I've been interested in Realphones and have been a user since only studio emulations were available.

I always felt the need for additional control, and when I saw a message from the developer in the dSONIQ chat looking for a car to emulate, I immediately agreed. I always wanted to expand the capabilities of Realphones technology and have an emulation of a familiar environment.

It looks like we succeeded!

The car is equipped with:

• 8 Helix speakers:
• 4 mid-bass (70-4000 Hz) — one in each door,
• 2 tweeters on a passive crossover with a resonance frequency of about 1.8 kHz,
• one front speaker,
• one built-in subwoofer in the trunk.
• 2 HERTZ amplifiers: one for the subwoofer and a four-channel for the front and rear.

The head unit in the car is stock, with a basic tone control (treble, bass, and subwoofer level) and a balance control (L-R and Front-Rear). The F-R balance adjusts the ratio between all the speakers in the cabin and the subwoofer. The subwoofer amplifier has an LPF set around 100 Hz.

The car is equipped with high-quality sound insulation, which attenuates about 25 dB at frequencies of 700 Hz and above when the windows and doors are closed. This allows for comfortable conversation and music listening without increasing the volume, even in noisy conditions.

While listening to reference tracks, including with a specialist from dSONIQ, before measurements, we concluded that the most natural sound of music is achieved when all tone, balance, and subwoofer level controls are set to zero. The measurements for the emulation were carried out under these conditions.

In real life, due to the technical characteristics of the car (the main engine tone at idle is around 50 Hz) and depending on the music genre, there may sometimes be a desire to add bass for a more powerful sound. When evaluating the sound of mixes in the car and its emulation I do not look for small mistakes like "738 Hz needs to be cut by 0.74 dB," but rather assess the overall tonal balance.

The most informative range for me is 300-1000 Hz, especially around 500 Hz. Excess in this area sounds extremely unpleasant. In terms of high and ultra-high frequencies, in my opinion, any car is not the best control. However, if the mid-highs and/or highs are overdone, the mix cannot be listened to loudly in the car due to unpleasant sensations.

It is always clear if there is not enough low end, and whether it is punchy or weak. Here lies the key difference between the emulation and the original: in the actual car, at a sufficient SPL level, the right low end is felt by the body. This is the moment when you understand if everything is good in this area. Poorly constructed or insufficient low end will not punch the body even at high volume.

Overall, the emulation is very close to the original, but it has more pronounced audible "comb filtering" in the upper part of the spectrum. This can be adjusted by ear using the Ambience and Response controls.

The dSONIQ team and the emulations they create are not affiliated, endorsed, or licensed by Land Rover.