Cost free audio improvement
 

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum but been a Mini (Countryman) owner for a couple of years now. It is a 2016 Cooper S All4. When I got my Mini I was quite disappointed with the audio quality compared to other cars I've owned. I didn't want to spend lots of money on upgrades but got increasingly frustrated with the harsh mid-range. I use a 32 GB USB drive in the car with all my music and tend to play from this. While I can also stream from Spotify from my mobile using bluetooth I prefer not to do this as I don't want to be tempted to use my mobile to change songs while driving. Of course the mobile has an equaliser in the sound settings to compensate for the excessive midrange in the sound profile (in my opinion). The car only has only bass and treble controls. I found the poor audio was particularly noticable from the USB drive. When playing from the radio it doesn't seem as bad.

My solution was to re-master my music on the USB using Audacity. It is free software and while I initially had no idea what I was doing it didn't take me long to work out I could apply an equaliser to albums to reduce the midrange and enhance the low-end and high-end. It has made a huge difference as the music now sounds more balanced. I can play the music much louder without the harshness from before. Vocals particularly are softer on the ear and I think the overall sound is much improved. I now think the components Mini have used are pretty good. I just didn't like the sound setup.

If anyone is interested in trying this and wants to know more please let me know.

Cheers
Chris