Audiophiles w/ Model 3's

[dfwatt]

The door is extremely easy to disassemble. There are only 3 bolts securing it in place, and you just pry the trim off by going around the edges. The bolts are near the "emergency" door release (there's a plastic cover to pop off underneath), in the map pocket area (near the light), and underneath the red reflective cap on the end of the door (this bolt does not exist on the rear doors).

In fact, just about everything in this car is easy to remove and reassemble without fear of breaking anything.

I am in the process of designing/printing speaker rings to accommodate my Focal 8" woofers in the doors (it's a tight fit!). But, I have some dynamat I'll be applying in the door and I'll upload pics when I get to the install.

Super. I look forward to seeing and hearing more.

 

[Drizzle]

I had to knock the highest end down about 75% to get rid of unnatural cymbal and snake-like, ear piercing hissing sounds on the S's in words. I listen to the volume at max about 33% of the time and it was just too fatiguing.

I also had to move the lowest end down a couple of notches because the bass in the front door speakers are too overpowering. Too punchy and muddy. Sadly this notch also seems to effect the subwoofer too which is already incredibly quiet to me.

Lastly, I find myself messing with the second to highest notch the most because vocals and guitar can seem way too recessed depending on the song.

I feel like a much better eq would have done wonders for this car. Anyways, I'll be getting a 12" sub ported and tuned very low for SQ hooked up to a rockford fosgate 360.3. I'll be tuning everything to flatten it out with REW etc and go from there.

Another big disappointment is that you can only fit like 4" drivers in the rear doors.

 

[Drizzle]

The door is extremely easy to disassemble. There are only 3 bolts securing it in place, and you just pry the trim off by going around the edges. The bolts are near the "emergency" door release (there's a plastic cover to pop off underneath), in the map pocket area (near the light), and underneath the red reflective cap on the end of the door (this bolt does not exist on the rear doors).

In fact, just about everything in this car is easy to remove and reassemble without fear of breaking anything.

I am in the process of designing/printing speaker rings to accommodate my Focal 8" woofers in the doors (it's a tight fit!). But, I have some dynamat I'll be applying in the door and I'll upload pics when I get to the install.

Flash how are you fitting 8" in the door?

 

[groovyd]

Yes that what exactly was my question whether someone had done Dynamat yet. That stuff is amazing and it actually helps your door feel a whole lot more solid. Do we have any Dynamat pioneers on the Tesla Motor Club forum? And would they do us the great service of posting their work so we can see how and what they did? Including particularly how to disassemble the door properly without damaging it!

Check these guys out they have a video for door removal of model 3 and notes regarding installation of their kit which is yet to be released...

https://www.badesignworks.com/model-3

 

[groovyd]

I added front and rear Tesla Sun Screens to help reduce road noise. I think they helped a ton. Car feels so much more luxurious. I also think it helped the Audio system. Glass surfaces are always problematic in room acoustics. Having all that glass 3 inches above your head isn’t a good thing. Keeps car cooler in summer (less energy) and warmer in winter too.

Is Tesla selling a rear screen now? I only saw and bought the top one. Can you see out the back with it?

 

[mswlogo]

Is Tesla selling a rear screen now? I only saw and bought the top one. Can you see out the back with it?

Yes it's new and was out of stock and now back again. I ordered mine a couple weeks ago. I was very worried about visibility out the back as well. It's like looking through a screen door. It's really not bad.

There is some discussion about it here.

Back Windshield Shade for Baby

I also saw some threads on Model S/X rear sunscreens regarding visibility and they all said you get used to it and it's fine. Some mention it reduces glaring headlights at night too.

I purposely didn't remind my wife while she was driving to ask her how it was. Just to see if she found anything lacking after the drive was over. She never even noticed it. I think you'd be surprised how little we use a critical view out the rear window.

One other thing is, it does lower the head room in the rear seat because the screen is flat and the glass is curved. Tall people will graze it.

 

[flashflooder]

Flash how are you fitting 8" in the door?

The stock speakers are 8”... but the bigger magnet on the Focal’s means you must have a spacer ring.

The stock speakers have a ring, but I’m not too keen on destroying the woofers to reuse the ring. So I’m iterating a design that uses the factory fasteners, while accommodating the extra depth of the Focal speakers.

 

[flashflooder]

I should also say that I successfully added a 300W amplifier and 10” sealed sub to my system yesterday... I plan to make a full post about it once it’s cleaned up and I’m finished tweaking.

Sounds pretty fabulous, though


Edit: in the process, I figured out that the stock amp drives all speakers except for the dash ones (and possibly the a-pillar “immersive” speakers). Those must be driven by the MCU directly.

 

[Drizzle]

How are you co trolling the amp? What is it hooked up to in the car?

Checked out some 12" sealed boxes in WinISD but the dropoff was too high for my liking. I'm going to experiment with a 12" in 2.25 to 2.5 cu ft with around a 25hz tune. Almost dead flat down to 30hz, tune lit bumps with REW and a dsp.

