Warning.....long winded post...
Many years ago I drove a friends 1992 400E Mercedes and was really impressed that a car could be that quiet, smooth, and powerful. I bought a 1993 300E. Not enough power- awful Becker stereo, and seats needed improvement. So I searched for a car with more power, and better seats. The Becker system in my 300E was pathetic..good only for talk radio/ NPR.
In anticipation of buying a better w124 chassis Mercedes I bought about $15-$20K of super high quality car audio gear. McIntosh amplification 4 amps, 2000 watts total, and a Nakamichi TP-1200 II special shop upgraded electronics remote control pre-amp.
All with excellent signal to noise ration and superb SQ. Why 2000 watts?- Because if the s/n ratio at low output is very high (Which it is) a solid state class A/B amplifier will sound similar to a class A for about 5-10% of its rated power. So yes.. it's way overkill..and sometimes I might want to blast it or run exterior speakers for a party with it. (This will be the third year I DJ the World Snow Polo Championships in Aspen and will use this this for it).
I currently drive a car nearing 20 years old a 1994 E500 Mercedes of the 500E/E500 models. Just my luck, the SQ on the premium system was good enough not to be bothered to mess with it... for the first 18 years. But recently I have been able to get SQ equivalent to $40-$60K home rig out of it. I use a outboard Apogee D/A converter- 24bit/96kHz or higher files. You are transported to the original musical event. Friends call it an ethereal experience...I actually at times at night drive the car slower to stretch out my drives and welcome California traffic.
I am on track to being a National Sales manager for a high end speaker company CA,NV, CO, UT, NM, AZ are my states..and thankfully there will be enough superchargers to make my loop. But I want great sound.
The super chargers forced my hand and made me drop a $5K deposit down. I drove the Performance S a few days ago. I had a similar feeling to when I drove the 400E. Very quiet -aerodynamics were excellent, a whine that reminds me of riding an electric skateboard- but otherwise silent....and silky smooth. This is a velvet hammer. I was so absorbed by the car that I forgot to hear the stereo. Luckily the kid who gave me the test drive is cool so I can get a listen tomorrow.
I heard the sound system in the Fashion Island store Model S on teh showroom- nand it sounds about equal to other cars in the same price class.. it might have been the standard system as I only saw 2 small drivers in the a-pillars which look like small 3 inch "widebanders" maybe like Hybrid Audio Technology HAT speakers- they also look a little like drivers Sugi Yamamoto made for Acoustic Energy Aego system. Using neodymium drivers can result in great sound , I currently run Scan Speak 12M neodymium midranges in my car and love them. The sound system in the Model S car in the showroom lacked a lot of instrumental timbre- but for those raised on earbuds and 1990's distortion it should not offend. Personally it is a quandry for me..being in the sound reproduction business...I have used high quality externally amplified headphones to show customers good sound- then bettered that by a long shot with my car demo, and then they end up buying 10K or 20K home speakers. If the car isn't amazing..I would losen that sales link.
If Alan Parsons gives his blessing, I suppose that is about as good as can be done. But car audio is listening in the extreme near field without the reverb of a larger listening space, complicated by the fact that most boundary reflections are under 5 m/s and so reflected sound fights with the direct sound. I see the cross firing a-pillar drivers arrangement somewhat limiting of the sound stage width (I hear the same issue in SQ cars using the same cross firing scheme) - given the slope of the windscreen you could get a pretty good reflection off the glass and use a parametric EQ to knock down any offending peaks. You end up with a wider sound stage that way- you just have to avoid the diffraction effects of being in teh extreme corners of the windscreen for it to work.
My personal hopes for the Tesla are likely unrealistic as I think Elon is an incredibly cool individual and I would never be saying these criticisms if the car were a Chevy or Ford product..because I don't expect much from those companies in terms of sound.
But since it is Elon, a guy who seems to have high goals, I was hoping for a centered driving position (no drive train tunnel) like the McLaren F1. That would take care of the Haas precedence Effect of time arrival (Front passengers mostly hear the driver side closer to them and stereo is smeared). I also knew the car would have low wind noise. And almost no motor noise..MAKING IT THE MOST IDEAL CANDIDATE FOR AUTO SOUND OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not to mention the roof line is almost perfect for sound as well- it will have an excellent transfer function.
And...if you could tap into the battery....well you would never run out of current (no need for stiffening capacitors as you would see no voltage drops) and your ability to play "Key off" would beat ICE cars. (Funny as in this forum ICE refers to Internal Conbustion Engines as opposed to In-Car-Electronics)
The Model S car I heard had a sound bar in rear lift-gate..and sound bars are not my idea of super high quality sound.
But for true stereo... If only they could make the S a centered driver (So many tolls are automated anyhow).. There is an electric VW with passenger seated behind the drive both centered. But I think the McLaren arrangement would be perfect if I had attractive twins with me. (Dream on.....lol.)
So AS I see it... the Frunk would be a great place to put a Subwoofer and amps.... but the staff at Fashion Island said that the front might have a firewall for frontal impacts should the other car in front of you be on fire. Personally I think you'd have to hit a stationary car at about 120+mph to put its gas tank in your lap, at which point fire would not really be a concern.
