audio system settings

[aicpjim]

So, at the risk of this sounding like a stupid question, here goes..... When I adjust the volume on the Marshall Gold audio system, each click of the wheel turn the volume up or down by two bars on the display screen. Is there any way to get it to only turn it up or down by ONE bar per click?

 

[Deleted member 1618]

So, at the risk of this sounding like a stupid question, here goes..... When I adjust the volume on the Marshall Gold audio system, each click of the wheel turn the volume up or down by two bars on the display screen. Is there any way to get it to only turn it up or down by ONE bar per click?

Yes, I do remember setting the incremental steps for the volume when I first purchased my bike; I think the choices were 1 - 2 - 3 (I'm guessing increments in dB).

Maybe the Settings menu?

 

[aicpjim]

I tried that. No settings I changed, either putting "volume control" on 0, 1, 2, or 3, caused it to go up by 1 increment on the volume bar. It is still going up 2 bars for every click of the wheel

 

[Deleted member 1344]

I've had the same question/thoughts Jim. Haven't seen any way to change that setting yet.

 

[Deleted member 1618]

I tried that. No settings I changed, either putting "volume control" on 0, 1, 2, or 3, caused it to go up by 1 increment on the volume bar. It is still going up 2 bars for every click of the wheel

Maybe the automatic speed-volume control is active?

Note: The owner's manual recommends the "Studio" sound profile when playing music through the bike's speakers; I know this topic has also come up in the past.

 

[Deleted member 1344]

Thanks Scott for this info on audio settings.

 

[Deleted member 1344]

I have found the volume to be muted some when in “studio mode”.
It is louder when not in studio mode.

 

[51rhC]

I have been researching this subject and experimenting for the past couple of months. Here’s what I have come to understand so far:

The volume control on the R18 is essentially bluetooth control of your phone. This effectively means that turning the volume up or down with the multi-controller is the same as pushing one of the volume buttons on the phone. Also, the volume display on the TFT is simply relaying the volume setting from the phone. So, as best as I understand it, this is an issue with the iPhone not having finer control over the volume adjustment commands.

I am now working on finding a solution with the phone itself. It can of course be adjusted more finely using the touchscreen slider, but this is not practical while riding.

 

[Deleted member 1618]

I never considered this aspect of the audio system.. i.e. I often get into my wife's Jeep and the stereo volume is at 11 on a scale from 1 to 10; that's normally how I find it after someone is streaming music from their phone. Most likely, the phone audio output volume was set very low, and they force the vehicle's amplifier to make up the difference - which probably introduced a huge noise figure penalty...

The phone volume should be at the max setting (think of it as a pre-amp), and the vehicle's amplifier should be adjusted to the appropriate volume level (final stage amplifier).

It might be worth trying the following:
Set the phone's audio output to a max volume setting.
Connect to the TFT system and further adjust the volume via the R18 controls?

 

[RyBread]

So I've toyed around with the settings.

I too noticed the 2 bar increase or decrease but nothing in the setting menus that have changed that for me.

I Listen to a wide range of music...
The more bass heavy music, Rap, hop hip, pop will bottom out the subwoofer...

These settings helped:

bass booster
treble 3
bass 1

iphone 14 pro volume set at 3/4 full. (Volume controls are independent of each other Phone/Bike)

I can listen to most songs at full volume on the bike without any distortions or the subwoofers bottoming out.

hope that helps.

edit: This is on a marshall stage 1

 

[aicpjim]

I just ordered two subwoofers from Skar Audio on Amazon. They are dual voice coil 2-ohm, 6 inch subs. They are substantially beefier with much bigger magnets than the stock version. Once they arrive in a few days, I'll install them. From what I can see, I'll have to cut/modify the plastic housing cages in order for the larger magnet to fit. I've been told it doesn't add dramatic amounts of bass to the sound, but DOES help with the bottoming-out at higher volume levels that plagues the stock woofers. Oh, and when I had my break in service yesterday, the technician could not find a fix to the original question in this thread, so it appears there is no way to change it.

 

[Strawdiggity73]

I just ordered two subwoofers from Skar Audio on Amazon. They are dual voice coil 2-ohm, 6 inch subs. They are substantially beefier with much bigger magnets than the stock version. Once they arrive in a few days, I'll install them. From what I can see, I'll have to cut/modify the plastic housing cages in order for the larger magnet to fit. I've been told it doesn't add dramatic amounts of bass to the sound, but DOES help with the bottoming-out at higher volume levels that plagues the stock woofers. Oh, and when I had my break in service yesterday, the technician could not find a fix to the original question in this thread, so it appears there is no way to change it.

The only issue with those speakers are they are not a weather proof speaker. But I'm not certain how the stock subs are protected from the elements to start with.

 

[aicpjim]

The only issue with those speakers are they are not a weather proof speaker. But I'm not certain how the stock subs are protected from the elements to start with.

