Oct II/Bolero Sound too "Bright"?

[haithamali]

Hello,

Does anyone else find the stock sound system (2010 Octavia RS with Bolero) too "bright" or tinny?

Listening to high pitched guitar sounds are torture! Guns n Roses, November Rain for example, but even other types of music, the midrange and bass is acceptable but the tweeters seem overloaded. Reducing the treble in the equaliser helps slightly.

I don't want to start changing the sound system in the car but does anyone have the same problem? solved it?

I have a set of Rainbow Profi Vanadium tweeters with their crossovers at home but I don't think they would work well amplified from the standard head unit..

Also is there any way to get pre-outs from the Bolero?

Thanks

[haithamali]

no-one?

[Raglits]

Someone has suggested some sound deadening on the doors and maybe soldering some capacitors in series with the tweeters to try and improve things. I agree with you about the sound, but just don't have the time to look at it at the moment :-(

See here

[ChrisRs]

Sorry, but I think mine is the best ICE system Ive ever had in a car.

Fiddle about with the bass and treble settings and it will improve

[Raglits]

Sorry, but I think mine is the best ICE system Ive ever had in a car.

Fiddle about with the bass and treble settings and it will improve

I've heard better than this, but also had a lot worse. The one I had in my Jag was fantastic and my dad's Volvo had pretty good ICE in it too.

My Saabs (9-3) were really bad, but the one in my Dads Saab (9-5) was pretty good...

Fiddling with the Bass, Mid and Treble helps a bit, but it's still not quite right...

[haithamali]

i tried around with the equalisation ... whatever I do it makes it sound slightly better for one track but rubbish in another.

I can't see how sound deadening will help with the high end ..

I'm tempted to start a new project!!! had a full SQ setup in my previous car (Golf Mk4) and have everything still at home ... the cubbyhole in the left side of the boot is perfect for a custom subwoofer enclosure ...

[mannyo]

What is the input source, the Bolero is a very good headunit and will highlight any shortcomings in the audio source which other poorer headunits tend to mask.

If you are using MP3's then try encoding the original CD at a much higher bitrate, the difference between 192K and 320K is quiet dramatic. Dont reencode the current MP3 as that will make the situation far worse. At the very least use 256K, never use 192K or 128K as they tend to sound bright and harsh.

[Mute]

whatever I do it makes it sound slightly better for one track but rubbish in another.

That's my problem with it. It sounds amazing for one type of music then you switch to something else like a podcast and it rips your ear drums out. Nasty

It's not all bad, the Bolero's fine, and the Bass reproduction is very capable but mid range sucks and the tweeters are trying to cover frequencies way lower than they should be.

A cheap RC high pass filter (1 resistor, 1 capacitor) could be a cheap fix for the tweeters, the sound they produce seems fine to me, they're just trying to do too much that's all. Equaliser will keep the bass under control too for the most part. Other than that i don't know what to do. I don't exactly want to throw all the speakers away and start again because i think it's close enough to being good, it just needs some fettling.

[mannyo]

Podcasts are typically low quality bitrate audio to start with though, and little can improve this.

[haithamali]

What is the input source, the Bolero is a very good headunit and will highlight any shortcomings in the audio source which other poorer headunits tend to mask.

If you are using MP3's then try encoding the original CD at a much higher bitrate, the difference between 192K and 320K is quiet dramatic. Dont reencode the current MP3 as that will make the situation far worse. At the very least use 256K, never use 192K or 128K as they tend to sound bright and harsh.

Yes of course. All my music is either on original CD's or 320 kbps mp3 rips, and only ripped myself from the original CD's I own.

That's my problem with it. It sounds amazing for one type of music then you switch to something else like a podcast and it rips your ear drums out. Nasty

It's not all bad, the Bolero's fine, and the Bass reproduction is very capable but mid range sucks and the tweeters are trying to cover frequencies way lower than they should be.

A cheap RC high pass filter (1 resistor, 1 capacitor) could be a cheap fix for the tweeters, the sound they produce seems fine to me, they're just trying to do too much that's all. Equaliser will keep the bass under control too for the most part. Other than that i don't know what to do. I don't exactly want to throw all the speakers away and start again because i think it's close enough to being good, it just needs some fettling.

That's what bothers me. It is a lot better than most factory fit systems, but it just needs a bit of fixing. The resistor idea is intriguing - what's RC?? and how to define the high pass frequency and cutoff curve with just a capacitor and resistor?

Podcasts are typically low quality bitrate audio to start with though, and little can improve this.

Yes, you are right. I have not tried podcasts in the car yet, I'm only trying with high quality sources.

[Mute]

Podcasts are typically low quality bitrate audio to start with though, and little can improve this.

It's not the quality that's the issue, its the vastly different frequencies. Podcasts are all midrange and no bottom or top end (most well produced podcasts will use a compressor to ensure this). But if i've been listening to rock on the Bolerio, then i've got mid range turned right up on the equaliser in search of good sound. So when you switch to something that's only midrange, it rips your eardrums out. Nasty!.

The resistor idea is intriguing - what's RC?? and how to define the high pass frequency and cutoff curve with just a capacitor and resistor?

RC high-pass filter. R = resistor, C = capacitor. It's the most basic form of passive bandpass filter. A capacitor blocks DC current, and its impedance is inversely related to the frequency across it. By choosing resistor size and capacitor size you can design a bandpass filter that only allows high frequencies to pass. The sums to work out what size cap and resistor are required are non-trivial (the impedance isn't a real number, it's a complex number - real and complex as in the mathematical terms) but if you google it, there's tons of online calculators to do the sums.

I'd link to the wikipediia page but having just read it, it's pretty naff so my naff description's the best i've got for now :p

[GeorgeL]

That's my problem with it. It sounds amazing for one type of music then you switch to something else like a podcast and it rips your ear drums out. Nasty

It's not all bad, the Bolero's fine, and the Bass reproduction is very capable but mid range sucks and the tweeters are trying to cover frequencies way lower than they should be.

A cheap RC high pass filter (1 resistor, 1 capacitor) could be a cheap fix for the tweeters, the sound they produce seems fine to me, they're just trying to do too much that's all. Equaliser will keep the bass under control too for the most part. Other than that i don't know what to do. I don't exactly want to throw all the speakers away and start again because i think it's close enough to being good, it just needs some fettling.

I am 100% in agreement with you here! I have mine set a Bass 4/5 Mid 0 Treb - 2.

[pwcar]

The upper mid range seems very honky, not smooth.

I think the way the rear tweeters are close to the ears of the front seat occupnats doesn't help either.