I had the Bowers & Wilkins option in my 2018 Volvo XC60. It’s was a fantastic system. The system in the Y, while not as great as the B&W, really surprised me. I cannot complain.
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Question about stereo system in Model Y
- Thread starter vegas888
- Start date
I had the Bowers & Wilkins option in my 2018 Volvo XC60. It’s was a fantastic system. The system in the Y, while not as great as the B&W, really surprised me. I cannot complain.
Fry_Esq.
2020 Model Y / PUP / Blue / White / FSD
As insanely in love with Teslas as I am, BMW's quality, luxury and overall user experience eviscerates that of Tesla. Tesla will dominate this market until BMW and other luxury brands catch up but if Tesla doesn't take this time to improve, it'll not be the leader. I'm considering a YouTube video on this subject for those thinking about coming from luxury brands to Tesla.
theganjaguru
Guru
Word is that the sound system on the 3/Y is an un-branded Bang & Olufsen. Tesla hired some ex B&O engineers to design it. I know it’s the best sound system I’ve had in a car. Article states a similar sound system found in an Audi is a $12k option.
I wonder if the SR 3 has the same system with some speakers software disabled, kind of like how it has the hardware for heated seats.
LOVE the sound system in my Y.
Tesla reviewer reveals a secret of the Model 3's stellar sound system
I wonder if the SR 3 has the same system with some speakers software disabled, kind of like how it has the hardware for heated seats.
LOVE the sound system in my Y.
Tesla reviewer reveals a secret of the Model 3's stellar sound system
laservet
Member
I love the sound system, sounds better than the premium system in my X5. I've always had a thing for the sound of the B&O systems, although some like a boomier sound..
oxtox
Member
IMHO, The sound and tech in my MY is FAR better than my last few vehicles (cayman, audi s4, E46 m3, STI). And I always get the upgraded stereo/tech packages. Love it.
It'll be curious how long it'll take BMW at co to catch up at the prices Tesla is going after. There's no excuse for why S/X isn't held to a higher standard, but a ~300 mile range AWD crossover at $50k is pretty aggressive, and a ~250 mile range sedan at under $40k is mighty aggressive too. I mean the 3 Series is already more expensive than an SR+ and it's not electric at all. BMW would have to electrify it AND drop the price three or four grand to fall in line with Tesla. I think a 2 Series might be a better comparison to the Model 3 Tesla and I suspect it would fair a bit better in that light then... and again that's assuming they can have a fully electric car with 250 miles of range before Tesla drops the price a few thousand more OR bumps the base range up to like 300 miles.
The Model Y is still new and riding that wave of demand. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the AWD version of the Y slowly trickle down to like $45k in the next year or so, which would start to put it close to X3 comparison. I don't doubt BMW makes a good car, but I think people have got so used to electric cars that they kind of forget that part and just consider it "normal" for Tesla and then base the price 100% on how much of a luxury they are.
I look at the electric aspect of the vehicle first and then consider "hey, it's a pretty nice car too!" - You're right that they'll have to step up their game once the other guys catch up AT THE SAME PRICE. But I wouldn't expect the same range and price to show up for at least another couple years from the other guys (in volume). If Tesla can shave off a couple thousand dollars on the battery by then, they can dump that extra right into build quality and material selection.
To me Tesla falls below the luxory guys (for the Y and 3) but is still just in that price range because of the fully electric nature of the cars. S/X... well I honestly think Tesla has just been lazy with those guys for the last two or three years because of Y and 3 development. It would benefit them to do a huge refresh on the interior quality, even if it pushed S/X up by $5k or something in price.
My previous car was a 2018 BMW X3 m40i coming in at around $64K MSRP after adding most options. IMHO good for comparison as it had virtually the same performance, AWD, and equipment. Nobody would pay MSRP obviously.
The things I miss on the Y are a heated steering wheel, heads-up display, cover for the back cargo area, blind spot warning lights in the mirrors, very good adaptive LED headlights, and adaptive suspension (and arguably real leather seats but I'm happy with the Tesla seats).
Considering that the Y is priced much lower (without FSD, for which there is no BMW equivalent anyway), obviously the interior quality is better in the BMW. Note that I don't think it is fair to compare to the base X3 model as that misses a lot of stuff that's standard on the Y.
The iX3 (not coming to the USA for now) would probably have been way more expensive than $64K, likely with poor range and single motor.
