Disappointed with sound system...

[majorlance]

Does anyone know how the Model S looks up the album art? I assume it is by tags (i.e. song name, album name, artist) but does it also use the filename? Also, what service is used?

Many (older) songs appear on multiple albums and I'd love a way to make certain that artwork is displayed...

Of course, they could just pull it from the file and save the bandwidth but what do I know???

 

[randompersonx]

I am buffaloed on this one! My album art in flac files NEVER displays... only the crap the media player finds online somewhere. For stuff like live recordings, nothing shows up. I wonder if your flac files are somehow tagged differently. What software do you use to encode the flac files and attach the artwork?

I paid a little bit more attention today, and while it is showing album art on my live content ... it isn't the album art that is encoded to my flac files. I am surprised that it has art for this content, but it's a pretty reasonable guess, though not the same as what I had. It's clearly getting it from "somewhere".

 

[tomas]

I paid a little bit more attention today, and while it is showing album art on my live content ... it isn't the album art that is encoded to my flac files. I am surprised that it has art for this content, but it's a pretty reasonable guess, though not the same as what I had. It's clearly getting it from "somewhere".

Bummer, I thought you had a breakthrough!!!! If the artist and song title are encoded, I believe it is using those to do web lookup... using what search, nobody knows. I've found it to be extremely unreliable and sometimes humorous. To me, it's a relatively low priority, but I sure wish they'd have it use the encoded artwork if it is there. Would save network time/$ as well.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Bummer, I thought you had a breakthrough!!!!

Same. I have a couple albums that are so wrong it's laughable. On an album for my 5 month old son, the car picks some cover art with the scariest-looking monster I've ever seen on a CD cover. Fortunately he's too young for it to freak him out . Plus, I guess he's facing the other direction so he can't see it anyway. :biggrin:

The art's there, I just wish it'd use it.

I thought it was interesting they added Shuffle in 6.1. Basically, the bare minimum improvement to the Media app that eliminated an easy-to-convey talking point that illustrated how basic the app is. I *hope* that means there are major changes on the horizon and they knew that'd shut us up for awhile... I hope.

 

[roystep]

OP here.
Thread has gone a bit off topic, but that's ok, i learned quite a few things!

Thanks to all who provided tips and suggestions.
A few points:

I checked and i do indeed have the upgraded sound system.
I played with the equalizer to improve things a bit as suggested.
Checked the Best Quality button for Slacker, that also helped a bit.
Turn off Dolby, helped significantly (to my surprise).
I just don't have the time to burn FLAC audio, so will keep on using BT and Slacker.
I did get around to taking a good listen to my favorite kind of music, and what i consider a good test of delicate sounds and arrangements, that is jazz music, and was surprisingly pleased with what i heard.
I don't know why, but jazz sound to me clearly better than rock on this sound system.

Anyways, thanks for all your help and opinions!

 

[tomas]

@roy do yourself a favor and rip your favorite 5 jazz albums in flac on a memory stick. I predict it will inspire you to over time rip more.

 

[Bon Scott]

Adding my vote for Tidal music service support. Can't be a bandwidth issue: streams fine to mobile devices. Bluetooth degrades the sound quality, partially defeating the purpose.

 

[smilepak]

Received my 70D two days ago and finally able to listen to the standard system. I have to agree. Out of the box standard sound system is a bit disappointing. It lack bass tremendously. Very flat.

After adjusting the Tone control, MAX BASS, MAX TREBLE, +4 on MID...it actually sound not too shabby. I wouldn't say excellent. But I would say much better than my STOCK stereo in the Lexus GS 350 I have now that uses JBL Enhancement system.

Given that, paying 2k for the upgrade system is crazy IMO. BMW don't charge that much to upgrade their to HK system or other to B&O system. Lol!

I do have SLACKER set to BEST. I went online via the SLACKER account I got from the DS and changed to 320K.

Where is this DOLBY setting you speak of?

 

[pgiralt]

Where is this DOLBY setting you speak of?

Dolby setting is only on the premium audio. I always leave it off because I don't like it at all, so you're not missing anything.

 

[smilepak]

OP here.

I don't know why, but jazz sound to me clearly better than rock on this sound system.

Anyways, thanks for all your help and opinions!

Lol! That must be why in the drive demo and at the show room, they default to Jazz music to show you their sound system.

 

[kuttakamina]

Just a quick note to this thread ..

When I test drove the car, I had a chance to compare the base sound and premium sound side by side.
My impression was, the premium sound was okay (7/10), and base sound was not good (5/10).
But I'm no audiophile, and mostly I listen to silence or podcasts, so I went with base sound.

Now that I have the car, I am glad I did. When I test drove the car, I was in a more noisy environment (mall, parking lot, tesla person talking to me. etc. etc.).
Your ears get conditioned to the noise. Now that I have the car, I usually keep my base sound system between 2-6.

