Audio sound level outide the car

[gjunky]

I noticed the other day when my wife came driving up, that I could pretty much hear her phone conversation from the hands free call. I was standing on the driveway and she had all the doors and windows closed. She didn't have it on THAT loud either.

So I checked it out. Even with the radio on and the sound at level 3-4, you can hear exactly what is playing in the car from the outside. This really interferes with my awful singing while driving (joking about the singing, not the awfulness)

Did anyone else notice the seemingly total lack of sound dampening in the Model X doors? I figure that if it is that audible on the outside it would also really help to have more sound dampening in the doors to keep the outside noise out.

I know there have been some posts about people going all out to put sound dampening everywhere (I think it was a model S) but it required taking about most of the car's interior from what I remember.

Curious to know everyone's thoughts on the sound levels and how hard it might be to put some sound dampening in the doors (hoping that just that would at least help)

 

[chillaban]

Unfortunately this is extremely common in a lot of passenger cars, not just Tesla. The best car I've had in this regard is the Audi A6/A8 with the $6000 B&O sound package. Those speakers are specifically dampened so you can crank them up to 11 and not hear a thing from the outside. Otherwise, speakers in the door = sound bleeds easily to the outside.

I've walked by countless luxury cars at work where people went to the parking lot to make a "confidential" phone call and you can hear it clear as day from 2 cars away.

 

[xkwizit]

And with no other engine noise to muffle, you can hear it even more clear. However, on the road i don't believe people can hear you. Only when you're stopped.

 

[lunitiks]

Sorry to hear it's still a problem even in the X. In my S it is actually really extreme. No way I could compare it to other, regular passenger cars I've owned (regular VW Golfs, different Suzukis etc.). I really dont get why its so loud outside in the Tesla. The music radiation is OK, but the phone conversation radiation is just totally max bad

 

[krazineurons]

a colleague at work pointed out the same thing to me that, I was really loud on the phone or the speakers were making the sound be heard outside the car. Think it should be dampened, but I could wish many things for my X.

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

I'd be willing to wager it has something to do with the aluminum body instead of steel... Less dense? Transfers more sound? I can totally hear what my wife is jamming to when she pulls up to the office, but then again she likes to turn it up to 11...

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

Density of metals

 

[LovelyCarrot]

I've noticed the same. Music is far louder outside my X as compared to the Audi Q7 (with regular speakers, not the fancy ones mentioned earlier in the post). Frankly I feel the same about road noise inside the car, for a $90k vehicle the road noise is pretty loud. In comparison the Q7 sounds like a limo inside...quiet.

 

[Birdcar]

same here. I regularly hear phone conversation of other Tesla car next to me at the traffic stop. both cars have windows up. It means that noise comes into the cabin as well as leaks.

 

[Slessne]

This seems to be a problem unique to SOME Tesla cars, but not all. I’m experiencing the problem described in this article with my 2016 S P90D. I enlisted a few friends with Teslas (Including one with a 2016 75D) to do an experiment with me. We parked about 30 yards apart, put our phones in our respective cars and made a 3-way call from a friend’s phone standing halfway between the cars. With the volume equal on both our phones and our cars, the person calling could be heard MUCH louder from my car. This is not an issue of leaking. It’s as if the speakers in my car are facing outwards. The caller can be heard crystal clear at significant distance. I did this experiment with 3 other Teslas of different models and years, all with the same result. A tech came to my house and couldn’t determine what the problem was. I have an appt at the service center tomorrow.

 

[gjunky]

Interesting to see I received a couple “disagree”s
I don’t mind of course if people disagree but it would be nice to know why.

I did notice that the sound coming from within the Model 3 is considerably less than our Model X. Perhaps the newer Model X models have improved sound dampening. I might have to try that at the store next time.

@Slessne Could it be that phone calls are purposely louder on the speakers on the driver side, perhaps by design?