My Perfect EQ Settings (Dynaudio)

[scanesare]

sound preference is like art, everyone has their own taste and idea of what looks or sounds good. Also you may find some of us have systems not installed or setup properly by the factory or sound files which are not of a good enough quality.

As mentioned I have no complaints with Dynaudio, infact I even went out and bought a set of Dynaudio Xeo3 book shelf speakers for my desk I liked the sound that much. 

You will find with the better speakers and sound systems you will hear all the flaws and loss of quality (compression) in a low quality music file. I have noticed this with music files myself. I now as a rule ensure I have music files which are at least 320kbps or FLAC (256kbps bare minimum).  I have listened to music files with lower bit rates which sound fine on some run of the mill sound systems but not so great on the Dynaudio system in the car or even my Pioneer reference headphones.  But when i sourced the same music with a higher bit rate of 320kbps and played it on the Dynaudio system in the car the difference was like night and day. 

The more you compress a file the worse it will be in quality. 

Hope this helps. 

I though decent mp3 quality (320k+) to be a prerequisite for anyone participating in such a discussion so I didn't even mention that. No point in discussing EQ settings and audio fidelity with unknown source 128k files obviously.

As jez6363 said earlier, a meeting and real-time testing between two people with different views on the Dynaudio's sound reproduction would probably be the only to tell for sure what is the case. Maybe interesting things like different results between two cars could emerge.

[jez6363]

The problem is not the quality of the mp3s themselves (they are a mix of 256 and 320). It is the system in some fashion. It is not a small difference in quality - it is massive - far bigger than the difference between 128 and 320 bit rates. With the eq in neutral, the mp3s sound as if the singer has been put in a box and the bass booms (from the door speakers) - very unpleasant to listen to at volume.

I am less convinced now that it is just a case of SD card vs Bluetooth though. I use Poweramp and Google Play Music on my phone. With the app eq set to neutral, Google Play Music is similar to the SD card but with maybe a bit less bass. Poweramp is noticeably crisper when set to neutral. But with both, by using the EQ, you can easily get some decent settings (with Dynaudio all set to neutral).

I also compared 256 mp3 vs 192 wma - they were basically identical in the car - you would need a much better listening environment than a moving car to tell them apart anyway.

There is something wrong, at least with some systems and media sources. Maybe it is just default choices they made about how to set things up, but when combined with the useless EQ facility, you cannot correct for it when playing from SD card. My guess is that my favourite genre, rock music, is far from what they tuned it for, and also they did not tune it to be neutral. Given they put a sound maker in the car (which I had disabled before delivery), maybe they decided Golf R = poser = massive bass, which unfortunately means rubbish sound quality...

I do notice that when playing DAB and listening to other music, it seems much more suitable - crisp and the bass works better, though 80s stations show the same problem when playing Queen etc.

Brenbo - I guess you have an older version of Dynaudio, set up quite differently to mine (by the factory). It is a shame you are in Cornwall!

In case it is relevant, the part numbers  are:

Device part number: 3Q0035842A
Hardware: H24
Software: 0245
Media Codec: 2101.0.0.10

[Brenbo]

I can check the codes on my Dynaudio at some point to see.  My car is coming up for 3 years old this October.  I ordered it when the order books were opened for the MK7 GTI PP.  I will be changing my car for a Golf R in September with Dynaudio, all going well with my factory build time schedule.  I can let you know once I wear my new speakers in if my music sounds worse, better or indifferent. I do not primarially listen to rock myself.  I mainly listen to trance & house i.e. Anjunadeep etc,. I have listened to other genres in my car as well including rock in the past.  They have all sounded OK, but I do change the profiles between Authentic, Dynamic and just plain old flat (Individual without EQ adjustment). I have also tried adjusting the different focus and EQ's.  But found no real need to do this on my system because the genre of music I listen to is fine on the setup of my Dynaudio system. 

I have also thought before while reading this thread one of the variables would be the genre of music people listen to.  So I can see where you are coming from with the comment on the system not being setup for specifically listening to rock music. 

As a side note when i first got my car the sound was not great at all until I had worn my speakers in then suddenly it started to sounded great.  How new is your Dynaudio, have you worn in your speakers yet? 

[iandjm]

I am changing from a 2.5 year old Gti to an R in a few weeks.  When I test drive a new R the difference in the dynaudio was massive.  I even thought they have put the wrong speakers in my car!  The bass from the front speakers was far far better, and even better than the dynaudio in my Mk6 (which sounded great without the sub in the spare wheel)   I am wondering if they have ungraded the system since the 2014 MY

[2014GTi]

I can confirm that the DynAudio in my Golf R sounds better than the one in my 2013 GTI PP.
Not sure what they have changed, seems like better & clearer bass.

[fredgroves]

The likely main reason for any difference is that the newest Mk7's have MIB2.

Most of what is being discussed here is to do with the way the MIB decodes the audio files. I've noticed this a few years back when I swapped from using a non-Apple MP3 player to an Ipod - same audio files, just sounds terrible via the Ipod.

The audio decode is done in software, but the software for the MIB2 is different to the MIB1 - who knows what has been tweeked. Its a shame that even with an expensive audio setup that you cannot have better control of the underlying software.

If the guys playing at hacking the thing ever manage to get right beneath the covers, it might be possible to change something.

[iandjm]

I can confirm that the DynAudio in my Golf R sounds better than the one in my 2013 GTI PP.
Not sure what they have changed, seems like better & clearer bass.

I was blown away by the system in the new R.  Cant wait to get it now

[Bubba Nutkin]

I've just tried a CD in my mk7 GTI's Dynaudio........well, what an improvement over the iPod I was using before!  Deep but clear bass, natural midrange - a night and day difference from the reproduction via the iPod, even for exactly the same track.  I actually heard the subwoofer for the first time too.
It seems likely that it's either the compressed format of the iPod, or the software decoding it that's causing disappointing quality from the Dynaudio.  I haven't tried using an SD card and shan't bother.

Has anyone copied CD's to the in-car hard drive, any good results to report?

Has anyone tried using a non-Apple MP3 device?

Bubba.
 

[fredgroves]

I don't think the system supports in-car CD ripping. It only allows data CD's with audio files on it to be copied to the NavPro internal SSD.

You say you haven't tried a SD card, why not? You should try some 320k MP3's via SD and also some FLAC files for comparison.

You'll notice all of these will sound really rather different for the same song.

Even though the FLAC and the CD are almost perfect digital copies of each other, the difference will be in the DAC processing of them. The CD player is probably using a hardware DAC whereas any file based music will be using a software one.

As for a non-IPod player... well, good luck finding one these days! I do have a few old ones, the only problem being is that they will only connect via the 3.5mm audio jack. It will work (and probably sound just fine) but of course then apart from volume level you have no control via the head unit or the steering wheel. That would feel very retro indeed.

TBH for most of us we actually get used to however it sounds and give up caring. My "Napalm Death live at the Brixton Academy"  sounds just as good from MP3 as it does from CD

[Watts]

FLAC, DAC, MP3, SDs, formats, what a load of old pony.

This is what you all need: