Easepod

The quality of the voice giving navigational guidance in the 2018 Audi Q5 is lacking in high frequencies, to the point where there are times I just can't understand her. Increasing volume does not help. It needs to have a boost in treble. Is there a setting somewhere to adjust treble on the voice? I have a Bang & Olufsen sound system with plenty of tweeters so it should handle it.

superswiss

That's a first I think. No, bass and treble can only be adjusted for the entertainment sources. I don't think I've ever used and voice control system where you can adjust the treble of the synthetic voice or where I felt I needed it. Is your Entertainment fader set properly. Does the volume of the music or whatever you are listening to get lower automatically, so you can properly hear the voice over the entertainment audio source. If not, you should play with that setting in the sound settings.

Easepod

Thanks for the quick response. The Entertainment fader is set fine. This muddled voice quality on the navigation voice happens even when the Entertainment source is turned off. When I picked up the car from the dealership, the salesman doing the orientation for us agreed that the quality of her voice was bad, but he had no idea how to fix it.

superswiss

I'm guessing there is something wrong with your speakers or audio system in general. The voice is not supposed to be muddled. In older models the voice sounds somewhat robotic, but clear to understand. In the new system you have, the voice is synthesized based on a real person's voice like most systems of today (Siri, Google Assistant etc.) and is supposed to be reproduced with the original voice's quality. It's like a phone call. You hear the person how they sound, except a phone call actually does narrow the frequency band so you don't hear the person's full voice unless both sides use a HD voice capable phone and service provider. Do you notice any other audio quality issues in your car? I don't think the voice plays on all speakers as it is focused on the driver primarily. I always thought there was a dedicated speaker somewhere around the dash for just the system voice, but I could be wrong. It might just play only from the speakers located around the driver. There is also a focus setting in the MMI. You can focus the entertainment sound to various areas in the car (driver, passenger, rear, center etc.) I don't think that affects the system voice, but it's worth checking how yours is setup. The default should be center focus.

I would go back to your dealer and try another similar car on their lot and see if the voice is the same and if not insist that they fix it ASAP. If it's the same, then I don't know what to say, but it sounds like they also noticed that it didn't sound right.

Martigary

Try another voice option, she may sound too much like white noise and you automatically switch her out.

jaims

Easepod

I'll try another voice option.

jakirk2011

Just curious...where can you change the voice option?