-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Audio
- Thread starter Romand
- Start date
Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
The base sound system is powered by a small amp section built into the MCU. The UHFS has an external amp that is located up under the dash in front of the driver's passenger knee so you'd need a lot more than just the speakers to make it sound better. There's also the subwoofer in the hatch area and then different high-range tweeters and such that are scattered around the cockpit. In short, I wouldn't do it.
In one of our early non-UHFS cars I threw and aftermarket subwoofer in the back lower storage area and it helped the sound quite a bit. It was a powered Rockford Punch sub/box/amp setup that was only a few hundred bucks and had an amp setting that would power the amp on whenever it sensed power coming through the high-pass wires that were spliced up under the front dash. This last portion was the most difficult part along with running a power wire from the 12v battery under the frunk, through the firewall and all the way to the rear.
I also would never do that again myself. Every Model S I've bought since has UHFS from the factory. lol
Cheburashka
Active Member
The UHFS speakers are definitely better and a direct fit, and the Light Harmonic ones are even better than that, but it's all relative.
Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
I should have said "you'd need a lot more than just the speakers to upgrade to UHFS" which is what I meant to say. Distracted typing and trying to do three things at once got me on that one. Glad you went through with it anyway and didn't let my discouraging initial post sway you from attempting. lol I meant I wouldn't do the entire UHFS upgrade as it's a lot of effort but the doors speakers are larger mid-woofers that add a lot of mid-bass and are certainly better than the crappy smaller speakers that are in the doors in the non-UHFS cars.
Understood! They look the same tho so that’s weird but is there anything else I can upgrade with oem parts? I had the standard system for 3 years now so this changed it for me
The thing is light harmonic would be around $900 while this cost me $75 and already improved audio a lot
hi....can you be more specific as to where the sub is located near the hatch area...I am curious and thinking of replacing
I highly encourage you to listen to a lossless high resolution audio track in your car and see if you still feel the same.
I love the UHFS in our car and I feel it does a VERY decent job. Probably as good as or better than the Premium Audio upgrade in a previous high end Mercedes car we used to own. But I mostly listen to high quality FLAC audio via USB.
I feel like some people complaining about the audio in the car might be using a low quality compressed audio source. For the same song, when I switch back and forth between Spotify and the same song with a high resolution lossless USB audio FLAC file I notice a measurable difference. The frequency separation is so much more pronounced, the audio is crisper, and there is a measurable difference in the sound quality -- especially for certain genres of music such as classical and jazz.
If you want to setup a proper aftermarket sound upgrade in your car, I highly recommend that you look up Light Harmonic.
Last edited:
I've tested Tidal and lossless audio in the past and I couldn't discern the quality difference compared to a high bitrate encoding. My ears aren't good enough. However, Bluetooth streaming and HD radio still sounds better to my ears in a Model 3 than our Model S with UHFS, and of course sounded excellent in the Lexus LS upgraded system.
The system in the LS just had more feeling and sounded more dynamic, detailed, and smooth. I could listen to the Mark Levinson system all day without any fatigue. The Model 3 sounded very pleasant and much better than I expected. Our Model S UHFS sounds flat to me. The clarity is fine but it just sounds like it's missing some substance or fullness. I can only describe music as sounding flat and the bass is a little muddled too. I will try to dig up some lossless files and plug it into the USB port but I don't particularly have high hopes that things will change.
What equalizer settings sound good to you with the UHFS in the S?
That's interesting but like I said, I'm really happy with the upgraded sound system in our Model S. I whine about other audio issues like USB music not resuming when I get back in the car and Spotify custom playlists playing the same songs over and over again, but the sound quality is not something I whine about (and I whine a lot!
).I have the immersive sound setting dialed up and my equalizer settings are pretty much U shaped with the higher frequency and lower frequency sounds more pronounced and the mid-range at the halfway point. This is my preferred sound profile in general for the types of music I listen to. With these settings in the Model S, I can hear absolutely crisp and clean high frequency sounds and tight bass along with the accompanying mid-range sounds. Heck I sometimes just sit in my car in the garage and listen to music.
All I can say is that Tesla upgraded audio system makes the source sound quality more pronounced. When I notice a song sounds like crap, I check and sure enough it is streaming and not high resolution FLAC via USB audio. I basically have no audio complaints with my lossless FLAC music via USB.
I just wish they'd fix the USB music player software by fixing USB music resumption issue and add playlist support to the USB music player.
beatle
Active Member
I have noticed a significant improvement in quality from a premium Spotify account vs. the free Slacker. I also have some high bitrate files that are not too far off from their Spotify equivalent. This is on an aftermarket system. Maybe there's a slight difference, but streaming convenience completely wins here for me.
My car came with the standard audio which wasn't bad - in fact I was jamming out to a few tunes on its maiden voyage, thinking it sounded pretty good. Mind you these weren't very demanding songs with lots of bass or delicate acoustic instruments, but I found myself enjoying it.
I had a loaner P85D with UHFS for a few days, and it was okay as well. There was a touch more bass from the subwoofer, and it was nice to have the midrange drivers in the dash bring up the soundstage, but it was still smoked the aftermarket system I did for my own car.
Everyone's ears are different, and sometimes you don't know what you're missing until you hear it, but I can safely say that both the standard and UHFS systems have a lot of room for improvement, even if one thinks they're pretty good.
My car came with the standard audio which wasn't bad - in fact I was jamming out to a few tunes on its maiden voyage, thinking it sounded pretty good. Mind you these weren't very demanding songs with lots of bass or delicate acoustic instruments, but I found myself enjoying it.
I had a loaner P85D with UHFS for a few days, and it was okay as well. There was a touch more bass from the subwoofer, and it was nice to have the midrange drivers in the dash bring up the soundstage, but it was still smoked the aftermarket system I did for my own car.
Everyone's ears are different, and sometimes you don't know what you're missing until you hear it, but I can safely say that both the standard and UHFS systems have a lot of room for improvement, even if one thinks they're pretty good.
iqless
Member
UHFS sucks unless they've changed it in the last year or so. It never feels centered on me and sounds like it's coming from around where the dashboard is. All the Model S' I've bought I made sure they didn't have UHFS. I guess that's not a possibility any more.
@PhilDavid, I tried your U-shaped equalizer settings and enjoyed it. I take back my earlier assessment of the UHFS. You converted me and it now sounds decent-to-pretty-good. Still not as good as my previous Lexus but better than before. Thanks for sharing.
