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Tesla AM radio reception
- Thread starter billm
- Start date
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- Tags
- Australia New Zealand
Mark E
Member
I never use am or fm any more - I just use tune in. The am & fm reception is pretty bad but even with great reception internet radio sounds a lot better.
raynewman
Active Member
doctorwho
Active Member
Mark E
Member
Something I noticed when I had a loan car while mine was being serviced was that tune in would pause and start again regularly. My car doesn't do that, & tune in works better than am or fm - particularly am if you drive into a car park. Lots of electrical noise in underground car parks overpower the weaker signal. Amazingly, phone reception is much better.
To test out if it's the car or tunein, maybe try streaming tunein from your phone.
CHG-ON
Still in love after all these miles
My radio reception sucks on both bands. Lots of static. Unfortunately, I live in a very mountainous region, where 3G drops a lot. Not their fault at all. So I do find it annoying because Slacker and TuneIn can drop a lot and radio is pretty much terrible. But it was much better in my Acura. I had it checked and they said it was within spec, down at their center, in a populated area with no trees or mountains.
Oh well. The price of living in paradise...
Oh well. The price of living in paradise...
WhiteStar
Member
The thing I really have a problem with is the quality of AM radio content. I need calming, relaxing content while driving.
Example on my long drive back to Sydney, around Newcastle, my range was borderline, so I turned off everything, AC, music (I know not much to be saved with that) & got stuck behind a huge wide load lorry taking up 2 lanes at 50 km/h, causing me to miss the freeway entry, a huge detour & total loss of bearings on the NAV system directing me into an endless loop skirting the freeway I needed to be on. Range anxiety caused me to lose my cool, swearing loudly & repeatedly at the NAV system & any large truck I could see. I cooled down after a minute or so of raised blood pressure. But then I realised no, AC, no calming music & a bit of range anxiety are not a good mix. I switched the AC & music back on & all was OK again. I easily made it back to the Supercharger, anxiety was completely unnecessary.
So best to just switch over to jazz or classic music on FM or TuneIn & relax
Example on my long drive back to Sydney, around Newcastle, my range was borderline, so I turned off everything, AC, music (I know not much to be saved with that) & got stuck behind a huge wide load lorry taking up 2 lanes at 50 km/h, causing me to miss the freeway entry, a huge detour & total loss of bearings on the NAV system directing me into an endless loop skirting the freeway I needed to be on. Range anxiety caused me to lose my cool, swearing loudly & repeatedly at the NAV system & any large truck I could see. I cooled down after a minute or so of raised blood pressure. But then I realised no, AC, no calming music & a bit of range anxiety are not a good mix. I switched the AC & music back on & all was OK again. I easily made it back to the Supercharger, anxiety was completely unnecessary.
So best to just switch over to jazz or classic music on FM or TuneIn & relax
alpal
Member
What I can't understand is why the radio in the Tesla is so poor compared to all the other cars I own. There has to be a logical explanation for the lack of sensitivity.
WhiteStar
Member
Could it possibly be the positioning of the aerial I wonder? Not sure exactly where it is/they are...presumably in the mirrors or sandwiched somewhere in the glassware?
In terms of the differing audio quality from various sources, I found some old DVD-Audio discs which I ripped to flac...192kHz 24-bit. Awesome sound quality compared to anything else I've tried so far.
In terms of the differing audio quality from various sources, I found some old DVD-Audio discs which I ripped to flac...192kHz 24-bit. Awesome sound quality compared to anything else I've tried so far.
Dborn
Confirmed
How do you rip a cd to flac? Using Windows 10 I basically had a choice of wav or wmf. Was trying to copy to a USB .
WhiteStar
Member
I like free & open source so for Windows and OSX, you could try fre:ac. You'll have to go into General Settings | Encoders and change the Encoder to FLAC. Just tried it & seems to be buggy on my Mac though could be fine on Windows.
fre:ac - free audio converter
This might be a better choice for Macs:
XLD download | SourceForge.net
And an alternative for Windows:
CUERipper - CUETools wiki
Only for Macs, try TeslaTunes. It'll copy your iTunes playlists and/or other music library, automatically converting Apple Lossless to Flac.
Tesla Tunes by tattwamasi
I ripped the DVD-Audio using DVD-Audio Extractor.
DVD Audio Extractor -- Full featured DVD audio ripper for your easy use
Note that DVD-Audio has been considered extinct since about 2007 but was a great way to purchase audiophile quality music. Now there’s HDtracks, PonoMusic, eClassical and many other websites but the selection is limited.
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Dborn
Confirmed
Does anyone make an aftermarket fix for the poor radio reception? Thinking FM here. Also the Sirius drops out when part of the sky is blocked by trees. Don't remember that happening in my other car. I'd put a shark fin on it if it would help. Don't think Elon would see it here in Appalachia...
;-)
;-)
doctorwho
Active Member
Another flac encoder for Mac is an app called Phile. Rips straight from CD. Very simple to use, rips to many formats. The only minor disadvantage is that you can't configure the flac compression level (I'd prefer 0)
The radio antennas are in the rear hatch glass up near the top
Undocumented | TeslaTap
At least the Model S is shielded well enough that you can get AM reception. The BMW i3 generates so much electrical noise they disabled the AM radio. Radio interference from the electric motors is an issue with electric cars in general, pulse width modulation motors generate tremendous amounts of electrical noise and a lot of it is in the AM radio band.
This week I'm getting noise through the AM radio in my Model S that I haven't gotten before. On 740AM, a local station, the noise came and went as I turned climate control (AC) on and off. On 630AM, a distant station, the acceleration and regen made an interesting variety of whining noises between 5mph and 25mph. Coasting stopped the noise, and outside that speed range, I didn't hear anything (I have bad ears). Today was better, no noise at all on 740AM, and the motor noise on 630AM seemed less. This could well be atmosphere affecting 630AM signal strength and local control problems with 740AM's transmit power, or my MS has a new characteristic to the unreliable center console computer which crashes about once a month.
Based on my recent experience, a radio with better reception may only receive more interference from the car. A better radio is wasted if the car's electrical noise is louder than the stations you want to receive.