Long story short, if you are an audiophile who LOVES music, and keeps music running most of the time when driving - get the premium.
Otherwise, stick with base. It's not the best, but its good enough.

 

[manis]

One thing I noticed when I got mine was that day of delivery the audio system is bad regardless of what you get. A couple days of use and the speakers start flexing better and the sound improves. I noticed a significant improvement even the next day and now I'm pretty happy with it. There are songs I'm familiar with that have sounded way better than how I've heard them before.

All threads I see about upgrading to UHF seem to make it sound like all they did was put in "upgraded" speakers and that "upgrade" isn't worth $2500. If they simply put in a different set of speakers then I'd say it isn't worth it, but that isn't what they do.

You are paying for them to put in an antenna for XM, which from what I've heard runs through the glass of the roof (most would probably pass on XM if they could, but it is a cost). You are getting 8" front mid woofers instead of 6" ones, so you don't need to cut panels to get the same size, and you are also getting 6 more speakers than the standard system. Those speakers are integrated into the car perfectly because Tesla designed it that way. Maybe it should sound better for $2500, but the cost of increasing the speaker size and having 6 speakers integrated that cleanly wouldn't be cheap.

So if you get UHF you can upgrade the speakers and get an even better system than if you had upgraded standard audio and you don't have to worry about the workmanship of the shop cutting panels or building custom enclosures. (there are definitely amazing shops that do insanely good work, but it isn't cheap)

 

[Lex]

Been watching this thread for a while and finally played some lossless .flac files from a USB key and was satisfied.

I splurged for the Ultra to get the XM receiver but haven't even activated it yet as there's a lot of content to explore on TuneIn. I may even continue to try and figure out if Slacker does anything other than take 1 song suggestion and try to expand on it (with either amazing, or comical results). I've tried asking Slacker to play a whole album but to no avail.

I found it can produce clean audio until what is probably hearing damage, but just barely... and without a Loudness or adaptive volume it takes some tweaking and I am finding the equalizer sliders NOT EASY to move and no +/- direct controls are available. I was fighting to get the low slider to +3 for a while today, it was jumping past, either way.

I've installed better systems for a lot less than the Ultra upgrade cost INCLUDING head unit back in the day when a standard DIN chassis (or later, with adapter) was on the new car checklist.

So it's at least a poor value, so I guess I actually agree with OP's thread name -- I expected more for the money, but my musical ear, which is decent, is at least satisfied.

I was quite surprised that there is no adaptive volume like in a Corvette... perhaps this would admit that the car makes noise ? Or is it more that they're working on a backlog of features, eg. I just learned we JUST got shuffle in 6.2

 

[ra-san]

Dolby setting is only on the premium audio. I always leave it off because I don't like it at all, so you're not missing anything.

Check it again now if you haven't lately - it's behavior supposedly was updated in one of the firmware updates a few months ago. Not saying you'll like it now, but at least a few others who said they never used it because it was awful have now said that it not just sucked less, but actually improved the sound over not having it on. I personally still have it off, but do think that it no longer just plain screws up the sound and has become more of an individual preference setting.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

Check it again now if you haven't lately - it's behavior supposedly was updated in one of the firmware updates a few months ago. Not saying you'll like it now, but at least a few others who said they never used it because it was awful have now said that it not just sucked less, but actually improved the sound over not having it on. I personally still have it off, but do think that it no longer just plain screws up the sound and has become more of an individual preference setting.

mine is mostly turned on now. sounds way better but I also hooked my sub up to the front and rear speaker outputs so the loos of rear door speaker lows from 'Dolby on' isn't there anymore

 

[tomas]

mine is mostly turned on now. sounds way better but I also hooked my sub up to the front and rear speaker outputs so the loos of rear door speaker lows from 'Dolby on' isn't there anymore

How do you do that? Can you post some instructions/pix?

 

[FlatSix911]

I have the standard sound system ... any input on the suggested equalizer settings for better sound quality?

 

[pgiralt]

Check it again now if you haven't lately - it's behavior supposedly was updated in one of the firmware updates a few months ago. Not saying you'll like it now, but at least a few others who said they never used it because it was awful have now said that it not just sucked less, but actually improved the sound over not having it on. I personally still have it off, but do think that it no longer just plain screws up the sound and has become more of an individual preference setting.

I'll give it a shot. I'm skeptical

 

[Mr X]

Feel sorry for all you guys that don't have an organized music collection with cover art, proper song titles and artist features/album title.


USB is the way to go! It's really simple. And all the songs are the highest quality and sound crystal clear (since you search for the songs yourself)


I couldn't imagine listening to a radio station for music. USB is all you need


And Treble should be up all the way and base should never be up all the way, too much bass is obnoxious and overpowers the song, all you hear is BMM BMM BMMM BMMM BMMMM


There should be a nice kick/thump, but not too loud.

 

[smilepak]

I have the standard sound system ... any input on the suggested equalizer settings for better sound quality?

Tone Bass + 8.5, treble +7 and mid +4