Effing Soundpieceofshitaktor!!!!

[vpr80]

So for the last few weeks I've been getting some sort of weird noise under moderate acceleration that something was vibrating either under the hood or the dash. It was a higher pitch noise that only happened on increased revs under acceleration. I tried to figure out what it was, but gave up just assuming that it was something around the engine and that I would get it checked out at the next service. So today it was going in for the airbag recall and I was thinking of how to show it or describe it to them. I figured out that it happened every time that I accelerated with a downshift. It would sounds like something vibrates and then as the rpm's drop, it went away. It began to seem like the noise was centered on the front center speaker on the dash. Then randomly I had a thought, what if the noise that I'm hearing is the stupid soundaktor? Can't be that simple, plus also the noise is very unpleasant not something I would expect from the soundaktor. So I decided to give it a try and set it to comfort. And what do you know, no effing vibrating, pinging, etc noise at all!!! I tried everything to replicate it and nothing worked. Set the soundaktor back on dynamic and sure enough it made noise every time that I would drop a gear to accelerate.

So if I was mildly annoyed by it at first, I now plain hate that stupid thing!!! I still can't f'ing believe that an "S" car should be faking the exhaust and engine noises.

[tadhgbrosnan]

Piped in fake sound is a terrible idea. It's astonishing to me that Audi & BMW see fit to apply this horseshit to their performance cars.

[Maitre Absolut]

Purchase AWE exhaust

Set engine sound to comfort

Problem solved.

[RickFLS4]

It isn't just Audi and BMW and it will likely continue to grow as engines get smaller, rely on forced induction and maximize efficiency / minimize environmental impact. Just pull the fuse if it bothers you.

[jygesq]

You an pull fuse 5 on drivers side fuse panel bank A to take soundacter out of system. Some people say that makes noises louder than in comfort setting. Try it f you wish.

[Reddington]

Funny you post this. My '15 does the same thing and I had the same solution. It is a horrible sound.

[vpr80]

You an pull fuse 5 on drivers side fuse panel bank A to take soundacter out of system. Some people say that makes noises louder than in comfort setting. Try it f you wish.

Thanks, I will try this. In Comfort it was all nice and quite, no strange noises or anything so might not be necessary to pull the fuse.

[vpr80]

Funny you post this. My '15 does the same thing and I had the same solution. It is a horrible sound.

Just in case someone else has the same issue so they don't go crazy trying to figure it out like me.

[doug97gxe]

Acura, Porsche, VW .. everyone is doing it.. my cousin told me its actually not as bad on the audi.. he said on the Porsche Cayanne Diesel the difference in sound is crazy.. its virtually no sound outside the truck

[SteveYem]

If you have access to a vag-com cable you can disable the feature via VCDS. I did it, no problems since.

[Triska]

I have read lots of hate about this. I dunno, I have no issues with sound amplifier. I keep it in dynamic almost all the time and like the growl when accelerating. It's too quiet in comfort mode. Comfort is good for long trips occasionally. I never change the ride to comfort, the steering loses it's feel in comfort.

[Dr GP]

Cant you just go into the individual settings and set soundakator for comfort? Set everything else as you wish. Drive in individual setting.

[doug97gxe]

I have read lots of hate about this. I dunno, I have no issues with sound amplifier. I keep it in dynamic almost all the time and like the growl when accelerating. It's too quiet in comfort mode. Comfort is good for long trips occasionally. I never change the ride to comfort, the steering loses it's feel in comfort.

same here.. dynamic all the way.. i call comfort the wife mode.. only when my wife is in the car the car goes to comfort .. i like the fake noise.. i was never really a fan of loud exhausts.. so if its loud in the car and quiet outside i don't mind.. feel me all day long audi .. i'm in it to win it

[vpr80]

Think my soundaktor is broken. I've had it on for a year and it was fine for me as well.

[MrFunk]

Soud-a-faker = FAIL

Superbly lame.

Same with manual auto rev matching
Same with Auto Hill Assist

[SteveYem]

Soud-a-faker = FAIL

Superbly lame.

Same with manual auto rev matching
Same with Auto Hill Assist

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised to find my 2015 came with the hill hold assist feature enabled form the factory. I doubt it was something I would have gone out of my way to enable via VCDS, but I'll be damned if I don't find it to be a very satisfying feature!

