Lucid Air aftermarket Hifi upgrade summary (and quality / configuration of the factory audio)

[borski]

Since I was so happy with what had been accomplished with the front staging, I took the plunge and completed the install with all remaining speakers. Sound Innovations somehow managed to take it to another level again. Replacing all remaining speakers in the rear, side doors and rear deck with Focal Utopias and the pièce de résistance, the 4 ATMOS speakers with wideband BRAX GL2 Midrange speakers. Driven with an extra Mosconi amplifier, for a total of 3.

The system is now complete with about 1800 watts of power and has been recalibrated to a higher maximum volume, now we have control of all speakers. It's actually quite hard to explain how good this system really sounds without hearing it. One thing that is very obvious to me is the clarity of the ATMOS tracks and the harmonies on certain tracks, which , while good before, are now truly exceptional. A good example is Dianna Ross in "Coming Out".

I have to commend Sound Innovations for what they have done here, the calibration of the system alone must have taken days to perfect. They showed me a picture running the software on 3 laptops simultaneously so they could balance everything perfectly in real time across all amplifiers.

If anyone is coming to car week in Monterey this and wants to hear it I will be around all week. Just PM me and we can meet up for a quick demo.

Can we meet up? I live in Cupertino. I’d love to test my stock DE against your upgrades (and I’m happy to show you my stinger install also done by sound innovations)

 

[ViperSSD]

Can we meet up? I live in Cupertino. I’d love to test my stock DE against your upgrades (and I’m happy to show you my stinger install also done by sound innovations)

Have yall done a bay area meetup?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Since I was so happy with what had been accomplished with the front staging, I took the plunge and completed the install with all remaining speakers. Sound Innovations somehow managed to take it to another level again. Replacing all remaining speakers in the rear, side doors and rear deck with Focal Utopias and the pièce de résistance, the 4 ATMOS speakers with wideband BRAX GL2 Midrange speakers. Driven with an extra Mosconi amplifier, for a total of 3.

The system is now complete with about 1800 watts of power and has been recalibrated to a higher maximum volume, now we have control of all speakers. It's actually quite hard to explain how good this system really sounds without hearing it. One thing that is very obvious to me is the clarity of the ATMOS tracks and the harmonies on certain tracks, which , while good before, are now truly exceptional. A good example is Dianna Ross in "Coming Out".

I have to commend Sound Innovations for what they have done here, the calibration of the system alone must have taken days to perfect. They showed me a picture running the software on 3 laptops simultaneously so they could balance everything perfectly in real time across all amplifiers.

If anyone is coming to car week in Monterey this and wants to hear it I will be around all week. Just PM me and we can meet up for a quick demo.

I bet it sounds fantastic, but one thing in addition to the single use custom Lucid A pillar clips no longer being the right spec for the curtain airbags to deploy reliably (the airbags are housed next to the Atmos height speakers), is I’d be concerned those speakers didn’t generate extra heat, as the system was rigorously heat tested only against the stock system.

 

[darrenwyatt]

I bet it sounds fantastic, but one thing in addition to the single use custom Lucid A pillar clips no longer being the right spec for the curtain airbags to deploy reliably (the airbags are housed next to the Atmos height speakers), is I’d be concerned those speakers didn’t generate extra heat, as the system was rigorously heat tested only against the stock system.

I will have them validate the A pillar clips on next service at the end of the month, thanks for pointing that out. Re the Heat, they actually run a lot cooler than the stock actually because they are both better insulated and have way better materials to start with with fully milled aluminum housing with much tighter tolerances than the stock speakers.

 

[borski]

I will have them validate the A pillar clips on next service at the end of the month, thanks for pointing that out. Re the Heat, they actually run a lot cooler than the stock actually because they are both better insulated and have way better materials to start with with fully milled aluminum housing with much tighter tolerances than the stock speakers.