I think what may happen with this experiment is that the sub just won't get loud enoug for my liking due to a lack of free volume from a higher tuned port, but I'll have to wait and see.

 

[Jaywlker]

I added front and rear Tesla Sun Screens to help reduce road noise. I think they helped a ton. Car feels so much more luxurious. I also think it helped the Audio system. Glass surfaces are always problematic in room acoustics. Having all that glass 3 inches above your head isn’t a good thing. Keeps car cooler in summer (less energy) and warmer in winter too.

I had not thought of the Tesla sun screens as sound dampners. But maybe you’re right!

 

[Jaywlker]

Is Tesla selling a rear screen now? I only saw and bought the top one. Can you see out the back with it?

I can see out of the rear window with mine.

 

[flashflooder]

How are you co trolling the amp? What is it hooked up to in the car?

Checked out some 12" sealed boxes in WinISD but the dropoff was too high for my liking. I'm going to experiment with a 12" in 2.25 to 2.5 cu ft with around a 25hz tune. Almost dead flat down to 30hz, tune lit bumps with REW and a dsp.

I think what may happen with this experiment is that the sub just won't get loud enoug for my liking due to a lack of free volume from a higher tuned port, but I'll have to wait and see.

It’s currently just hooked into the stock subwoofer leads (post-amp) and going straight into my amp. I purchased an LC2i, which should help clean up the signal considerably.

Power from dc dc converter, remote from VCLeft in driver footwell.

 

[mswlogo]

I had to knock the highest end down about 75% to get rid of unnatural cymbal and snake-like, ear piercing hissing sounds on the S's in words. I listen to the volume at max about 33% of the time and it was just too fatiguing.

I also had to move the lowest end down a couple of notches because the bass in the front door speakers are too overpowering. Too punchy and muddy. Sadly this notch also seems to effect the subwoofer too which is already incredibly quiet to me.

Lastly, I find myself messing with the second to highest notch the most because vocals and guitar can seem way too recessed depending on the song.

I feel like a much better eq would have done wonders for this car. Anyways, I'll be getting a 12" sub ported and tuned very low for SQ hooked up to a rockford fosgate 360.3. I'll be tuning everything to flatten it out with REW etc and go from there.

Another big disappointment is that you can only fit like 4" drivers in the rear doors.

Knocking down the bass some makes sense (regardless of where it's coming from). Knocking down the highest down 75% makes no sense, to me, as it's already on the low side. Now I don't listen at or measure any where near Max more like 75-80%. The Lowest bass control does not impact the door woofers all that much.

So you knocked the lowest frequency down (mostly subwoofer) and adding a bigger sub.

 

[Drizzle]

Knocking down the bass some makes sense (regardless of where it's coming from). Knocking down the highest down 75% makes no sense, to me, as it's already on the low side. Now I don't listen at or measure any where near Max more like 75-80%. The Lowest bass control does not impact the door woofers all that much.

So you knocked the lowest frequency down (mostly subwoofer) and adding a bigger sub.

It pierces my ears and makes people sound like snakes hissing. If you don't hear that, more power to you. Also, I'm a drummer and the cymbals sound terrible and fake at that volume as well (highest tinny frequencies playing only, instead of depth to the sound).

Could just be my ears and preferences. I like loud, chunky guitar and when I crank it, the treble is too out of balance for me.

We'll have to disagree about the lowest setting affecting the door woofers. I play music, I turn it down and the door's volume goes down. Are you confusing the doors for the sub woofer? I did at first too. The doors go surprisingly low.

 

[dfwatt]

The door is extremely easy to disassemble. There are only 3 bolts securing it in place, and you just pry the trim off by going around the edges. The bolts are near the "emergency" door release (there's a plastic cover to pop off underneath), in the map pocket area (near the light), and underneath the red reflective cap on the end of the door (this bolt does not exist on the rear doors).

In fact, just about everything in this car is easy to remove and reassemble without fear of breaking anything.

I am in the process of designing/printing speaker rings to accommodate my Focal 8" woofers in the doors (it's a tight fit!). But, I have some dynamat I'll be applying in the door and I'll upload pics when I get to the install.

Will you post pictures of the disassembly process - those would be much appreciated!!

Speaking of which . . . . I did a little research on Amazon, and it would seem that there are three products that get equal to slightly better reviews than Dynamat Extreme (some version of which I used years ago last time I did this). The three are:

Siless 80 mil 36 sq ft Sound Deadening (at about $1.5/sq ft)
Noico 80 mil 36 sq ft car Sound Deadening (at about $1.75/sq ft)
Kilmat 80 mil 36 sq ft Car Sound Deadening (at about $1.5/sq ft)

Noico gets top rating and about a 5/5 star average, the other two about 4.5/5, while Dynamat Extreme (really started this whole product area), and which is also getting 4.5/5 stars, comes in at a whopping $2.70/sq ft. Almost 1.5-2 times the cost of the competition?? Really?