[MrFunk]

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised to find my 2015 came with the hill hold assist feature enabled form the factory. I doubt it was something I would have gone out of my way to enable via VCDS, but I'll be damned if I don't find it to be a very satisfying feature!

My wife's fiat 500 has it also - first thing I disabled... terrible... sometimes I want to roll backwards. I don't want to wait for the system to "allow" me to.

[Blurspeed]

Cant you just go into the individual settings and set soundakator for comfort? Set everything else as you wish. Drive in individual setting.

That's exactly what I do :)

[myrison]

Pulled my fuse the 2nd week I had my car. It drove me crazy.


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[Maitre Absolut]

Is there a difference between pulling the fuse and setting sound to comfort?

[jygesq]

Is there a difference between pulling the fuse and setting sound to comfort?
Some say comfort is quieter than pulling fuse, try your self and let the rest of us know.

[myrison]

Some say comfort is quieter than pulling fuse, try your self and let the rest of us know.

This was my experience, could have been psychological, but pulling the fuse left no doubt.


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[SteveYem]

Some say comfort is quieter than pulling fuse, try your self and let the rest of us know.

How could that be? Pulling the fuse disables the feature altogether and leaves you with just the sound naturally produced from the exhaust system.

[MVR 155]

How could that be? Pulling the fuse disables the feature altogether and leaves you with just the sound naturally produced from the exhaust system.

Comfort likely uses sound cancellation frequency to actually quiet down the natural sound of the engine/exhaust. I have my fuse pulled and I believe the car is a bit louder than it was in comfort mode. I just prefer to hear the car in it's natural form..... not a fan of "artificial" sound manipulation.

[Uberformance]

How could that be? Pulling the fuse disables the feature altogether and leaves you with just the sound naturally produced from the exhaust system.

It could be that in comfort the system is actively cancelling noise?

[SteveYem]

Comfort likely uses sound cancellation frequency to actually quiet down the natural sound of the engine/exhaust. I have my fuse pulled and I believe the car is a bit louder than it was in comfort mode. I just prefer to hear the car in it's natural form..... not a fan of "artificial" sound manipulation.


It could be that in comfort the system is actively cancelling noise?

I never thought about that. I wonder if having the soundaktor enabled and in comfort mode would effectively reduce the volume of an aftermarket system as well? I'll have to try that.

[gendry]

It could be that in comfort the system is actively cancelling noise?

If that was an actual feature of the car I can't imagine Audi would keep it a secret and not promote its existence.

[MVR 155]

If that was an actual feature of the car I can't imagine Audi would keep it a secret and not promote its existence.

If you look at the Audi website there is really no mention of the ability to enhance or cancel noise in the car. Drive select offers 3 different modes of "engine sound"..... Comfort is obviously the most tame setting so if they are altering auto and dynamic with enhancements why wouldn't they use cancelation in the comfort mode? The entire way they manipulate engine sound is not even close to transparent from the manufacturer. Obviously you can learn much more about it from any of the automobile publications/websites like car&driver, motortrend, etc.......

[RainJer]

So if I was mildly annoyed by it at first, I now plain hate that stupid thing!!! I still can't f'ing believe that an "S" car should be faking the exhaust and engine noises.


Piped in fake sound is a terrible idea. It's astonishing to me that Audi & BMW see fit to apply this horseshit to their performance cars.

It really does not take a lot to set some people off... Audi gives you an easy way to turn it off so wtf is the "astonishment" about?

Just relax and switch it off before you give yourself a nose bleed.

[rs4dreams]

Is there a difference between pulling the fuse and setting sound to comfort?

Not sure about pulling the fuse, but Comfort is definitely louder than setting the volume to 0 through VCDS, which disables the soundaktor completely (it's so quiet it's actually hard to hear what the engine is doing a lot of the time if you don't have an intake or exhaust). Comfort sounds like about 50% volume while Dynamic is 100% by default. You can also set the volume to any desired value in between. I've played around with it and it seems that Comfort is about half the volume of Dynamic.

[chillindrdude]

the engineer that thought piping in artificial engine sounds into the cabin was a good idea should be shot.

[SteveYem]

the engineer that thought piping in artificial engine sounds into the cabin was a good idea should be shot.

I bet the engineer's only responsibility was finding a way to make the concept work.