Yeah, I thought about that. I think I'm going to spray them with a light coating of clear liquid rubber. There are several companies that make it.

 

[aicpjim]

Well that turned out to be a WAY more difficult job than anticipated. The factory subs are connected via a wire clip that has 4 terminals (dual voice coil) with 4 wires. I had to pry the clip housing off the speaker, and unsolder two of the wires from the speaker to get it free of the speaker. Then cut new wires and make 4 solder connections to the new speakers. BUT, it works... Giant pain in the ass. Now I have to cut the cages off to get them to fit back into the lid. The factory speaker's cone seems to be made of a waterproof kevlar material. The new speakers are not waterproof, so I sprayed them liberally with Gorilla clear spray rubber waterproofing. The other thing, these speakers are 7.5 lbs. each, as compared to less than a half pound for the factory speakers, and they're definitely long-throw, which is a huge must for a subwoofer.

The factory ones are fucking garbage. The only thing they have in common with a REAL subwoofer is that they're round and sorta LOOK like a speaker. I've seen more robust drivers in a $10 pair of Soundesign house speakers. But if you don't like adding weight, and aren't handy with soldering, I would take a hard pass on doing this mod

 

[RyBread]

Well that turned out to be a WAY more difficult job than anticipated. The factory subs are connected via a wire clip that has 4 terminals (dual voice coil) with 4 wires. I had to pry the clip housing off the speaker, and unsolder two of the wires from the speaker to get it free of the speaker. Then cut new wires and make 4 solder connections to the new speakers. BUT, it works... Giant pain in the ass. Now I have to cut the cages off to get them to fit back into the lid. The factory speaker's cone seems to be made of a waterproof kevlar material. The new speakers are not waterproof, so I sprayed them liberally with Gorilla clear spray rubber waterproofing. The other thing, these speakers are 7.5 lbs. each, as compared to less than a half pound for the factory speakers, and they're definitely long-throw, which is a huge must for a subwoofer.

The factory ones are fucking garbage. The only thing they have in common with a REAL subwoofer is that they're round and sorta LOOK like a speaker. I've seen more robust drivers in a $10 pair of Soundesign house speakers. But if you don't like adding weight, and aren't handy with soldering, I would take a hard pass on doing this mod

Any pics of the wiring?

Thank you for updating us.

 

[aicpjim]

Any pics of the wiring?

Thank you for updating us.

I did one tonight. Will do the other tomorrow, and take pics during the process.

 

[aicpjim]

ABORT! This was a terrible idea. I got one sidecase done and decided NOT to do the other. For one thing the hole pattern for screwing down the speaker doesn't match the hole pattern on the stock driver. So I was only able to use one of the factory holes / screws to attach it down. For the rest, I put a bead of silicone down to help seal it in place, and used some small wood screws to attach it to the plastic on the inner lid. Absolutely NOT ideal. I'm not doing that to the other side of my bike. On the plus side, there was enough of a bass sound improvement from just the one sub that at 2/3-3/4 volume, it sounded rich enough that I didn't WANT to turn it up any more. At 3/4 plus volume, the factory sub on the other side started to bottom out again so I still can't turn it up all the way.

 

[Deleted member 1618]

Can you post pictures of the Marshall BMW OEM speaker and trace out the dimensions? I can probably find a high quality speaker which could be a direct replacement; also, any close up pictures of the connection or post the impedance values of the speaker - I think you purchased 6 Ohm speakers?

 

[aicpjim]

Can you post pictures of the Marshall BMW OEM speaker and trace out the dimensions? I can probably find a high quality speaker which could be a direct replacement; also, any close up pictures of the connection or post the impedance values of the speaker - I think you purchased 6 Ohm speakers?

You have to replace them with 2 ohm, dual voice coil subs. I didn't take pics of the wiring. I may try to figure out how to solve the mismatched hole issue and put in the other sub after all. Just got to think about it some more. If I do I'll take pics. Basically because the subs are dual voice coil, there are 4 wires in the harness for each sub. Those 4 wires go into a male plug, which plugs into a female attached to the sub itself. You've got to unsolder the female plug off the sub and solder it onto the new sub, if you want to reuse the plugs.

 

[Deleted member 1618]

You have to replace them with 2 ohm, dual voice coil subs. I didn't take pics of the wiring. I may try to figure out how to solve the mismatched hole issue and put in the other sub after all. Just got to think about it some more. If I do I'll take pics. Basically because the subs are dual voice coil, there are 4 wires in the harness for each sub. Those 4 wires go into a male plug, which plugs into a female attached to the sub itself. You've got to unsolder the female plug off the sub and solder it onto the new sub, if you want to reuse the plugs.

I thought I read that the Amazon posted speaker specifications stated that the impedance as 6 Ohm (which I thought was odd); did you look into the Skar Marine line of speakers.

Does the BMW speaker have four wires going to each speaker; if so, perhaps it's coming from a frequency cross-over? High freq. & the low freq. sub audio range.