Page 3-80 of the owners manual, "With automatic volume control, the audio system will adjust automatically to make up for road and wind noise as you drive, by increasing the volume as vehicle speed increases."

Also, on page 3-81 it says, "if your vehicle has the Bose audio system, it includes Bose AudioPilot noise compensation technology. When turned on, AudioPilot continuously adjusts the audio system to compensate for background noise.

So, it seems that the way it is supposed to operate depends on what you have.

 

Hey jazz,

What in the owners manual will help all those for whom this feature isn't working?

As far as I can tell, auto volume is either set on or off. The problem for some of us is that there is no difference between those settings.

 

For those with 3LT - BOSE Radio's W/ NAV.
I checked the Radio Set-up screens and there is an button for Automatic Volume but it is an On/Off button. Is there an additional screen or button with settings that I didn't find?

Mine was "On" but I've not been able to hear any difference regardless of speed or other non-radio noise. The manual indicated that the set-up procedure involved different baseline volume settings but I still could tell how exactly to set this up.

Anyone who has this working - Can you tell the magic words/buttons to get it set-up properly??

 

I like your OnStar comment. The last two times I contacted OnStar, the operators had such thick accents I could not understand a word they were saying.

Oh yeah, my automatic volume control has never worked either.

 

my wife's ML 350 has this auto volume leveling feature and it is very obvious and incredibly annoying. personally if i want to adjust the volume i would rather just do it.

 

The AVC in my C5 had definite "steps" at certain speeds, so the operation was quite obvious.

My C6 with nav has the AVC turned On, and i think it is working because I seldom need to adjust the volume when cruising at slower or faster speeds. Because there are no "steps", it's easy to think that nothing is happening.

Hey, here's a test- start the car, put in a CD that has fairly constant volume, and listen to it. Drive at low speed in an area where you can do the test safely- take some of that "canned air" for cleaning off camera lenses, and blow it across (not directly into) the little microphone. See if the volume changes, then report back here!

 

I can tell you it definitely works in my 05 C6. My automatic volume control does just have the 2 settings, ON and OFF. No Nav in my C6.

 

Hey Jim,

Where is that little mic?

 

I think it's on the driver's side "A" pillar. Supposed to be the same mic as used for OnStar and nav voice commands, but I'm just repeating what someone else said.

 

I have previously posted on this topic that my auto-volume on my Bose radio did not work. Its now obviuos to me (as with other posters) that cabin noise is the catalyst for the adjustment, not speed.

I posted the comment below on another thread and I do not have Nav.

Yesterday with the radio at a moderate volume so we could converse, and while we were crossing over a concrete surface bridge, it was obvious the volume on my radio increased, reacting to the ambient noise as other posters have said it does. The trouble is, the road noise was very loud and then so was the radio, creating a din I didn't want to hear. After the bridge, and back on macadam, the automatic lower volume was obvious.

We paid close attention after the bridge and, sure enough, the auto volume was working. When we slowed to a light, the volume went down more.

Because it adjusts to noise, not speed, it just may be that a higher initial volume setting (that I usually use when alone) makes the auto-increase in volume less discernable. But having the radio at a comfortable "conversation" level as we had yesterday, made the auto-adjust increase/decrease very obvious.

This might explain the difference in comments...that the intial volume setting has alot to do with recognizing the fact that it is working. I'm not saying it works well, only that it may be working but not noticeable at higher initial volume settings......decreasing very loud to loud might not be much of a change.

So mine works. The jury is out on how effective it is. But I'll practice at moderate levels now to see where I need to set the intitial volume to get use out of the auto-adjust w/o sacrificing too much volume to my taste.