Those that have V10, can you comment on the Spotify Audio quality on the Tesla? I am just trying to figure out whether I should try Spotify, cause I already bought the 30$ Slacker system and recently installed like $5k audio system , so wondering if spotify is actually delivery very high quality ? What do people think of Spotify on tesla, is it better than slacker? Why do you like or not like it?
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Spotify audio quality?
- Thread starter blueice89
- Start date
I'm no audiophile, but to me Spotify sounds about the same as Slacker. It does have a better library and way better playlists. I switched to Spotify mainly because I got tired of listening to the same 15 songs on repeat with the Slacker playlists.
motocoder
M3 LR AWD w/FSD and premium interior
Spotify's music catalog is great - second only to Apple Music, IIRC. But where they excel is in music recommendations. I was a Spotify user briefly before switching to Apple Music due to issues with the Spotify Car play app (possibly Apple's fault - they haven't learned to play well with others yet). When I switched I was really disappointed in how bad Apple's recommendations were compared to Spotify. Another factor is that Spotify has clients that work everywhere, including a web client and even seamless integration with devices like Sonos.
avesraggiana
Member
Slacker sucks big time. ANYTHING would be an improvement over Slacker.
Switched Spotify on my 3, I agree the sound quality is definitely better. The biggest change is the feel of liberation from the slacker restrictions. Now I can skip back, repeat, random, I can even scrub within the song!
And Spotify has higher bitrate than Apple Music, but now both dwarfed by Amazon Music HD.
Maybe, but the bitrate used by Spotify in the Tesla can't be high as the sound quality is not really that great. Either, the bitrate is low or the audio processing is awful.
I compared Spotify on Tesla App to Spotify on my phone to car via BT with the same songs. The quality on Tesla App was clearly better. The only reason I could think of is maybe because the streaming quality on my phone on Spotify app is set to "automatic". But when I tested this, I was on my home's WiFi (400+ Mbps), so I would think it would be set to HIGH. It cannot be the BT right? All the phones now came without headphone jack, so BT is so bad, there will be tons and tons of complains.
The average consumer could not care less about sound quality. And some might even be purposely listening at lower bitrate streaming because of cellular data caps. Most people are listening to music through their phone via the wired earphones that come with their phone. If you really cared that much, you should be using a separate player or dedicated DAC attached with a wired headphone, and not BT.
Word is Tesla will still cap it, as well as Spotify.
Slacker and Spotify sound the same to me and good enough.Not fair to compare because I had base plan with Slacker and Premium with Spotify. I love being able to repeat a song. I’m nutty, I’ll play the same song for hours
You could plug your phone in and play Spotify or Slacker via USB. Control is clumsy/limited but that should give highest bitrate. That’s what a ProClip mount is for
eye.surgeon
Active Member
Uncle Paul
Well-Known Member
All the streaming providers will compress the music to fit bandwith and financial constraints.
Too expensive to stream high quality audio.
Too expensive to stream high quality audio.
Yes and no.
There are companies that do lossless (CD quality or higher) Tidal, Amazon etc.
But generally 320 kbps is plenty good enough and not that expensive and routinely offered.
Not sure what Spotify will be capped at on a Tesla.
Surely Netflix will use way more bandwidth than any Audio only Streaming.
So, I did some non-technical sound tests with my wife after receiving the update for Spotify.
For reference, this was done using a 2017 with the ultra high-fidelity sound option.
We played the same songs in random order for each other, and our consensus for sound quality (to our ears) is:
Best
1. Amazon Music HD or Tidal through bluetooth (uses up to 50MB of data per song streamed, glad I have grandfathered unlimited data)
2. Spotify streaming natively in Tesla player
3. Spotify (320 kbps highest setting) through bluetooth
4. Apple Music (256 kbps high quality setting) through bluetooth
Worst
Notes:
1 and 2 were very, very close (again, to us). Almost indistinguishable.
3 and 4 were close. Both requires increasing the car stereo volume about 1-2 levels to get it to the same loudness as 1 and 2. And still doesn't sound as well.
* Listening to the same songs on my various home speaker setups, the difference between 1 and 3,4 is more apparent and even my little kid can tell that streaming Amazon Music HD and Tidal sound night and day better than Spotify and Apple Music. Tesla's Ultra high fidelity is not really "ultra high" IMO.
For reference, this was done using a 2017 with the ultra high-fidelity sound option.
We played the same songs in random order for each other, and our consensus for sound quality (to our ears) is:
Best
1. Amazon Music HD or Tidal through bluetooth (uses up to 50MB of data per song streamed, glad I have grandfathered unlimited data)
2. Spotify streaming natively in Tesla player
3. Spotify (320 kbps highest setting) through bluetooth
4. Apple Music (256 kbps high quality setting) through bluetooth
Worst
Notes:
1 and 2 were very, very close (again, to us). Almost indistinguishable.
3 and 4 were close. Both requires increasing the car stereo volume about 1-2 levels to get it to the same loudness as 1 and 2. And still doesn't sound as well.
* Listening to the same songs on my various home speaker setups, the difference between 1 and 3,4 is more apparent and even my little kid can tell that streaming Amazon Music HD and Tidal sound night and day better than Spotify and Apple Music. Tesla's Ultra high fidelity is not really "ultra high" IMO.
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