I also looked at the rear of the car and the model at the Fashion Island store has the kid seats deleted- there is a great well which could be used for subs or amps. There is also space on the drivers left rear for an extra 12volt battery. And if you do not get the subwoofer option- it appears there is a space for the factory sub on the passenger rear quarter panel area. The car I looked at did not have a sub grill so I assume it was vacant.
Integrating into this system would not be easy.Sharing the Tesla battery with all the computer electronics generating noise..I am not sure what the s/n would be in the car- who knows it could be great? it would be easy to meaasurewith a noise sniffer. I would also wonder if the intermittent load changes on the power and possible induced noise by the electric motor might cause noise issues in aftermarket systems. The non standard speaker midrange size add to complexity. If I modify my Model S (and I am thinking about switching my Reservation to a model X) I would probably do the following....
The max power this car really needs is 400 watts. It is so perfectly quiet. I am thinking I can get very satisfying timbrally accurate sound at a level where people can converse at lower volumes....remarkable for a car.
I think 2 ten inch subs, a set of Scan Speak 12M's and a Scan Air Circ tweeter in the dash upward firing at the windshield with a tilt mechanism so they can compensate for the height of the ears of the driver would be ideal. A pair of Mid Bass 6.5 inch drivers in the front doors 2 per side would add impact and help teh 4.5 Scan 12M midrange be freed of lower midbass duties.... you might be able to forgo the two subs if you were not an audiophile..because the bass transfer function of the car appears to be strong.
The rear could use a 5.25" driver and 1 inch Scan Speak Illuminator either d3004 or d2004 dome (The tweeter would only be used for 4 passenger double stereo mode) which could run for a 2 passenger configuration bandpassed and delayed to provide a reverb adn ambiance of a larger acoustical space...( hopefully enough to that your brain would hear those over the under 5 m/s delays ) run those about 6-9db down with more mono information removed to enhance stereo. We get so much interchannel cross talk in car anyhow... The rear passenger side drivers would be more on axis with the drivers right ear and vice versa for the passenger Left ear. This would help add to centering the image and reducing the Haas effect. I would measure the distance from the drivers left ear to the passenger side front Midrange and to the passenger side rear speaker and have these be close to each other to make time arrival similar to reduce time smear. Same for the subwoofers which would fire up towards the ceiling but at an angle towards the front.....or in the ideal situation of a centered driving position , I would have the subs up front (servo controlled) downward firing so you would not hear any mechanical noise.! Even without a centered driving position.. you could put both subs in front in the center or even in each footwell... Having centered driving position means less loss of off axis High frequencies and the potential for less reflected sound and you could use perhaps a 1" tweeter 5.25" midrange and an 10"
woofer and be done with it. No true subs required..... but as soon as you go off axis.. with people at the extreme sides close up... you really need the better off axis dispersion of smaller drivers and a 4 way as opposed to a 3 way system so each driver handles fewer octaves.
Amplification...I think McIntosh will make car audio amplifiers for about 1 more year. TRU makes decent ones. If I could have the McIntosh API app for iPad (or similar- love those meters in a a car ) on the 17" Tesla screen I would be psyched.
EQ my favorite EQ I have heard is the McIntosh EQ modules which are analog but with digital repeatable settings. I ahve never cared for the processed sound of digital time alignment. The best multi channel integration I have heard is from an Academy Award winning sound engineer who I see at the audio meets I go to. Personally I prefer Stereo for music, but his Multi channel is very good for multi channel.
D/A conversion. Best affordable 12volt power supply one is the Apogee Mini DAC ..discontinued and super lightweight- it used converters that were just one step down from their flagship symphony converter which is found in may top music studios. (I have yet to compare the Apogee Duet 2). I run a Wadia 860X with Great Northern Sound Statement upgrade at home...and was thinking of adapting that for car. Best D/A I have ever heard is the Stahl Tek Vekian but I people would think I was insane to put a $20,000 DAC in a car. The Mini DAC at about $600 (used) represents a great value has 119db signal to noise, higher voltage line out to help reject noise and can be run balanced or single ended (I run balanced out to Cardas XLR to RCA adapters to keep the output voltage up as I only have single ended amplifier inputs. I use Firewire out to a Laptop with a SSD drive running Pure Music and 24/bit files. Car uses MIT interconnect and Analysis plus 12 guage OFC oval cable (inexpensive and very good).
Power... Sadly... I think the easiest is to just use a 12 Volt battery and charge it when you charge the car. EZ-glide, an electric skateboard company in Santa Monica, has a Li-ion phosphate battery that has the power of two car batteries in a 4.5 lb compact size about 1/4 the size of a car battery. It has low internal resistance- high amperage output, and on or two of these would exceed your drive time in a Tesla S. The batteries run about $500 each. You could use a Gel cell instead (50lbs)... but why not save some weight? A McIntosh amp is about 18lbs.
Will I ever have the time to do this... only if Tesla is hiring... or if there is another audiophile out there.
I want Airplay so that guests/passengers can play their music without the overhead of pairing their phones.
