UX 2.5 OTA Update

[rfc805]

Soooo.. I'm going to be a voice of dissent.

I have a 2025 GT with SSP delivered at the end of Sept this year.

The 2.5 update seems to have significantly changed the volume control (in a good way, this was a gripe of mine for sure).

But I hear no quality difference. The bass is the same as it always was, though I think my bass was always better than most people reported, even with 2.3.10?

At somewhere 60-80hz, it still has nothing there and below. Bass above 80hz has always been good/clear/fairly loud.

 

[LucidGoosey]

Also no quality difference here, it still sounds "fine" but the max volume and bass still seem wayyy lower than standard.

 

[marsarbu]

To improve the sub 80Hz response they need different speakers/location, and it's not gonna happen. What they did is simply boost the lower frequencies for the front woofers, probably in the 80 - 100Hz range. That's why you can "hear" more bass but you can't "feel" it. As a result it's boomy and overwhelming, like in a 2017 Fiesta.

The stage also moved aggressively to the front.

Like I said, CoPilot must have written the code update

 

[borski]

Soooo.. I'm going to be a voice of dissent.

I have a 2025 GT with SSP delivered at the end of Sept this year.

The 2.5 update seems to have significantly changed the volume control (in a good way, this was a gripe of mine for sure).

But I hear no quality difference. The bass is the same as it always was, though I think my bass was always better than most people reported, even with 2.3.10?

At somewhere 60-80hz, it still has nothing there and below. Bass above 80hz has always been good/clear/fairly loud.

Have you confirmed you had the TSC applied? What did your email say?

This sounds like you haven’t had the TSC applied.

 

[borski]

To improve the sub 80Hz response they need different speakers/location, and it's not gonna happen. What they did is simply boost the lower frequencies for the front woofers, probably in the 80 - 100Hz range. That's why you can "hear" more bass but you can't "feel" it. As a result it's boomy and overwhelming, like in a 2017 Fiesta.

The stage also moved aggressively to the front.

Like I said, CoPilot must have written the code update

That is not all they did. To my ears, they also adjusted the crossover, and retuned the entire soundstage, not just moving the balance forward.

 

[marsarbu]

That is not all they did. To my ears, they also adjusted the crossover, and retuned the entire soundstage, not just moving the balance forward.

I tried to edit my post, but too late.

What I meant on the stage, is that - I think - they also increased the volume and / or changed the crossovers on the center speaker, because the mids are very hot now and they are pulling the stage from the front of the driver, to the center of the car. On the dedicated car audio forums there's an endless debate where the stage should be: in the drivers' face or in the center of the car. I prefer the former, this update seems to lean towards the latter. Personal thing.

I'm a bit of a car audio nerd. I have testing equipment, mics array, software, the entire kitchen. Haven't tested the update yet but I can post the response graphs when I do, if anyone's interested.

 

[borski]

I tried to edit my post, but too late.

What I meant on the stage, is that - I think - they also increased the volume and / or changed the crossovers on the center speaker, because the mids are very hot now and they are pulling the stage from the front of the driver, to the center of the car. On the dedicated car audio forums there's an endless debate where the stage should be: in the drivers' face or in the center of the car. I prefer the former, this update seems to lean towards the latter. Personal thing.

I'm a bit of a car audio nerd. I have testing equipment, mics array, software, the entire kitchen. Haven't tested the update yet but I can post the response graphs when I do, if anyone's interested.

If you run a frequency sweep please post the graphs. I was planning on doing the same but can’t find my mic

 

[rfc805]

Have you confirmed you had the TSC applied? What did your email say?

This sounds like you haven’t had the TSC applied.

No email, do you think that still applies to MY 2025? I would presume for a car that came out of the factory in Sept, it'd already be done, but you could be right.

 

[onyxjade]

Still seems like bluetooth music is still inferior to using Tidal - audio quality isn't as good, still sounds granier/less clear than the native Tidal app. I'm wondering when they implement android auto whether or not they'll get around to improving the bluetooth quality connection (also for phone calls as well).

Otherwise, I like the bass a lot more. Very good improvement.

 

[Adnillien]

Still seems like bluetooth music is still inferior to using Tidal - audio quality isn't as good, still sounds granier/less clear than the native Tidal app. I'm wondering when they implement android auto whether or not they'll get around to improving the bluetooth quality connection (also for phone calls as well).

Otherwise, I like the bass a lot more. Very good improvement.

Bluetooth is bandwidth limited so the quality will never be as good as other sources. AA like Car Play will connect via WiFi which has much greater bandwidth.

 

[JGard18]

I've played a few more songs now (all via FLAC files on USB) and I'm going to agree that it's not necessarily better. Overall everything sounds more "echo-ey" if that's a word. There's a stronger focus on the front center speaker, which makes it sound just kind of weird and out of balance with the rest of the system.

I tested with Ten Thousand Hours by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis first and the bass is definitely more pronounced, and you can almost feel it and overall I was happy with the sound. Then I tried Maroon by Taylor Swift and it sounded like my front woofers were just falling apart from the long low bass tones. It was really not pleasant to the ears at all.

It's going to take a bunch of messing with the EQ overall to get it where all music sounds "good" now, I think.

