Sound quality question: Bluetooth or USB drive?

[SoCalGuy]

So I’ve thought the sound system in the Model 3 was great when listening to Slacker. Vocals sound crisp and the immersive sound setting seems to work really well. When I stream the same songs from my iPhone, the sound seems... flat and vocals less crisp. Is listening to music on a usb drive noticeably better?

 

[Shizzrock]

Yes, it's noticeably better. However, I'm not of the same opinion of Slacker sound quality. There's also EQ settings on the Iphone itself you can try.

 

[soulstar]

Before V9, I've been dealing with Bluetooth since all I really needed was a shuffle option which did not exist prior to V9. I didn't see anyone talk about shuffle as a new feature in V9 so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it on my update today.

But yes, sound quality will be better from direct USB compared to Bluetooth. Although, I'd probably say if all your music encoding is 128kbps or lower, you may not notice the difference much.

Either way, I'm definitely enjoying the better sound now that I can utilize shuffle.

 

[Shizzrock]

Before V9, I've been dealing with Bluetooth since all I really needed was a shuffle option which did not exist prior to V9. I didn't see anyone talk about shuffle as a new feature in V9 so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it on my update today.

But yes, sound quality will be better from direct USB compared to Bluetooth. Although, I'd probably say if all your music encoding is 128kbps or lower, you may not notice the difference much.

Either way, I'm definitely enjoying the better sound now that I can utilize shuffle.

Wow, I didn't know that either. that's awesome news!

 

[adhoc]

for someone that has all their music in itunes,
and will need to pull it out and copy to thumb drive,
what format plays best in model 3 via usb?

 

[Knightshade]

for someone that has all their music in itunes,
and will need to pull it out and copy to thumb drive,
what format plays best in model 3 via usb?

MP3 and FLAC play fine. AAC does not.

Generally sound quality will go:

Slacker worst (64kb/s)

Bluetooth next (assuming decent quality files on the phone- which not everyone has)

USB with high quality files best (but arguably the worst interface)