The things I miss on the Y are a heated steering wheel, heads-up display, cover for the back cargo area, blind spot warning lights in the mirrors, very good adaptive LED headlights, and adaptive suspension (and arguably real leather seats but I'm happy with the Tesla seats).
Considering that the Y is priced much lower (without FSD, for which there is no BMW equivalent anyway), obviously the interior quality is better in the BMW. Note that I don't think it is fair to compare to the base X3 model as that misses a lot of stuff that's standard on the Y.
The iX3 (not coming to the USA for now) would probably have been way more expensive than $64K, likely with poor range and single motor.
I also think that the closest 3 series is not actually more luxurious than the 3. But the 3 series has many more options to add that can greatly improve material quality.
My guess is that Tesla will add a lot more options once they have more manufacturing capacity. They won't have to restrict custom options so much when they have 3x the capacity that they had last year, and that could easily happen within 1.5 years.
laservet
Member
My wife has an X5, I traded in a 335i (3 liter twin turbo 6cyl) and my neighbor just bought a new X3 with all the options (2 liter inline turbo 4 cyl) that cost more than my Y. My neighbor mentioned the Y looked small, couldn't have much cargo room, and was surprised to find its cargo capacity with rear seats folded is between the X3 and the X5, closer to the X5, well designed and efficient.
Good point - my wife has an ICE trike (3 wheel recumbent bicycle) and without folding it would just fit in the X3 (with rear seats down) along with my own folding (regular) bike. In the Y this fits extremely easy and there's a lot of space left around.
Compared to B&O in the Audi’s, it sounds like garbage. Hip hop or rap sound the worst in the Y. It’s like it takes all the bass out and sounds flat. For example, the song Fame by DMX sounded insane in my Audi, I could bump that all day. In the Y, it’s almost painful. I’m not a huge fan of Harmon in BMWs but it’s still way better than the Y. I didn’t like the S system either. Very disappointing. I’m an audiophile so if you’re not, then the Y might be decent for you. I am having mine replaced, plus there’s no SiriusXM in the Y either. You have to stream it from your phone which degrades even more of the little quality it has
The sound on the MY is very good and I’m comparing this to upgraded Harmon Kardon audio in BMWs.
Is it the absolute best out there, of course not, but effectively the standard stereo in a ~50k car is beating the upgrade/premium stereos in other cars in its class.
I’m sure the top-tier upgrades (Bower and Wilkins, B&O) may be able to do better, but those are often $5000+ upgrades, and in many cases only available on significantly more expensive cars).
Is it the absolute best out there, of course not, but effectively the standard stereo in a ~50k car is beating the upgrade/premium stereos in other cars in its class.
I’m sure the top-tier upgrades (Bower and Wilkins, B&O) may be able to do better, but those are often $5000+ upgrades, and in many cases only available on significantly more expensive cars).
It’s possible that the B&O your comparing it to just had way more bass relative to the Y. But I’m a little surprised you’d call the bass flat.
If anything to my ears the Y can be a little heavy on the bass with default settings. Are you sure your sub is working?
JeffreyC
Member
I have a B&O system in my BMW ($5,000 option) and I think the system in the Model Y is nearly as good. Certainly has comparable bass.
Overall I've been extremely impressed with the stereo in my Y. Having said that there's been 38 replies to this post and I can't believe I'm the first one to bring this up: the sound system in your car is only as good as the resolution of the music you feed it. Considering that most of us Tesla owners are listening for the most part to a massively compressed streaming audio feed coming in over LTE it's amazing there's any kind of fidelity at all.
One of these days I plan on plugging the 2TB USB drive with my entire full resolution CD collection on it into my Y and see how it sounds. That'll be the real test. But gad I'm a lazy so and so. Maybe tomorrow... ;-)
One of these days I plan on plugging the 2TB USB drive with my entire full resolution CD collection on it into my Y and see how it sounds. That'll be the real test. But gad I'm a lazy so and so. Maybe tomorrow... ;-)
Mike_TV
Active Member
I'm happy too with it and it's the best car audio system I've had plus it does multichannel audio too which most people don't realize or care. I'm sure when you rip your CDs you'll put them in the lossless FLAC format to get the best sound quality.
I took a bunch of CDs and ripped them to FLAC to put a USB stick dedicated for music and it's been great. Now if Tesla can get album art to show up....