I can’t wait to hear it.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I will have them validate the A pillar clips on next service at the end of the month, thanks for pointing that out. Re the Heat, they actually run a lot cooler than the stock actually because they are both better insulated and have way better materials to start with with fully milled aluminum housing with much tighter tolerances than the stock speakers.

Yeah I think these installs are impressive and likely sound phenomenal. But the concern is I've discussed these things with someone at Lucid responsible for some of the designs and testing who has detailed knowledge about why the car is the way it is, and the problem is this thing is engineered within <1mm tolerances, utilizes very few off the shelf parts, and many of the parts that were not made by Lucid themselves required 3rd party manufacturers to throw out all the rulebooks and trust Lucid's specs and requests, with Lucid agreeing to accept liability if any design didn't work out. So I know it may sound crazy that an A pillar clip is that big of a deal.... but that and many more things that had to be removed in order to do your install are as well, like foam backings on certain panels, etc. With some cars it's probably fine to go out of spec with the modifications, but it's a good idea to have Lucid make sure everything will still work as intended after this type of massive tear-down. It's cool to see the photos of the dissection though!

 

[Impatient7536]

for mods (audio, radar, etc) on these cars, where will lucid draw the line of "voiding warranty?" if lucid engineers/techs check it out, will they actually give their OK and sign off on it? feel that will muddy everything real fast. any lawyers with experience can chime in?

 

[GMan]

Part 4 - The physical build

For my build, I used top of the line Focal Utopia TBM tweeters (1") and Utopia Mids 3.5". Here they are side by side with the stock tweeters and mids.
"View attachment 9531
View attachment 9532
Here's the full set - 3 sets because the center channels needs to match. If you don't have atmos, probably save yourself the cost on the center channel.View attachment 9533
Note that the custom laser cut adapters have already been mounted to the aftermarket drivers to fit into the lucid factory holes.

Below is how the A pillar that houses the tweeters look.

View attachment 9534

Here's one of the front mid's and center channel set.

View attachment 9539View attachment 9540

I did not address the factory mid-bass that's in the front footwell.

For the Sub, we chose an 8" Gladen One 202 BMW speaker (it's really a woofer that can accept a lot more power). This Sub is sold as an aftermarket upgrade for BMW's by Gladen Mosconi. See below to compare it against the stock Sub. Note the custom adapter that's been mounted to it.
View attachment 9535

Finally, because we are going to run 200 watts into a Midbass playing as a sub we sound treated the rear deck.

View attachment 9536

A nice touch for additional bass control was a custom mount for the bass control switch. This was mounted behind the pilot panel. Looks like it was part of the original design!
View attachment 9537

View attachment 9538

As mentioned, my goal was to keep the factory look. Mission accomplished!

Will share the RTA stuffs next.

Love Focal drivers. Had some for mids in my custom home speaker. I love Dynaudio for tweeters.

 

[Bobby]

for mods (audio, radar, etc) on these cars, where will lucid draw the line of "voiding warranty?" if lucid engineers/techs check it out, will they actually give their OK and sign off on it? feel that will muddy everything real fast. any lawyers with experience can chime in?

The Magnuson Moss Warranty Act requires manufacturers to honor the original warranty unless they can prove that the aftermarket modification (either the parts or installation) was responsible for the failure that caused warranty repairs.

 

[DreamTour]

All,

I've had more work done to my Lucid in the chase to see the art of the possible. Sharing here so others can get an idea for what great can look (sound) like.

Part 5 - Subwoofer, better Power Amplification.

The work has been done in phases since i last posted.

Step 1.) Custom subwoofer enclosure built into the left corner subtrunk well. It's a sealed enclosure for a Focal Utopia 10WM Subwoofer. It extends under the bumper beam to where the charger cable sits to save subtrunk space. As you can see the charging cable sits on top of it now (though i don't really carry it with me anyways normally)

to properly experience the bass, i generally open the pass through between the rear seats down, but an additional modification was made to the trunk liner to allow soundwaves to pass through the liner through where the factory "sub" driver was located. Without this modification, the factory trunk liner does not allow acoustic pass through. This fills the cabin with bass instead of having it narrowly projected through the rear seat pass though. part of the trunk liner was cut and matching carpet was placed over it (it's hard to tell it's different)

A custom sub trunk cover was made to allow the bass pass through. You will see how it is constructed in the photo below including the matching carpet. When placed in on top of the sub trunk, it looks exactly like the stock one, but allows pass through of the bass.

