How to Improve a Rivian R1S’s Elevation Sound System With Simple EQ Changes (Equipment Measured Tests & Results)

[superfluid]

I sometimes run live sound for bands and it's always a race to the top by everyone wanting to be louder instead of balanced. It starts with the drums and by the time you're at the poor guy doing vocals, it's a mess if nobody has proper say.

Yeah. Live sound is particularly tough because the audience often wants it loud as hell to create that sensory-overload concert feel, which is fun. But you need tremendous power and an extremely capable PA system to reach concert levels AND maintain low levels of distortion. People just say damn the distortion and let's go with loud because they're drunk or high anyway. Hats off to FOH engineers who can deliver good sound at eyeball-shaking levels

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[joeghodsi]

Just to clarify, did your final results include turning off Dynamic Sound Adjustment? In your detailed write up you mentioned that you started with it off but in your TLDR you don’t mention it one way or the other. Default is “Low”

 

[superfluid]

Just to clarify, did your final results include turning off Dynamic Sound Adjustment? In your detailed write up you mentioned that you started with it off but in your TLDR you don’t mention it one way or the other. Default is “Low”

I leave Dynamic Sound Adjustment off. Its effect seems either non-existent or inconsistent at best to me. I simply ride the volume roller. Not ideal, but consistent.

 

[GBX]

Posted my recommendations for improving the R1T Meridian's sound system here: https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/how-to-improve-a-rivian-r1t’s-meridian-sound-system-with-simple-eq-changes-equipment-measured-tests-results.25545/

Hope it helps!

New to the forum...this is great! Picking up my R1T on Friday and will def be trying these settings. I assme that mine will come with the rivian in-house system. Thoughts on which EQ settings would be a better starting point - R1S with in-house or R1T with Meridian?

 

[superfluid]

New to the forum...this is great! Picking up my R1T on Friday and will def be trying these settings. I assme that mine will come with the rivian in-house system. Thoughts on which EQ settings would be a better starting point - R1S with in-house or R1T with Meridian?

I’d say start with the R1S Elevation settings. The biggest deficiency I’ve seen comes from the huge dip at 1k which is better explained by an incorrect crossover design in the Elevation system than differences between the R1S and R1T in terms of subwoofer size, the number of speakers, or cabin volume.

Definitely try and report back.

Congrats on your new ride!

 

[HaveBlue]

Another thing I found is that not all the speakers will be enabled, such as the overhead ones unless you are listening to a surround encoded stream or have 3D audio set to On or Enhanced. FYI...

 

[superfluid]

Another thing I found is that not all the speakers will be enabled, such as the overhead ones unless you are listening to a surround encoded stream or have 3D audio set to On or Enhanced. FYI...

That's right. I wrote up an explanation for why that is.

 

[superfluid]

Cross-posting topics that folks interested in this one might also be interested in:

Why you may or may not want to turn on 3D Surround

Why cars have center speakers (probably not the same reason a home theater does)

 

[moondoggy]

I engineer music professionally and take audio quality very seriously. This has been an amazing thread and I greatly appreciate OPs time and dedication to this. The suggested audio settings definitely create a superb flatter starting point.

After much experimentation, I can confidently say for Elevation equipped R1S… for an enjoyable, lively listening experience the hip hop eq setting + 3D enhanced (or simply ON) + dynamic set however you want sounds really great to my ears — for all genres — and it’s far better than the stock Meridian in my Land Rover.

There seemed to be a break in period with the speakers (typically this is roughly 20-30 hours of use) — after that the sound system sounds great and I’m pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it is in its stock configuration.

I tend to use Tidal on the highest quality setting which gives a slight edge above all else, but Spotify and Tune In sound perfectly great to me as well. Otherwise, I generally wouldn’t rely on the bluetooth options to sound great in most playback scenarios - this vehicle or any other.

Hope this helps inspire and happy listening.

 

[Tango001]

I engineer music professionally and take audio quality very seriously. This has been an amazing thread and I greatly appreciate OPs time and dedication to this. The suggested audio settings definitely create a superb flatter starting point.

After much experimentation, I can confidently say for Elevation equipped R1S… for an enjoyable, lively listening experience the hip hop eq setting + 3D enhanced (or simply ON) + dynamic set however you want sounds really great to my ears — for all genres — and it’s far better than the stock Meridian in my Land Rover.

