Is there an engineering menu for the standard radio??
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MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Sep 2007
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From: Southeast
2008 C300 Sport, RWD, US
Is there an engineering menu for the standard radio??
I vaguely remember something about an engineering menu for the sound system but I don't know if it applies to the 6CD changer/satellite radio sound system that I have. I have a 08 C300 PII package but does not have the upgraded sound system. Its the one with door speakers in each door and tweeters in the front pillars.
What I'm trying to do is to see if there is any way that the bass on the rear speakers can be adjusted upwards.
I've plugged my laptop's external sound card into the accessory sound port in the glove box and ran the test tones out of a program called Room Equalizer Wizard(REW). For whatever reason, the rear door speakers do not put out the amount of bass that the front ones do. I doubt its the speakers as they're probably all the same. Also, adding a subwoofer and taping the rear speaker feed won't help as if the signal isn't there, there is no way you can amplify it.
In any event, if there is some way to increase the bass in the rear doors that might circumvent the need to later add a subwoofer.
Just an FYI, the frequency response is anything but flat. As with most home theater sound systems, you have nulls which aren't fixable. You can literally move the testing microphone forward and backward and the spl increases. Some people would try to equalize this but I'm o.k. leaving it alone. I'm just trying to figure out if I can add back the bass to the rear speakers.
What I'm trying to do is to see if there is any way that the bass on the rear speakers can be adjusted upwards.
I've plugged my laptop's external sound card into the accessory sound port in the glove box and ran the test tones out of a program called Room Equalizer Wizard(REW). For whatever reason, the rear door speakers do not put out the amount of bass that the front ones do. I doubt its the speakers as they're probably all the same. Also, adding a subwoofer and taping the rear speaker feed won't help as if the signal isn't there, there is no way you can amplify it.
In any event, if there is some way to increase the bass in the rear doors that might circumvent the need to later add a subwoofer.
Just an FYI, the frequency response is anything but flat. As with most home theater sound systems, you have nulls which aren't fixable. You can literally move the testing microphone forward and backward and the spl increases. Some people would try to equalize this but I'm o.k. leaving it alone. I'm just trying to figure out if I can add back the bass to the rear speakers.
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2008 R350 & 2008 C300
Are you sure the woofers are working in the rear doors? The standard system has a woofer and a tweeter in the same housing in the rear doors. It could be the woofers aren't working and your just getting sound out of the tweeters.
As for a engineering menu..never heard of one for the radio.
As for a engineering menu..never heard of one for the radio.
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Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 552
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From: Homeless
'20 Targa 4 DD, ' 18 Volvo S60 T6
oh..sorry - try #: play with it a little - I have been in the eng menu several time but my car is not near me at the moment.
If you do a search you will find the info
If you do a search you will find the info
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Thread Starter
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From: Southeast
2008 C300 Sport, RWD, US
whiteongrey
I'm currently doing the happy dance.
Using your key code, I was able to access the engineering mode and found the parametric equalizer for each of the 4 door/speakers.
Just playing around, it looks like I'll be able to equalize the sound system by channel to optomize the sound. I'll have to take some measurements with my laptop's REW system and see what can be done to improve it.
Something else I stumbled upon was where the crossovers were defeated. I don't know if the front tweeters have their own external crossover (doubt it). Does anyone know???
I'm currently doing the happy dance.
Using your key code, I was able to access the engineering mode and found the parametric equalizer for each of the 4 door/speakers.
Just playing around, it looks like I'll be able to equalize the sound system by channel to optomize the sound. I'll have to take some measurements with my laptop's REW system and see what can be done to improve it.
Something else I stumbled upon was where the crossovers were defeated. I don't know if the front tweeters have their own external crossover (doubt it). Does anyone know???
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Super Member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 552
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From: Homeless
'20 Targa 4 DD, ' 18 Volvo S60 T6
cool - tweets no not have external X over.
I need to find out what all the terminology in the eng menu means so I can adjust my bass etc - please let me know what you discover.
cheers.
I need to find out what all the terminology in the eng menu means so I can adjust my bass etc - please let me know what you discover.
cheers.
Thread Starter
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Joined: Sep 2007
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From: Southeast
2008 C300 Sport, RWD, US
In general, you have a seperate equalizer for each of the four speaker(or speaker tweeter combinations).
You can adjust the center frequency that a filter is based on. The "Q" of the filter is how wide the adjustment is. The higher the "Q" the narrower the filter. The dbs refers to how loud you want the filter. Since the dbs can be reduced on a filter, it'll allow you to reduce a peak. Generally, its better to reduce peaks than to pump up dips. Also, you want to measure what the natural 3db drop of a speaker is and stay away from forcing it and the frequencies below that spot upwards.
You can spend an enormous amount of time playing with it and still not get anywhere. Using REW, the system basically sends out a signal that goes through the sound system (using the accessory port) where you measure the frequency response and it creates a set of recommended filters including the center frequency, "Q", and dbs. My plan is to adjust the bass and treble adjustments to the neutral position and then shift the balance to the specific speaker that's being tested. Then run REW and enter the filter pack into that speaker's parametric equalizer. I'll aim for a flat response to start with then see what adjusting the bass in the sound controls do for me.
Although I'd like to think this can all be done within an hour or so, I suspect I'll make the adjustments and then listen to it for a few days to see if its about right.
It'll be interesting to see how much this helps the built in sound.
You can adjust the center frequency that a filter is based on. The "Q" of the filter is how wide the adjustment is. The higher the "Q" the narrower the filter. The dbs refers to how loud you want the filter. Since the dbs can be reduced on a filter, it'll allow you to reduce a peak. Generally, its better to reduce peaks than to pump up dips. Also, you want to measure what the natural 3db drop of a speaker is and stay away from forcing it and the frequencies below that spot upwards.