Lastly, I decided that the original Class D amps powering my front stage left something to be desired. So they were replaced with a monster 8 channel Class AB amplifier with built in DSP. Unfortunately, the AB amp is not compact like the Class D amps and could not be mounted next to the factory amps. (not that there was space for another class D amp anyways) So it had to be mounted in the sub trunk. See the amp rack below as well as the custom trim cover for the sub trunk.

You might ask, how did the power work out for so many aftermarket amps including a less efficient 8 channel AB amp?

Actually quite well. We did not need to install any extra batteries and the voltage was stable coming off the rear battery alone. That suggests the DC to DC converter provides a steady buffer for the little battery in the back. As you can see by the fusing it's now running 4 after market amplifiers.

I now can enjoy a 3 stereo preset system (which alters the tunes to create different listening environments) + 1 atmos preset system that plays the bass and midbass at it's full potential and the stereo stage with warm AB power. It's a world of difference from the factory system (which i would describe as clean, but generally underpowered, and limited in detail by the stock driver quality.

What was noted about the factory setup however was that the speaker locations and stock acoustic design was excellent. The environment contributes a great deal to sound performance and quite honestly for the amount of glass in the lucid, it performs quite well at keeping reflections managed. It was clear that the sound design was not an afterthought of "bolting on speakers whereever there was space left, but integral to the design" probably because of the atmos tuning / involvement in the design.

My takeaway from this project is: The air has an excellent "environment" for good sound, which is why the stock system performs as well as it does. This also means that it's a great canvas for creating extraordinary sound if you have the budget for it.

 

[copper]

What was noted about the factory setup however was that the speaker locations and stock acoustic design was excellent. The environment contributes a great deal to sound performance and quite honestly for the amount of glass in the lucid, it performs quite well at keeping reflections managed. It was clear that the sound design was not an afterthought of "bolting on speakers whereever there was space left, but integral to the design" probably because of the atmos tuning / involvement in the design

Great to see progress on your system. Agreed that they have done a hell of a job with the stock system - it does a great job of maintaining a clean soundstage despite all the glass.

 

[borski]

All,

I've had more work done to my Lucid in the chase to see the art of the possible. Sharing here so others can get an idea for what great can look (sound) like.

Part 5 - Subwoofer, better Power Amplification.

The work has been done in phases since i last posted.

Step 1.) Custom subwoofer enclosure built into the left corner subtrunk well. It's a sealed enclosure for a Focal Utopia 10WM Subwoofer. It extends under the bumper beam to where the charger cable sits to save subtrunk space. As you can see the charging cable sits on top of it now (though i don't really carry it with me anyways normally)

View attachment 16703

to properly experience the bass, i generally open the pass through between the rear seats down, but an additional modification was made to the trunk liner to allow soundwaves to pass through the liner through where the factory "sub" driver was located. Without this modification, the factory trunk liner does not allow acoustic pass through. This fills the cabin with bass instead of having it narrowly projected through the rear seat pass though. part of the trunk liner was cut and matching carpet was placed over it (it's hard to tell it's different)

A custom sub trunk cover was made to allow the bass pass through. You will see how it is constructed in the photo below including the matching carpet. When placed in on top of the sub trunk, it looks exactly like the stock one, but allows pass through of the bass.

