So...question about the engine noise that is added in the cabin - is that just from the front speakers or a speaker under the dash? Is it from a mic that is actually on the engine or just canned engine sounds?

 

That's not noise, baby

 

Ok fine, the sweet sweet growl of the VQ engine. Question is still the same :-P

 

The 2016 and up Maxima has artificial sound delivered into the passenger compartment?

 

SR only I believe.

 

My Platinum has it. I believe it amplifies the exhaust note when you select sport mode on all models.

 

It doesn't amplify the exhaust note. On the Maximas with active noise cancellation (upper trim models), the fake engine noise is part of the way they actively cancel other frequencies.

I'm happy mine doesn't have it

 

You are incorrect. Even when in "sport mode", the active noise cancelling is still functioning to reduce exterior noise. While in sport mode, the audio system actually monitors the recognizable engine exhaust growel and amplifies it through the speakers.

I LOVE the way it sounds!

 

I'm not incorrect. In fact, I very much said that the fake engine sounds that you hear through the speakers are part of the noise cancelling system... It's still fake noise though. It doesn't ACTUALLY change the ACTUAL sound of the exhaust. It just makes you hear the fake sound of it more in the cabin...

It's like driving a video game... If you will... It's not real

 

Yep, you are still incorrect. You said that it does not "amplify" the exhaust note. This is directly from Nissan's website. Read the last sentence. The word "augment" means "to increase" or "amplify". Look it up in webster's

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)/Active Sound Enhancement (ASE)
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) monitors and measures engine sounds and then uses the Maxima’s speakers to produce acoustically opposing signal to cancel undesirable sounds. Active Sound Enhancement (ASE) takes information from the engine and uses digital signal processing to enhance the engine note in the cabin. The technology works with the vehicle’s sound system to augment or modify the spectrum of select powertrain sounds in the cabin.

I have a really good relationship with my Nissan service department and one of my comrades is a Nissan techie Guru. He explained it to me when I purchased the car.

Don't try to change what you said. I'm not trying to be unfriendly to you, but you quoted me and said that the info I posted was not true. You said "it does not amplify the exhaust note", which is directly calling me a liar. It DOES amplify the exhaust note. The audio system "amplifies" the exhaust note through the speakers! You should get your facts straight before you call someone else's post inaccurate.

Kind Regards,
Lou

 

Lol I didn't change or retract anything I said... And I don't have to look up what "augment" means... Thanks anyway ��.

You said it amplifies the exhaust note...

There are some cars that the exhaust tone/note/loudness ACTUALLY gets amplified when in sport mode (Lexus, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, Yada Yada Yada..). You weren't clear as to whether you actually thought the exhaust sound itself changes in sport mode, OR if you realized that the actual exhaust sound is exactly the same, but the fake sound of the exhaust gets louder in the speakers.... THAT is the difference I was pointing out to you in my initial post... That the actual exhaust sound doesn't change at all... Just the fake sound the speakers give you changes.

So uh... Yeah my facts are straight buddy. Lol

 

For those making comments about it - even the 370z does it now. It doesn't make loud noises when cruising, only under acceleration. The noise cancelling is to counter wind and road noise while at speed. It doesn't make engine noises then. It's only there to make the car sound more aggressive than it truly sounds - basically I was wondering if it was truly the sound of the engine in the car or just some engine noise from who knows what.

 

Keyan,

the way way the tech described it to me is that the mic's in the audio system pick up the actual sound of the engine exhaust note. Then the audio system amplifies that note and pumps it into the cabin through the audio speakers. So it is not a fake note. It is the actual sound of your exhaust amplified so that you can hear it better, while the system continues to filter out other exterior noises like wind and road noise. It's a pretty sweet piece of technology and my two teenage sons love it when I activate it!

Lou

 

Unfortunately Lou, I believe it is indeed fake.

Take a second and think about what your friend at Nissan told you... The microphones in the audio system pick up the actual sound of the engine exhaust note? Where are these microphones located that they can pick up such a pure sound and send it out through the speakers? The microphone would have to be right at the exhaust tip, and even then, it wouldn't be pure exhaust sound, because it would pick up every other sound, as well as wind noise too. That is not how I believe the system works...

Re-read the excerpt that you took from Nissan's website: "Active Sound Enhancement (ASE) takes information from the engine and uses digital signal processing to enhance the engine note in the cabin. The technology works with the vehicle’s sound system to augment or modify the spectrum of select powertrain sounds in the cabin."

