Hi,

Just bought a 2012 SLS with the b&o option. Highs and mids are nice but the bass isn't there, it sounds terrible playing anything with substantial bass (particular pop or rap music). It flutters. Is it really weak. Nothing compared to the bass in my standard HK systems in my e63, gl550, etc.

Is this normal, or do I have a blown sub from the factory?

 

That is strange. My b&o in the SLS is not like that. There maybe a problem. Just contact your local dealer.

 

I take it you've played around with the treble+bass? Turn the treble down a bit, and the bass up till it satisfies you. B&O normally produce excellent sound quality! If still no luck, go to your garage and see whats going on.

 

congrats on the SLS. I am jealous. Nice car. first off, check to see what it does on acoustic music, either jazz, classical or acoustic instruments. Does the high end sound natural? I have heard some B&O systems and there was kind of a sizzle to it, maybe the drivers weren't broken in. in terms of the bottom end, a good system won't or shouldn't have that over accentuated bass that a lot of these aftermarket guys put in their systems. bass should be there, but to the point where it isn't a nice smooth frequency response. the best way to test a system is completely flat eq. do you hear anything coming out of the actual bass drivers? this happens sometimes with some systems, one gets used to one type of system that has too much bass frequencies and then you get a more audiophile type system and you think it doesn't have bass, when in fact it is just a more flat eq and the bass frequencies that are more pronounced is because they a just eq'd that way. the audiophile crowd usually doesn't like recordings that are, I am trying to be careful as to not offend, synthesized boom/sizzle which is what a lot of rap CDs since they are mixed that way. the audiophile crowd usually wants accurate sound reproduction and flat response, but the pop/rap recordings coming out over the last 20 years or so are heavily synthesized, compressed and basically go against what most audiophiles feel are good recordings. now, if you don't hear any bottom end whatsoever, then the only thing i can think of is either a bad driver, amp section or both and the dealer needs to check it out.

just out of curiosity since you have this system, have you compared it to the B&W system in the jags or the Meridian system in the Evoque? Just curious as to what people think..

 

One thing I forgot to ask is what is your source? meaning are you playing the music from a regular CD, mp3 file, etc. The reason I ask is that the quality of sound on other than a normal CD, goes down. Personally, I don't like using compressed files. I like the sound of an original CD, unless the content was only available in another format.

 

Here is another potential solution. first off, these surround sound systems have different modes and from what I have read, the surround sound mode might only work with actual regular CDs and not work well if you are using mp3's or other compressed music files. So if it sounds great when you put in a CD, but go to an iPod or other music player, or USB stick and the files are mp3 or similar and are in surround sound mode, they just might not work as well due to the file format. That is something to try out. I have read other forums with various surround sound systems and this was brought up. they experienced similar weak bass or just didn't sound very good when a mp3 was being played in surround sound mode.

I highly doubt the system is not working. Otherwise there might a service bulletin if this were wide spread. yeah, electronics can fail right after you plug it in during the first couple of months, but generally speaking, they don't.

Please let us know what you find out. I think you might have a problem that can be easily remedied by changing from surround sound to regular stereo when playing Mp3's and surround sound mode when playing regular CDs. Same thing applies if your CDs are mp3 CDs vs the store bought Redbook CD.