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Stereo setting, or Surround setting?

11K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  Oreo 
#1 ·
Was playing around with my audio settings today after the dealer reset/reprogrammed the ACM to correct the dead battery issue. Anyway, Discovered two choices - stereo or surround. I usually prefer sound without a lot of alterations, but tried the "surround" setting and it was clean and better to my ear. Anyone else mess with this setting? Opinions/preferences?
 
#3 ·
Yep. The Sony. I'm a rock and roll fan, and vintage Rolling Stones was pretty impressive on the alternate, surround setting.
 
#6 ·
It would depend on the source of what I am listening to. Almost everything I am listening to in the car is only going to have 2 maybe 2.1 channels, so I leave it in stereo. Without the source being in 5.1 or more, the audio reciever is just putting the source through a matrix of sorts and making up new channels, which when I tried it I thought it did a bad job doing.

But I was streaming Spotify through blue tooth, which is already twice compressed data. Trying to expand that to fill up 5 or 7 channels just made it sound worse. Maybe a CD or HD radio would sound better (certainly not satellite), but I haven't tried. Even that is usually only stereo though, so it still is subject to the matrix and not what the artist was hearing when they created the music.
 
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#7 ·
I've only tried it using Spotify like SludgeFactory, and also though Surround sounded pretty badly mixed. Stereo was more clear and the bass hit harder. I've never tried using USB .flac files or CDs in this car yet, tho.
 
#8 ·
I played around with this when I got the car as well, however I didn't try it with different input methods. (FM/HD RADIO/Sirius/Bluetooth etc..)

I would fine tune it... along with the Bass and Treble settings, however it sucks how one setting is set for all. I wish the system would keep a preset of sound settings for FM, and a different set for Bluetooth, Different setting for USB, etc. Unless there is a way, and I am just not seeing the option?

Back in the day you really only had CD's and FM radio so it wasn't a huge deal, however now all the input methods come with different quality audio. For instance, when listening to FM radio, you NEED to turn the bass up. However switching to Sirius or your own music files, the same FM settings will have too much Bass...
 
#9 ·
without a 5.1 source the surround setting just sounds really washed out to me, kind of like the "dance hall" equalizer setting on my home audio receiver that made the music have that slight wash out and echo like an old music hall... Its kind of cool for listening to old school jazz or big band music, for the sort of ambiance effect... but otherwise its just no good.

I leave mine in stereo most of the time, since I listen to satellite. I don't need the quality degraded any more...
 
#10 ·
Sounded equally bad on HD radio too. Unless you have a 5.1 CD, which is rare, I think the sound will suffer on surround.
 
#12 ·
This week while on a road trip I happened to hit a couple HD FM stations and about t 5-10 seconds on the channel the sound clarity and depth was amazing. It was hit an miss as not all HD stations produced this result. I don't notice it on normal FM stations or even with satellite radio.
 
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