Disappointing Surreal Sound Pro

[Adnillien]

I've seen a ton of recommended tracks to listen to throughout this thread an a couple others. Could someone (maybe @bunnylebowski, who mentioned most of them) collect them in one sticky thread so I can try them all out when I get my AGT?

Or share a link to the playlist on Tidal.

 

[hydbob]

I've seen a ton of recommended tracks to listen to throughout this thread an a couple others. Could someone (maybe @bunnylebowski, who mentioned most of them) collect them in one sticky thread so I can try them all out when I get my AGT?

I started one and then I've been lazy about updating it. I'll try and go back and add to it.

 

[hydbob]

Definitely not looking at the boom boom bass from a block away. I am comparing this to my Audi S8 B&O and my Tesla Model X system. I do have a 1968 Olds 442 convertible that does have a very high-end system with JL amps and speakers. It can be heard from a block away with its two 15" subwoofers - however that is not what I am referring to when I say my Air GT sound is under volumed.

Man, I downloaded a db meter on my phone and turned the volume to max on Off the Walls and it registered at 87, but my God it hurts listening to it that loud.

 

[Maverick]

Man, I downloaded a db meter on my phone and turned the volume to max on Off the Walls and it registered at 87, but my God it hurts listening to it that loud.

Speaking of volume levels, has anyone else noticed that when you get an Amazon notification (the orange highlight at the bottom of the top screen) that the volume level and max goes significantly down. I have found that the only way to have the volume go back to the higher level is to switch out of Tidal to something else and then back again. As a non-audiophile, I won't weigh in on sound quality or whether 90+ dB is suitably loud enough, but I will say that the volume at max is incredibly underpowered when that notification glitch occurs.

Otherwise, I'm perfectly happy with the sound quality, but then again, my comparison is with a stock system in a Jeep Wrangler at 75 mph, so the quiet of the car will make almost anything sound leaps and bounds better .

 

[Alex]

Speaking of volume levels, has anyone else noticed that when you get an Amazon notification (the orange highlight at the bottom of the top screen) that the volume level and max goes significantly down. I have found that the only way to have the volume go back to the higher level is to switch out of Tidal to something else and then back again. As a non-audiophile, I won't weigh in on sound quality or whether 90+ dB is suitably loud enough, but I will say that the volume at max is incredibly underpowered when that notification glitch occurs.

Otherwise, I'm perfectly happy with the sound quality, but then again, my comparison is with a stock system in a Jeep Wrangler at 75 mph, so the quiet of the car will make almost anything sound leaps and bounds better .

I’ve had that happen and to get it “loud” again, I press the microphone button and press the microphone button again to turn off Alexa. So the takeaway is that you need to activate Alexa again and then have it go away.

 

[hydbob]

Speaking of volume levels, has anyone else noticed that when you get an Amazon notification (the orange highlight at the bottom of the top screen) that the volume level and max goes significantly down. I have found that the only way to have the volume go back to the higher level is to switch out of Tidal to something else and then back again. As a non-audiophile, I won't weigh in on sound quality or whether 90+ dB is suitably loud enough, but I will say that the volume at max is incredibly underpowered when that notification glitch occurs.

Otherwise, I'm perfectly happy with the sound quality, but then again, my comparison is with a stock system in a Jeep Wrangler at 75 mph, so the quiet of the car will make almost anything sound leaps and bounds better .

OMG yes, that's why I disabled notifications on Alexa!

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I've seen a ton of recommended tracks to listen to throughout this thread an a couple others. Could someone (maybe @bunnylebowski, who mentioned most of them) collect them in one sticky thread so I can try them all out when I get my AGT?