View attachment 16704
View attachment 16705

Lastly, I decided that the original Class D amps powering my front stage left something to be desired. So they were replaced with a monster 8 channel Class AB amplifier with built in DSP. Unfortunately, the AB amp is not compact like the Class D amps and could not be mounted next to the factory amps. (not that there was space for another class D amp anyways) So it had to be mounted in the sub trunk. See the amp rack below as well as the custom trim cover for the sub trunk.

View attachment 16706

View attachment 16707

You might ask, how did the power work out for so many aftermarket amps including a less efficient 8 channel AB amp?

Actually quite well. We did not need to install any extra batteries and the voltage was stable coming off the rear battery alone. That suggests the DC to DC converter provides a steady buffer for the little battery in the back. As you can see by the fusing it's now running 4 after market amplifiers.

View attachment 16708

I now can enjoy a 3 stereo preset system (which alters the tunes to create different listening environments) + 1 atmos preset system that plays the bass and midbass at it's full potential and the stereo stage with warm AB power. It's a world of difference from the factory system (which i would describe as clean, but generally underpowered, and limited in detail by the stock driver quality.

What was noted about the factory setup however was that the speaker locations and stock acoustic design was excellent. The environment contributes a great deal to sound performance and quite honestly for the amount of glass in the lucid, it performs quite well at keeping reflections managed. It was clear that the sound design was not an afterthought of "bolting on speakers whereever there was space left, but integral to the design" probably because of the atmos tuning / involvement in the design.

My takeaway from this project is: The air has an excellent "environment" for good sound, which is why the stock system performs as well as it does. This also means that it's a great canvas for creating extraordinary sound if you have the budget for it.

What a fantastic explanation. I fully agree with everything you said.

how much was the latest? and what is the running total at this point? lmao

 

[DreamTour]

What a fantastic explanation. I fully agree with everything you said.

how much was the latest? and what is the running total at this point? lmao

A "solid 5 digits", up from "low 5 digits". Though you know Ernie so he can just tell you if you want to know haha, pm me if you really want a breakdown though ymmv after they consider the work they actually put in. They have a lot of Lucid experience now, on one hand spent more hours than they billed me learning it all, on the other some tasks might be done in a more straightforward way in the future.

Never did audition it, lmk if you want to meet up sometime to do so. I had a chance to listen to darren's system which had all upgraded drivers for atmos. I still haven't done anything with the rear stage driver wise since i focused on stereo and bass, though the atmos is still a lot better with this setup.

 

[Shuasha]

Wow, that's some amazing custom work. That sub box and cover are beautiful, it's a shame there aren't enough Lucids yet for someone to sell them individually.

 

[kickgas]

Hi there, while it’s true that Reus do a lot of very high-end exotics and restomods (with proportionally high audio budgets!), they have been very reasonable in my personal experience. Definitely far less than the budget described by OP. They did my old Model S in ~May 2013 and at that time they charged me about $4k. At that time others were charging over double that for similarly rated systems. I had a great experience over the 9+ years in between (minor issues came up, they were always quick to fix and would never accept a dime)!

I've used Reus before in my Model S. How did your install turn out with your Lucid?

 

[MalosAires]

I've used Reus before in my Model S. How did your install turn out with your Lucid?

It was a phenomenal build! Since I had their system on a model S as well, I can tell you that the Lucid system was incomparably better-sounding (particularly after Lucid introduced Apple CarPlay)!

 

[kickgas]

Did it sound better than your Model S system?

 

[MJAir23TheGoat]

Hi All, I recently had a HiFi upgrade done on my Lucid. To give you a sense of budget envelope, it was low 5 figures. So a serious upgrade.

I will be sharing learnings, pics, my experience thus far so hopefully other owners can benefit from understanding "what they will get" with the Atmos Surreal Sound system and likely what to expect with the Standard Stereo system. Also what's practical for audio upgrades.

The work was done by Sound Innovations here in the Bay Area, they specialize in Car Audio / Hifi systems. I'm a past customer (They did my Model S) so i knew what to expect. This was their first Lucid Air, so i was the guinea pig , that said they did an excellent job. (AFAIK no one else has posted a professional HiFi aftermarket implementation so maybe I am the first?) I know some Garage engineers have done some work on the Bass side.

