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Surreal sound basic

joec said:
Deep, overbearing bass is a lot like fast food. They cover up the poor qulity of the meat with lods of sugar, to fool your brain into thinking it tastes good. And then you no longer remember what good food is actually supposed to taste like. It becomes addictive. And then you end up with diabetes.

(Okay, maybe not the last part.)
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Or early onset hearing loss. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
 
xponents said:
Yes, audio systems are easily subjective. Have you tried turning the bass up in the Lucid? Perhaps that could give the results you are after without compromising mids?
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Yes I did up the base but little improvement.
tmilone103 said:
I have played with it and its satisfactory but it could be so much better. Personally if they gave us a real equalizer and a separate subwoofer level adjustment it would make a big difference but they only give us a single, BASS, MID & Treble selection which leaves allot to be desired.
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I think the gyst here is that those who optioned SSP are pretty (or really, really) happy with it, and while not many have had the experience to audition the base system, those who optioned it seem (like myself) to be pretty (or really, really) unhappy with it. Also, see this previous thread I started recently with similar gripes specific to the base setup, which the OP may find worth wasting a few minutes to parse.

Throughout these discussions, there are definitely valid points regarding garbage in/garbage out of source material, and I 100% agree that a good sound system offers a balanced presentation across all frequencies without bass over-emphasis. I actually feel that most car audio systems are guilty of scooping the low and high frequencies to give a false sense of definition and "richness" to compensate for actual fidelity. Despite this, and having been an freelance audio critic for the last few decades (a great intro to promptly clear a room) with way too much time invested in experimenting with different sources, file resolutions, balance/fader setting, eq settings, and different recordings/genres with my base system, I will humbly express that it's pretty mediocre with high-quality sources (flac files, lossless Tidal), and inexcusibly bad with low-fi (SXM, lower-res streaming/BT). It's a pity I hadn't had a chance to audition it before spec'ing my car since there weren't any local cars optioned with base systems, as maybe I would have taken the SSP upgrade a bit more seriously despite having little interest or application for atmos. Too bad since the relative silence of an EV cabin is a great environment for music listening.

So, I suppose this is a wordy confirmation for my fellow base (not bass) heads that you're not wrong for being underwhelmed by the stereo. You would be wrong, however, if you're underwhelmed with any aspect of actually driving the car :) After all, most race cars and roller-coasters don't even have stereo systems, right? Right? RIGHT?!?! 😅🫠
 
tmilone103 said:
I don't consider 50 old... I listen to Rock, POP and R&B/Hip Hop all which are the most listened to genres of music. I think adding an EQ and separate subwoofer control would be easy enough to do and would make the system sound much better and would allow people more opportunity to listen to music the way they want.

View attachment 16005
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I also listen predominantly to Pop, R&B, and Rock.

In fact, I write and mix Pop and R&B.

The Lucid is a more accurate representation of what I want a listener to hear than any other car I've ever played music in. The 'club bass' exists because at a club you don't care about how the music sounds; you care about how it feels. It is so overbearingly loud that it takes over every other sound, but that doesn't matter in a club because you're not meant to hear the music anyway; you're there to dance.

The Air isn't a club. It is an accurate representation of music as the artist and mixing engineer intended it to be heard. That may not be what you're used to, or what you like, and that's totally fine; but it is far from limited to sounding great on 'instrumental music.' It also sounds great on that, but for one reason: it is an accurate representation of what the artist and mixing engineer wanted you to hear.

Plenty of people hate fine dining, because they consider the price not worth the food, don't understand the artistry behind it or care for it, or simply are not that adventurous with their taste buds and prefer to stick to what they know. That doesn't make fine dining bad, it just makes it not for them.

Plenty of people hate accurate representations of music, and prefer to listen to music how they want to hear it, even if that means distorting it so that whole instruments and lines that the engineer and artist intended to be heard don't exist. That's also OK; it's not wrong. It's just not what the artist intended, just like someone disliking their plate is not what the chef intended.

Listen however you'd like; SS Pro is there to achieve a very specific purpose, which is to be as accurate as possible. That's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's OK!
 
borski said:
I also listen predominantly to Pop, R&B, and Rock.

In fact, I write and mix Pop and R&B.
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Side-bar: whoa! Do share! Unless that gets this thread canceled. In which case I'll just say, very cool!
 
borski said:
I also listen predominantly to Pop, R&B, and Rock.

In fact, I write and mix Pop and R&B.

The Lucid is a more accurate representation of what I want a listener to hear than any other car I've ever played music in. The 'club bass' exists because at a club you don't care about how the music sounds; you care about how it feels. It is so overbearingly loud that it takes over every other sound, but that doesn't matter in a club because you're not meant to hear the music anyway; you're there to dance.

The Air isn't a club. It is an accurate representation of music as the artist and mixing engineer intended it to be heard. That may not be what you're used to, or what you like, and that's totally fine; but it is far from limited to sounding great on 'instrumental music.' It also sounds great on that, but for one reason: it is an accurate representation of what the artist and mixing engineer wanted you to hear.

Plenty of people hate fine dining, because they consider the price not worth the food, don't understand the artistry behind it or care for it, or simply are not that adventurous with their taste buds and prefer to stick to what they know. That doesn't make fine dining bad, it just makes it not for them.