You can spend an enormous amount of time playing with it and still not get anywhere. Using REW, the system basically sends out a signal that goes through the sound system (using the accessory port) where you measure the frequency response and it creates a set of recommended filters including the center frequency, "Q", and dbs. My plan is to adjust the bass and treble adjustments to the neutral position and then shift the balance to the specific speaker that's being tested. Then run REW and enter the filter pack into that speaker's parametric equalizer. I'll aim for a flat response to start with then see what adjusting the bass in the sound controls do for me.
Although I'd like to think this can all be done within an hour or so, I suspect I'll make the adjustments and then listen to it for a few days to see if its about right.
It'll be interesting to see how much this helps the built in sound.
Last edited by JimPap; Aug 17, 2010 at 06:01 PM.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
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From: Southeast
2008 C300 Sport, RWD, US
I'm not real sure how I could do that. Any suggestions??
I'm still scratching my head as to why the rear speakers bass was reduced in the EQ. Wonder if they're boomy or something.
I'm still scratching my head as to why the rear speakers bass was reduced in the EQ. Wonder if they're boomy or something.
Super Member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 552
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From: Homeless
'20 Targa 4 DD, ' 18 Volvo S60 T6
try the settings on the last page of the attached and see what you think. Credit to Akadan for creating that pdf and mixer settings
Last edited by whiteongrey; Aug 17, 2010 at 06:50 PM.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,481
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From: Southeast
2008 C300 Sport, RWD, US
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,481
Likes: 2
From: Southeast
2008 C300 Sport, RWD, US
Made progress this morning (3 hrs.) but it didn't turn out to be as easy as I had hoped. (is anything?)
I'm curious as to if my original settings were the same as what others have. If someone doesn't mind, please post your EQ settings for each of the 4 speaker groups. Thanks.
I'm curious as to if my original settings were the same as what others have. If someone doesn't mind, please post your EQ settings for each of the 4 speaker groups. Thanks.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Sep 2007
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From: Southeast
2008 C300 Sport, RWD, US
Thought I'd update this thread for anyone that might be interested.
What I have found is that I can equalize the front pair of speakers that will sound much better by themselves and I can equalize the rear pair of speakers that will sound much much better by themselves. But when you balance the system front to back it doesn't sound as good as the original settings. Trying to be a bit more discriptive, the sound isn't as clean and articulate. If I were to speculate, the difference in sound arrival time causes too much of a blurring (decay time) problem. Probably some cancellation going on too for being out of phase. Further speculating, I'd guess that MB intentionally set the original settings to minimized these problems.
I'll continue experimenting with it for a while longer but kind of doubt that much can be done to improve the sound via the equalizer settings in the engineering menu.
What I have found is that I can equalize the front pair of speakers that will sound much better by themselves and I can equalize the rear pair of speakers that will sound much much better by themselves. But when you balance the system front to back it doesn't sound as good as the original settings. Trying to be a bit more discriptive, the sound isn't as clean and articulate. If I were to speculate, the difference in sound arrival time causes too much of a blurring (decay time) problem. Probably some cancellation going on too for being out of phase. Further speculating, I'd guess that MB intentionally set the original settings to minimized these problems.
I'll continue experimenting with it for a while longer but kind of doubt that much can be done to improve the sound via the equalizer settings in the engineering menu.
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C
In general, you have a seperate equalizer for each of the four speaker(or speaker tweeter combinations).
You can adjust the center frequency that a filter is based on. The "Q" of the filter is how wide the adjustment is. The higher the "Q" the narrower the filter. The dbs refers to how loud you want the filter. Since the dbs can be reduced on a filter, it'll allow you to reduce a peak. Generally, its better to reduce peaks than to pump up dips. Also, you want to measure what the natural 3db drop of a speaker is and stay away from forcing it and the frequencies below that spot upwards.
You can spend an enormous amount of time playing with it and still not get anywhere. Using REW, the system basically sends out a signal that goes through the sound system (using the accessory port) where you measure the frequency response and it creates a set of recommended filters including the center frequency, "Q", and dbs. My plan is to adjust the bass and treble adjustments to the neutral position and then shift the balance to the specific speaker that's being tested. Then run REW and enter the filter pack into that speaker's parametric equalizer. I'll aim for a flat response to start with then see what adjusting the bass in the sound controls do for me.
Although I'd like to think this can all be done within an hour or so, I suspect I'll make the adjustments and then listen to it for a few days to see if its about right.
It'll be interesting to see how much this helps the built in sound.
You can adjust the center frequency that a filter is based on. The "Q" of the filter is how wide the adjustment is. The higher the "Q" the narrower the filter. The dbs refers to how loud you want the filter. Since the dbs can be reduced on a filter, it'll allow you to reduce a peak. Generally, its better to reduce peaks than to pump up dips. Also, you want to measure what the natural 3db drop of a speaker is and stay away from forcing it and the frequencies below that spot upwards.
You can spend an enormous amount of time playing with it and still not get anywhere. Using REW, the system basically sends out a signal that goes through the sound system (using the accessory port) where you measure the frequency response and it creates a set of recommended filters including the center frequency, "Q", and dbs. My plan is to adjust the bass and treble adjustments to the neutral position and then shift the balance to the specific speaker that's being tested. Then run REW and enter the filter pack into that speaker's parametric equalizer. I'll aim for a flat response to start with then see what adjusting the bass in the sound controls do for me.
Although I'd like to think this can all be done within an hour or so, I suspect I'll make the adjustments and then listen to it for a few days to see if its about right.
It'll be interesting to see how much this helps the built in sound.
