WSJ Lucid Touring Review

[DBV]

WSJ Lucid Air Touring review.

2023 Lucid Air Touring: A Much Maligned EV Deserves a Second Look

Production woes, Reddit detractors, a battered stock price. The rollout of Lucid Air has been rocky, but Dan Neil finds the Touring model highly desirable.

www.wsj.com

 

[Balin]

I saw that - positive, I guess, in that he liked the car but not sure it will inspire new buyers. Weird he thought the sound system was not good - my GT sounds awesome.

 

[borski]

“You can also flick the panel to pull down icons for Apple CarPlay.”

Wait, what?! Is there a feature I don’t know about?

 

[JJ_5]

2023 Lucid Air Touring: A Much Maligned EV Deserves a Second Look

Production woes, Reddit detractors, a battered stock price. The rollout of Lucid Air has been rocky, but Dan Neil finds the Touring model highly desirable.

www.wsj.com

I found this to be a thoughtful, and overall, a positive review of the car and the company.

 

[JJ_5]

I saw that - positive, I guess, in that he liked the car but not sure it will inspire new buyers. Weird he thought the sound system was not good - my GT sounds awesome.

Maybe he was listening to AM radio.

 

[digiboxer]

2023 Lucid Air Touring: A Much Maligned EV Deserves a Second Look

Production woes, Reddit detractors, a battered stock price. The rollout of Lucid Air has been rocky, but Dan Neil finds the Touring model highly desirable.

www.wsj.com

I found this to be a thoughtful, and overall, a positive review of the car and the company.

I agree--he's my favorite automotive writer but he's limited to a few columns of print, so his reviews are very short.

Altho I wouldn't take investment advice from Dan, I was impressed by his conviction that the Saudis will keep Lucid a going concern.
(Also impressed he didn't mention Tesla once...)

 

[idiot900]

I saw that - positive, I guess, in that he liked the car but not sure it will inspire new buyers. Weird he thought the sound system was not good - my GT sounds awesome.

Judging by frequency sweeps and test tracks it’s a technically very good system, but it doesn’t have a great “wow factor” to the average person IMHO. And by that I mean exaggerated low end bass that would come from a subwoofer. Of course I am making a really subjective statement here.

 

[digiboxer]

Judging by frequency sweeps and test tracks it’s a technically very good system, but it doesn’t have a great “wow factor” to the average person IMHO. And by that I mean exaggerated low end bass that would come from a subwoofer. Of course I am making a really subjective statement here.

I'm probably the "average person" by your definition, and I have to say I'm underwhelmed by the premium audio. Certainly no better than my Cayenne compared side to side using same sources. But I agree it's subjective in the real world.

BTW when listening critically, I find the fan noise distracting, even at low speeds

 

[idiot900]

A good point - designing for studio quality flat response in a car stereo makes little sense to me because it’s a really noisy environment in normal use!

 

[borski]

A good point - designing for studio quality flat response in a car stereo makes little sense to me because it’s a really noisy environment in normal use!

Huh? My car is pretty silent, even on the highways. As an audio guy, I really appreciate the flat response

 

[digiboxer]

Huh? My car is pretty silent, even on the highways. As an audio guy, I really appreciate the flat response

I wouldn't say "silent"--in the garage trying to experience Tidal Atmos, the fans at the lowest speed are intrusive

Driving below 40+ MPH, the "turbo whine" is very apparent , and increases/decreases depending on speed (certainly not as pronounced as Cayenne twin turbo--with gear shift/revving--)

Add in tire-to-pavement noise---normal for sure. But my car is far from "silent".

Not unhappy with it, but given the noises I have, I wish I hadn't spent 3K on premium audio...a bit like wearing "noise-canceling" headphones on an airplane..."cancel "is in the ear of the beholder...

 

[borski]

I wouldn't say "silent"--in the garage trying to experience Tidal Atmos, the fans at the lowest speed are intrusive

Driving below 40+ MPH, the "turbo whine" is very apparent , and increases/decreases depending on speed (certainly not as pronounced as Cayenne twin turbo--with gear shift/revving--)

Add in tire-to-pavement noise---normal for sure. But my car is far from "silent".

Not unhappy with it, but given the noises I have, I wish I hadn't spent 3K on premium audio...a bit like wearing "noise-canceling" headphones on an airplane..."cancel "is in the ear of the beholder...

I suppose we will just have to agree to disagree. but yes, audio is obviously subjective.

 

[idiot900]

Huh? My car is pretty silent, even on the highways. As an audio guy, I really appreciate the flat response

You still have tire, HVAC, perhaps even a little motor noise. Not to mention the ~8 kHz PWM noise for the various LEDs that dim dynamically - window switches and the various screen backlights which go in and out of phase because their dimming is not perfectly synchronized (I spent a long while with an FFT app localizing these noises). The car has fantastic NVH for a car - a subjective assessment we can agree on.

