Lucid Air Stereo "Surreal Sound" Test Impressions

[copper]

Among my many hobbies is DIY HiFi. I build speakers and amps for fun and have a passion for really great sounding systems. There's a special kind of joy from listening to music on a system you designed yourself and is really dialed-in for the room. You get to realize the fruits of your hard work in a way that few other hobbies provide.

Ever since Lucid started marketing the Surreal Sound, I knew I had to get a proper test. With that in mind, I met up today with @borski to run some tests on the stereo using a measurement mic and a few reference tracks.

TL;DR: Excellent sound staging if a little bright on the treble, small drop around 130-200hz, great bass extension but needs some oomph. You'll probably want to bump the bass EQ +2 to +4 DB and the treble down -1 to -2 db (if it seems harsh at times, YMMV). Designed for long-listening without fatigue and brings out details you'll love to hear.

The Data

Below is the results of some test loops between 30hz-20khz. I used Room EQ Wizard on my laptop, connected to the Air via bluetooth.

Caveats:

• We ran this with both of us in the car, climate control off, but there's some reflections and background noise that make the graph rougher than it will really sound to your ears.
• I was in the passenger seat which is going to have a disadvantage vs. driver for my impressions of music.
• I intentionally did not test Atmos tracks. The goal here was pure 2ch stereo as that is what I know and can test the best.
• [edit] Apparently, to connect a laptop to bluetooth you'll need to have it set up both as a phone and audio device in the Air.

Technical Impressions

• Bass goes a long ways down, but has a -3db of 44hz before it levels off and then stays solid to ~26hz. This means a few of the deeper bass hits lack "oomph" but are not by any means missed.
  • This is something that could be adjusted for in EQ and I'm surprised they let it remain. I would have dropped the mid bass down ~5db and bumped up the absolute bottom to compensate.
  • The sub clearly rolls in at 150hz and has a lot of output. However, it isn't booming which means some tracks can feel light because we're used to overcompensated low-end in car stereos. This means you get a more "real" sound, but can lack a bit of excitement unless you crank it.
• There's a dip after the sub where the mids roll in, rising to a pretty big hump at 700hz before rolling back as you go higher.
  • The midrange is very healthy. Music might seem more "full" than you're used to - that is how it should sound!
  • Lots of car stereos will lack output in several spots of 200hz-2khz range, resulting in entire instruments going missing on tracks (either due to DSP, reflection/cancellation, etc.) The lucid does not have this problem, despite the jagged response due to room modes.
  • The dip on the lucid at 130-200hz isn't that big of a deal as you won't notice it, except with very cello-forward or string-bass compositions.
• The treble is a bit bright and could cause a bit of fatigue on long sessions.
  • That peak at 8khz is pretty noticeable, and some tracks might end up harsh.
  • The treble ends abruptly at ~16khz for some reason. This is probably the DSP as it definitely doesn't look like a natural rolloff on the tweeter. Since I was running pure 2ch output this could be Atmos' fault. It won't mess up your listening.

Impressions with Music

I was very happy with the sound staging and depth of response. Horns, strings, vocals, all excelled. We tested Ce Matin-là by Air for purity of a French horn, then Loyal by Odesza for a more complex arrangement. Both did extremely well with the instruments being very clearly placed with no "fuzz". We also gave Young by Vallis Alps a go for a slower-paced but dynamic track with my favorite combination of vocals and bass of late. The singer's voice was very clear, no ringing or harshness (very hard in a car) and the bass line was tight and didn't suffer from any phase delay or lingering-boom. I should have popped on some Faith No More to get a feel for kick drums. Oh well, next time!

We also tossed on some good orchestral and Jazz tracks (Snarky puppy!). The midrange is really a highlight on this stereo, with every instrument coming alive. The guitar, cello and flute on Morning in Norkia from the anime Last Exile (random track, but absolutely excellent engineering) sounded like they're right in front of you. For fans of live instruments and vocals you'll be very happy. Synths and electronic music also do very well, with swelling sounds getting goosebumps immediately.

However, the system can also be unforgiving. You're going to notice poorly engineered tracks much more readily as you can hear the difference in quality between the live instrument and the synthesized one. Sampled music with hiss/hum or low quality takes will be clear as day. This is common in HiFi, but hearing it in a car is a first. It will bring out imperfections in ways that surprise you, an inadvertent drawback for the level of detail it provides.

That said, the overall experience is really joyful. There were moments that the music just really took over and the world melted away. I've not gotten that in a car before the Lucid!