One track I’ve mentioned that is amazing in Tidal HiFi (not Atmos) is Yosi Horikawa’s Bubbles. This is only a 2 channel track but it shows how brilliant the DSP in the Lucid is as it accurately reproduces his mix and makes 2 channels sound like 20. The high frequencies are crystal clear pristine but not sibilant, and the lows aren’t just boomy but musical. He partly achieves this through deliberately throwing certain things out of phase, and for that to work in a car the tuning has to be super precise, and it does work. Sounds like you’re listening on headphones. Yeah the track is one hell of a trip, might give people flashbacks or induce a trip in sprint mode to your nearest dispensary, but stone cold sober I think it really shows off the system. And then for Atmos it’s all about Prince’s When Doves Cry. If you want heavy, Detones Digital Bath will do the trick, there’s no way anyone can say the sound isn’t “punchy” after hearing that track in the car and that kick drum and gun shot tight snare. And I did listen to @hmp10 recommendation of Lyle Lovett’s Road to Ensenada and he’s 100% right, beautiful track and the bass throughout isn’t just low frequency but very tonal and musical and you can hear the fingers on the strings along with the low harmonics resonating. I was impressed.

 

[Brad Carlson]

I’m not sure how the car could NOT have a separate processor, otherwise how is it doing the 3 band EQ? As far as separate amplifier goes, I don’t understand what your point is? Are you saying the Lucid sounds bad with non-Atmos content because you believe it doesn’t have a single dedicated amplifier handling all 21 speakers, and you think each speaker has its own amp? I’m just not clear on what you believe the problem is. If in fact the vehicle does have dedicated amps for each individual speaker (meaning they are active rather than passive), that is not a negative, as in professional audio, and specifically Dolby Atmos mixes, it’s often done that way with self powered speakers as the amplifier is tailored to be optimized to that set of drivers, etc. I honestly don’t know whether the car has active or passive speakers, I haven’t been able to find info on it. As for non-Tidal HiFi sources, as long as you’re not playing off Bluetooth which is limited, Spotify high quality sounds good, it’s just that Tidal HiFi (2 channel audio, not Atmos) sounds the best. Amazon music high quality sounds great also, just not quit Tidal MQA good.

I don’t doubt your experience, just trying to tease out what the actual problem is (possibly compression of the streaming format?), given the tuning of the system provides pretty accurate reproduction of mixes, but the EQ does allow for adjustment to preference in case you think the bass isn’t big enough or highs are too sibilant. I do think Lucid very much needs to get CarPlay into the car as I think many are playing over Bluetooth which DOES sound flat and lifeless and thin, and then people blame the car’s audio system which in fact has been shown to be seriously high quality in the testing @copper did.

Thank you. This is a thoughtful response. A competent processor would do more than EQ. You’ve got 21 speakers and you’re just going to play the source? I wouldn’t expect to have 1 amp nor did I say that. The car should have 3-5 amps. I think the speakers are individually amped. And yes, I think that’s inferior combined with no competent pre/pro. I’m listening to TIdal, not bluetooth. The difference between Dolby Atmos and even Mastered on TIdal is stark. Mastered audio on Tidal should sound better than it does. And I don’t even want to bring up that it keeps dropping out. That’s my location and I shouldn’t have mentioned it.

 

[hydbob]

Thank you. This is a thoughtful response. A competent processor would do more than EQ. You’ve got 21 speakers and you’re just going to play the source? I wouldn’t expect to have 1 amp nor did I say that. The car should have 3-5 amps. I think the speakers are individually amped. And yes, I think that’s inferior combined with no competent pre/pro. I’m listening to TIdal, not bluetooth. The difference between Dolby Atmos and even Mastered on TIdal is stark. Mastered audio on Tidal should sound better than it does. And I don’t even want to bring up that it keeps dropping out. That’s my location and I shouldn’t have mentioned it.

I didn't think right now you could listen to master tracks on Tidal? The car limits you to HiFi only.

 

[Neurio]

For those who want to experience a song in Atmos to see what the surround is supposed to sound like, and to test your bass, listen to ....

Ice Ice Baby. Yes. Vanilla Ice....

It came on while I was listening to Atmos songs and I must say it was an impressive sound experience. Moving on...

 

[joec]

Man, I downloaded a db meter on my phone and turned the volume to max on Off the Walls and it registered at 87, but my God it hurts listening to it that loud.

Maybe because the maximum recommended dB for keeping you from losing your hearing is 85 db?

 

[joec]

All kidding aside, as someone who has suffered from tinnitus most of his adult life, I don't recommend regularly exposing yourself to 90-100 dB for more than 10 minutes, if you can help it.

