Audio: Sound System Quality?

[tomas]

I'm (overall) quite happy with the Sound Studio on my MS. I would really like to see Tesla do a little tuning of the built-in EQ as some people have done here on TMC, and I would ***LOVE*** to see a five- or seven-band EQ instead of the current three-band for more precise adjustment. But there is certainly nothing wrong with the current system IMHO. Sounds crisp, clean, and is more than loud enough. I'm playing FLAC from USB, BTW.

Re the EQ tuning, I love singing in the car and I heavily favor vocal music. Everything from ballads to country to rock/pop to choral to Bocelli/Groban/etc. My usual preferred listening curve on a well-balanced system with a three-band EQ would usually be +1, +2, 0 or something like that. In the MS, I'm currently using +5, +4, -1. Very strange. Still, it sounds good.

And, that's why a lot of this comes down to personal preference and experimentation. A prior poster Gtimbers did frequency testing with microphones, and determined best balancing was 0,-4,0. I personally have found that to be a great setting. I also found GREAT difference in FLAC vs. MP3. Enough to merit re-ripping 300 CDs. But, you like mid-boost, and prior poster doesn't hear difference if FLAC. The important thing for everyone is enjoy what you are listening to. There are several common conclusions, though: + Generally high quality sound, good sub, crisp highs - Tesla's implementation of Dolby is poor when playing stereo media. There's little rear sound under any circumstance, except when you put on Dolby. Beyond that, find your settings and enjoy.

 

[ckessel]

I also found GREAT difference in FLAC vs. MP3. Enough to merit re-ripping 300 CDs.

Finished re-ripping a bunch of CDs and the last 2 days have been using FLAC in the car. It certainly seems like a big improvement. The sound is much fuller and clearer.

 

[ClearwaterBchSteve]

I'm (overall) quite happy with the Sound Studio on my MS. I would really like to see Tesla do a little tuning of the built-in EQ as some people have done here on TMC, and I would ***LOVE*** to see a five- or seven-band EQ instead of the current three-band for more precise adjustment. But there is certainly nothing wrong with the current system IMHO. Sounds crisp, clean, and is more than loud enough. I'm playing FLAC from USB, BTW.

Re the EQ tuning, I love singing in the car and I heavily favor vocal music. Everything from ballads to country to rock/pop to choral to Bocelli/Groban/etc. My usual preferred listening curve on a well-balanced system with a three-band EQ would usually be +1, +2, 0 or something like that. In the MS, I'm currently using +5, +4, -1. Very strange. Still, it sounds good.

Being an audio enthusiast and part-time music composer/producer, I'd like to see more EQ settings too. Multi-band parametric EQ might be asking a bit much, but a 5 or 7 band graphic would be a lot better. As I mentioned before, settings for each source would help a lot becuse they vary considerably in tone and level. I agree, the sound system is quite good and I'm happy with it over all. The Bang and Olufsen system in our previous Audi was spectacular and the Tesla system had a lot to live up to.

I transferred my Sirius account to the Tesla (XM). Even though I love the channels on Sirius/XM, the quality has been degrading over time as they add more channels and need to compress the audio more and more which has introduced artifacts and overall quality loss. The XM does sound better in the Tesla than Sirius did in the Audi. This is likely due to XM having a different delivery system than Sirius. It's not "great", but acceptable.

 

[spatterso911]

System is almost done with design and install at Reus Audio, and they are very confident that the outcome will be extremely pleasing. Over 30 years of experience with upgrading mobile audio for high end mobile solutions. True pioneers in their field. They custom design their own amps and speakers. My prior 2 M5's were done by them, and I'd seriously choose to drive the M5 in anticipation of the sonic bliss. No basis of comparison with other audio installers such as A&E in WeHo (Dr.Taras is the best person to ask), but its the best I've ever heard in mobile audio and I'm a very critical audiophile and musician. Their trademark is to install their audio solutions in a very inconspicuous way, dramatic changes while retaining the OEM look. It took me two years to figure out exactly what they did with my last install. Because I am a long-time bass player, I prefer to hear the subtle nuances in the lower Hz range with no muddying effects. They will tailor the design to whatever you prefer to listen to. I brought Rush, Eric Clapton, Milt Jackson, and Fourplay on a USB stick encoded in FLAC format. They then set out to design the speakers which are built in-house, and amps (either high end class D aftermarket or self-designed to spec). I should have the car back by Wednesday after final testing. They have worked out a lower voltage system that shouldn't tax the 12V battery or require an additional battery.