Areas for Improvement

The system lacks volume in the absolute lowest octaves and getting that bottom end to really hit. This could be compensated with EQ, but I didn't have time test what range the bass EQ will affect (some of them go all the way up to 300-400hz). It doesn't lack for extension, just output, and I don't believe it is from insufficient amplification. A feature I'd love to see from Lucid is the ability to more finely tune the response, or at least some improvement in percussion and sustained bass notes while dialing back the top. An optional 10-band or better EQ would be a nice option for advanced users.

The top end can be a bit bright, especially with cymbal-heavy percussion, but I didn't detect a lot of distortion. Dialing this back a bit to reduce fatigue would help. I don't know what drivers are used, but this is common in titanium and aluminum dome tweeters that can get really tinny without some proper adjustment. I'm wondering if the glass canopy causes a lot of reflections or cancellations, which means they have to boost output to compensate. I've not designed a car stereo however, so I'm sure they've got their reasons why they bumped up the top-end.

(Note on treble: as you age your hearing in the higher range can diminish, which may make you want more treble to compensate. This is completely normal so take the top-end feedback with a grain of salt.)

Fix that extreme low-end: I'm not sure if there are two subs instead of one, but a -3bd of 44hz is pretty high for what the car has. Maybe a shelf biquad with a high Q to raise it a few db?

Final Thoughts

This is absolutely an excellent system. The level of detail in it is top-notch for a car stereo and with a little bit of adjustment you'll get a ton of enjoyment. I'd say this is designed more for extended listening without fatigue instead of thumping along. The end result is you'll find yourself listening to music longer without needing to turn it down, and will notice things that had been missing. It will capture your interest in a way most car stereos do not, akin to sitting in a dedicated listening room with a dialed-in system.

A lot of mass-market car stereos will hit the bass on a track hard. They'll get your blood going, but you also end up turning it down after a bit - there's distortion, ringing, or a "boom" that fatigues you. The Lucid does not suffer from this at all. Instead, it feels like a system that could use a few improvements, but gets so close to the mark that I really can't fault it, which says a lot.

I'm really surprised to get a stereo this good on the first car from a new carmaker. Surreal sound indeed!

 

[Steve11ca]

Excellent review. I'm looking forward to experiencing it for myself. I'm a bit of an audio/video guy, but not by engineering standards. I remember putting on a pair of high end Bower and Wilkins headphones and listening to Hotel California. I heard things that I've never heard before. There is a guitar track in the background that is just awesome. That's one of the tracks I will be listening to first, whenever my car is finally delivered.

 

[hydbob]

Wow, that is a lot of information. Thank you for testing this. Are you planning on testing Atmos tracks to guage how the system handles the sound levels?

 

[copper]

Excellent review. I'm looking forward to experiencing it for myself. I'm a bit of an audio/video guy, but not by engineering standards. I remember putting on a pair of high end Bower and Wilkins headphones and listening to Hotel California. I heard things that I've never heard before. There is a guitar track in the background that is just awesome. That's one of the tracks I will be listening to first, whenever my car is finally delivered.

Excellent choice in songs - strings really shine in the Lucid.

Wow, that is a lot of information. Thank you for testing this. Are you planning on testing Atmos tracks to guage how the system handles the sound levels?

I plan to once I get my car. Every track I use for reference is also one I've tested on multiple systems, so I'm comparing against something I already know very well. I don't have Atmos at home, so my concern was comparing apples to oranges. After I've learned more about how it handles imaging/DSP then I'll do a comparison.

 

[MorganB]

Thanks so much for this in depth review! Very informative to say the least. I'm glad to know it is largely an excellent sound system. I've been in my Alfa for almost 5 years now and the upgraded Harmon Kardon sound system is complete crap. Looking forward to having a car with a good sound system!

 

[copper]

Thanks so much for this in depth review! Very informative to say the least. I'm glad to know it is largely an excellent sound system. I've been in my Alfa for almost 5 years now and the upgraded Harmon Kardon sound system is complete crap. Looking forward to having a car with a good sound system!

Glad it helped. Yes, you'll have a big step up from the H/K system

 

[pam4_AGT]

Among my many hobbies is DIY HiFi. I build speakers and amps for fun and have a passion for really great sounding systems. There's a special kind of joy from listening to music on a system you designed yourself and is really dialed-in for the room. You get to realize the fruits of your hard work in a way that few other hobbies provide.

Ever since Lucid started marketing the Surreal Sound, I knew I had to get a proper test. With that in mind, I met up today with @borski to run some tests on the stereo using a measurement mic and a few reference tracks.

