Basic question here. When Tesla offers streaming apps like this (Tidal, Spotify, Netflix, whatever) who provides the internet link? I am wondering if we can use our iPhone cellular data or if it is necessary to pay for some sort of special Tesla internet cell service.
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Audio connectivity, Qobuz, Hi-res?
- Thread starter Zacster
- Start date
But that is exactly what I want to avoid. BT sucks for audio. And the also agree the audio system sucks in general. It is the biggest disappointment with my car but I knew it would be going in. Even in starting this thread I kinda knew it.
the thing that is so disappointing is that it doesn’t have to cost much to get good audio but once you’ve completely cheaped out on it It costs a lot to fix it. I’ve built amps preamps and speakers for home use that all cost less than the high end of your car audio. Tubes, high end Scanspeak drivers, fancy capacitors, hand wound transformers, silver wire etc... But then I front end it with a raspberry Pi and a DAC that cost $130. Those last two are as good as anything I have. So why can’t I put a DAC into my car? Why can’t I run over Wi-Fi or wire to get 24/192 audio?
AMAS 96K Mosconi America / Gladen Audio America
Hi-End Audio Equipment made in Italy and Germany
mosconi-america.com
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
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Tesla offers a paid premium connectivity plan which includes internet access for built in apps- or you can turn on wifi in the car and connect to your phone running as a hot-spot if you prefer (though you'll need to manually turn on wifi every time you put it in drive)
Either way you're limited to the streaming quality the tesla app itself allows (which thusfar is fairly low in all apps offered compared to what folks are asking for)
Tesla offers a paid premium connectivity plan which includes internet access for built in apps- or you can turn on wifi in the car and connect to your phone running as a hot-spot if you prefer (though you'll need to manually turn on wifi every time you put it in drive)
Either way you're limited to the streaming quality the tesla app itself allows (which thusfar is fairly low in all apps offered compared to what folks are asking for)
Why would you waste 96K resolution on the crap tesla audio system...Mine is connected to a Mosconi Gladen 6 to 8 Channels Aerospace Digital Signal Processor Which in turn is feeding Arc Audio X2 1100.5 Multi-Channel Amplifier (5-Channels) running an Audiomobile Evo 2410 High-Performance 10" Subwoofer It is also feeding a Arc Audio X2 600.4 Multi-channel Amplifier (four-channels) connected to the Morel Virtus 603 Virtus Series 6-1/2" 3-way component speaker system (mid woofer midrange and tweeter mounted in all stock locations). There is a feed from the stock hi level tesla system into this but I rarely use.
The secret sauce is the installer gutted the car and applied MASSIVE acoustic dampening to the entire interior. If you are an audio fan its prob the only way t get good sound in a tesla
Worse, it's not even AptX. Basically Tesla put a great sound system in the Model 3, then went out of their way to stop people getting the most out of it. No doubt many people dont care that much, but it that case why bother and boast about "premium sound" when all the sounds sources are sub-premium?
The ONLY way you can get good sound out of the car is via a USB storage device with FLAC files (no, they dont support ALAC). There was noise a while back about Tidal support (I'd prefer Qobuz, but whatever), but that has yet to appear, and even when it does it will probably be limited bitrate since its all going over the Tesla cell connection.
It's plain dumb they dont support tethered USB devices like iPhone as sound sources. Even a cheap Toyota can do that, and for a car that is supposed to be techie, it's ridiculous. One thing you know for certain, Elon might be smart, but he's not an audiophile.
Or you could listen in .. er .. your home? j/k. TBH as stock car sound systems go the Tesla is not bad, but you are never going to get anything good out of it with crappy BT audio as the source (or heavily compressed audio streamed over cellular).
Which is pretty much why i ditched the whole tesla system (it sucks in any form). My Input options are pretty much unlimited as the DSP has optical, BT, analog inputs i choose BT as itismost convienient. I have my Brennan B2 connected at some times with optical, all the music on that is flac. My ears cant tell the difference (they are old) so I stick with BT 96K in via Mosconi AMAS
I would listen at home if i didnt drive a 2 hourcommute every day
I learned today that Tesla's bluetooth link currently supports the AAC protocol, so it is not limited to only SBC. AAC at 256kbps is at least pretty decent as lossy audio compression goes, a little better than MP3. Still nowhere near pure analog or high res digital, but definitely better than the built in Spotify which I understand streams at a mere 96kbps.
So after a few hours researching it seems the best Tesla audio streaming solution (for now) is an iPhone connected by BT using AAC.
So after a few hours researching it seems the best Tesla audio streaming solution (for now) is an iPhone connected by BT using AAC.
sduck
Mr. Duck
I read it in a few places but here is one:
teslamotorsclub.com
Bluetooth Audio Codecs
I was curious what audio codecs are supported on the Model 3 for Bluetooth media streaming since the quality actually seemed pretty good. I thought I'd share my findings for folks who are also interested. From past threads, it looks like the support is the same as the Model S and X. I logged...
teslamotorsclub.com
Sad to hear that Zacster. I know you tried everything including raspberry pi solutions and I was hoping you had some success. Sounds like a major strike against Tesla. Wish they would just embrace the iPhone/android model rather than trying to force their own cellular access methods. For most people the cellphone already owns the internet connection, not the car. Don’t see the point in Tesla bucking this trend. Just add conventional apple play and an analog in and be standard.
OMG, I just listened to my youtube music playlist from the youtube browser in the car then from my phone via bluetooth. Now I can't unhear how compressed the bluetooth streaming is. I'm normally an audiophile and have my decent Schiit lyr2/bifrost with '69 amperex tubes and Audeze LCD2 headphones at my computer. I was a Tidal guy but since google play came with youtube red I settled and it was good enough.
The crappy part is I no longer have a music collection except CDs. Are we just supposed to suck it up until tidal? Is there a way to force LDAC quality BT streaming or something?
You made me hear this and now I'm sad....
The crappy part is I no longer have a music collection except CDs. Are we just supposed to suck it up until tidal? Is there a way to force LDAC quality BT streaming or something?
You made me hear this and now I'm sad....
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Sorry. But this really, really sucks. I just don't get why they made it so impossible to get any good sound into this. They had to go out of their way to make it so impossible. By default it should just work. I'd rip out the whole system if it weren't so integrated with everything else. Every other audio system I have will tell me bit depth and sample rate, pass as much through as the hardware allows and mostly up to 32/384 these days. Yet here we are back to the early days of portable players with MP3 or less quality. It makes me worry that if Tidal ever gets implemented with the car it will still be limited in quality.
For a brief while I put into my minivan my DIY desktop speakers with a small SMSL amp and AQ Dragonfly DAC. I could do that again but the M3 is a lot smaller than a minivan and it would take up some room. It wasn't permanently installed though so I could just try it. The one thing is the power requirements of the small amp was met with a plug in 12vdc to 120vac inverter in the car. I'm not sure the Tesla could handle it. I guess I have a task for this week to give it a try.
And one more thing. These desktop speakers use a Fostex FF85WK full range 3" driver. Tiny, but sounds better than the car's speakers do.
Yeah it's not like you can just swap head units in this car. Honestly wired Android auto/car play would solve it for streaming and it can't be that hard.
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