Info on excellent Mod 3 sound system

[PDEric]

The Mod 3 sound system gets lots of kudos...and it is outstanding. Evidently, Elon is into home theater or sound systems in general. I read an article today that had some interesting information on why the system is so good. Based on a former Tesla employee, the people that designed the system were ex-B&O engineers! In case you're not familiar, Bang & Oloffsen is a Swedish manufacturer of very high end home theater systems; they have an excellent reputation but their products are super expensive. If it's a B&O-designed system, that explains a lot!

Also, in case you haven't noticed, you can really take advantage of the excellent audio by playing FLAC files via a thumb drive. The sound is "only as good as the source material" - Slacker (or Pandora, etc.) on your phone compresses the music to a signficant degree and the bandwidth is narrower. FLAC files are uncompressed, "loss-less" files with several times the music "information" that you get on say, a CD. I download FLAC formated albums from HDTracks.com but there are other sites that provide loss-less music. Yes, albums are more expensive ($15-25) but you WILL hear the difference! Tesla is the only manufacturer that I know of that will support FLAC files.

 

[superfunk]

Cool! Do you any recommended tracks that are great for showing off the sound? Also, is there degradation playing these over Bluetooth to the Tesla?

 

[R1Fast]

Yep, I pretty much only use a flash drive with FLAC. Not only is the sound superior it's also one of the only formats that doesn't result in the dreaded "Loading Error" from time-to-time. FLACs seem to always play.

The Model 3 premium audio is incredible compared to other luxury cars. My BMW M3 had a Harman system which was good, but nowhere near the fidelity of the 3. That said, I'd consider myself an extreme audiophile and IMO the ends of the freq spectrum are still a bit lacking which is why I supplemented the 3's "mid-range" system with JL, Mosconi and ScanSpeak components (sub, dsp, amps, tweeters). More info here and here if interested.

 

[superfunk]

Thanks. I’m a bit of an audiophile as well. PM3 on the way, I’m curious how the sound will be. I had a 2014 Grand Cherokee Summit (POS quality-wise but that’s another story) that had the Harman 19 speaker system and it was the best I’ve ever heard in any car I’ve been in. Clarity, brightness, depth, fullness, accuracy, punch and at every volume level. That’s the top comparison point I have, eager to see how the Tesla stacks up.

 

[PDEric]

Cool! Do you any recommended tracks that are great for showing off the sound? Also, is there degradation playing these over Bluetooth to the Tesla?

I can't answer the bluetooth issue since I put my music on a thumb drive (needs to be formatted as FAT32 like the Sentry Mode drive); I suspect there's some degradation in the transfer rate but I'm not sure.

I tend to be a blues fan but a couple of albums I've downloaded from HDTracks.com as FLAC files: The Eagles: Hotel California, and Paul Simon: Rhythm of the Saints are very good. Generally, go with artists who care about the quality of their music. Neil Young is another guy that cares about this stuff. I'd go to the web site and look through what appeals to you. I am going to try some classical music - which I don't listen to all that often anymore - but much of it tends to put some "stress on the system". Will let you know if I find something interesting. You probably know that standard CD's are 44Hz/16 bits. FLAC files are typically 96/24 or as high as 192/48; your getting significantly more music "information" so not surprisingly, the quality is much better. Hope I'm helping!

 

[PDEric]

Yep, I pretty much only use a flash drive with FLAC. Not only is the sound superior it's also one of the only formats that doesn't result in the dreaded "Loading Error" from time-to-time. FLACs seem to always play.

The Model 3 premium audio is incredible compared to other luxury cars. My BMW M3 had a Harman system which was good, but nowhere near the fidelity of the 3. That said, I'd consider myself an extreme audiophile and IMO the ends of the freq spectrum are still a bit lacking which is why I supplemented the 3's "mid-range" system with JL, Mosconi and ScanSpeak components (sub, dsp, amps, tweeters). More info here and here if interested.

Since I don't drive a lot of miles, so I don't intend to update the existing system. I saw an interesting news article today relating to the supposed B&O design. The Audi A8 charges $12K (!) for a branded B&O upgrade so I think we're really getting a deal on the Mod 3!

 

[martinz]

In case you're not familiar, Bang & Oloffsen is a Swedish manufacturer of very high end home theater systems

Bang & Olufsen are Danish.

 

[JeffreyY]

And not very high end from an audio perspective

 

[martinz]

And not very high end from an audio perspective

True. B&O is decent relative to the household names - and much prettier - but not audiophile high end, even at the same price point. Having said that, the model 3 audio is pretty good by the standards of most in-car systems.

 

[superfunk]

True. B&O is decent relative to the household names - and much prettier - but not audiophile high end, even at the same price point. Having said that, the model 3 audio is pretty good by the standards of most in-car systems.

What are same names of the really high-end audio companies? Is Macintosh in that realm?

 

[Shizzrock]

The B and O system in my Audi was amazing. The model 3 is ok, but if you look at the frequency response there's all kinds of peaks and valleys you can't EQ out. which I find contributes to listening fatigue and an underwhelming soundstage.

 

[bigroo42]

Silly question about flac files... Can I take a cd and 'rip it' to my laptop in flac format? I have a ton of cds and id be interested in the upgraded quality of the flac files but I am not down with paying for tons of music digitally that I already own.

I too am curious about any sound quality loss over Bluetooth.

Thanks!

 

[sduck]

The sound system in the model 3 is not made or designed by Bang & Olufsen. Bang & Olufsen had nothing to do with the sound system. I wish people would stop repeating the name. It WAS designed by some engineers who were formerly employed by Bang & Olufsen.

Can I take a cd and 'rip it' to my laptop in flac format?

Sure, of course. Then throw the files into a folder on a usb drive of some sort, they'll play in the car.