I'll have a full report after I get my car back and have a chance to check the new sound out...

 

[ckessel]

Holy volume batman! 11 isn't loud enough?

I find it almost unbearably loud at 6 and my typical volume is 3. At around 8, I think I can feel my teeth rattling. I can't imagine trying to listen to it at 11.

Ok, I have to take back my statements about volume levels.

First, with FLAC encoding I find I need the volume up a bit higher than I did with mp3s. Not sure why.
Second, as pete8314 noted, with the pano open and freeway speed and any windows rolled partly down, that's a lot of background noise to overcome.

I don't get it to 11, but in those cases I'm fairly regularly at 9.

 

[Andvib]

I'll have a full report after I get my car back and have a chance to check the new sound out...

@Spatterso911: eagerly awaiting for you to post on this, and maybe be a little bit better prepared for upgrade when Norway deliveries start...

 

[boerlin]

Just found an interesting review: Audio Review - 2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

 

[pete8314]

Just found an interesting review: Audio Review - 2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

Interesting, it's like they have a different system to many of us. I'm not a huge Kanye fan, but I could play almost any of his songs at a volume level of 6 and induce speaker distortion, especially the front tweeters.

 

[Todd Burch]

Interesting thing about the bass distortion virtually everyone has seen in the sound studio package:

I heard the distortion pretty bad the other day while some decent bass was playing, and I turned the volume down. I noticed two things:

1. The distortion in the woofer did not seem to go down, even at very low volume levels.

2. It sounded like the sound system was trying to play the bass through some of the mid/tweeter speakers.

This has me hopeful that the distortion we're hearing is a problem on the software side--like the bass is not being properly isolated and directed to the woofer properly.

Gives me hope for a future update to drastically improve the sound.

Maybe Edmunds has a beta version of v5.0? Otherwise, yes I'm surprised they think it's the best sound system in their fleet.

 

[Whom]

Interesting thing about the bass distortion virtually everyone has seen in the sound studio package:

I heard the distortion pretty bad the other day while some decent bass was playing, and I turned the volume down. I noticed two things:

1. The distortion in the woofer did not seem to go down, even at very low volume levels.

I published some test files to check the distortion, can you download and confirm this is the distortion you are hearing? http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/bad-audio-noise-error-test-audio-files-included

 

[Todd Burch]

I published some test files to check the distortion, can you download and confirm this is the distortion you are hearing? http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/bad-audio-noise-error-test-audio-files-included

Whom,

I tested your files. The sound I hear is what I am referring to, but I wouldn't describe it as crackling or static noise. Two descriptions that come to mind when I try to describe the sound:

1. It's similar to a cicada buzzing its wings against its cocoon, except at a lower frequency.

2. It's similar to what you would hear if you held the edges of a piece of paper against a tabletop, then blew air across it--like the paper is buzzing against the tabletop.

Anyway, listening to both of your files I did some tests. If you drop the bass down on the EQ, it goes away. But more interestingly, even at fairly low EQ levels (Bass near +0), you can still make it out. Not only that, but if the bass is at +6 on the EQ, for instance, and then you drop the volume to 2 or 3, you can still hear it.

This continues to reinforce my running theory that either bass is being erroneously routed to the tweeters/mid speakers, causing distortion, or something in the software/firmware is not properly handling the bass.

I'm not convinced we're hearing true speaker distortion--in other words, I'm not certain the sound is the result of an inadequate subwoofer.

And to those who asked privately, this is *not* the result of listening to low quality audio files. I hear it on anything from 320 kbps MP3s to lossless 48 kHz FLACs.

