Nick77
Deep Blue Model 3 LR (2021 MIC)
I often get that when I first get in the car. Seems to take a minute to get a solid connection.
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Tidal and in car audio with 2021.40.x
- Thread starter MrBadger
- Start date
You download them to your Tesla, not your phone. The car will handle it all, no need for the phone once the login is set up. I'm in the habit of throwing my phone on the charging pad so I can choose music but I don't need to do that anymore, although using it to charge the phone is a good thing anyway.
It is all pretty simple but the way they described it in the release notes added to the confusion.
Thanks - that is very helpful. How do you download directly to Tesla? When you play a song it does that? Appreciate the help.
jimbo_hippo
Member
For an entry level car (albeit we all got the plus spec as the base in the UK amd never got the true ‘base model’) I’d proffer that the audio system in the SR+ far from sucks. Obviously, anything involving ears and taste is subjective but the bottom line for a basic system pretty much comes down to, is it clear and crisp? can you hear all the instruments? does it involve you? and can you get clarity at higher levels and stil engage with the music? The base system does this Just fine. It’s never muddy, does‘t get confused with complicated stuff and sounds totally fine for voice too. within the operating criteria of what IMHO makes a basic system acceptable and not suck, it ticks those boxes.
Does it move the earth under your feet or make you go wow? Well no because it’s stripped back but that doesn't mean it ‘sucks’; it just means it’s not a high grade arena line-array to blow you apart. I’d argue that it’s one of the best base systems I’ve encountered if you live within its parameters. whilst youre never going to show off to your mates with it, it’s never frustrating, never makes you miss out on stuff like clear speech in a podcast or ruin your music choice. It’s actually very good at delivering what you NEED even if it’s maybe not what you’d wish for IMHO. I can’t say that of some other base systems I’ve encountered with which you wrestle to get anything that doesn’t have you wanting to shout at it or check if there are wet coats over the speakers.
we have a SR+ and also a 2017 Model S with Premium sound which is fed by MCU2 and with the later DAB module. I’d argue that the SR+ setup does the basics a lot better than the Model S‘ optional upgraded (and pricey) system. If you crank up the S system it’ll deliver plenty of whack and heft but it lacks the clarity, definition and precision of the SR+’s lowly promises. Whilst there’s obviously some pretty high grade components in it, it seems to get flustered with certain sections of music and if it wasn’t all bolted into a car, I’d be moving speakers a few inches away from walls or messing with speaker stands to try and find out why it sometimes works against itself despite being obviously capable. in contrast, the SR+ system sounds more ‘designed’ to me rather than a cheap system thrown in.
I‘m a bit of a coffin dodger amd my tastes are old school being mainly built around classic rock. I’d imagine if you listen to a lot of current music with a lot of bottom end dominating the songs then you may feel the SR+ can’t deliver the clout modern music demands of a system. Since all the artificially created ‘hugeness‘ of modern dance or even pop demands moving (or seeming to move) a lot of air, I can imagine then it may seem a little lacking but in the main, I think it’s perfectly adequate and really rather good.
I know me thinking I know music playback can seem a bit like telling you what shoes are best but I have been around arena level events and spent a lot of time in studios with my career so I’m pretty scientific with a lot of it. Doesn’t make my view better than yours but I do have stuff to reference and I share that with you not to make me right but just so you don’t think I have a crappy home setup and have never heard quality gear. Some people express opinions about in-car stuff and have abominations of home systems with flashing LEDs disguising bobbins hardware bought at the cheap aisle in Costco. I’m not in that bracket.
I once chatted on here with someone who ran the EQ with all the faders at full and asked thst they went further up as a software upgrade because he thought it sounded better louder. I don’t think either of us fall into that bracket so I’m being respectful whilst countering.
Just putting in a good word for the SR+ system because I really don’t think it sucks at all.
If you select an album or a playlist within Tidal on the console there is a little down arrow icon to download it. You need to be on wifi to do this. As it downloads, a HIFI icon will appear next to the songs that have download. You will get this same icon if you play a song while connected to wifi, and if you play downloaded songs it will appear on the play bar too. If you play a song while NOT on wifi, it will play but not in the "hifi" resolution. We all believe that it is 16/44.1 resolution (CD quality) when it says HIFI, but I actually never saw that confirmed.
While this is all for the better, I'd still like to see a high resolution format be implemented as well. But if the download speed I see now is any indication it will be very slow to get higher res.
While this is all for the better, I'd still like to see a high resolution format be implemented as well. But if the download speed I see now is any indication it will be very slow to get higher res.
I hear what you're saying, but I guess I don't agree. I find the highs to be shrill and not well balanced at all. And it sounds like these speakers have a big hole in the frequency response. I've built all of my home speakers myself, and I guess I'm spoiled by ScanSpeak silk dome tweeters and their woofers. Even my small Fostex derived speakers do this better. No bells and whistles, just solid sound with great imaging. I have both tubes and solid state amps too, so it isn't one or the other. I have the venerable Rega Planar 3 turntable with Grace tonearm, and an all digital setup that streams anywhere in the house using Raspberry Pi. So I do run the gamut with audio.
