Ceremony by Joy Division on the B&O Sound System

[Jimrpa]

I’m one of these types who keeps the sound settings “flat” and centered. I’m just like that. To me, even though, I have the system set to “surround”, the “sound stage” has always sounded like it was in the front center of the car (imagine cars from the 1960s) with only 1 center dash mounted speaker). This was regardless of source - SiriusXM, iPhone through wireless CarPlay (so streaming high quality music over Wi-Fi), and iPhone over USB C. I’ve just accepted this as the way the audio engineers intended the system to sound.
The other night, for fun, I queued up the one studio recording of Ceremony by Joy Division that exists. Long story short - the sound just exploded around me. The “sound stage” was properly in the middle of the car, the bass was clear and not slightly muffled and everything just sounded “right”. And it’s important to know that this is a crappy recording. There are no good recordings of Ceremony by Joy Division (look it up if you’re interested). This is the only piece of music I’ve ever found that I would say makes the b&o sound system really stand out. Anyone else have the experience of the b&o sound system having a very front-center biased sound stage and bland sound balance?

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[JryErok]

I recently had a chance to do a quick test of the B&O system and I had the same impression. I played with the fader settings, enabled Surround sound and it was much better for my taste, but I'm still a little bit concerned that it may bother me when I finally get the car.

 

[markboris]

Hey Jim, while I haven't seemed out the song Ceremony to listen on the system yet, I wanted to chime in on a couple of things you mentioned.

When you set the system to "surround" it does just what a surround system does at home and uses the center channel for voice. That is why the system doesn't have as much of a wide soundstage in this mode on most songs. With surround off, the center channel is barely on and the music is smeared across the left and right speakers. Most tracks sound similar in this mode but in the surround mode, you are right and some tracks really take on a new depth. I have come across a few tracks that have done this but can't remember specifically which ones right. now. While I don't ever use the surround setting in cars, the Mach-E is the first car I have ever used this setting and really enjoy the way it sounds. It anchors the voice dead center and it really brings up the volume of the rear channels with specific ambient music.

You also mentioned you keep your tone controls flat. I think everyone hears music differently and some like more or less bass , presence (midrange) and high end to suit their liking. I use a small spectrum analyzer to check out the audio frequency in cars and none are the same of course. In fact there was a definite difference between my Premium which had vinyl interior and my GT which has a more cloth interior. I had to bring up the treble one more notch over the setting I had in the Premium. To get a fairly flat response above 1 kHZ, I have the midrange setting up two notches and the treble up 4 notches. Of course there is the typical roll off above 8 kHZ which is normal.

 

[Jimrpa]

Hey Jim, while I haven't seemed out the song Ceremony to listen on the system yet, I wanted to chime in on a couple of things you mentioned.

When you set the system to "surround" it does just what a surround system does at home and uses the center channel for voice. That is why the system doesn't have as much of a wide soundstage in this mode on most songs. With surround off, the center channel is barely on and the music is smeared across the left and right speakers. Most tracks sound similar in this mode but in the surround mode, you are right and some tracks really take on a new depth. I have come across a few tracks that have done this but can't remember specifically which ones right. now. While I don't ever use the surround setting in cars, the Mach-E is the first car I have ever used this setting and really enjoy the way it sounds. It anchors the voice dead center and it really brings up the volume of the rear channels with specific ambient music.

You also mentioned you keep your tone controls flat. I think everyone hears music differently and some like more or less bass , presence (midrange) and high end to suit their liking. I use a small spectrum analyzer to check out the audio frequency in cars and none are the same of course. In fact there was a definite difference between my Premium which had vinyl interior and my GT which has a more cloth interior. I had to bring up the treble one more notch over the setting I had in the Premium. To get a fairly flat response above 1 kHZ, I have the midrange setting up two notches and the treble up 4 notches. Of course there is the typical roll off above 8 kHZ which is normal.

Thanks Mark! One of my big issues is that, in the “era of streaming”, it seems that mixing engineers are biased slamming up the bass regardless of distortion so, instead of clearly hearing a bass track, all you ever hear is a dull thud-thud-thud, or an occasional thump-thump-thump. Sadly, once it’s messed up in mixing, there’s little that can be done to clean things up in playback.