Considering that the soundaktor feature has two distinct volume settings - comfort and dynamic - and I presume that 'Auto' fluctuates somewhere between the two, I don't understand why Audi wouldn't build in a user-adjustable volume setting for it, variable from 0 to 10 or something like that, built right into the Car settings in the MMI. If the speaker can put out Minimum sound in Comfort and Maximum Sound in Dynamic, then surely it should be able to put out any volume level on the spectrum from Minimum to Maximum. Or crank the dial all the way to the left to turn off the sound completely, just like the stereo system. Had Audi spent the extra day building this selection into the MMI menu, it would alleviate everyone bellyaching about artificial crappy engine sound, pulling fuses, using VCDS to disable it, etc.

[gendry]

Active noise cancellation isn't as simple as throwing a speaker in a car and piping in a soundtrack. There is a whole feedback loop and control system using sensors and a controller. I think bose is developing something that adds the extra hardware into the head unit, but I would be pretty surprised if the S4 had this but kept it a secret. On the other hand, I think it is pretty obvious why the S4 has the artificial engine noise yet keeps that a secret (or at least doesn't actively promote it for what it is)...


If you look at the Audi website there is really no mention of the ability to enhance or cancel noise in the car. Drive select offers 3 different modes of "engine sound"..... Comfort is obviously the most tame setting so if they are altering auto and dynamic with enhancements why wouldn't they use cancelation in the comfort mode? The entire way they manipulate engine sound is not even close to transparent from the manufacturer. Obviously you can learn much more about it from any of the automobile publications/websites like car&driver, motortrend, etc.......

[gforaker]

An article on the new RS3 coming out next year said that it will adjust the sound level by using movable valves or flaps inside the muffler. IE it will actually adjust the true sound of the exhaust.

[Thumper3]

An article on the new RS3 coming out next year said that it will adjust the sound level by using movable valves or flaps inside the muffler. IE it will actually adjust the true sound of the exhaust.

Really? Hey, I have some beachfront property you might be interested in...... ;) :D


Something to think about, cars of this class are expected to have amazing build quality and comfort as well, and part of that is eliminating road noise.....that is done by sound proofing the cabin. That means dulling the exterior engine noise........but someone buys a performance sedan and they want to hear the engine. Solution? Pipe fake noise in.

I understand why they did it, I personally hate it, but hey, if you can just turn it off........do it and move on.

[superswiss]

Something to think about, cars of this class are expected to have amazing build quality and comfort as well, and part of that is eliminating road noise.....that is done by sound proofing the cabin. That means dulling the exterior engine noise........but someone buys a performance sedan and they want to hear the engine. Solution? Pipe fake noise in.

That's one part. The other part is turbo charged engines that reduce exhaust noise, because the exhaust energy is used to spin the turbo(s) instead.

[EBS4]

It's all an issue of personal opinion. I don't mind the growl of the soundaktor over the silent cabin but I can't stand supercharger whine. I can't fathom why so many people buy intakes just to hear the supercharger when Audi probably spent a fortune developing a way to make the damn thing quiet lol. I guess some people just wish they had tinnitus? Personally I'd rather have a soundaktor that plays Fran Dreschers laugh than some of the popular S4 intakes.

Cheers,
EBS4.

[doug97gxe]

It's all an issue of personal opinion. I don't mind the growl of the soundaktor over the silent cabin but I can't stand supercharger whine. I can't fathom why so many people buy intakes just to hear the supercharger when Audi probably spent a fortune developing a way to make the damn thing quiet lol. I guess some people just wish they had tinnitus? Personally I'd rather have a soundaktor that plays Fran Dreschers laugh than some of the popular S4 intakes.

Cheers,
EBS4.

its funny you mention that.. my ears have been ringing for 4 months straight .. part of my vertigo issue

[jmustaparta]

I think the vibrations you are hearing is the Door Rattle issues in our cars... If you are in Dynamic while listening to music it gets worst...

[the4siswickid]

I think the vibrations you are hearing is the Door Rattle issues in our cars... If you are in Dynamic while listening to music it gets worst...

Yep. Fix???? How????


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[jmustaparta]

Yep. Fix???? How????


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According to another post here in the forum there seems to be a TBS for the door rattle (2022773/4). I need to call my dealer and get this check, it's annoying...

[rlfletch]

Really? Such a rant about something Audi gave you an off button for? Some people want a quiet car, some want exhaust growl. Coupled with the fact that noise restrictions are become more and more common in the world I think the solution is fine. For example: I miss my R32 exhaust note but my wife does not.