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Yes, quite a bit too much. I thought I was being “sensitive”

Isn't that probably true for a lot of musicians and/or folks claiming to be audiophiles?

I've put on some kids beats before and listened to some music, crazy what they consider the "normal" sound range.

When I was younger I turned everything up.

Now I turn everything down.

Or off.

bloke wrote:I'm just curious whether many are like me, in that when a typical car radio's frequency response is basically set at what it considers itself to be "flat", it is still way too much bass frequency response for my ears.

You must have a 6/4 car radio. I switched to an F car radio for almost all my listening and I enjoy the lighter timbre.

I do listen to classical music in the car and travel 30 minutes at a time and 30 minutes back home when going to town. I listen mainly to our local NPR station or the one in the next town when I can get it. I do have the bass turned up a little for optimum listening to symphonic works and I do notice that male announcer voices get boomy and out of focus, affecting their intelligibility. What really gripes me (and I'm at the point of writing a complaint letter to my local NPR station) is that, just like commercial stations, NPR seems to turn up the volume during commercial breaks and also turns up the bass, so that there is cacophonous thumping and a need to reach for the volume control several times per half hour because of their break "music." I guess I'll have to turn the bass response down some more, but even at that, I'm sure I won't be able to de-fang the commercial spots without totally ruining the response for music. My radio controls are rather counterintuitive and changing the frequency response always takes me a while to figure out, but I can probably program in some kind of one-button change in the equalization with some study...but my point is that I shouldn't have to do this...if you're also having this problem with NPR's news programs (on my station, it's All Things Considered from 4 to 6:30PM and they don't consider my feelings, at least), do complain to your local people...maybe we can make this go away. I do find that my tolerance for lousy music choices and foolishness on the radio is much reduced and I sometimes just turn the radio off, maybe this is a symptom of not suffering fools as gladly as I once did when younger (71 this year).
royjohn

I gave up on car audio when I was 25. The pink noise of driving makes for a terrible sonic environment for classical listening no matter how much you throw into "high end". We buy new cars with the "audio delete" option whenever it's available. If there was no choice, it never gets turned on anyway since I'd rather do without the additional sensory distraction.

royjohn wrote:... just like commercial stations, NPR seems to turn up the volume during commercial breaks and also turns up the bass, so that there is cacophonous thumping and a need to reach for the volume control several times per half hour because of their break "music."...

Companding. Ugh. Useful technique in the recording arts, but is misused to pump-up the audio so the "important" material breaks through any noise floor on the listening end. It's not louder per se, just the normal amplitude variations are compressed into the louder end of the dynamic range. Drives me nuts.

Talk radio sounds perfect on a crappy $10 AM/FM battery operated radio. Car radios take some adjusting to get them to sound right.

Road and wind noise interfere with my hearing of music to the point where I have to turn the bass up a bit to hear it at all. I can't stand booming bass or WHOMP, but without a touch extra it's inaudible, and my car sound system is pretty good for stock equipment. The adaptive settings that are supposed to compensate for wind and road noise as speed increases are garbage. They over-eq the bottom and top and peak a small midrange area. I cut the adaptive settings off, always. A lot of people I've talked to don't even know that their car stereos have such a thing.

I'm not sure what's normal, but I definitely bought a couple of $10 radios from Target at the beginning of summer. Audio quality is sufficient, and perfect for listening to stuff outside (background noise, just need to hear the main point of what you're listening to).

Boomy Bass? You may be suffering from presbycusia or age-related hearing loss, which primarily affects the high frequencies first. My suggestion would be to have your hearing tested to see what frequencies 'old-age' have diminished enough to cause you to 'turn up the music' and 'turn down the bass', which effectively boosts the mid-range and high frequencies.

When my hearing aids need adjusting because of greater high-frequency hearing loss, voices 'boom' and become unintelligible. Closed-captions have been and still are my best option on TV. I hate talk-radio, so I have no experience there. As I've aged my preference has been more and more for a quiet environment. Many times I'll even watch sports with the sound off because the chatter doesn't contribute much to the video, and the crowd noise is just that: noise.

When playing in ensembles I turn my hearing aids down 5 DB in order to avoid having the trumpets further damage my already half-fried cochleas.

More and more I'm embracing the role of 'Grumpy Old Man', I guess.

We did a test in physics in high school where the teacher produced a tone at a very low frequency and steadily increased it through the normal hearing range. I heard the tone at a very low frequency, before most other people, but I also lost it a lot sooner than other people once it got too high. Raised a chicken and egg question in my head.

As for car stereos, I almost universally bring the treble and bass settings down as low as they will go. I can't figure out why the stereo companies set "neutral" where they do. Not being the type to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on audio equipment, I'll likely never find out if it can get better. A speaker will never reproduce an orchestra sound properly. I'd rather spend my money elsewhere. And what does an electric guitar really sound like? It's always going through an overly complicated sound system subject to so much variation at each stage that thinking that the speaker at the end of the process will get you "there" seems like a waste of time to me.

This reminds me of my father in law's eternal search for a computer monitor/printer combination that will allow him to most faithfully print the pictures that he takes and subsequently edits. The picture on the screen never fully matches the one that prints out. The only difference there is that (a) it might be possible; and (b) real life gives you a base line to strive for.

bloke wrote:and classical dj's - mostly - exhibit epically poor taste, both in their selection of pieces and in their selection of performers.

I swear if I have to hear Respighi's Ancient Airs & Dances one more f***ing time.

What's worse? It was a freebie donation from a record label with some meh regional orchestra.

Billy M. wrote:

bloke wrote:and classical dj's - mostly - exhibit epically poor taste, both in their selection of pieces and in their selection of performers.

I swear if I have to hear Respighi's Ancient Airs & Dances one more f***ing time.

What's worse? It was a freebie donation from a record label with some meh regional orchestra.

Anyone remember P.D.Q. Bach's "WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio"? Their motto was "all Pachelbel, all the time." In the last scene a station worker was driven into a nervous breakdown by the umpteenth repetition of Canon in D.

One issue is the "preemphasis" that radio stations use in broadcast to artificially boost the bass and treble into their broadcast signal to counter road and wind noise. For that reason, I have to turn down the bass, even on our local PBS station. The bass pre-emphasis is not part of the original 75 microsecond preemphasis, but it is quite apparent when listening to the same selection on a domestic system rather than a broadcast system. (CD player vs Radio).
https://www.cgould.com/75-microsecond-p ... sis-curve/" target="_blank

Back in the day, you could watch the game on TV with the volume down, and listen to the local radio broadcast and it was all synched up. Then go fill up the car with leaded gas for .80 gallon. A pack of smokes was .80 too. I could take the smokes to work and light up at my desk!! Oh yeah, baby!!