There seemed to be a break in period with the speakers (typically this is roughly 20-30 hours of use) — after that the sound system sounds great and I’m pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it is in its stock configuration.

I tend to use Tidal on the highest quality setting which gives a slight edge above all else, but Spotify and Tune In sound perfectly great to me as well. Otherwise, I generally wouldn’t rely on the bluetooth options to sound great in most playback scenarios - this vehicle or any other.

Hope this helps inspire and happy listening.

I like these settings as well. I did go down a click or 2 on the 2 highest frequencies and up one or two on the lowest on standard hip hop. I had been using native Amazon music and Bluetooth streaming Apple Music from my phone but we have some big road trips coming up so signed up for tidal and Spotify to test them all out and see what I liked best for our 2023 R1S with elevation. I was surprised that Tidal sounds noticeably better than all of the other options, even the highest quality setting on Spotify. I didn’t think it would be that big of a difference but even my wife (who really doesn’t care about this stuff at all) got in and said “oh yeah, this sounds better.” I know the UI on tidal isn’t the greatest but I think it’s worth using it for the improved quality. We’ll see what happens when native Apple Music (I’m assuming with lossless support) launches, but for now I am happy with the elevation system with tidal when before I was trying to find a shop in the Midwest that would do an audio system upgrade.

 

[superfluid]

I was surprised that Tidal sounds noticeably better than all of the other options, even the highest quality setting on Spotify. I didn’t think it would be that big of a difference but even my wife (who really doesn’t care about this stuff at all) got in and said “oh yeah, this sounds better.” I know the UI on tidal isn’t the greatest but I think it’s worth using it for the improved quality.

Agreed. Tidal sounds significantly better. I find this to be true of the mobile and desktop apps as well, even on Spotify’s highest quality setting. I think Spotify uses very aggressive lossy compression.

 

[saylormd]

I’d say start with the R1S Elevation settings. The biggest deficiency I’ve seen comes from the huge dip at 1k which is better explained by an incorrect crossover design in the Elevation system than differences between the R1S and R1T in terms of subwoofer size, the number of speakers, or cabin volume.

Definitely try and report back.

Congrats on your new ride!

Tried your R1S settings with Tidal in my R1T non-Meridian system. These settings work extremely well, just as you expected. Thanks and a tip of the hat from one scientific audiophile to another.

 

[CruxOp]

There was a mention of running Spotify in high definition mode? How do you enable that? I don't see that anywhere in the settings on the truck

 

[omgcoffee]

Disclaimer: I haven't read back through all posts here to see if this was mentioned. Apologies if someone else has mentioned it.

I used OP's settings as a baseline and was still unimpressed with how flat everything sounded. Then I happened upon this post on reddit and it turned out to be the root of my issues: Rivian has a GLARING audio issue ... and I just figured out what it is : r/Rivian (reddit.com)

tl;dr: sometimes the audio bugs out and only plays the Left stereo channel through all the speakers (a mono downmix, if you will). A soft reset fixes it, at least for a while.

After a soft restart, everything sounded 1000x better and OP's settings are great. I definitely recommend finding yourself a test track with some good R-to-L phasing and check that it's processing the stereo signal properly before you go nuts with EQ settings.

Edit: the intros to Crazy Train and Stairway to Heaven are some very easy ones to diagnose.

 

[R1Tom]

Disclaimer: I haven't read back through all posts here to see if this was mentioned. Apologies if someone else has mentioned it.

I used OP's settings as a baseline and was still unimpressed with how flat everything sounded. Then I happened upon this post on reddit and it turned out to be the root of my issues: Rivian has a GLARING audio issue ... and I just figured out what it is : r/Rivian (reddit.com)

tl;dr: sometimes the audio bugs out and only plays the Left stereo channel through all the speakers (a mono downmix, if you will). A soft reset fixes it, at least for a while.

After a soft restart, everything sounded 1000x better and OP's settings are great. I definitely recommend finding yourself a test track with some good R-to-L phasing and check that it's processing the stereo signal properly before you go nuts with EQ settings.

Edit: the intros to Crazy Train and Stairway to Heaven are some very easy ones to diagnose.

I can add Cory Hart Sunglasses at Night to the "very easy" to determine if right/left separation working correctly. That was when I discovered mine wasn't. Crazy Train too....

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