How to improve Gen 1 Rivian R1T Meridian Sound System after update 2024.39.01 with simple EQ changes

[superfluid]

Wonderful write up, thank you.

Was there a reason you didn’t use Spotify for any testing? I ask because I think it sounds significantly different than Apple Music even when I have the highest streaming quality selected for both. Specifically, the low end for Apple Music sounds dramatically better than Spotify to my ears. I prefer Spotify’s service over Apple Music, but I can’t figure out why it doesn’t sound as good (only comparing non-Atmos tracks, of course). Is Spotify simply not capable of producing sufficient quality audio in the native R1T app or something?

It’s just that I don’t use Spotify. I don’t enjoy listening to it. It streams at a lower bitrate than Tidal and Apple Music. Plus, I don’t maintain a testing playlist in it. I have Spotify because my kids have their playlists in it. When they use it, I turn off my audio engineer brain and just enjoy them enjoying the music.

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[superfluid]

How does Enter Sandman sound with this eq

Try it and let us know what you think!

 

[McLovin]

Curious…I was listening to my library on shuffle, and a song came up that sounded…absolutely terrible. I then went to the album, and all songs were terrible. Instruments completely missing, or faded out waaaay too low. But the song that really was messed up was the title track: Surfing with the Alien (Joe Satriani).

I’m wondering if someone here w/ Elevation Audio could queue up that album and give a listen through Apple Music and let me know how it sounds. I’m going to play it through my phone tomorrow to see if there’s a difference.

By contrast, Moving Pictures by Rush sounds absolutely amazing. Especially YYZ.

 

[SirMouthsALot]

Thanks for all the work you've put into this - it's so helpful to have in-depth analysis.

I'm no audiophile, but even I noticed a significant amount of muddiness over the past couple months listening to Tidal on my Gen1 Meridian setup. I just signed up for Apple Music to see if I could hear any difference and it's night and day. I hope they fix it soon, or it looks like I'll be dropping Tidal...

 

[superfluid]

Thanks for all the work you've put into this - it's so helpful to have in-depth analysis like this.

I'm no audiophile, but even I noticed a significant amount of muddiness over the past couple months listening to Tidal on my Gen1 Meridian setup. I just signed up for Apple Music to see if I could hear any difference and it's night and day. I hope they fix it soon, or it looks like I'll be dropping Tidal...

Yeah. I have been a loyal TIDAL user for years but I’m considering the same. I don’t have streaming quality issues in my Gen 1 Elevation, but the UI is awful. And Apple Music auto switching between Atmos and stereo is pretty cool.

 

[Pouyafrankie]

Same as some of these posts, gen 1 Meridian, and it sounds like Tidal isn't outputting lossless audio. Sounds the same as Spotify to me. Apple Music definitely has the hi res audio playing correctly though. I wonder if Rivian or Tidal is even aware of this bug.

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