Calling on Audiophiles: Lossless, High-Res and Dolby Atmos

[Clark_Kent]

I would not consider myself an audiophile; however, I believe the premium audio system that comes standard in the Model Y is quite good. All of the music I play in the car comes via Bluetooth using TIDAL Premium (AAC Quality 320 Kbps). TIDAL has an option for what they're calling "HiFi" which allows for lossless CD quality (1411 Kbps) and high-res quality (2304 - 9216 Kbps). My question is: does the Premium audio system that comes standard in the Model Y have the capability to play lossless, high-res or Dolby Atmos audio?

Note: I started this thread in the Model 3 subforum as their is far more traffic than the Model Y section.

 

[Knightshade]

The limitation is the quality of streaming over BT.

If you want "perfect" quality audio (or as perfect as you'll get in the car) you'd want to put lossless FLAC on a USB key plugged into the front port and played directly rather than streamed over BT

 

[ACPark]

To add to the limitations of BT

Model 3:
Best Bluetooth Codec: AAC
Stereo, 44.1kHz, 16 bits/sample

Bluetooth doesn't have the bandwidth to do more than stereo audio at high quality. So no Atmos over BT.

 

[jjrandorin]

Note: I started this thread in the Model 3 subforum as their is far more traffic than the Model Y section.

(moderator note)

This isnt normally a good reason to start a post in a separate subform than the one you want, but since both cars have similar enough sound systems, I will leave it here.

 

[CyberGus]

I lost the ability to be an audiophile after that Metallica concert in '89

 

[Apone]

The limitation is the quality of streaming over BT.

If you want "perfect" quality audio (or as perfect as you'll get in the car) you'd want to put lossless FLAC on a USB key plugged into the front port and played directly rather than streamed over BT

This. In all of my previous cars the music sounded better plugged into the car vs. bluetooth. This car actually sounds pretty good over bluetooth, so much that I have not even tried plugging in to hear high res Spotify. It's too convenient that the car picks up my phone and is already playing music as soon as I open the door.

 

[UncertainTimes]

Me: I want audiophile quality lossless Dolby Atmos audio while I drive
Tesla: Dash rattles, wind noise, road noise, tire sounds, brake screeching, electric motor sounds, text message dings, annoying navigation lady, AP deactivating bong, parking sensor beeps, collision warning emergency broadcast system sound, lane departure tsunami warning siren, sentry mode activation nuclear warfare alarm

 

[TEG]

Model 3 & Y can play high bitrate FLACs from flash drives.

So, far I have found that somewhere in the "pipeline" it is only processing stereo.
I was not able to get multi-channel flacs to play independently out of front/back/center/sub.

I think there may just be "left and right", and then you can have the car turn that into simulated surround.

 

[RL-TheDude]

Me: I want audiophile quality lossless Dolby Atmos audio while I drive
Tesla: Dash rattles, wind noise, road noise, tire sounds, brake screeching, electric motor sounds, text message dings, annoying navigation lady, AP deactivating bong, parking sensor beeps, collision warning emergency broadcast system sound, lane departure tsunami warning siren, sentry mode activation nuclear warfare alarm

Why do you need Dolby Atmos? It’s just another positional audio format (and one that hasn’t been adapted to cars).

I think what you mean is lossless high sample rate and sample frequency (96/24 and 192/24).

The main difference you want is 24 bit sampling vs 16 bit that CD uses. This originally came to the home via MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) with the DVD-Audio format. Later, MLP became the underlying tech in the lossless Blu-ray audio (TrueHD) and Atmos. SACD is another option but it doesn’t enjoy support outside of hard physical media.

I have some 96/24 files from NiN and Nirvana. Once I take delivery I’ll probably throw them on a stick and see if the car plays them. I’ll probably end up trying the Amazon Music HD also and tethering from my phone.


Lots of info here:

High-resolution audio: everything you need to know | What Hi-Fi?

 

[TEG]

Yes, it plays 96/24 files just fine. Sounds great.

 

[RL-TheDude]

Model 3 & Y can play high bitrate FLACs from flash drives.

So, far I have found that somewhere in the "pipeline" it is only processing stereo.
I was not able to get multi-channel flacs to play independently out of front/back/center/sub.

I think there may just be "left and right", and then you can have the car turn that into simulated surround.

Right. You’d need a multichannel solution. To the best of my knowledge this only happens with Logic 7 in the automotive space. My long gone 2006 BMW had this and I found a good snippet from Benz about it. In both cases, the vehicles had DVD support making it easier to playback true multichannel in addition to faking it for 2 channel material.

 

[Knightshade]

I have some 96/24 files from NiN and Nirvana. Once I take delivery I’ll probably throw them on a stick and see if the car plays them. I’ll probably end up trying the Amazon Music HD also and tethering from my phone.

Just for clarity- when folks use the phrase tether they usually mean physically attach- there's no physical audio input on the car to output directly from a phone- USB dumb storage is the only physical music source the car takes- phones have to go over inferior BT streaming.

Right. You’d need a multichannel solution. To the best of my knowledge this only happens with Logic 7 in the automotive space. My long gone 2006 BMW had this and I found a good snippet from Benz about it. In both cases, the vehicles had DVD support making it easier to playback true multichannel in addition to faking it for 2 channel material.

The Mark Levinson system on my now-gone IS350 supported 5.1 from DVD-A too, but only if you also upgraded the center stack to the $2500 nav option in addition to the ML audio upgrade.... (this is how I got ML free, I special ordered the car to get ML without nav since they never factory built them this way- on discovering after delivery it wouldn't play 5.1 as advertised for JUST the sound upgrade Lexus refunded the cost of the option to me)

 

[Xenoilphobe]

My Hyundai Genesis Limited Sedan had this capability... miss that car some days. $40K V8 loaded.

 

[RL-TheDude]

Just for clarity- when folks use the phrase tether they usually mean physically attach- there's no physical audio input on the car to output directly from a phone- USB dumb storage is the only physical music source the car takes- phones have to go over inferior BT streaming.

Oh. So the phone can’t be accessed as USB storage and/or audio source when connected to a USB port in the car?

 

[jjrandorin]

Oh. So the phone can’t be accessed as USB storage and/or audio source when connected to a USB port in the car?

That is correct, unless you have a phone that presents itself to the car as regular USB storage. Most dont. The car is not able to interface with the phone to play music via a USB cable, only Bluetooth.