Audiophiles, what gives better sound quality? Apple Music via bluetooth or the built-in Apple Music app?

[EV_Dad]

Found this recently posted

Apple Music on Tesla appears to use the HE-AAC codec at 64 kbps. Explanation and testing inside.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModel3/comments/zqxlaq

Wow. Guess I'm right to stick with Tidal, which does sound like it's actually delivering 1411 Kbps lossless. Although as others have noted above, this is only at its best when I'm stopped, with no road noise, etc.

I turned off Apple Music in Sources. For some reason that action grays out all the other sources' toggles, and we have to turn Apple Music back on to select or deselect the others. I'll just assume that's a bug and not a feature.

 

[Utumno]

However there seems another way to do this, but I haven’t tested it yet.

Configure the “Driving” Focus to automatically enable when connected to Car Bluetooth, then create a Personal Shortcut to turn on the Personal Hotspot when the “Driving Focus” turns on.

You can then toggle the “Ask Before Running” option off on the Shortcut page, and that combination may well be a good solution.

I shall test it tomorrow.

This works a treat - my Personal Hotspot now starts when Bluetooth connects and stops when I exit the car.

 

[mattoct]

I'm jealous of people that already got the update. Does the app perform much like Apple Music in CarPlay? Is there shuffle?

Yea there is!!

 

[Zacster]

I tried Apple Music while charging the car and turned it off almost immediately. It sounded awful. I then played hi res Qobuz through the browser and I could easily hear that difference on the same song. It was the opening strumming on Smells Like Teen Spirit. That is hardly the best song to use as a listening test but if I could hear it there…

 

[Wishmaster]

i use tagscanner from here, it can go out to the inet for album info . I use it in windows

 

[myshenaini]

FYI Apple recently enabled turning on hotspot from the Shortcuts app. I set up an automation thru Shortcuts to enable hotspot when I get in the car, it triggers when my phone connects to the car’s Bluetooth

Sorry for asking a silly question but what does enabling hotspot do? Do you mean you don't need to have Premium Connectivity to get live traffic and streaming?

 

[beachsideev]

I don't think you can get traffic or satellite maps over wifi. You need premium for those. Connecting the car to your phone's hotspot allows you to use the car's apps for video and music streaming.

 

[Zacster]

Another thing about Apple Music in the car, I only listened to the opening of one song, and then played music through the browser. The next time I got in the car the song started playing automatically even though I'd stopped it from playing. And it happened again and again every time I got in and out of the car until I played something in Tidal. Tidal only plays automatically if you left it playing, then it picks up right where you left off.

 

[heavyD]

Another thing about Apple Music in the car, I only listened to the opening of one song, and then played music through the browser. The next time I got in the car the song started playing automatically even though I'd stopped it from playing. And it happened again and again every time I got in and out of the car until I played something in Tidal. Tidal only plays automatically if you left it playing, then it picks up right where you left off.

Yeah this is a bug they need to fix in future updates.

 

[Taxvictim]

OTOH, tbh the car is NOT a good environment for sound .. even when stationary. The Tesla sound system is pretty good, but at the end of the day it's a car, with traffic noise and road noise etc.

The new highest-end Jeep offering has a McIntosh stereo system with active noise cancellation. That feature can only get cheaper and easier in the future.

That said, I am shocked how good some songs can sound in my M3P while driving. As I noted above, the best sound quality is when I am bluetoothing Amazon music from my phone.

 

[Zacster]

The new highest-end Jeep offering has a McIntosh stereo system with active noise cancellation. That feature can only get cheaper and easier in the future.

That said, I am shocked how good some songs can sound in my M3P while driving. As I noted above, the best sound quality is when I am bluetoothing Amazon music from my phone.

Try Tidal instead directly from the console, it'll be better still.

 

[Gcoppola]

My experience today is that the sound quality from Bluetooth is far superior than what I’m getting via streaming over the Apple Music app….

Agreed. I’m stunned at how bad the quality is from the Tesla Apple Music app. Not only that, but the features aren’t all there… ex. got to Library, select songs, and there now way to shuffle. Useless! And if I select a whole album to play, when it gets to the end, it starts playing random music after the album is over. I don’t want that! Needs lossless and Atmos options ASAP.