I'm going with Noico. I recall that the installation process with Dynamat involved the need for industrial strength heating, while these other options appear to go on with rollers (and where heating is optional).

Would love to hear from others with experience with these other options or Dynamat.

Hoping that with industrial-grade dampening and some driver upgrades that the sound will approach these KEF beauties;

OK, I'm drunk!! It probably won't get within 50 yards of the Blades, but one can always dream

 

[Glamisduner]

Recommend having a conversation with Cliff Johnson from Reus Systems - for years they've had the best sub-$20K solution for the Model S (then Model X) and now have something for the 3 as well. I don't know what the Model 3 pricing is, but the packages for the S/X are in the $3K-$5K neighborhood. Emphasis upon accuracy and a credible center channel. Am curious myself to know how or if the Model 3 packages differ from the S/X packages.

As well, the system moves from your current Tesla to your next Tesla for the cost of labor - in other words, it's the last audio upgrade (at least for the car) that you'll buy.

I've had 2 cars so far done by them - excellent customer service (both during and especially after the sale) and well worth the road trip. That said, Cliff often travels for multiple installs (see your local or regional owners clubs as that's a popular avenue for those since splitting the travel costs between 4-6 cars makes things cheaper than driving to CA).

Reus Systems, Orange, CA - 714.633.6636

At minimum, between Cliff and the owner (Rick Reus), you'll get no-bs answers to any, and I mean any, car audiophile-caliber questions regardless of whether you invest in one of their solutions or decide to do the whole thing yourself.

Holy crap what speakers do they install?. I hope that system is at least 2000 watts rms and increased the 12v battery size and charger for it to boot. I can't image paying that much unless they are also taking out the entire interior and sounds deadening the entire car too.

I would love for someone to post a how to tap into the amp on the stock system to power an amp/s of your choice.

Id perfectly happy running some wires myself. I can't imagine spending more than 2k on this system when you can't even replace the source unit.

Anyone tried stuffing the stock subwoofer box yet?

I have used Raammat in the past over dynamat and it works great, closed cell foam over the top to silence road noise. All sound deadener needs to do is add weight and start in place and not melt etc.

on my eq settings i have everything boosted. To some extent it sounds ok, but the real problem is always going to be the source.

 

[dfwatt]

I ran REW with an ECM8000 MIC, TasCam USB Preamp on a MAC.

If anything the low bass already very high. Levels are not calibrated (i.e. only look at the data as relative).

Flat is not always the best. I'm showing MIC at Left ear and Right Ear. Other locations looked similar.

I

Fascinating, and excellent work. These validate what I think I'm hearing. Plenty of low bass, decent mid and upper bass, a modest hole in the midrange centered around 600 Hz (which I wasn't sure of from just subjective listening), and a steady rolloff above the upper midrange, progressing and getting more pronounced in the treble. Gives me some targets in terms of setting the EQ to compensate, although that hole in the midrange is probably too narrow and restricted to compensate with the EQ in the car without creating some other lumps in the FR curve. Speaking of which, has anyone measured the response curves of the EQ settings?

Do you or does anybody know if they changed frequency tuning in one of the recent OS updates? I could swear that the system sounds slightly different - where I used to drop the low bass a touch as it was just too much, I now feel I have to run flat on the low bass for adequate drive there. Of course, preference on low bass levels are totally subjective. Some guys can't have too much of it until they generate enough energy in the 20-50Hz range to cause internal hemorrhaging! And you can 'feel' the car approaching from 100 yards. Hah!

 

[flashflooder]

re: sound deadening, I am just going to use "peel & stick". You can pick it up at a hardware store, and it's meant for roofing repairs. But it's the exact same product as the expensive sound deadening materials, and WAY cheaper.

 

[dfwatt]

Holy crap what speakers do they install?. I hope that system is at least 2000 watts rms and increased the 12v battery size and charger for it to boot. I can't image paying that much unless they are also taking out the entire interior and sounds deadening the entire car too.

I would love for someone to post a how to tap into the amp on the stock system to power an amp/s of your choice.

Id perfectly happy running some wires myself. I can't imagine spending more than 2k on this system when you can't even replace the source unit.

Anyone tried stuffing the stock subwoofer box yet?

I have used Raammat in the past over dynamat and it works great, closed cell foam over the top to silence road noise. All sound deadener needs to do is add weight and start in place and not melt etc.

on my eq settings i have everything boosted. To some extent it sounds ok, but the real problem is always going to be the source.

Yes, any outfit that talks about the discount system "easily" coming in at under $20K would worry me. What about the no-holds-barred over $20K system? Wouldn't that be like someone upgrading their whole house generator to . . . a plutonium-based solution?

 

[Glamisduner]

re: sound deadening, I am just going to use "peel & stick". You can pick it up at a hardware store, and it's meant for roofing repairs. But it's the exact same product as the expensive sound deadening materials, and WAY cheaper.

True but it does not hold up well on verticle walls in hot environments from my research, you might also want to double it up to add thickness. The ehat part is why Ill stick to better known brands.