 

[Verosk]

To improve the sub 80Hz response they need different speakers/location, and it's not gonna happen. What they did is simply boost the lower frequencies for the front woofers, probably in the 80 - 100Hz range. That's why you can "hear" more bass but you can't "feel" it. As a result it's boomy and overwhelming, like in a 2017 Fiesta.

The stage also moved aggressively to the front.

Like I said, CoPilot must have written the code update

It is extremely boomy and overwhelming in the rear of the car, not luxurious at all imho. I understand the need for more bass, but the way it sounded wasn’t refined at all, where you hear more bass but not actually feel it because the car was vibrating uncomfortably. They really need to tune the audio again in the next update because no stock OEM car would vibrate like that, let alone in a $100k luxury car. Whereas before the system played to its strengths which was the advertised “studio quality sound system” with great reproduction of midrange that had great vocals sound and clarity all around, only bad thing about it was the muted bass. Now they went OVERBOARD with the bass and dialed back on what was already good before.

And ain’t nothing wrong with people that want more bass, but the system has to be tuned the right way first, extreme biased towards either too low or high bass won’t work for either side of the listener’s spectrum. Tuned it right, then let the customer choose whether they want more or less bass.

 

[stratus]

I've played a few more songs now (all via FLAC files on USB) and I'm going to agree that it's not necessarily better. Overall everything sounds more "echo-ey" if that's a word. There's a stronger focus on the front center speaker, which makes it sound just kind of weird and out of balance with the rest of the system.

I tested with Ten Thousand Hours by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis first and the bass is definitely more pronounced, and you can almost feel it and overall I was happy with the sound. Then I tried Maroon by Taylor Swift and it sounded like my front woofers were just falling apart from the long low bass tones. It was really not pleasant to the ears at all.

It's going to take a bunch of messing with the EQ overall to get it where all music sounds "good" now, I think.

Echo-ey is a good description. I also find the vocals on Atmos from the front speaker absolutely caustic. My wife said the same thing. Non- Atmos sounds pretty good, but Atmos, in my opinion, has been pretty much destroyed.

 

[Lucken]

That is not all they did. To my ears, they also adjusted the crossover, and retuned the entire soundstage, not just moving the balance forward.

Did you ever perform the objective testing you talked about? That would be interesting to see, particularly if you had a pre & post 2.5 test.

Edit: OK, I see you couldn’t find your mic.

 

[marsarbu]

Did you ever perform the objective testing you talked about? That would be interesting to see, particularly if you had a pre & post 2.5 test.

In my exp is very hard to deduce the crossover settings just with the mic and a freq sweep. There is distortion, echo, reflection, reverberation, etc. If you want to be hardcore you need to tap directly into each speaker and see where it starts and where it stops playing. That's going to tell you the range, hence the crossover config. I have done that on my Palisade because I replaced the entire sound system, but I don't have the urge nor the time to do it on the Lucid, because even with this last update, the sound is not terrible.

 

[Lucken]

In my exp is very hard to deduce the crossover settings just with the mic and a freq sweep. There is distortion, echo, reflection, reverberation, etc. If you want to be hardcore you need to tap directly into each speaker and see where it starts and where it stops playing. That's going to tell you the range, hence the crossover config. I have done that on my Palisade because I replaced the entire sound system, but I don't have the urge nor the time to do it on the Lucid, because even with this last update, the sound is not terrible.

Interesting, I’m not hearing that at all. Yes, certain songs are too boomy in the rear seat when optimally adjusted in the front, but I don’t hear these issues at all in the front seat.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Wow! What a diversity of opinion among a fairly large sample size! I have 2.5 installed on my SSP-equipped Pure with the TSB tape fix in place but not the improved (and required) TSC tape fix. As is, I'm pretty happy with the sound improvement, but I'm just a Spotify junkie. I wanted to get the TSC fix quickly installed in order to activate the remaining feature enhancements, but maybe I should hold back a while.

 

[McGriddle]

When I returned to me car this afternoon, I too noticed that the system was rebooting as I was preparing to drive. After it restarted, the changes to the sound system must have been activated even though I haven't officially had the hardware adjustment (which is scheduled for this Friday). Previously I did have the "tape fix" performed which may have been sufficient for them to activate the update? Regardless, it's now active.

As others have mentioned, bass in the rear is certainly more than adequate and a bit boomy which I do prefer. However, to prevent it from being too boomy, I've reduced the bass down two notches from center. Certainly, my aftermarket subwoofer is no longer needed.

What I did not expect was the volume level change. Now at around 13-15% volume, I can measure around 78 - 82 dB. Previously, I would need to slide the volume much higher (> 50% if I recall) to reach similar dB.

I agree with others that the overall sound appears to be tweaked with more echo to mimic a larger sound stage.

Overall, I'm pleased with the update since I felt the bass to be too lacking previously (hence my previous addition of a subwoofer). I did notice a touch of muddiness to "punchy" bass in the front seat... but I think that could be due to the lack of having the official fix done to my car which I'll still have them perform on Friday.

 

[SaratogaLefty]

Well here are three recordings I listened to this afternoon that sounded good to me with the Borksi settings of 5-2-2.

 

[MGRMLN]

Well here are three recordings I listened to this afternoon that sounded good to me with the Borksi settings of 5-2-2.

Yikes. Maybe before the 2.5 update! 5-2-2 would be way too much for me now.
My settings are now all flat 0-0-0.