a lot of bass and not much else, to pass them on to.