But I'm also old, ugh. My taste in music is also classic rock and I think these boomy bass heavy systems don't get it right either. The one aspect of audio I don't get is in cars. The specs that are used, what is important to them, WATTS!!!! They rate speakers in watts on the assumption that everyone is going to blast everything to max volume while driving down the street.
But back to the M3 SR+, I find that it sounds good for the first song or two but then my interest in hearing it fades due to listening fatigue. While playing a "Top 100-50" of all time classic rock playlist today, not every song would sound good and a bad recording sounds even worse. Here's a sample. These aren't my choices but are from the local classic rock station's annual survey.
I think the standard sound system in the SR+ actually sounds better than the Harmon Kardon in my previous BMW...
BUT - getting the thread back on track... I've signed up to Tidal - there's a new offer for 3 months for £1 or £2, depending on what plan you go for. Love the Tidal interface in the car - and it sounds pretty good to my ears.
BUT - getting the thread back on track... I've signed up to Tidal - there's a new offer for 3 months for £1 or £2, depending on what plan you go for. Love the Tidal interface in the car - and it sounds pretty good to my ears.
Dickie_L_J_O
Member
Has anyone worked out the search function - or a way to prioritise?
If I ask the car to 'Play X' - it will default to Spotify. I am aware that disabling this as a source will push it to Tidal, but this is a bit annoying as I have Podcasts on Spotify (Tune-In never picks up where I left off), so constantly toggling is far from ideal.
I also don't like, that with the Tidal voice search, the results are displayed, rather than auto-playing the artist as with Spotify. One must then perform some more clicks: Artist > Album > Play. Which is more eyes-off-the-road time.
Is there a setting for all of this I've missed?
If I ask the car to 'Play X' - it will default to Spotify. I am aware that disabling this as a source will push it to Tidal, but this is a bit annoying as I have Podcasts on Spotify (Tune-In never picks up where I left off), so constantly toggling is far from ideal.
I also don't like, that with the Tidal voice search, the results are displayed, rather than auto-playing the artist as with Spotify. One must then perform some more clicks: Artist > Album > Play. Which is more eyes-off-the-road time.
Is there a setting for all of this I've missed?
Dickie_L_J_O
Member
Yes - but it comes up with the search "X on Tidal". Which then gets you to a Tidal labelled album (if it exists) as Top Result, resulting in even more clicks to get the actual artist.
jimbo_hippo
Member
You had me at Rega Planar and Back in Black……….
Sunvalleylaw
Member
Nice sounding home system! Your speakers sound nice. I also love imaging. I am a Dahlquist guy myself and like balanced and tight bass, and often find cars with subs (including my Dodge Ram truck with an Alpine system and sub) to be a little woofy. I liked the system in the MYLR I test drove, but it was still a car system and not like at home. I used the controls to put the sound focus or whatever one calls that (I used to just call it balance and fade) back about on the front edge of the rear seat or so, maybe where the center floor hump would be if there was one, and that seemed pretty good. I agree with you that the tweeters are a little harsh as compared to my home stuff. (Also silk dome). But serviceable for a car, and I think I can dial it in to be enjoyable. My tastes are more alt/indie and mid-century jazz than your classic rock stuff, which I visit occasionally. But, I still like a similar classic stereo system sound. Kenwood KD-550 TT with a SME arm and Pickering XV-15 cart (thinking will go Hana or similar eventually), BlueSound Node 2i into a nice DAC for me. And even an old cassette deck for my old mixed tapes. Nerd, I am. But I try not to be too cork sniffy about it and just like what I like. Have a a few Nodes scattered about the house into old receivers pushing Dahlquist and other decent little speakers for through home listening in and out on the deck etc. And when not sitting down with a record or tape have enjoyed Tidal and Roon very much for that through house experience.
Which brings me back to why I like Tidal going into my car. I have stuff saved there I will enjoy when driving. And will enjoy the quite good, but still a car, SQ available there, staying realistic about expectations. While I wait for my car, I am enjoying seeing people explore this new feature and taking notes for later when I get my rig. Just having Tidal at all is a plus in my mind, if the sound is at least equivalent to Spotify Premium or CD/ALAC/FLAC.
Ha! Ha! Nice! I love it when audiophiles get going! Sorry, I just have to go round with a carrier bag picking up all the hi-fi names you've dropped all over the place. I'm still running my 80's vintage AIWA mini system.
I tried a couple of tracks that I had on FLAC vs Tidal. No detectable volume difference. But there was against DAB, quite significantly so, but this time DAB was louder - other way around yesterday.