I'd want the flat response in a studio too. But in a car, I want the sound system to be purpose built for the environment, and for my taste, it isn't. I listen to music louder in a car than I would at home, and I enjoy exaggerated bass in a car to a degree I would not at home. Despite this I do think it's great that a car company had the guts to ship a stereo with such objectively flat response.

(I was one of the engineers for my college radio station back in the day. Absolutely does not make me an expert, even a little bit, but it gave me an appreciation for this kind of thing.)

 

[billvb]

I suppose we will just have to agree to disagree. but yes, audio is obviously subjective.

Yeah, I gotta say, I’ve done professional audio for games and have a home music studio that I’ve worked hard to get tuned for predictable results and I think that the Surreal Sound Pro system in fantastic. If it’s too flat for you, tweak the EQ, but when you’ve got good sounding content the system sounds amazing. Best I’ve heard in a car so far.

 

[borski]

You still have tire, HVAC, perhaps even a little motor noise. Not to mention the ~8 kHz PWM noise for the various LEDs that dim dynamically - window switches and the various screen backlights which go in and out of phase because their dimming is not perfectly synchronized (I spent a long while with an FFT app localizing these noises). The car has fantastic NVH for a car - a subjective assessment we can agree on.

I'd want the flat response in a studio too. But in a car, I want the sound system to be purpose built for the environment, and for my taste, it isn't. I listen to music louder in a car than I would at home, and I enjoy exaggerated bass in a car to a degree I would not at home. Despite this I do think it's great that a car company had the guts to ship a stereo with such objectively flat response.

(I was one of the engineers for my college radio station back in the day. Absolutely does not make me an expert, even a little bit, but it gave me an appreciation for this kind of thing.)

I hear what you’re saying. I used to test my mixes, when mastering, in my car because I knew that’s how people were going to listen to it.

But where my friends were adding stupid bone rattling subs to make their car feel like a club, I just wanted a wonderful sound studio in my car. The Lucid gives me that.

Obviously I didn’t literally mean silent. But it’s one of the quietest cars I’ve ever driven. The EQS was quieter, but that car sucked in a billion other ways (for me)

 

[digiboxer]

You still have tire, HVAC, perhaps even a little motor noise. Not to mention the ~8 kHz PWM noise for the various LEDs that dim dynamically - window switches and the various screen backlights which go in and out of phase because their dimming is not perfectly synchronized (I spent a long while with an FFT app localizing these noises). The car has fantastic NVH for a car - a subjective assessment we can agree on.

I'd want the flat response in a studio too. But in a car, I want the sound system to be purpose built for the environment, and for my taste, it isn't. I listen to music louder in a car than I would at home, and I enjoy exaggerated bass in a car to a degree I would not at home. Despite this I do think it's great that a car company had the guts to ship a stereo with such objectively flat response.

(I was one of the engineers for my college radio station back in the day. Absolutely does not make me an expert, even a little bit, but it gave me an appreciation for this kind of thing.)

After Tidal, what do you consider the best source? Is SXM via cellular less good than the satellite version? FM?

 

[Volund]

I hear what you’re saying. I used to test my mixes, when mastering, in my car because I knew that’s how people were going to listen to it.

But where my friends were adding stupid bone rattling subs to make their car feel like a club, I just wanted a wonderful sound studio in my car. The Lucid gives me that.

Obviously I didn’t literally mean silent. But it’s one of the quietest cars I’ve ever driven. The EQS was quieter, but that car sucked in a billion other ways (for me)

When I'm listening to music in my Lucid, I don't hear anything lol. I can barely hear the passenger next to me and my ears are not fatigued at all. That's an excellent sound system.
So I'm surprised people are able to hear the motor whine with music going. I find the SSP to be so engrossing that I can just listen for hours and it's extremely well balanced like my Sennheiser's and I can't get enough of being sucked into the sound sphere.

 

[idiot900]

After Tidal, what do you consider the best source? Is SXM via cellular less good than the satellite version? FM?

I’d guess any of the streaming services because the bitrates are stably good, but I don’t know. As I understand it the satellite service may have less bandwidth to work with.

I’m hypothesizing that the noise inherent to driving even a very quiet car such as ours would make it very difficult to tell between streaming services but I haven’t formally tried to discern them. The idea is that the noise floor and Nyquist limit is good enough with any of them. As always, your brain paid for the car and should make the final judgment.

 

[borski]

When I'm listening to music in my Lucid, I don't hear anything lol. I can barely hear the passenger next to me and my ears are not fatigued at all. That's an excellent sound system.
So I'm surprised people are able to hear the motor whine with music going. I find the SSP to be so engrossing that I can just listen for hours and it's extremely well balanced like my Sennheiser's and I can't get enough of being sucked into the sound sphere.

Same.

 

[borski]

After Tidal, what do you consider the best source? Is SXM via cellular less good than the satellite version? FM?

After Tidal, USB audio is the best source.