Yes, that's what I assumed,
@DarkMatter ; there wasn't the bandwidth available for anything else.
So, back to diagnosing my Ultra High Fidelity Sound not sounding high fidelity:
I decided to put FLAC on USB. I read somewhere that ext4 works great in Tesla USB, so I started first with that. I loaded all my music and podcasts onto the stick that I got from recommendation of another thread about which USB drives work well in Teslas. Today when I had a chance, I hit USB in the Music app, and all my folders came up off the ext4 partition of the stick, with the music, pretty nicely organized, with an A-Z# index on the right side for long directory lists. I haven't really tried to figure out the fringes of the interface, but it seemed a lot better than the recent temporary setback they had. I was very satisfied, knowing how bad it could have been.
When I got to a musical piece, I hit play, and it said file load error. Later, I surmised I had the wrong file type, and looked: I had Apple's ALAC (via iTunes, a setting you have to set specifically to get lossless when pulling in, for instance, CD material). They show up as "m4a" files, which is a common file suffix for lossy compression, too, but a little analysis on the contents shows it's ALAC. Anyway, long story short, I didn't completely convert everything well, but I did run through a bunch of it with a simple "ffmpeg -i oldfile.m4a newfile.flac", and put them back on the stick and tried that.
Here's what I found:
First, the files are read and play. Score 1 for the recommended USB stick, score 2 for ext4, score 3 for FLAC, and score 4 for Tesla fixing the interface.
Indeed, files in FLAC format are better input material into the Ultra High Fidelity Sound system, and you can hear the difference: less various items of garbage. When comparing to my FM stations, it's less FM garbage like its rolled out waveforms and truncated frequencies. Still, FM is analog, so it maintains that analog superiority. Going to FLAC, I skip all that FM mishmash and get straight digital, and if the digital is done half ok, then it ought to sound good.
Indeed, I've played those very files via my iPhone's AUX out jack (so, "lossless" (uncompressed) low sampling rate digital audio straight up converted to analog by my phone) in many car stereo systems, and they sound anywhere from ok to great, depending on the recording material and the car I'm in.
The same things in my Tesla with Ultra High Fidelity Sound do not sound good, however. They are unlistenable. Not only is it tinny and harsh, and clipping, and sounds like it's coming out of 2 small speakers into the dash and nowhere else except two tweeters by the back seats (as if the forward speakers weren't small enough), but it's also just blatantly nothing like any kind of sound system you'd want to listen to, if you want a full experience as I do. I really don't think sound engineers are that deaf, so I think the only explanation is that I have something wrong with my car.
Ok, you're going to say, what does a car wash and a drive through Central Valley at 32ºF outside and loud ICE engines have to do with this? I reported water from copious rain on the roads coming into the footwell of the driver. Later, same thing happened in a touchless car wash. When driving tonight, the heater couldn't keep up with the cold: I had it set to 81ºF, but it felt like it preferred to spew out 65ºF air instead (which I personally find way too cold). Worst area? Footwell by the feet, as if a draft was coming in there. Also, ICE engines passing by sound loud to me.
What if someone forgot to put ten cents worth of sealant between two panels up there that caused literally all of these problems? Part of the UHFS equipment is up there; what if it got water damaged? It's too simple an explanation to be it, but I wouldn't be surprised if all of my problems are that simple. It's probably not that easy, but I can hope. In that case, plug the leak, repair (replace) affected equipment, and good to go. I find a heater that can't keep up with one little crack suspect, though, and the fact that it thinks it ought to cool me off at 81ºF setting but cook me to death at "HI" setting suggests there's more problems than a little crack.