Plenty of people hate accurate representations of music, and prefer to listen to music how they want to hear it, even if that means distorting it so that whole instruments and lines that the engineer and artist intended to be heard don't exist. That's also OK; it's not wrong. It's just not what the artist intended, just like someone disliking their plate is not what the chef intended.

Listen however you'd like; SS Pro is there to achieve a very specific purpose, which is to be as accurate as possible. That's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's OK!
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Since I’m very much in to video, there’s a video analogy that perfectly represents the same phenomenon. Most people are used to a TV picture that’s overly blue and, at times, blown out due to a lack of judicious use of the brightness & contrast controls. When you show someone that’s lived with a picture like that a properly ISF calibrated picture, delivering an image as the director iintended, they usually dislike the picture.

I‘ve told people like that to try and live with the properly adjusted picture for a week and after that week go back to the settings they originally had. There‘s an excellent chance they’ll cringe when they see how bad their original image looked. If they still prefer the original image, hey, at least you tried.
 
hydbob said:
It won't. The system is not designed to be a mirror shaking thumping bass machine. If that's your jam, you'll need to install an aftermarket sub. But let's not kid ourselves and say the system sucks, it's just not for you which is okay. Plenty of people are blown away at how accurately the system is able to produce recordings in their recorded stated. The great thing about music is that you can adjust how you listen to it. Like bass, go for it, but let's not diminish the SSPro system for what it does.
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AirPlur said:
I think the gyst here is that those who optioned SSP are pretty (or really, really) happy with it, and while not many have had the experience to audition the base system, those who optioned it seem (like myself) to be pretty (or really, really) unhappy with it. Also, see this previous thread I started recently with similar gripes specific to the base setup, which the OP may find worth wasting a few minutes to parse.

Throughout these discussions, there are definitely valid points regarding garbage in/garbage out of source material, and I 100% agree that a good sound system offers a balanced presentation across all frequencies without bass over-emphasis. I actually feel that most car audio systems are guilty of scooping the low and high frequencies to give a false sense of definition and "richness" to compensate for actual fidelity. Despite this, and having been an freelance audio critic for the last few decades (a great intro to promptly clear a room) with way too much time invested in experimenting with different sources, file resolutions, balance/fader setting, eq settings, and different recordings/genres with my base system, I will humbly express that it's pretty mediocre with high-quality sources (flac files, lossless Tidal), and inexcusibly bad with low-fi (SXM, lower-res streaming/BT). It's a pity I hadn't had a chance to audition it before spec'ing my car since there weren't any local cars optioned with base systems, as maybe I would have taken the SSP upgrade a bit more seriously despite having little interest or application for atmos. Too bad since the relative silence of an EV cabin is a great environment for music listening.

So, I suppose this is a wordy confirmation for my fellow base (not bass) heads that you're not wrong for being underwhelmed by the stereo. You would be wrong, however, if you're underwhelmed with any aspect of actually driving the car :) After all, most race cars and roller-coasters don't even have stereo systems, right? Right? RIGHT?!?! 😅🫠
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Totally agree. Although Tidal or its equivalent will help the sound quality, I'm doubtful it will significantly improve improve it. I have had many cars over the years and using Spotify sounded excellent will all my previous car audio systems. I'm disappointed that this is not the case with the Lucid base system. I too would have gotten the pro system if I knew how poor the sound quality is with the basic surreal. Maybe Lucid can do something to improve the sound quality or upgrade to pro.
 
Mjrayd8 said:
Although Tidal or its equivalent will help the sound quality, I'm doubtful it will significantly improve improve it. I have had many cars over the years and using Spotify sounded excellent will all my previous car audio systems.
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It's worth trying Tidal; I'm curious how it sounds on the base SS. You can find a free trial, and it's easy to test.

But, to be clear, the reason Spotify sounded good on the previous car audio systems is because those systems were worse, and thus did not highlight the issues with the source material as much. I know it's weird to think of it that way, but that's the truth.

I really want to hear base SS now, to compare.
 
It’s a bit hard to compare Tesla systems. Tesla goes for punchy bass vs accurate sound production. Do agree overall quality of the sound and clarity is far superior on Lucid. Tesla is more the one you want if you want blaring bass and don’t care so much about the rest
 
I hope you had a passenger to help with the video, rather than you filming with one hand while driving at 76 in a 55?

Also - personal preference - you can change the CarPlay background to black and it blends in much better with the Lucid UI.
 
Spin Doctor said:
Also - personal preference - you can change the CarPlay background to black and it blends in much better with the Lucid UI.
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God, I want so much to agree with you, but the thin border around the rounded rectangle that is the actual projection is absolutely infuriating. I went back to one of the color ones just because I couldn't stand the garish border haha. Maybe that's just me.
 
stratus said:
Oh shite, you just went there.🤣
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Or it could also be ... a famous steakhouse is selling shite steaks at caviar prices. And, since it is well established that some people derive a lot of value from experiencing shite steaks at caviar prices for the bragging rights, it works out for all, right? In NYC, we have a situation with a very famous Shite/Caviar Steakhouse in Brooklyn. There, the waiters really get pushy about ordering only one particular cut. Ordering anything else is a big no-no for them. Oh, and to make it look even more Shite/Caviar, they will take only US Dollars in cash! It's not a far fetched example at all. This is a well known Shite/Caviar eatery and everyone has known about it for decades now.

My initial comment was to highlight that the Surreal Pro seems like pretty ordinary stereo at caviar prices.

But, as always, thank you for your comment.
 
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