Lucid Audio Experience AMA (March 11, 2025)

[bmathieu]

Your phone’s data will still run over cellular during this time.

Do you mean that a CarPlay connected iPhone is now using the car's cellular connection (not the phone's native cellular connection)?

 

[SRS229]

I third the question on native Apple Music support in the car.

Me, too.....Apple Music is my main streaming service.

 

[Green G]

Would there be a possibility to have an option to equilibrate the speakers so that the driver is in the center of the atmosphere staging as opposed to left front? Thank you

 

[SaratogaLefty]

Response from Colin: "Yes we are actively looking into additional content providers for Atmos to provide more spatial content."

Thank you. Is the problem getting Apple to agree or ??

 

[Last ICE]

Interesting feedback. Do you have the latest software? In the retune that came out in 2.5 we added 6dB of gain to the system and to our ears it's satisfyingly loud.

I am on 2.6.0 and mobile service performed the audio upgrade...I never detected much difference following the upgrade. Maybe a bit more bass, but not as pronounced as other forum members had suggested in their experience. Do I need to have service look at this?

 

[bmathieu]

Response from Bob: "I don't have any technical data to share on this, but I think it's fairly common knowledge that hardwired is always going to result in better sound quality, as there's no bluetooth compression happening. That said, bluetooth quality has come so far these days, many people find it's hard to hear a difference."

Okay but the answer to a separate question just stated that Lucid CarPlay integration uses wifi to connect, not bluetooth. So I assume bluetooth compression is not actually an issue.

 

[marqie]

Recently I went to turn wifi (not bluetooth) off in my iphone and I got a message warning me that the Lucid CarPlay would be disconnected. Does CarPlay use bluetooth or wifi?

CarPlay uses both.

 

[MapleMan]

Second the question to have native Apple Music in the car like Tidal. You went to all the trouble to give the car the ability to play Atmos, but source material is limited to only Tidal. Apple has the ability to play Atmos quality but only as a native app.

Third (or fourth) this request for Apple Music native. Especially when it's not clear Tidal has a future?

Response from Colin: "Yes we are actively looking into additional content providers for Atmos to provide more spatial content."

Great news. Need quality alternative to Tidal based on its search limitations and lack of investment from owners to improve the offering.

 

[Green G]

Would there be a possibility to have an option to equilibrate the speakers so that the driver is in the center of the atmosphere staging as opposed to left front? Thank you

Sorry, ATMOS staging

 

[borski]

Would this mean that audio is also transmitted through Wi-Fi?

Yes. It is not as high-quality as connecting via a USB cable, but is better than Bluetooth streaming due to Bluetooth's additional compression..

 

[OutrightPace]

What audio tracks does your team use when calibrating the system, either with Atmos or without?

 

[dditzchi]

Is anyone working on updating the Tidal app? If it is lucid, are they working on it? If it is Tidal, will they do anything to improve it? It is incredibly short on search functions and features. Far inferior to the app on our phones. In fact, the only way to make it really useful is to create your own playlist on the phone app. While you can use the phone app through CarPlay, you don’t get the high resolution audio that way.

I have used Tidal in the Polestar 3 to listen to Dolby Atmos and it acs the exact same way, the search is basically useless in the in-car-app. I found the best way is to use the web browser/desktop app and build your playlists there. Then you can pull them up in the app in the vehicle. I pretty sure the Polestar uses an Android app for their system but despite the difference in the screen size they worked pretty much identical to the one in the Lucid. Based on that it seems like it is Tidal's app.

 

[marqie]

1. What's the physics behind how the recent hardware modification performed by service led to the massive increase in bass volume?
2. Do you notice the high-pitched noise emitted by the window switch LEDs?

Responses from Bob:
"1. The hardware mod (butyl tape) didn't in itself increase the low frequency of the system, it stopped the "chuffing" noises that were caused by the open cavity behind the woofers, and thus enabled us to retune to get more bass (among other things).

2. No, we haven't noticed that. We'll have a listen. Are you hearing it all the time or just under certain circumstances?"

 

[nothingemotional]

Thank you for taking the time to take questions!

My main issue with my non surreal sound is the fronts having no real mids or lows. When the bass levels are turned up for the fronts, the rear passengers complain the bass notes being too heavy in the back with the shelf rattling. (I understand there are footwell subs, and even with my SSP trial and tape fix, there wasn't a noticeable difference).
Also playback volume differs quite a bit between Bluetooth and native apps.

Thanks again

 

[ColonelBadger]

Any chance you will add adaptive volume, so that music volume compensates for road noise (Highway vs local driving) ? I aways need to increase the volume on the highway. Didn't need to do that in previous cars because of adaptive volume.

 

[borski]

Okay but the answer to a separate question just stated that Lucid CarPlay integration uses wifi to connect, not bluetooth. So I assume bluetooth compression is not actually an issue.

Apple CarPlay supports lossless audio via W-Fi up to 16 bit / 48 kHz.
Wireless CarPlay uses Bluetooth only for the handshake. After that it uses Wi-Fi. Even though Wi-Fi offers more than sufficient bandwidth for hi-res audio, currently it isn't supported.
In order to get full hi-res audio (up to 192 kHz) a USB connection is needed: https://support.apple.com/en-us/118295

This is not related to audio tuning, but is interesting, so please start a new thread if you'd like to talk about CarPlay technical details further.

 

[marqie]

First of all, I would like to say thank you for taking the time to answer questions about the Lucid audio system!

Besides the obvious difference in the number of speakers and extra channels for the Dolby Atmos system with SSP is there a noticeable tune difference between SS and SSP? In other words is it your goal to have both systems have a similar sound signature or is the SSP system designed to have a "premium" sound signature even when listening to stereo tracks?

Response from Bob: "There is a noticeable tuning difference between the two systems, yes. SSP is a much more capable system with the additional speakers and with the ATMOS capability so of course it's going to perform differently. But yes, the idea is to have a "family sound" between the two systems, with the goal being an even, pleasing frequency response."

 

[phantomias]

Hello, when I was listening to music with Dolby Atmos, Balance menu underneath of Audio setting is disabled. Is this a bug or is this the way it has been designed? Any possibility to change balance settings with Dolby Atmos?

 

[marqie]

On some Lucid forums it was reported that the hardware systems for Surreal Sound and SS Pro are identical, it is just a software switch that turns on the extra speakers. Is that accurate?

There is a significant hardware difference between Surreal Sound and Surreal Sound Pro. Surreal Sound Pro includes more speakers and greater amplifier power.

In the past, some cars with Surreal Sound Pro hardware were delivered with Surreal Sound software. Owners with these cars have the option to upgrade their software to take full advantage of the hardware differences.

 

[GratefulMed]

I’d like to second the question about staging in the Dolby Atmos application. At its base, it must be designed for a centralized listening location as in home theater. In this case, it seems to be the center backseat. It is definitely not the driver seat in the front left. This can result in unintended listening consequences where the front pillar speaker, for example, is projecting much louder to the driver of the car than intended by the music. My guess is that Dolby Atmos does not allow any sort of fade/balance to reorient the sweet spot, but can you confirm that this is not possible or might be looked into?

By the way, I really like the sound system. I just wish that the very best spatial audio could be enjoyed with peak experience from the drivers position since that’s where I always sit.