Orella Acoustics subwoofer installed, my thoughts

[bpobill]

I followed their install video here:

Install took 2-3 hours for the sub. No splicing at all, no inline converter. The harness sits in between the factory sub and the amp. Power is taken under the passenger seat battery terminal, and ground is near the factory amp in the trunk. The kit is made incredibly well. It includes a CNC ABS ring that attaches to the factory sub box so you can bolt the new sub in. Amp has a custom rack that sits in the passenger side cubby. Harness is very well made. All connectors fit perfect into factory plugs. Super nice kit. If you are comfortable removing panels in your car (easy to do) then this install is a piece of cake. You really cant mess it up.

I did car audio way way back in the day. Ive been wanting more bass in my model Y. Nothing crazy, just more than factory. I chose this kit because its completely plug and play so it can be returned to stock without any issues. Probably in about an hour. I considered NVX but it doesn't look factory, and have seen issues with codes and other things. As crazy as it sounds I didnt want a kit I needed to tune. I wanted to bolt something in and forget about it. When you need to tune an amp im never happy with it.

Who should buy this kit? You want more bass, dont want to splice into a harness, dont want an aftermarket looking setup, You plug everything in and its done, and are willing to pay more for these features. You can absolutely get more bass for less money. Easily.

How well does it sound compared to stock? A lot better. Bass is deeper and louder. Its louder than I anticipated. At the end of the day it's an 8" sub in the factory enclosure so you wont be blown away. If you want a lot of bass buy something else. If you want more bass and dont need anything crazy this is a great option. Its pricey but you are paying for plug and play and no fooling with it.

I see a lot of people say "I think the stock system sounds amazing, I dont see why you would want this" Great, good for you. I dont know why people spend thousands on PPF and ceramic but hey its their money. You do you.

Photo attached is the stock sub vs theirs. Yeah no contest.. Let me know if you have any questions. Yes I paid full price for this kit and no I dont work for them.

 

[St3phen]

I do like how this system is truly "plug and play" and keeps use of the ported box vs the NVX approach. If it wasn't for me already having 80% the parts for the NVX kit (from my Model 3) for my Model Y, I would have probably gone this route. Thanks for the info!

 

[Mitev]

So is the OEM sub amp deactivated ?

 

[bpobill]

So is the OEM sub amp deactivated ?

You remove the oem subwoofer and replace it with this one. It uses the factory box.

 

[deanproxy]

My apologies for raising an old thread here... I'm just wondering if anyone that has installed this subwoofer has had any issues with their software updates not installing?

I had another subwoofer installed that has a similar 300-ish watt amplifier. It did tap into the subwoofer output wires for a signal and the 300 watt amplifier would turn on when it sensed noise signal from the inputs.

The problem I had and had to remove the whole system, was my software updates weren't installing. They'd download fine, but it would get half way through the install and then fail. Tesla service told me it was due to the system noticing there was more draw on the battery than expected and so as a way to prevent the battery from completely dying, it would just stop the software installation. I have confirmed this to be the likely case. I had 4 failed software updates after the subwoofer installation. After removing it, I've had 2 successful software installations.

So, for anyone that has this system, have you had software updates install successfully while the subwoofer was hooked up?

 

[deanproxy]

To note, I've tried contact Orella by e-mail and by phone. They never answer their phone and it goes to voice mail and it's been 5 days since I've sent an e-mail and no response there either.

 

[Kwame]

My apologies for raising an old thread here... I'm just wondering if anyone that has installed this subwoofer has had any issues with their software updates not installing?

I had another subwoofer installed that has a similar 300-ish watt amplifier. It did tap into the subwoofer output wires for a signal and the 300 watt amplifier would turn on when it sensed noise signal from the inputs.

The problem I had and had to remove the whole system, was my software updates weren't installing. They'd download fine, but it would get half way through the install and then fail. Tesla service told me it was due to the system noticing there was more draw on the battery than expected and so as a way to prevent the battery from completely dying, it would just stop the software installation. I have confirmed this to be the likely case. I had 4 failed software updates after the subwoofer installation. After removing it, I've had 2 successful software installations.

So, for anyone that has this system, have you had software updates install successfully while the subwoofer was hooked up?

Post in thread 'NVX Boost Subwoofer upgrade - installed'
NVX Boost Subwoofer upgrade - installed

 

[BitJam]

To note, I've tried contact Orella by e-mail and by phone. They never answer their phone and it goes to voice mail and it's been 5 days since I've sent an e-mail and no response there either.

I had a similar problem with Orella last December. They had a really nice sale going on but I was unable to place my order on their web site. It complained that fields I had filled in were not filled in. I tried several browsers. I got no response to an email or a voice message.

 

[starCrunch]

I've had mine (Orella amp, sub, and speakers) installed for few weeks now in my 2023 Fremont LR MY, and have had a couple updates go through without problems. I did notice that the amp was a little warm, even when not using it. So last weekend I added a relay that will shut off the amp when not driving, using this wire as the trigger:

If you're having problems with updates, adding a relay might help. Here's the one I used as it's rated to 40 amps.

https://a.co/d/hB6Tu6q

The Orella amp comes with a 30 amp fuse, so 40 amps should be sufficient. I heard others add a manual switch as an alternative to a relay that they use when getting updates. But I prefer it to be automatic.

I also noticed Orella's lack of communication when purchasing mine and emailing them about a sale price. But the product has been great for me so far...a noticeable amount of extra low end and better clarity on the highs and mids. I'm glad they didn't replace the front door speakers, as those were already excellent for the mid-bass.