Opinion of Harmon Larson?

[MrSmoofy]

Something weird I noticed with Tidal now is that when you first start the app and you have the car radio turned up the volume is much louder and seconds after that the volume decreases where to get a decent volume you must turn the car radio up past 20

 

[Revvdmedia]

Something weird I noticed with Tidal now is that when you first start the app and you have the car radio turned up the volume is much louder and seconds after that the volume decreases where to get a decent volume you must turn the car radio up past 20

I've had this same thing happen on Spotify on both my Stinger and my new BMW. For me, it happens if I turn the phone screen on and/or swipe to unlock. I think this has something to do with the Samsung equalizer that I use on my phone, it's like it's not active when the phone is idle (screen off) and sending music via Bluetooth, but unlocking the phone seems to activate the EQ which also ends up lowering the volume (due to how it works).

 

[seh0872]

If you're listening to FM, no wonder you're disappointed in the sound quality. Find an HD Radio station as soon as you can and you will hear a big difference. B&O is a definite step (or 2) up in the quality of the components.

Do you have speed sensitive volume control turned on in your settings?

Does the big jump in loudness occur even if you are parked, or only when moving?

It's not that the stereo is at one volume and then just gets louder out of no where...its the sensitivity between levels of the knob... like "1" is 50 db, and "2" jumps to 60 db or something like that (not actual measurements) whereas in my Audi or even my wife's Honda, "1" is 50db and "2" is 52db, and to get to 60db you have to turn it to 5 or 6 or the like.

It seems in Kia you get "can you turn that stereo down", you turn it down one notch and its "I can't hear it". But there is no inbetween.

Follow what I mean?

But I do need to spend some time playing around with the settings from suggestions on this board and others.

 

[MrSmoofy]

It's not that the stereo is at one volume and then just gets louder out of no where...its the sensitivity between levels of the knob... like "1" is 50 db, and "2" jumps to 60 db or something like that (not actual measurements) whereas in my Audi or even my wife's Honda, "1" is 50db and "2" is 52db, and to get to 60db you have to turn it to 5 or 6 or the like.

It seems in Kia you get "can you turn that stereo down", you turn it down one notch and its "I can't hear it". But there is no inbetween.

Follow what I mean?

But I do need to spend some time playing around with the settings from suggestions on this board and others.

Weird mine is nothing like that.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Weird mine is nothing like that.

I've begun to suspect a programed in variability. When I listen to the volume cranked up around twenty-something, then the difference between clicks is very small. But when I keep the volume down around 6 to 8 and listen there for a while, the volume down there can be equal to what I was listening to in the high teens before. At that point, yes, the change between clicks is far more pronounced. But since it is already loud enough, I don't want to crank it up higher. It's as if the sound system adjusted itself to the different listening levels. I've never explored any possible options to tinker with this.

 

[SafetyPilotCal]

It's not that the stereo is at one volume and then just gets louder out of no where...its the sensitivity between levels of the knob... like "1" is 50 db, and "2" jumps to 60 db or something like that (not actual measurements) whereas in my Audi or even my wife's Honda, "1" is 50db and "2" is 52db, and to get to 60db you have to turn it to 5 or 6 or the like.

It seems in Kia you get "can you turn that stereo down", you turn it down one notch and its "I can't hear it". But there is no inbetween.

Follow what I mean?

But I do need to spend some time playing around with the settings from suggestions on this board and others.

That's exactly how mine is and it drives me mad. It's the worst on SiriusXM. It's not AS bad on CarPlay, and pretty much nonexistent with bluetooth.

 

[seh0872]

Well, I won't be subscribing to SiriusXM then. LOL. Ugh. Seems like a firmware update could fix this...

 

[Revvdmedia]

SiriusXM sounds like garbage anyway. Good riddance.

 

[Michael Jack]

hey 5tinger, I'm not clear on what you mean, are you referring to the scaling up of volume levels?
e.g. Volume Level 30 should be 1.5 times louder than 20 (I know the sound pressure increase would be very high, I'm using those numbers as an example of linear or geometric increase expectation)

volume level 30 should NOT be 1.5 times level 20. People hear sound differences logarithmically and levels should adjust accordingly. Each volume level should be 10% higher than the one below it (about the level most people discern a difference). That's not what they did here though. Level 2 sounds twice as loud as Level 1 whereas there is zero perceptible difference between level 20 and level 21. It's poor design

 

[OneIota]

Wondering on thoughts on this - I usually listen to podcasts and Spotify through Bluetooth and sometimes wired through Android Auto. I usually have Quantum Logic to On Stage for music, Audience for podcasts. Have Clari Fi and Speed Dependent volume off. Not relevant, but I have Spotify on very high quality, normalize volume off. Usually my tone settings are Bass 8/Mid 5/Treble 4. I notice that the audible bass tones (especially the "thump") of the bass seems to drift down and the treble (particularly some "shrillness" of some music notes or speech) seems to drift up over time gradually over time (like over days not the same drive session). This is without touching any of the settings on the Sound settings, everything the same with daily driving. It seems to go back to what it previously was upon doing a Default to the sound settings then putting it back to where it was again. My usual listening volume is around 6-7, I also notice that sometimes I have to go up to 10-13 to get the same volume at the same time the other drifts happen. Not a huge problem but have done this 2 or 3 times now. Anyone notice anything similar?