Worked great today, although voice search found no match for the musician + track I was searching for - needs a bit of practice. Nice to pick up the same play list that I was listening to on the app yesterday, plus a new one that it had created for me. I had given up on my flac files on USB, but accessing Tidal tracks and playlists much nicer - I guess it is the same with Spotify, but I never bothered with that. I'll certainly be using the radio less.
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jimbo_hippo
Member
Having dabbled with Tidal in the Model S with premium audio today, including pre-downloading albums I’m super familiar with whilst on wi-fi, I came to the conclusion that if I had chosen Tidal as my primary source of music it was totally fine and easy to use but regarding quality, there just isn't enough in it, if anything at all to make me want to have it alongside Apple Music lossless and the Apple ecosystem, neither in the house or the basic Spotify with premium connectivity in the car. I tried it in the SR+ this evening and whilst I didn’t expect that system to be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat, it was so similar in sound it had me checking my sources as I couldn’t perceive the difference. Obviously this is arguably to be expected with hi-if being the best available setting it would give me but wouldn’t it have been great if I’d found a new great thing! Alas no.
in the house I tried it on the Sonos system up against Apple and likewise, there wasn’t enough to make me want to leave the Apple ecosystem. I have two Sonos systems and one is Sonos Arc with Sub (and play One surrounds but this is music). The Sonos isn’t great for music at all so maybe if I was runnning a true hi-if setup I’d reap the rewards but the gains were just not apparent. Sonos really isn’t a good reference but despite sitting and focussing like a nerd, I really couldn’t perceive anything that made it a ‘must have’. maybe if I was running expensive DACs and had a full trad setup I’d hear it but i think you have to have some serious top flight stuff to hear the gains over Apple lossless as it stands.
Only my connections with people who play music and the different artist renumeration package that Tidal operate made me want it to work to be fair.
in the house I tried it on the Sonos system up against Apple and likewise, there wasn’t enough to make me want to leave the Apple ecosystem. I have two Sonos systems and one is Sonos Arc with Sub (and play One surrounds but this is music). The Sonos isn’t great for music at all so maybe if I was runnning a true hi-if setup I’d reap the rewards but the gains were just not apparent. Sonos really isn’t a good reference but despite sitting and focussing like a nerd, I really couldn’t perceive anything that made it a ‘must have’. maybe if I was running expensive DACs and had a full trad setup I’d hear it but i think you have to have some serious top flight stuff to hear the gains over Apple lossless as it stands.
Only my connections with people who play music and the different artist renumeration package that Tidal operate made me want it to work to be fair.
Is that not to be expected?
Tidal as implemented on the car appears to only support HiFi quality at best, ie CD quality (44.1k/16). So comparing it against another lossless format, or a CD source should give parity. It sounds like that has what been achieved. Job done. It would have been a different story had you made the argument of Tidal Master quality (on equipment designed to play at a higher quality of what Master can offer vs Apple lossless, but even then, not all masters are better than 'CD' quality. What Tesla Master quality allows is higher than CD quality material to be streamed, but as it appears not to be supported in the car, then Tidal HiFi = CD = Apple Lossless (at source) = xxx CD Lossless, no better and should be no worse although no experience of how well Apple Lossless would transfer in car. Hence my earlier comment that Tidal HiFi is the tier that would suit most, unless playing at home or, adding this one in, wanting to contribute a bit more to the originators of the music.
Ironically, 'CD' quality has been available in car for decades, the step forward should not be commenting on quality (even if much of the industry did take a backward step on quality vs convenience), but on bringing CD quality and convenience and instant access to a huge library of material, rather than having a 6 CD changer or scrabbling on the floor to grab the next CD to play.
Now, whether high resolution (ie better than CD quality) would be discernible in the car environment is rather a moot subject, although in car FLACs at 96/24 (twice the resolution of CD) will play.
However, this all detracts from the true question of, does Tidal offer better quality than Spotify when played in the car? I don't know as I don't use Spotify, but all I know is that the in car Tidal offers a better interface than accessing my USB/FLAC media at same quality with a much larger library that is easy to access. Job done as far as I am concerned, but then I have been a Tidal subscriber for many years so I have no financial comparison to consider. But for those who already have committed to another service, or might want have start paying for material, or swap provider, then a different conclusion may be made.
For some, having access to high resolution material, ie better than CD quality, or in the case of Tidal Masters, at the quality of the original Master, Tidal offers that in a streaming format over the internet/WAN with modest bandwidth requirements. That level of quality is available in download/file/LAN often from material from unknown province (ie a lot of high resolution material is simply 'CD' quality that has been up sampled - nothing wrong with that if done properly, but up sampling can be performed very well by many pieces of kit so it is not necessary to sell it at premium as hi resolution) but what Tidal Masters does is bring parity at that level. And that allows access to a huge catalogue of material for those that want the best out of their equipment, but for those that don't, there are other solutions, but very few equals.
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