 

[pete8314]

I agree it's software, the EQ cross over seems to be sending too lower frequencies to the front tweeters on the A-pillars. The bass from the sub certainly is not going to shake your fillings out, but the nasty distortion is from the A pillars, at least it is in my car, and 2 loaners that I've had.

 

[Todd Burch]

I emailed ownership about this, as I'm not sure I've heard an official response from Tesla on it. I requested that their audio engineers use the above two test files and see if they can determine the problem. I have a strong hunch it's software/firmware related and not a limitation of the speakers themselves.

For what it's worth, I'm not an audio dummy. I've been dealing with digital audio for many years, so I understand compression, lossy vs. lossless, bitrates, sampling frequency, bit depth, etc...in other words, I'm not misunderstanding the problem here--it's not a problem with the source audio. Plus, I've compared the audio by playing it on my computer (with so-so Sony speakers and a 240W amp) and not heard any distortion, then moved it to the Model S and immediately heard it.

- - - Updated - - -

I agree it's software, the EQ cross over seems to be sending too lower frequencies to the front tweeters on the A-pillars. The bass from the sub certainly is not going to shake your fillings out, but the nasty distortion is from the A pillars, at least it is in my car, and 2 loaners that I've had.

Exactly! As I've listened closer to it lately, it DEFINITELY seems to be coming from the A pillars...which gives hope for dramatic improvement with a firmware/software update!!!

 

[kevin99]

Glad to find this thread. I haven't read all the posts. Has anyone hear some speaker buzzing with particular tracks? It feels like the speaker can't handle the low frequency and just buzz.

 

[brianman]

I emailed ownership about this....
For what it's worth, I'm not an audio dummy.

I am. Thanks for contacting Tesla for all of us.

 

[Todd Burch]

Glad to find this thread. I haven't read all the posts. Has anyone hear some speaker buzzing with particular tracks? It feels like the speaker can't handle the low frequency and just buzz.

Kevin, you should read this thread . Get out of that short term investment thread for a bit .

 

[ddruz]

Todd, Do you still get the A pillar speaker bass distortion of you set the fade to -7 or more?

 

[Whom]

Whom,

I tested your files.

Anyway, listening to both of your files I did some tests. If you drop the bass down on the EQ, it goes away. But more interestingly, even at fairly low EQ levels (Bass near +0), you can still make it out. Not only that, but if the bass is at +6 on the EQ, for instance, and then you drop the volume to 2 or 3, you can still hear it.

This continues to reinforce my running theory that either bass is being erroneously routed to the tweeters/mid speakers, causing distortion, or something in the software/firmware is not properly handling the bass.

I'm not convinced we're hearing true speaker distortion--in other words, I'm not certain the sound is the result of an inadequate subwoofer.

I concur, this seems to be a broad crossover issue, as it is completely independent of fader/balance settings (i.e. the distortion appears out of every speaker).

I have the standard audio system (not Studio), so 30Hz audio gets almost no ordinary playback at all as there is no subwoofer. I would imagine this makes the distortion even more noticeable.

I also contacted Tesla Ownership and have not had a response. I have some additional audio clips as well -- as you might imagine, most of the material is synthesized as it is hard to get natural sounds that low. So I can see how this problem bothers some owners much more than others, as the distortionis highly correlated with the type of music one prefers.

 

[kevin99]

Kevin, you should read this thread . Get out of that short term investment thread for a bit .

Todd, per your suggestions, I haven't post anything there today. That is a record!

I will spend the time on audio and moving stuff to the 1TB USB drive. Originally I have the 2TB but don't have enough stuff to fill it up. Anyone who has some proud collection, pm me please. I am collecting all major Classical composers collection. I have Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt etc.

 

[Lloyd]

I got some time to play with the sound system in my car today. VIN 17252. I previously had VIN 2823, and I have to say that the system is very different than the original released. The sounds are cleaner and crisper. It is more balanced with the rear speakers, but it takes more power, assuming they used the same amplifiers. In my earlier car, I would typically listen at 3 to 4 volume. In order to get the same sound now I am listening at 4 to 5 volume levels.