Subwoofer Bass solution

[Babyrocko1908]

My guess is that the music file on an old iPod is somewhat compressed. The Lucid sound system is very revealing, and lower-quality source material might actually sound worse on the Lucid than on some other, less accurate systems. You really need to assess what the Lucid system is capable of by using Atmos-encoded material such as is available from one of the streaming sources (Tidal, I Heart Radio, Amazon Music Unlimited, etc.

Oh of course. I'm adding these recommendations to my list of songs for Tidal. I honestly cannot wait to hear what Tidal's Atmos tracks have to offer.

As I'm reading through these posts again, my Samsung HW-Q900A Atmos sound bar seems to "suffer" from what most are describing here (the lack of bass coming from the Sub) so I'm curious if the Air's system will be similar. My Q900A bass seems more muted when I use the Q Symphony sound sync feature on the my Q800T 8K TV so it appears that's how Atmos works -- subtle bass. However, the Object Tracking Sound in their Atmos setting is superb and I recall Lucid saying something similar when explaining how SSP works in the Air. Of course I need my car to hear this for myself.

 

[stratus]

I really need my Touring soon so I can test these tracks you all are suggesting. One other quick question, does anyone have any Hip-Hop or RnB tracks that they recommend to test the system?

Funny story, in my Jaguar XF when I got it a decade ago, I was driving along just enjoying the ride, a track came on by an obscure artist named Cheri Dennis. The track is called "Showdown." Any who, the track starts off and sounds normal for my XF's Bowers and Wilkins system, then at around the 25th second mark of the intro, I heard something in those speakers produced by that system that I've NEVER heard in a car before. The subwoofer working in conjunction with the rest of the system sent the deep bass to each speaker in a clockwise motion in the next 4 seconds and I almost wrecked my car! The mixing of the track in conjunction with the subwoofer and speakers was the best sound experience I've ever had in a car. There's a few other tracks that came along later like Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" and Jill Scott's "Insomnia" that really highlighted the system. I hope I have similar experiences with this Atmos system in my Air Touring.

Link to Cheri Dennis' "Showdown."

I also should have also added that on Tidal, there are tons of hip hop tracks encoded to Atmos. Tidal tends to emphasize hip hop on their site , including Atmos mixes. So for fans of this music genre, it is really outstanding, in my opinion.

 

[Babyrocko1908]

I also should have also added that on Tidal, there are tons of hip hop tracks encoded to Atmos. Tidal tends to emphasize hip hop on their site , including Atmos mixes. So for fans of this music genre, it is really outstanding, in my opinion.

Perfect.

 

[blueice89]

I don't consider myself an audio expert but I do expect to enjoy a great music experience while driving. Despite the hype of Dolby Atmos, Tidal and Lucid's Surreal Sound, I was disappointed, like a few others on the forum, about the lack of punch in the bass. Don't get me wrong, the highs, mids and spatial imaging are stellar indeed but the bass need attention, in my humble opinion.

Below is my novel solution: I purchased an enclosed self powered 12 inch JBL subwoofer from Amazon. I originally intended to place it in the frunk but ran into too much difficulty plumbing the wires from frunk to cabin so instead I placed it bottom enclosed part of rear trunk.

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I took the power supply from the right sided 12v outlet. It is switched meaning power shuts off about 30 seconds after you lock the door and walk away from the car. To access it just pull the trunk liner straight up and take a parallel feed.

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I removed the trunk liner just behind the rear seats to expose the Lucid subwoofer below rear package shelf- use screw driver to pry out plastic plugs

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This gives access to subwoofer's wire leads. I used two aligator electric clips to take a parallel feed to the JBL subwoofer. I did not cut lead or disinstall native Lucid woofer. At some point I should probably go back and solder them...

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Next I turned my attention to the trunk partition cover as is was now touching the JBL subwoofer below. I cut and installed plywood in the same pattern as the partition cover to clear the subwoofer's elevation and yet not have the partition cover slide around

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With the modified partition hovering about the subwoofer, everything looks relatively factory stock


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The sound is now truly phenomenal and bass notes, whether one is seated forward or aft, are exactly what you would expect of a car of this price. This was a low cost (<$300) endeavor and took me a day to complete. Hope others will find this of benefit,

Now if the weather will cooperate.....!

best

Sameer



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Love bass good for you !!

 

[Tâm]

....artificial levels of bass to the sound...

I've heard in real life the bass sound from a wooden instrument, drum, or cello... with no electrical amplification from an orchestra, and the Lucid sound does not reproduce that kind of sound, vibration, resonance., and intensity.

I've also heard in real life the bass sound from an electric bass guitar or an electric drum...but the Lucid sound does not reproduce that kind of sound and vibration/resonance either.

But notice that I am an individual who is not an expert in music or engineering. Thus, it's just one individual observation.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Oh of course. I'm adding these recommendations to my list of songs for Tidal. I honestly cannot wait to hear what Tidal's Atmos tracks have to offer.

As I'm reading through these posts again, my Samsung HW-Q900A Atmos sound bar seems to "suffer" from what most are describing here (the lack of bass coming from the Sub) so I'm curious if the Air's system will be similar. My Q900A bass seems more muted when I use the Q Symphony sound sync feature on the my Q800T 8K TV so it appears that's how Atmos works -- subtle bass. However, the Object Tracking Sound in their Atmos setting is superb and I recall Lucid saying something similar when explaining how SSP works in the Air. Of course I need my car to hear this for myself.

Atmos does not make bass sound a certain way, it only correctly encodes a separate LFE channel into a minimum of 7.1.4 format if the track was mixed that way. So when a track has an “Atmos” label, like the Doors Riders on the Storm, that means they took the original tracks and went back into a studio capable of Atmos and remixed the track deliberately sending certain sounds to certain speakers. In the Atmos mixing software you can create “beds” and “objects” so they made a “bed” of the rain storm effects emphasizing the height channels, while making an “object” of Morrison’s voice so he sounds like he’s right in front of you. The mixing controls in the Atmos software decide which speakers to emphasize based on where you place the audio in a physical space. The bass is just the low frequencies that are being processed by the car’s DSP (Dolby had 3rd part company whose name I forgot tune it specifically for the Lucid) and sent to the appropriate speakers.

 

[hmp10]

I've heard in real life the bass sound from a wooden instrument, drum, or cello... with no electrical amplification from an orchestra, and the Lucid sound does not reproduce that kind of sound, vibration, resonance., and intensity.

I've also heard in real life the bass sound from an electric bass guitar or an electric drum...but the Lucid sound does not reproduce that kind of sound and vibration/resonance either.

But notice that I am an individual who is not an expert in music or engineering. Thus, it's just one individual observation.

I, too, have listened to real instruments since my days playing oboe in a high school orchestra and heard plenty of pop/rock concerts since my college days.

When I said "artificial levels of bass" I was referring to changing the bass/subwoofer speaker. If I correctly understand what Bunnylebowski has posted on this subject here and on other threads, the electronics of the Lucid's sound system are "tuned", if you will, to reproduce accurately what's encoded in the signal given the characteristics of the factory speakers. When one starts swapping out speakers without making corresponding adjustments in the signal processing, it will inevitably move the system's response to the source signal from what the sound mixer and engineers intended and into the realm of the unintended. This is what I meant by "artificial".

 

[joec]

We’ve drifted pretty far from the intention of this thread, which is a how-to for those who wish to alter their sound system on the Air. The original poster has graciously provided images and and answered questions about how this could be accomplished.

I’m closing this thread, as it has accomplished its goal, and nothing new regarding the actual process of “how to” seems to be forthcoming.