 

[Zane Liu]

Agreed. I’m stunned at how bad the quality is from the Tesla Apple Music app. Not only that, but the features aren’t all there… ex. got to Library, select songs, and there now way to shuffle. Useless! And if I select a whole album to play, when it gets to the end, it starts playing random music after the album is over. I don’t want that! Needs lossless and Atmos options ASAP.

I suspect this is a Tesla created limitation as I can hardly believe Apple would opt to have a limited feature set.

I’d guess that lossless takes too much data unless they allow downloads. Atmos may just require further tuning to optimize for Tesla’s speaker arrangement but hopefully it’s not hardware limited.

 

[Knightshade]

All the streaming offerings using LTE in the car are low quality--- 64-128k and that's been the case since forever and isn't likely to change- Tesla is paying for that data after all...unlimited != fast. As noted earlier (post #28) this is also likely tied into Apple only offering 64k or 256k for streaming using JS.


As I mentioned earlier in the thread- Best quality by far will be something lossless (FLAC, etc) from local USB- not streaming of any kind.

After that best will be Tidal HQ if you're on Wifi or downloaded locally. I suppose one might hope they allow higher quality over wifi in apple music at some point (though might still max at 256, same as BT already gets you, due to the JS thing)

After that- Likely bluetooth at 256kb/s because to my knowledge all in-car non-wifi streaming happens at 128kb/s or- as is the case here- worse.

 

[drtimhill]

I've been using Apple Music on my phone and via bluetooth playing it on my Tesla.

With the recent software update, Tesla added a built-in Apple Music app.

Which way should I be playing the music if I want to get the best sound quality, bluetooth or the Tesla app? Or are they the same sound quality wise?

In a sense, the answer here is "follow your ears". If you can't hear any (significant?) difference, then it doesnt matter. If you can, well, then you know the answer anyway.

 

[Zacster]

The quality of the Apple music was pretty bad and it wouldn't surprise me that bluetooth is better. The best quality is still Tidal when downloaded or streamed via a hotspot.

It's 2023 in a bit, why are still getting crappy sound on our supposedly "premium" systems? They should all be CD quality and better.

 

[Knightshade]

You're getting crappy sound because you are using crappy sources.

As you've been told for at least a year or two now, use FLAC or other lossless formats from USB and it'll sound vastly better than...whatever you keep insisting on doing otherwise.

 

[heavyD]

You're getting crappy sound because you are using crappy sources.

As you've been told for at least a year or two now, use FLAC or other lossless formats from USB and it'll sound vastly better than...whatever you keep insisting on doing otherwise.

You keep telling people this because it's 2023 and people don't want to have to fiddle with USB music (and Tesla's goofy file structure) when they are used to AA and Carplay. These cars at the very least should have USB ipod connectivity like pretty well every other car since 2005.

 

[Dinoraptor101]

I've been using Apple Music on my phone and via bluetooth playing it on my Tesla.

With the recent software update, Tesla added a built-in Apple Music app.

Which way should I be playing the music if I want to get the best sound quality, bluetooth or the Tesla app? Or are they the same sound quality wise?

The results of Burkland’s tests state that Apple Music app still sucks, here’s the numbers

TIDAL ~1165 kbps.
Spotify ~157 kbps.
Apple Music ~118 kbps.

The Bluetooth Streaming of music.

Bluetooth 4.1 in Tesla Model 3 supports a lot up to 990 Kbps so it comes down to which codec your phone uses, if it is an iPhone 2017 or later release it uses AAC which gives us 256 kbps

Making Bluetooth music from iPhone superior to Apple Music app (if you’re using a recent iPhone)

Hope this info helps took me a bit of effort! But I was curious too!

 

[EV_Dad]

The results of Burkland’s tests state that Apple Music app still sucks, here’s the numbers

TIDAL ~1165 kbps.
Spotify ~157 kbps.
Apple Music ~118 kbps.

All the Tidal tests seem to be on Wi-Fi or downloads. I suspect Tidal on LTE is 320 kbps or so. Still better than the others, but equivalent to high-quality MP3 not full CD quality FLAC. Many people can't hear the difference anyway; I'm jealous of them, lol.