It says nothing about microphones... If you break it down, what it is saying is....

-It "takes information from the engine"= it reads the RPMs
-"uses digital signal processing to enhance the engine note in the cabin"= It then plays a programmed engine/exhaust sound that Nissan and Bose jointly developed- to match wherever you are in the powerband/rev range...

Just think about it logically... It makes sense. More cost effective and reliable than a bunch of microphones all over the place that will SURELY pick up unwanted sounds and play those through your speakers as well... Which would kind of negate the whole purpose of "active noise cancellation", among other things.

I know you want the sounds to be real. I would too. I'm not even being funny... But logically, it would just not seem that they are.

 

Please?!?

Youre twisting your words to crawfish out of a very inconsiderate post you made concerning my comment. My comment of "it amplifies the exhaust note" was completely truthful and it was you who didn't understand it. I never said it amplified the exhaust. I said it amplified the exhaust note, which is exactly what the audio system does.

Of course the Maxima does not have solenoids or actuated valves that divert the exhaust through different muffler chambers or bypass the muffler altogether like the Vette or Camaro SS. YOU ASSUMED that's what I meant. But instead of giving me the benefit of the doubt, or asking for clarification, you replied with a comment that made my statement look false.

These forums are a wonderful resource for knowledge and information, however they always suffer from people like you who are very quick to try and discredit others only to inflate themselves. Your "quick to negate" replies only harm these types of forums, especially for new members trying to learn and possibly save money by doing things themselves. Moving forward, you should ask for clarification before you try and discredit someone's post.

Kind Regards,
Lou

 

You are taking this way too personally. I didn't come off in any way like I was trying to "discredit" you in my first post, and I am surely not twisting my words or trying to weasel out of anything... I simply said that it didn't amplify the exhaust note. Perhaps your understanding of exhaust "note" is a little different... But an exhaust note is something that an actual exhaust makes...

So in the most literal sense you can look at it (which is the way I read your post), "change the exhaust note" means to change the sound of the exhaust... Which is the way I responded to your post.

Later on, YOU clarified your post by saying you were talking about the sound through the speakers... But that's not what you said in your initial post...

I implore any and all other members to go back and look at his initial post, and my reply... You will see that I in no way was condescending... I was simply trying to be informative, because it seemed to me like he was saying that sport mode makes our exhausts louder...

Relax dude... I wasn't attacking you... But I'm also not going to apologize for something I didn't do.

 

everything you just wrote is what you "presume". I am reporting what Nissan tech explained to me. As far as the mic's go, he said it was the same mic's used for the ANC. The software picks up ALL noise from the mic's, including the exhaust note, and then filters out and passes through what it will, depending on which performance mode is selected.


The the fact that you would back your side of the discussion with things you "presume" and aren't sure of, tells me once again that you don't have your facts straight. Thank you for proving my point.

I am posting what my Nissan Tech explained to me so I am inclined to trust him more than I'll trust you at this point ;-)

Kind Regards,
Lou

 

Lol oh man... Dude you are a headcase. Why are you being so aggressive?

I'll let you in on a little secret... techs are mechanics employed by Nissan... They aren't Nissan engineers... Just because they are a Nissan Tech doesn't make them inherently knowledgeable on all aspects of these vehicles. If you want to take the word of a guy who changes your oil because he has a Nissan shirt on, and believe that he knows the intricacies of how such an advanced piece of technology works "just-cause", then more power to you lmao.

It's called critical thinking. I clearly broke it down for you a couple posts up. Show us literature that states that mics are used to capture real-time engine and exhaust sounds and filters out everything else, and sends the pure sound of engine and exhaust into the cabin through the speakers for you

You don't have to trust me bud. I could honestly care less. But anyone who is even fairly analytical will agree with me.

I'm too grown to be sitting here arguing with you about your hurt feelings, which are probably due to some kind of self confidence issue, considering I didn't even come at you that way in the first place... Just drop it and stay on the subject, because I'm quite sure the OP could care less about our bickering. Stick to the facts and leave me out of it bud.

 

OP... Watch this video... Go to 13:10 and you will hear him talk about the "digital" and "fake" engine sounds

 

Now that's funny You are obviously the headache on this forum

You are the one who won't let it go and continues to base his argumant on speculation You obviously don't understand how the ANC system works.