TL;DR: Excellent sound staging if a little bright on the treble, small drop around 130-200hz, great bass extension but needs some oomph. You'll probably want to bump the bass EQ +2 to +4 DB and the treble down -1 to -2 db (if it seems harsh at times, YMMV). Designed for long-listening without fatigue and brings out details you'll love to hear.

The Data

Below is the results of some test loops between 30hz-20khz.
View attachment 1092

Caveats:

• We ran this with both of us in the car, climate control off, but there's some reflections and background noise that make the graph rougher than it will really sound to your ears.
• I was in the passenger seat which is going to have a disadvantage vs. driver for my impressions of music.
• I intentionally did not test Atmos tracks. The goal here was pure 2ch stereo as that is what I know and can test the best.

I'm guessing the y-axis in the graph above is dB. I'm not into designing audio amps but I'm an analog/mixed-signal circuit designer - feel free to get as technical as you want.

1. What is the input to the sound system and what exactly is the expected output?
2. The 10dB drop from 100-200Hz sounds like a lot. That goes back to my first question - what is the expected output?
3. You were referring to a 3-dB rolloff point of 44Hz. Ideally, you want that to be flat all the way down to 20Hz? I guess that is something difficult to achieve?

 

[SaratogaLefty]

Excellent choice in songs - strings really shine in the Lucid.

I plan to once I get my car. Every track I use for reference is also one I've tested on multiple systems, so I'm comparing against something I already know very well. I don't have Atmos at home, so my concern was comparing apples to oranges. After I've learned more about how it handles imaging/DSP then I'll do a comparison.

Excellent choice in songs - strings really shine in the Lucid.

I plan to once I get my car. Every track I use for reference is also one I've tested on multiple systems, so I'm comparing against something I already know very well. I don't have Atmos at home, so my concern was comparing apples to oranges. After I've learned more about how it handles imaging/DSP then I'll do a comparison.

So did you use Bluetooth to connect the music from your phone? If not what was the source for your music?

 

[copper]

I'm guessing the y-axis in the graph above is dB. I'm not into designing audio amps but I'm an analog/mixed-signal circuit designer - feel free to get as technical as you want.

1. What is the input to the sound system and what exactly is the expected output?
2. The 10dB drop from 100-200Hz sounds like a lot. That goes back to my first question - what is the expected output?
3. You were referring to a 3-dB rolloff point of 44Hz. Ideally, you want that to be flat all the way down to 20Hz? I guess that is something difficult to achieve?

Hey @pam4_AGT - thanks for the questions. To clarify, I don't design the amps from scratch but instead use a lot of off-the-shelf components to build my systems, though I do design the crossovers for passive speakers myself. You're going to know more about the circuitry side than I am.

Answers:

• Yes, y-axis is DB.
• The blue is the recorded response from a miniDSP Umik-1 with calibration file. The white line represents the calibration file adjustments to output - effectively it shows the db bias of the mic which is removed from the recorded response
• Input is a flat test sweep from REW from 30->20,000hz. Expected output is of course ruler flat.
• The drop is pretty large, but also not unheard of when you have a lot of drivers in a system. I would expect a more gradual drop into the 300-400hz range instead of a big dip and rise beyond that. There's a lot of potential causes here, but nothing that can't be EQ'd out.
• That shelf on the lower end below 44hz is pretty odd. Usually there'd be a much more gradual dip. A system like this should have a -3db closer to 37hz and a long slope downward below that. It could be caused by having two separate drivers on the low end.

For comparison, the below image shows the S2000 design by Paul Carmody which has a much more gradual drop-off, in a two-way design. That is for a speaker in a room with a lot less in the way of compromises, so the response is flatter overall but you can see all the reflections called out that affect the response. (Note: the S2000 has nowhere near the bass extension of the Lucid, so the -3db point is much higher)

 

[Dortreo]

So that curve looks a lot like a Harman curve, except the peak at 8kHz is happening a bit late. But otherwise, it's got the nice bass bump, treble rise, and rapid fall off. 16kHz is fine. Most of us are too old to notice.

Really brilliant analysis. Very nice to see. And the car environment is super challenging for imaging, so not bad at all!

 

[copper]

So that curve looks a lot like a Harman curve, except the peak at 8kHz is happening a bit late. But otherwise, it's got the nice bass bump, treble rise, and rapid fall off. 16kHz is fine. Most of us are too old to notice.

Really brilliant analysis. Very nice to see. And the car environment is super challenging for imaging, so not bad at all!

