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Free premium Connectivity ending
- Thread starter Mr H
- Start date
navt
Member
I personally find Waze far superior to the in car nav anyway. In the Lakes this weekend there were all kind of dangerous roads signed “Dangerous Track DO NOT FOLLOW SAT NAV”.
The car wanted to send me down them. Waze knew before we even got there. I guess that’s the beauty of a crowd sourced navigation system.
In regardless to everything else premium connectivity wise, as annoying as it is I’ll hotspot from iPhone LTE for now.
The car wanted to send me down them. Waze knew before we even got there. I guess that’s the beauty of a crowd sourced navigation system.
In regardless to everything else premium connectivity wise, as annoying as it is I’ll hotspot from iPhone LTE for now.
Andrew_SE23
Member
The sound quality over Bluetooth can be noticeably better than streaming Spotify on the car - it depends on the quality of the source on the phone.
Andrew_SE23
Member
I think a previous person commented that it was worse quality connecting to their phone, but they were also streaming Apple music to their phone. Streaming high quality music from my phone to the car over Bluetooth makes the car stereo sound a lot better compared to the Spotify car app.
Bluetooth music streaming used to be low rent as the streaming process wasn't great. I believe later versions of bluetooth protocols have improved matters. Music is only as good as the weakest link in the chain and thats down to the implementation. I used to use HD FLAC on a USB stick but the Tesla decoder was so poor at the time I adandoned it (almost no bass), and in theory that should have been the best. I think it pays to try different options as the in car spotify was better than it.
Spotify in the car is also limited bitrate (I've heard both 128kbps and 256kbps as 'definitive' but I don't think anyone knows*) but from a phone you can tell it to use much higher bitrates.. coupled with a decent bluetooth encoding (although I don't think the tesla supports aptx) you should hear an improvement.
The phone sounds much better to my ears but it's all subjective.. I was expecting it to so I'm not an unbiased observer.
* Some even claim the audio is capped at 64kbps on the model 3, but even with my ears I'd hear that, so I doubt it.
The phone sounds much better to my ears but it's all subjective.. I was expecting it to so I'm not an unbiased observer.
* Some even claim the audio is capped at 64kbps on the model 3, but even with my ears I'd hear that, so I doubt it.
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Drew57
Active ember
I've played the same pieces off music from car-Spotify & USB-FLAC as a comparison. Although FLAC definitely has a slight edge it sounds much too close to be either 64 or 128.
Regular Spotify Premium is 320kbps & as Tesla also advertise premium sound, it may be this or their 160kbps 'normal' bitrate (...quite unlikely Spotify would encode at a different rate just for Tesla).
Regular Spotify Premium is 320kbps & as Tesla also advertise premium sound, it may be this or their 160kbps 'normal' bitrate (...quite unlikely Spotify would encode at a different rate just for Tesla).
Back in 2014 data streaming was described as a 'complimentary' service and am sure the wording implied it could be chargeable after 3 years??
I remember a while ago someone said Tesla was actually paying some ridiculous figure to support free data streaming on the cars. I have Spotify on all the time in our car, so 3.5 years and 46k worth of streaming data consumed.
The figure for each car might not be that much, but multiplied across the fleet it will be a large number. So I can see why Tesla has started to charge £10/month, given Spotify is normally £7/month anyways its not an unreasonable amount to charge.
I remember a while ago someone said Tesla was actually paying some ridiculous figure to support free data streaming on the cars. I have Spotify on all the time in our car, so 3.5 years and 46k worth of streaming data consumed.
The figure for each car might not be that much, but multiplied across the fleet it will be a large number. So I can see why Tesla has started to charge £10/month, given Spotify is normally £7/month anyways its not an unreasonable amount to charge.
interbear
Active Member
Music streaming quality is indeed very subjective, the combination of platform, device and streaming quality all play a part, but everyone’s ears are different. On my iPhone, with decent headphones, I find Apple Music better quality than Spotify. On HomePod speakers at home, I find Apple Music is better quality sound than using Spotify via airplay. On that basis I subscribed to the Apple Music family plan and I was keen to use this in my Model 3. But with no Apple CarPlay the only option is via Bluetooth from my iPhone. Having tested that quite a bit over the last fortnight, to my ears it’s very clear that Spotify via the on board player is better quality than Apple Music streamed from my iPhone. Which is not the result I was hoping for, I was hoping Apple Music via my phone would at least be as good so that it would give me another reason NOT to pay for premium connectivity.
This factor, combined with the satellite mapping imagery for the Nav vs the basic mapping and my family’s enjoyment of Netflix when charging on a road trip (not me, I prefer to stretch my legs and get out of the car), mean I am now more likely to subscribe than I thought before the trip. Damn, I hate it when a test period doesn’t result in the conclusion I was hoping for
This factor, combined with the satellite mapping imagery for the Nav vs the basic mapping and my family’s enjoyment of Netflix when charging on a road trip (not me, I prefer to stretch my legs and get out of the car), mean I am now more likely to subscribe than I thought before the trip. Damn, I hate it when a test period doesn’t result in the conclusion I was hoping for
I think google already knows where your car is 24/7, why not go all-in and get some benefit back ?
I'd agree with this. I've got an SSD full of FLACs and the difference isn't night and day between that and Spotify, to my ears anyway. On headphones perhaps it would be, but in the compromised environment of the car anyway - it sounds just as good to me.
Cnixon
Member
Cnixon
Member
Correction A2DP is 1/3 of CD quality but better than music stored in MP3 on USB.....mmm lots of variables there, but it sounds ok in a car..even a quiet one.
Is there a way I can "disable" Premium so I can trial life without premium?
Is there a way I can "disable" Premium so I can trial life without premium?
Drew57
Active ember
A2DP = 345/48 & due to “lossy” compression in the SBC codec audio quality is lower - somewhere around 256kbps.
MP3 320 on a USB would be slightly higher quality than 256 but lower than 345. Whether anyone can detect this or whether it really matters is immaterial - recorded music quality is heavily influenced by the original recording & mastering.
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