You just stated "I'm too grown to be sitting here arguing with you about your hurt feelings" however you continue to argue
and then you said "stick to the facts", which you are clearly do not because everything you say about the technology is what YOU THINK it is

I have written everything calmly and in Kind Regards so that you would know I'm not upset in any way...you're just receiving it that way I am just trying help you from giving forum members wrong information.

And I'll let you in on an even bigger secret, Techs are different everywhere you go. I've known some techs who were not very knowledgeable throughout the industry. But just like any profession, there are just as many very intelligent technicians who have a great interest in technology and therefore become very knowledgeable in their careers. Just because your dealership may have mediocre techs, doesn't mean that all techs aren't very knowledgeable.

For you to keep responding to this without any facts and based on "your invalidated speculations", tells me that you are indeed the one who has no life and is probably dealing with allot of rejection in your life. I pity you dude...learn how to respect others in your life, then you may get some respect in return.



Kind Regards,
Lou

 

Alex Dykes You trust this guy over your Nissan Techs I bring info from knowledgeable Nissan employees and you try to back it up with a "generalist" automotive reviewer? That's your expertise???

CNTRT...just let it go and try not to take this so personally. This is not about you covering up for being so arrogant. This is about bringing correct information to an informative forum. You bring only speculation based on "non-Nissan" internet videos

I apologize to all who have read these posts and to the OP for my failure to ignore these type of retorts from people who take out their frustrations on others on the internet.

I also apologize to CNTRT for enabling him by responding to his rubbish. It is obvious that your feelings have been hurt and I hope you can forgive me for playing your immature game.

I am no longer going to respond to CNTRT because it is obvious that he is a child and will not stop...

I will commit to only bringing factual information from reputable sources, as I have always done. I will also share any more credible info that is specific to this topic should it become available to me.

Kind Regards to all,
Lou

 

Just for the heck of it, I did a quick search search on CNTRT's posts. It is obvious that this guy is a headache to many and has issues with just about everyone who challenges his limited knowledge. Take a look at these posts where he continues to attack and discredit people. He admits to his "uncalm" character in the first post LOL!!! And this was just from the 1st page of his posts

It's his bullying nature, that insecure people like him, use behind the hidden safety of the internet to belittle others in an effort to justify themselves. Very, Very sad...

 

Thanks for the hijack kids. There are tons of cars that are doing this. Heck I think there is one hybrid out there that makes engine sounds even when on battery only just to make people happy. My only concern really was that if there is a mechanical problem with the engine if the sounds would still sound healthy and possibly mask it - which it sounds like there is a good chance they would. The real way to possibly answer this question would be to find the service manual and see if there is a microphone in the engine bay that is listed for this. If not, it may just use the knock detection mic. Or it's all just a recording of engine sounds. Since we haven't really managed to do anything but start a silly flame war, I'll thank everyone for their contributions even if we didn't find a definitive answer.

 

Once again, my apologies Keyan. There really is no excuse for our behavior and thanks for pointing it out.

The way the dealer explained it to me was that the ANC mic inside of the cabin was the only mic in the system. ALL noise, including the actual exhaust note that enters the cabin is received by the audio system. Then the audio system generates sound to counteract the "actual sounds" it has received through the mic and plays that out from the speakers. That is how noise cancelling works. If noise cancelling technology was just playing "fake pre-recorded sounds", then it would not be able to transmit sounds to precisely counteract the actual sounds you are experiencing.

To give example... ANC on airplanes entertainment systems or ANC headphones that you buy don't have pre-programmed sounds in them. They take in the actual sounds of the environment around them. Then the processors generate a specific sound to mask those unwanted sounds from your ears. Those generated sounds are played along with your audio (music or movies) to cancel out the unwanted sound but deliver the wanted sound.

I called my tech this morning. He reiterated what he told me. He even mentioned that people who install aftermarket exhaust notice that the sound of their new exhaust is what they hear from the speakers when they place it in sport mode. The ANC still works when in normal mode, even filtering and minimizing the sound of their aftermarket exhaust. There is no way Nissan and/or Bose pre-programmed multiple exhaust sounds to accommodate that.

If you have performance issue or popping, you will hear it through the speakers when in sport mode.

Kind Regards,
Lou

 

I honestly don't think you'll ever hear a difference through those speakers. I'm going to do more research and try to find a definitive answer...

