Disappointing Audio

[jimanderson3]

First of all, let me say that overall, I'm a very happy Palisade owner. That having been said, the one thing that's a huge disappointment in my Limited is the sound system. Given the high quality of everything else in the vehicle and given that the Limited is supposed to have "premium audio," I've been massively underwhelmed. The bass is muddy/boomy, but the big issue is the high end. It sounds both compressed and rolled off. The tweeters must be crap. Either that, or they've badly messed up the EQ.

I wonder whether there's any chance that a firmware upgrade might help the electronics? That may not be the fix that's needed anyway. Seems like I'm probably going to be shopping for aftermarket speakers.

Anyone else feel this way?

 

[Decoguys]

Oh ya, it kinda of sucks...

 

[Gromicide]

Agree completely. The fender setup in my GTI is much better. Sure, it's a smaller car so that plays a part but it sounds way better. I have not played 120 mbs or flac files yet in the palisade but radio, satellite, pandora etc...

 

[tryceo]

The system is suppose to be really good and accurate. Try turning off surround mode and bass boost?

starts at around 4:57

 

[Hyundai/Genesis ut]

T

Agree completely. The fender setup in my GTI is much better. Sure, it's a smaller car so that plays a part but it sounds way better. I have not played 120 mbs or flac files yet in the palisade but radio, satellite, pandora etc...

he sound is very good, don’t let these comments sway you. I have had hi fidelity in my home for years and this system is no slouch!

 

[Decoguys]

Just because we complain, that doesn't mean that we don't like the car, I really like driving mine, but I do have a list of quirks that I don't like...

 

[Hyundai/Genesis ut]

Just because we complain, that doesn't mean that we don't like the car, I really like driving mine, but I do have a list of quirks that I don't like...

There are a few quirks as with any car. My GLA has too many to name , but the stereo soecifically really leaves no room for criticism. Just use the equalizer and take off the bass boost

 

[CVP33]

I don’t know crap about sound systems, but this one is loud and clear and loads better than my Z06.

 

[Hyundai/Genesis ut]

You got that right, it is clear all the way up in volume. A true great sound reveals the music at low volumes as well. Ever notice how your samsungbtv sounds shityynunkess you turn it up and rhem em then you can’t hear the voices. I really like the Harmon kardon system and I’m sure most will agree

 

[SCPat]

First of all, let me say that overall, I'm a very happy Palisade owner. That having been said, the one thing that's a huge disappointment in my Limited is the sound system. Given the high quality of everything else in the vehicle and given that the Limited is supposed to have "premium audio," I've been massively underwhelmed. The bass is muddy/boomy, but the big issue is the high end. It sounds both compressed and rolled off. The tweeters must be crap. Either that, or they've badly messed up the EQ.

I wonder whether there's any chance that a firmware upgrade might help the electronics? That may not be the fix that's needed anyway. Seems like I'm probably going to be shopping for aftermarket speakers.

Anyone else feel this way?

I'm disappointed that there are no rear speakers, with 3 rows of seats. And I'd rather have the sunglass holder than the useless 3rd row mirror.

 

[Hyundai/Genesis ut]

I'm disappointed that there are no rear speakers, with 3 rows of seats. And I'd rather have the sunglass holder than the useless 3rd row mirror.

Rear soeakers? My limited has soeakers even behind the third row. Did you go for the SE or SEL? I do agree on the mirror in place of the sun glass hider that should be there, but I have plenty of room for glasses in the console , I guess that was their idea!

 

[Madugu]

First of all, let me say that overall, I'm a very happy Palisade owner. That having been said, the one thing that's a huge disappointment in my Limited is the sound system. Given the high quality of everything else in the vehicle and given that the Limited is supposed to have "premium audio," I've been massively underwhelmed. The bass is muddy/boomy, but the big issue is the high end. It sounds both compressed and rolled off. The tweeters must be crap. Either that, or they've badly messed up the EQ.

I wonder whether there's any chance that a firmware upgrade might help the electronics? That may not be the fix that's needed anyway. Seems like I'm probably going to be shopping for aftermarket speakers.

Anyone else feel this way?

I actually love the audio in my limited. Especially when I turned on the extra bass and some other audio feature I can’t recall right now. Qs or something like that.