 

[zkhan2]

For those who want to experience a song in Atmos to see what the surround is supposed to sound like, and to test your bass, listen to ....

Ice Ice Baby. Yes. Vanilla Ice....

It came on while I was listening to Atmos songs and I must say it was an impressive sound experience. Moving on...

That’s a fine excuse. I’ll use you as my excuse, since I can refer them back to this post.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I think the speakers are individually amped. And yes, I think that’s inferior combined with no competent pre/pro.

Why do you think the speakers are individually amped? And what’s a “pro” amp? I know what a “pre” amp is but what do you mean by “pro”?

 

[zkhan2]

Why do you think the speakers are individually amped? And what’s a “pro” amp? I know what a “pre” amp is but what do you mean by “pro”?

Yeah, I don’t get it either. An amp is just a case housing electronics. As long as the components are done correctly and channels of the amp are separated, except for power and preamp input, I am not sure what difference it makes.

 

[copper]

Checks notifications after a few months. See a ton of mentions in a thread about surround sound.

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED.

 

[copper]

Working backwards:

1. Amplification: The system is almost certainly fully active with an individual amp per channel. This is surprisingly inexpensive now and also more efficient since Class-D amplification has made leaps and bounds in quality and price over the last ten years. Hypex and ICEPower both make most of the current Class-D amplifier boards used in active home systems and OEM car audio. My money is on Hypex boards being used, probably with multiple channels per board.
2. Tidal Master vs. Atmos: @Brad Carlson unpacking your comments on Tidal here, can you point out some specific tracks and quality levels? The dropping out is an issue with Tidal as opposed to Lucid (their OEM API has been having issues for months)
3. Source Quality & Dynamics: as @hydbob mentioned, in my review I pointed out that the system is quite unforgiving for poor quality recordings. Crap recordings will sound like it. However, great recordings sound amazing almost no matter the format (try Tamacun by Rodrigo y Gabriela for example - even on Apple Music). The exception to this is a few kinds of dynamics where the Lucid will struggle, such as high-DB transients below 35hz (My Blood by Twenty One Pilots has this at 2:21).
4. Bass Dropping Out: For anyone having this issue, reboot the car. It happens to me sometimes and a reboot sorts it (though not since 1.2.9). This is a software issue that Lucid is aware of and working to address.

I'll cover other points as I go further back in the thread.

After hundreds of listening hours over 6,000 miles driven I still love this stereo. It misses some things for me that I like, such as kick drums impacting my chest (Epic by Faith No More), but holy f*** is it great at soundstaging. When we drove to/from Seattle we were playing all sorts of music (try The Magnificent Seven by The Clash) that sounded like they were standing right in front of us. That said, I'm comparing this to a home stereo I designed and spent hundred of hours tuning. The fact that it can come even close to a high-end home system is a hell of an accomplishment.

 

[Drendino]

nuff said!

 

[SDHacker]

Am I the only one that thinks the speakers aren’t that great?

This is so similar to "The carpets are cheap". Members need to stop responding to crappy posts like this other than to ask for more details. At least Brad is responding and adding details albeit they have to be dragged out of him. Can we agree to just ask for details and not respond until those details are provided so this doesn't get dragged out like it has?
What led you to think the speakers aren't great? Ends up it's not just the speakers, he's going off on the pre/pro and amps too so the entire sound system.
What sources are you using? Even that question was answered with just Tidal rather than including what level of subscription
ATMOS and/or stereo?

Once sufficient information has been provided by the poster, members should engage since they now have a base on which to form a response.

 

[SDHacker]

Why do you think the speakers are individually amped? And what’s a “pro” amp? I know what a “pre” amp is but what do you mean by “pro”?

"pre/pro" = pre-amp/processor. The "pro" part is acknowledging that pre-amps are doing a lot more than in the days of analog only. Gotta have a DSP in today's world, especially when dealing with 3D sound decoding audio codecs along with dolby or dts. Room customizers like Audyssey or Dirac. I'm betting Lucid has a custom DSP built for handling the challenges of being a car. Doesn't require as many options for sound customization because it would have been optimized for the car versus a home unit where the room it's in is an unknown and can vary widely.