Hi there,

New owner of a Honda Fit 2016 EX here. Not sure if any of you noticed, but the sound system has a terrible built in compression. If you listen to music, there are parts where it should get louder/more intense, and it absolutely fails to do this in the Fit. Does anyone possibly know how to fix or turn off this terrible feature? I've already disabled SVC.

I'm not sure whoever at Honda thought this was a good idea. This is the stupidest thing I've ever come across in an audio system. I'd rather have a sound system that is worse, if it were to preserver the dynamics of the music.

Hope it can be fixed?

Dave

 

Thank God my hearing has deteriorated to the point where I can't notice subtleties like this.

As far as hoping it can be fixed?
Well there are adjustments that can be made, Balance, Fade, Treble, etc,...
But if you don't like the stock sound system? The only fix is to replace it. Which is eminently possible, how much do you want to spend?

 

That's funny. Well I'm glad you don't notice it! If you did, you would hate it lol.

As far as replacing it, I'm not really in position to do that, unfortunately (at this time) - but that is one thing to consider.

Thank you.

 

What is even worst is Porsche drivers buy the best Bose sound system offered. The noise from the engine is so loud I don't know why anyone would even turn the radio on, much less using the premium stereo system.

 

this is off your usb flash drive? then that really sucks.

 

I'm not sure that I've encountered this. Or my hearing is just awful.

 

yah, ive not noticed it on my 16 EX either while playing back usb flash drive or FM radio.. but i only hear the thing, dont 'listen' to wat's playing in detail so may not have noticed it. ive not tried aux input or direct connected pandora, BT audio on the thing.

 

 

Now that brought back old memories! Having an AM radio in a car with a single speaker seemed like the greatest thing ever at the time. I remember wondering who the inventor was who came up with the idea of putting a radio in a car (maybe Einstein!) - I wanted to send him a thank you note.

 

Ha! I've noticed weirdness coming from my USB on occasion too but I always figured it was just a blip in the file. That said, the EX sound system overall has been a major disappointment for me. IIKTWIKN I'd have gone LX I think.

 

Related to which, the AM reception quality on my Fit is the worst I've experienced in any car, ever, including the very first car I owned (a 1979 Ford Fiesta).

On my daily commute between Redlands, CA, and Santa Monica, AM590 is tolerable about as far as Ontario (21 miles). There is then a dead zone until just over Kellogg Hill, past the 10/57 interchange, when AM 1150 becomes just about listenable.

After my Fit was rear-ended in January, I was in a rental car - a Prius - for five weeks while it was repaired. In it, AM590 is completely clear until the 605 (39 miles), and in the other direction, AM1150 is completely clear almost until 10/15 interchange. There was no "dead zone," in which I couldn't hear either station.

On non-commute drives for work trips to northern California in the Fit, there have been times when I've scanned the entire AM band and not found a single, static-free station.

There are many good things about the third generation Fit, but AM radio reception is a big flaw - in fact, such a big flaw that it might be what decides against another one when the time comes for me to replace it.

 

plus no auto-reverse cassette deck option.. unbelievable!

 

For those of us who like talk radio while we drive, it's a major bug.

The only alternative I can think of is to stream it to a phone and listen through Bluetooth, but if you do, then you can't use the phone for navigation (because the talk radio apps display ads while the audio plays, and the audio stops if you send the app to the background to see Waze).

 

Maybe it is somewhat of a generational thing?
I have great memories of riding around as a little kid, with my mother, in her 1967 Mustang, that had a push button AM radio.

She loved music and we would sing along with all the music of the time. And we thought the quality was just fine.
By todays standards, it wasn't. But...we didn't care.

I assume the OEM system in The Fit by most audiophiles standards probably doesn't live up to what they want, but for me? It's perfectly serviceable, and to me? Even good.

I don't know what I'd do with anything better.

 

For me the audio system is adequate. Pretty much the same can be said about the entire car. They should have named it the Honda Adequate. Anyone buying a <20k car shouldn't be expecting great audio components. Plus you test drive the car before buying it right? If it wasn't good then, the break in process won't make it better.

The adequate does a few things well though. I've been getting 40+ mpg even in the winter. It's higher than the epa ratings when I bought. Also the amount of stuff you can cram in is amazing.

I'm amazed people are listening to am still. Heck it's seldom I when use FM. I'm pretty much streaming everything with Pandora, Amazon or Google. If you have an Android, can you split screen the audio app? I've done that with Waze and it's worked. Not every app supports split screen.

 

my wife listens to AM for news radio.

 

i use Android Auto on my phone. No issues with google maps navigating while another audio app is playing.

 

 

AM?
Depends on what you want to listen to.
In my area, the local sports team's flagship broadcast station is an AM station only.
Also a lot of talk radio is AM.

With all the options growing, I think AM is challenged. But there is still reason and circumstance to listen to AM.

 

Honda's adequate costs around 15-20% more than their competitors' adequate (at least, it did when I compared the out-the-door cost of a Fit to its equivalent from Nissan, Toyota and Ford). Therefore, I expect Honda's adequate to be a significant improvement on the others. By and large it has been.

As someone who installs, tunes and calibrates audio systems in movie theaters for a living (and am a church organist and choirmaster in my spare time), I know a little bit about sound reproduction. Anyone who is obsessed with wide range frequency response in a car is devoting too much attention to the music they're listening to, and not enough to driving. The engine and tire contact noise occupies much of the same frequency band as the recorded sound you're likely to be listening to, anyways, and so if high quality recorded sound is what turns you on, a room specifically designed for its reproduction is where you want to be listening to it (we're veering off topic, but don't bother putting amplifiers and speakers costing four figures in a room containing tens of square feet of glass windows and/or an uncarpeted floor, as many people who affect a knowledge of audio technology and acoustics, but haven't any, are inclined to do), which the cabin of a car is not.

I listen to talk radio on the road because if the road conditions demand it, I can instantly detach my concentration from it and hit the off button. I can't do that with music (at least, not as easily). A little bit of static on AM I can live with: such poor reception that it's impossible to understand what people are saying I cannot.