Instead of doing a mega post, I will build the thread out over several sections so hopefully run the thead in more of a Q&A fashion. We will start with what you get with the factory system.

What you get with the factory system

• Excellent speaker placement for a car. The location of the of individual speaker components were extremely thoughtful to minimize standing waves, reflections, reverberations etc (in laymans terms it means that the speakers are not fighting each other when playing music). It was clear the audio system was part of the system design and not just an afterthought of (where do i jam these things into the car?)
  • Particuliarly, as others have noted, the front stage mid-bass drivers are in the footwell panels (it's actually around the level of the dashboard, which makes it expensive to modify since the dash would need to be disassembled to access the mid-bass drivers) This positioning is ideal for imaging since it's wide and deep and not in the door panels which would narrow the stage and doors are notorious for footwell standing wave issues and imaging problems.
• Dual DSP Ampliiers (SSP)
  • The Base Audio system basically has a single Class D DSP/Amplifier. The channels are actively managed so no passive crossovers in the car. The SSP audio system adds an additional DSP Amplifier to cover the Atmos channels primarily. Note the label for "BASE" and "PREMIUM" on the amps.
  • View attachment 9417
• Quality "OEM" Drivers.
  • The drivers are quality on par with OEM upgraded European sound systems. E.g. B&O or Burmeister for Mercedes. Pressed metal chassis and ferrite magnets. (The Sub / Midbass have plastic chassis). The cones are paper / poly. If you were to buy then off the shelf they are equivalent to $50 drivers in terms of quality. All serious aftermarket drivers with neodymium magnets, textile/metal driver cones, metal chassis will perform on another level.
  • View attachment 9418
  • View attachment 9424View attachment 9425
• Factory Tuning
  • The tuning that was measured was for the stereo configuration as the Atmos system is harder to effectively play sweeps / tests for. What's interesting was that the output from the factory head units had very little correction put on the signal.
    • This is either because the stock speaker placements were so good that little needed to be done OR they tuned for atmos and stereo was an afterthought.
  • The "Subwoofer" in the back is basically an 8 in midbass driver with dual voice coils. Apparently it was crossed over quite high, running as high as 250hz down to 30 hz. This tune caused some phase issues with the front midbass drivers since they overlapped in frequency much more than typical for a subwoofer.
  • The installer will share the test sweeps he did on the factory system / aftermarket system later this week so I can share then.

Notes for consideration

• If you opt for SSP, you are basically paying for the atmos license, an extra DSP amp and the height channels. (Maybe they downgrade the drivers too, we'll see)
• I think that where Atmos mastering is at today is kind of like when 3d movies first came out (and before James Cameron got his hands on it) kinda interesting, a little gimmicky because artists / engineers haven't figured out what to do with it, but has potential to do new and different things. Will take some time for things to catch up.
• If you plan to just run Stereo (and plan to do aftermarket work) the base system is fine since you'll end up replacing most of the components anyways.

I will follow up with more on the test sweeps, tuning notes, and then my build later in the week. Hope this is insightful to folks!

Yeah, I’m probably gonna have to go with something in this route. The stereo in my GT is absolutely rubbish/ . It’s probably the worst stereo system I’ve encountered in any high and luxury vehicle. The burmester in Porsche blows this away. Heck the system in my AMG was leaps better. I can’t believe people would actually pay 4K upgrade for this on new builds.Thankfully the Pro surreal was free in my car.

 

[SaaSManKS]

I would agree as well, this stereo isn’t even comparable to car stereos that are even a class or two below what this car would be considered…we got my wife an XC90, and hers is louder and deeper than my pure.

 

[Lucken]

If you’re used to pounding, exaggerated bass, the SSPro is not going to please. However if you’re looking for more precision in your sound, with a tight, realistic low end, then SSPro will definitely please.