My TL was damaged during a snowstorm which allowed snow to get onto & melt into the back deck. After the body shop returned my car, the first thing I noticed was that the back speakers definitely didn't sound as loud...

Can anyone tell me how loud your rear speakers sound compared to your front speakers? Currently, I have the fader set with the rear at +2 to compensate. I feel that the body shop didn't check them as I reqested & I want them replaced if they aren't right.

Thanks!

 

My front speakers seem louder, all other things being equal. Not sure why or if that should be so. Of course, we're all sitting a little closer to our front speakers, but that would seem a minor factor. But anyway, I also have my fader set slightly to the rear. I've had to do that on lots of cars. Not sure how you can test your rear speakers, though. Someone on this forum ought to be able to offer some better advice...?

 

Thanks for the reply TLGator. If I turn my fader so that it's set to fully come out of the rear speakers, it's really not loud at all - even in the rear seats...

 

That sounds broken to me. Maybe if you take the car to the dealer they will agree. And if they don't, you can try out a TL on the lot. If the rear speakers are much louder, you can argue your case for replacement.

 

Mine are exactly the same,, I thought this was a function of the 5.1 surround sound. I have quite the home theater setup and the rear, side, etc speakers for the 5.1/7.1 surround are obviously less in volume etc and thats probably the same issue with the TL. BUT my rear speakers sound completely muffled and void of any frequency range... They sound like an old 3 way speaker that has the tweeter and mid burned out. This was/is on the list for the first dealer visit..

Overall the TL stereo sounds great, but I would think in normal "stereo mode" it would allow full range out of front and rear speakers.

OK you stereo-audiophiles - please chime in and let us know if a problem really exists.

thanks

 

Huh, maybe it is a function of the surround sound system... I never thought of that.

 

If ELS/Panasonic has done their job right, the center setting on the balance & fader controls should be the optimal SPL level for the driver and possibly the passenger (with some variations due to individual speaker characteristics and seating position). However, "should" isn't the same as "is". If you really want to optimize your system's balance, you can buy test CDs with 1/3 octave warble tones and a Radio Shack SPL meter (not the digital one!). You can get your speaker levels to within a dB or so of each other.

Not true. There's a few factors that come into play. However, your proximity to the front speakers probably plays the largest part. For conventional cone-style speakers, if you double the listening distance from a speaker, the sound power output drops to 1/4 (in another measurement unit: -6 dB of SPL). Small differences in distnace can make a big difference in sound quality.

 

That's a waste of time. Set 'em til they sound good. The sophisticated (ie Radio Shack equipment is only appropriate for doing sound levels in a large room with microphones and where feed back is a problem.

I too noticed the rear speakers don't sound good when played alone. It's a function of the guy who did the mixing. You put the good stuff out the front speakers and put the sound that creates ambience out the rear speakers. If you put the good stuff out of all the speakers, you'd effectly be back to mono.

Some stereo mixes are similar. If you turn off the left speaker, what's left coming out of the right speaker, alone, sounds like crap.

 

Jazz - thanks for the info.

 

I fade slightly to the rear to get a balanced sound. 5 spearkers in the front/3 in the rear......... is that right?

 

Your best bet for testing your rear speakers is to tune to a good ol' AM radio station. That way you know there's no surround info, just plain old monaural. Sound should be more evenly balanced with this test.

 

Good idea ken7! I'll tune in some white noise & see how balanced it is.