 

Keyan,

Here is a link my tech just forwarded to me in response to my phone call with him this morning. He apologized for late send but he said they were swamped in service this morning.

http://www.nissantechnicianinfo.mobi...cellation.html

On the ASE, the tech-file explains that "Active sound enhancement enhances existing engine sounds according to the engine speed and driving modes through the speakers." He explained the key here is "existing" engine sounds. The higher the RPM, the more the sound is enhanced.

The file also states that "Engaging SPORT mode with the drive mode selector will signal the audio system to increase engine note amplification in the cabin." So in sport mode, the audio system is signaled to "amplify" the engine note...not create a false one.

He also stated that with some of the aftermarket exhaust systems being installed, they have been disabling the ASE feature because some customers do not like the increased volume coming from the speakers due to the louder initial note. He said something about holding down the "Home" button while turning the volume ****, which brings the menu to settings that can enable/disable ANC and ASE.

This information is from my Nissan Technician, whom I trust.

I also found this link during lunch on Nissan's news website. Just read item #4 as it concurs with the tech-note from my Dealership.

http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/u...things-to-know

I hope this info has been helpful to you.

Kind Regards,
Lou

 

OP... You know how to test this theory? Do an acceleration run in sport mode... Then, cover all 3 of the mics in the headliner... And do another acceleration run. If the piped in engine noise is the same both times, then those mics aren't responsible for the sound coming through your speakers

 

Just turn audio on and off to see the difference. No need to cover.

My experience, with ASE disabled and ANC enabled, the inside cabin was quieter. There was no amplified engine note or exhaust. Wasn't as nice with ASE enabled.

With ASE enabled, there is note of engine and amazing sound. I have Stillen intake, and i can definitely tell the difference. Fake sound or amplified its all the same, with ASE its beautiful to hear within the cabin.

All this bickering and arguments back and forth is pointless when someone doesn't even own a SR, SL or Platinum. They would not know the difference.
I am extremely happy that i get to hear the cabin with ASE everyday.

 

I agree and concur that the ASE in this car is a sweeeeeet feature The ANC works superbly as well. We occasionaly drive this car from Houston to New Orleans on I-10, which has allot of noisy 18-wheelers and a considerable amount of noisy grooved-cement and the ride is exceptionally quiet. We have had this car for exactly one year now and continue to be impressed. It is our first Maxima and we love it!

Lou

 

The primary firing orders on a V6 are 3 & 6. The system amplifies the 3rd order making the car sound more aggressive and louder inside the cabin. So yes it does amplify sound but not of the exhaust.

 

THAT makes much more sense than what he was claiming the system did. Thank you sir for the explanation

 

Hi R1600Turbo. Thanks for taking time to add info to the conversation.

Can you post the source of that information, like I did with the Nissan Technical note? I remember from my conversation with my Tech that there are some manufacturers that do what you explain, however he said that Nissan does not because there are too many technical challenges with "syncing" the actual noise from the exhaust (because some outside noise DOES get through, even with ANC) with the processed noise coming from the speakers. He said that the technology you describe is generally used on "high-end" vehicles. He also said that Toyota has had difficulty with it on some of their models that they have actually reverted to the installation of a sound pipe to tunnel some engine noise into the cabin because the ANC/ASE combination would not work. So Toyota left out the ASE and use the pipe to carry the live engine noise from the manifold to the footwell.

The technology you describe would also not account for the increase and/or change in the processed sound coming from the speakers when aftermarket exhasuts systems are installed on the Maxima.

Kind Regards,
Lou

 

Wait? Are those little bump out things in the headliner on each side above the B pillars mics? I wondered what they were.

 

Yes, those are microphones. Some vehicles, like my 2016 Sierra Denali, also have little varistors or thermistors (or some type of electronic component) on the headliner near the top of your head, which also look like little mics. Those actually monitor temp and humidity from your head to aid in cabin comfort by automatically adjusting the climate control system.

I love the technology in these newer vehicles More stuff to maintain though

 

Sounds like we made some progress on understanding it - thanks all! It does sound sweet.

 

3rd order level increases, ASE will account for that and increase as well.

 

So it sounds like you're explaining that it's using the engine harmonics as a factor in processing the exhaust sound output to the speakers?

So now my question would be, is it the actual harmonics, or calculated/processed? This would help me to better understand.

Thanks in advance for input!

Kind Regards,
Lou