 

[ohmslaw]

What drives me nuts about all these systems is I am sure whatever audio processing chipset they use probably has so much customization options all all they give you is “bass, mid, treble” adjustments.

I miss my ELS system in my 2005 Acura. Still to this day the best sounding stock audio system I have ever had. Firing up the 5.1 recording of the London Symphony I had would be pure bliss.

 

[Bonehead]

Jim - you have excellent taste in vehicles and music.

 

[markboris]

Thanks Mark! One of my big issues is that, in the “era of streaming”, it seems that mixing engineers are biased slamming up the bass regardless of distortion so, instead of clearly hearing a bass track, all you ever hear is a dull thud-thud-thud, or an occasional thump-thump-thump. Sadly, once it’s messed up in mixing, there’s little that can be done to clean things up in playback.

Jim, I agree with you about the bass and didn't even mention it in my last post because you don't want to get me started about that subject. For others that may not have seen my thread on adding a decent sub/amp, here it is. https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/adding-a-decent-subwoofer-amp-to-your-mach-e.5481/

There have been many members here who I have personally talked to and have followed my suggestion and added this sub/amp. It really does change the audio system for the better. The OEM sub is very boomy and has no low end at all. Eliminating that boom and adding actual deep bass really helps out. While I did use the 12" version in my Premium, I am using the 10" version in my GT because I wanted to keep the cargo floor on the lower level for my frequent cargo passenger (my doggie). The 12" does play deeper but the 10" does well with 90% of the audio most would listen to.

 

[jjhenry]

I also like the Surround mode. I have the fader set heavily to the rear to make the sound stage more enveloping, but some tracks still seem to come from just the center channel.

 

[Logal727]

I’m one of these types who keeps the sound settings “flat” and centered. I’m just like that. To me, even though, I have the system set to “surround”, the “sound stage” has always sounded like it was in the front center of the car (imagine cars from the 1960s) with only 1 center dash mounted speaker). This was regardless of source - SiriusXM, iPhone through wireless CarPlay (so streaming high quality music over Wi-Fi), and iPhone over USB C. I’ve just accepted this as the way the audio engineers intended the system to sound.
The other night, for fun, I queued up the one studio recording of Ceremony by Joy Division that exists. Long story short - the sound just exploded around me. The “sound stage” was properly in the middle of the car, the bass was clear and not slightly muffled and everything just sounded “right”. And it’s important to know that this is a crappy recording. There are no good recordings of Ceremony by Joy Division (look it up if you’re interested). This is the only piece of music I’ve ever found that I would say makes the b&o sound system really stand out. Anyone else have the experience of the b&o sound system having a very front-center biased sound stage and bland sound balance?

Yes, check out some Beatles tunes that are in spatial audio on Apple Music, directional sound from everywhere. Also The Sandman on Audible sounds absolutely fantastic on Premium MME.

 

[Jimrpa]

Jim - you have excellent taste in vehicles and music.

Why thank you ? Sadly, most of the NO stuff after 1990 is … lame.

 

[JohnnyForensic]

What drives me nuts about all these systems is I am sure whatever audio processing chipset they use probably has so much customization options all all they give you is “bass, mid, treble” adjustments.

I miss my ELS system in my 2005 Acura. Still to this day the best sounding stock audio system I have ever had. Firing up the 5.1 recording of the London Symphony I had would be pure bliss.

Praise. The ELS in my 2019 Acura RDX was like a pair of studio headphones on wheels. I read an article once calling it "the best sound system in any car under $100,000," and I just said "yup."

 

[ohmslaw]

Praise. The ELS in my 2019 Acura RDX was like a pair of studio headphones on wheels. I read an article once calling it "the best sound system in any car under $100,000," and I just said "yup."

If you have ever taken apart any stock stereo system many are by Panasonic or some other manufacturer not matching the external branding. (My Highlanders JBL system is all Panasonic parts). I loved that Acura basically called bullshit on that practice and just made something good with their own branding.

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