• Good point about the Harman curve. I'm an outlier in that I prefer a flatter response, but that's me being a nerd
• Once I get my car I want to do some more tests, specifically to see where there are reflections and cancellations. I do wonder if some of the cabin is causing weird room modes. I'd also love to get some info from Lucid on what the drivers are. Good midrange drivers are hard to come by (Scan Speak and Seas being some of my favorites). I'm very curious to see what they used.
• You're also spot on about 16khz+! I was in the middle of writing and realized "oh yeah, I'm still young enough I can hear up to 19khz" and had to add the caveat.
• The environment is definitely a challenge. The more I'm going through this the more impressed I am from a technical perspective. The one thing that stuck with me was a few tracks (Young from Vallis Alps especially) really just took me away. That kind of experience is special in any system, let alone the one in a car.

Glad you enjoyed the write-up!

 

[copper]

So did you use Bluetooth to connect the music from your phone? If not what was the source for your music?

For the tests, I used Bluetooth from my Laptop, with Room EQ Wizard as the test software, and a calibrated miniDSP Umik-1 test mic.
The music was primarily from my Laptop, AAC lossless format in Music on MacOS. No Tidal or Spotify for me!

 

[SaratogaLefty]

For the tests, I used Bluetooth from my Laptop, with Room EQ Wizard as the test software, and a calibrated miniDSP Umik-1 test mic.
The music was primarily from my Laptop, AAC lossless format in Music on MacOS. No Tidal or Spotify for me!

So I have about 1300 Dolby Atmos recordings on my iPhone. I understand from all the previous discussions on this forum regarding Bluetooth that I won't actually get Atmos but will the 2Ch sound I do get be impacted negatively by having the recordings done in Atmos?

 

[Dortreo]

For the tests, I used Bluetooth from my Laptop, with Room EQ Wizard as the test software, and a calibrated miniDSP Umik-1 test mic.
The music was primarily from my Laptop, AAC lossless format in Music on MacOS. No Tidal or Spotify for me!

Got the same set up for Roon calibration. Nice! Did you do the little toroidal around your head when you were measuring?

 

[copper]

Got the same set up for Roon calibration. Nice! Did you do the little toroidal around your head when you were measuring?

Roon is great! Excellent choice in audio servers.

I didn't do the toroid this time - just held the mic between @borski and my head over the center console. Didn't want to use a tripod in his car - I'll wait for mine before I do that

 

[hydbob]

Roon is great! Excellent choice in audio servers.

I didn't do the toroid this time - just held the mic between @borski and my head over the center console. Didn't want to use a tripod in his car - I'll wait for mine before I do that

Can you tell from your analysis how much of a difference seating position makes in the sound quality? Does it affect it by THAT much?

 

[copper]

So I have about 1300 Dolby Atmos recordings on my iPhone. I understand from all the previous discussions on this forum regarding Bluetooth that I won't actually get Atmos but will the 2Ch sound I do get be impacted negatively by having the recordings done in Atmos?

Now that's an interesting question. From what I know your recordings in Atmos should run in stereo without issue, so you won't be missing anything and it won't hurt the audio quality.

Last I checked iOS 15 supports Atmos via CarPlay so once that is released you should be good.

 

[copper]

Can you tell from your analysis how much of a difference seating position makes in the sound quality? Does it affect it by THAT much?

Not really - I didn't spend any time trying to test the listening experience between different seats. It would have taken a lot of time so I'll wait for my car before I check.

I would expect some difference in experience between front seats but nothing large enough to significantly affect your enjoyment. It would mostly be limited to imaging where the soundstage could become a little muddy depending on where your head is. If I had to guess, the back seat middle might suffer that.

The advantage of a car is you have a lot of potential driver placements, which means you can get better dispersion by having drivers pointed more directly at the listeners. The drawback is then you get more point sources for sound, which can make an instrument sound spread out because several drivers are emitting it, ruining the impression of placement for the listener. The DSP ends up compensating for this.

Lots of car DSPs do a crappy job (our Hyundai for example), but the Lucid really does an excellent job.

 

[borski]

Roon is great! Excellent choice in audio servers.

I didn't do the toroid this time - just held the mic between @borski and my head over the center console. Didn't want to use a tripod in his car - I'll wait for mine before I do that

I’m more than happy to meet up for a longer time period and do more testing! I had fun and learned about some new music

 

[copper]

I’m more than happy to meet up for a longer time period and do more testing! I had fun and learned about some new music

Thank you for taking the time - definitely had fun too!

Before I do more testing I want to learn more about the DSP in the Air and how Atmos handles stereo->Atmos conversion. After that I may take you up on it