 

[Hyundai/Genesis ut]

I actually love the audio in my limited. Especially when I turned on the extra bass and some other audio feature I can’t recall right now. Qs or something like that.

It’s called Quantumlogic and it is a surround sound that you can turn on or listen more from the front speakersbut more like stereo. It’s your option how you like it. The system also has clarifi which decompressed the fumes that we all listen to so that we can hear how the music was intended by the artist and producers. To top it off there is a new design for the sub woofer that pulls are from the out side so as not to restrict the movement of the sub , it’s an amazing system andit shows in the sound produced, not just another bose system or Infiniti system slapped in!

 

[thehumanwire]

I was really disappointed in the sound quality of the HK system in the limited until I turned bass boost off, the "surround" effect off, and set all EQ settings to 0. Incredible improvement to the sound quality and imaging after that!

 

[G-672269]

I was really disappointed in the sound quality of the HK system in the limited until I turned bass boost off, the "surround" effect off, and set all EQ settings to 0. Incredible improvement to the sound quality and imaging after that!

I've tried that as well but without success. The issue I hear sounds like compression artifacts on cymbals and snares, or spoken "S" "Ch" and "T" sounds. There's an extra sizzle/static sound, and the crispness of the high end is missing. It's there across all inputs I've tested: analog and HD radio; Apple CarPlay with iTunes, Spotify, and Pandora. It's especially bad on talk radio or podcasts, as there's no mid or low end to mask it.

This is literally the only thing I don't like about the car (oh and the 70 mph vibration TSB issue).

 

[nodeone]

I was really disappointed in the sound quality of the HK system in the limited until I turned bass boost off, the "surround" effect off, and set all EQ settings to 0. Incredible improvement to the sound quality and imaging after that!

I have the same issue as OP and have tried what thehumanwire suggested but without effect. I agree, turning off those options presents a more true-to-source sound, however the issue is still there. It’s there across all sources I’ve tried: analog and HD radio, Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, Podcasts, etc. It sounds like compression artifacts, as if the head unit is cramming everything through a 128kbps MP3 encoding. There’s no detail or crispness to anything above 8KHz. Cymbals and snares sound smushed, and spoken “T”, “Ch”, and “S” sounds are hissy and full of static. It’s most noticeable on talk radio or podcasts. It‘s bad enough that my girlfriend doesn’t like listening to anything in my car above barely audible. She says it hurts her ears.

I have to say, this is the one and only thing I’m disappointed in on my Palisade (70MPH prop shaft vibration aside, which I need to get fixed with that TSB). Everything else about the vehicle is great.

Edit to add: I found a decent Youtube video that articulates what gets lost with compression like this:

 

[jimanderson3]

Nodeone, you nailed it. You’re hearing what I am. All high end seems completely compressed, and 128k MP3 is a great analogy. I am really tempted to try replacing the tweeters, but am scared that the problem is in the amp or somewhere else in the electronic chain.

 

[Eric2203]

To me, it sounds good, but I guess that's just my opinion. I wanted to share something that a YouTube reviewer does on every car he reviews. He provides graphs of the frequency response, among other things. He did it with the Palisade and below are his results (I'm just sharing - not passing judgement on whether it looks good or bad). The video can be found here (screenshot of the results further down):

 

[nodeone]

Nodeone, you nailed it. You’re hearing what I am. All high end seems completely compressed, and 128k MP3 is a great analogy. I am really tempted to try replacing the tweeters, but am scared that the problem is in the amp or somewhere else in the electronic chain.

I'd bet good money the issue is in the head unit. The tweeters seem to generate decent high end, albeit with artifacts and noise.

Eric2203, that's awesome! Definitely going to check out those links.

Hyundai seems to be doing some fancy audio processing (volume/level mixing of alerts, proximity beeping, music, phone calls, etc) not counting the soundstage and bass boost stuff. Their DSP is probably normalizing all inputs to a common compressed format for processing. Anyone know of a teardown of this thing yet?

I'll give $100 to the first person with a workaround (not involving buying more audio equipment) to fix the digital compression sound.

 

[FFEMT6]

Hopefully a newish owner that can add that $100 to their "bonus drive," money. Ching ching. I only have an SEL model, otherwise I would be jumping all over that.