bo3bdar
Member
I have standard audio, but upgraded the speakers to some decent stuff. I've tried the 'premium' audio in S/Xs and to be honest they sound pretty poor to my ears, as essentially they are the same speakers as base but with more and added sub I really struggled to understand why people rated the Tesla system so highly? Adding loads of low quality speakers doesn't really improve sound quality in any setting, certainly not in any conventional HiFi setup. Most of us am sure rather listen to a decent stereo setup versus a 'home cinema' system at home.
These are the speakers in the car currently, I half thought of adding a sperate power amp+sub but decided it wasn't needed as I don't listen to that much stuff with base. I notice the latest KX3 version Focal has given into the marketing push for 'more is better' with an additional twetter
Kit audio automobile K2 Power EC 165 KX2 - Focal
The Focal kit ES165KX2 in K2 Power line is the result of extensive research in acoustics to push back the limits of performance, power and precision.www.focal.com
For me any ways streaming on Tidal is noticeably better than Spotify. When stationary any volume louder than 5 is bordering on anti-social, versus on Spotify where I would often have the volume turned up to 7 and still find it lacking.
I don't know about the S/X stereos because I have not heard or studied them. The only one I've heard in depth is the LR premium stereo, and also have looked for reviews from trusted listeners, and the consensus is that the LR stereo is the best you can get in an OEM stereo. So I'm only speaking about the LR stereo, and also my SR stereo which I've profiled and EQed.
The reason I press for information like which version of the stereo and which streaming service is because we do need to understand what the base is to be able to use anecdotal info in any form. If someone is streaming Slacker radio and says the stereo is crap, we know we can discount that. If they've done an upgrade of the speakers like you, and still find Spotify lacking, that carries more weight.
Uninformed stereo people will talk about how it's all personal preference, but that's not actually true. There are measureable differences between stereos, and a boombox is not a LR stereo. There can be personal preferences on top of a quality system that is putting out accurate sound, but you have to have a solid base to work with.
A good quality stereo is like a high quality visual image. You can see differences more obviously than hear them, but it's a similar idea. For a good quality image, you can't have a 72 dpi monitor with JPG compression at 50% and then say it's a better image, and that some people like it better. It's measurably worse in all aspects.
This is what I'm trying to get at with my current stereo project. I want to build a higher resolution stereo than what the car provides. And I think it will be higher resolution than even the LR stereo, but that remains to be seen and profiled. Something like Travis built for his stereo upgrade. I'm using a DSP as well, along with the NVX subwoofer.
When I say higher resolution- I'm specifically looking for a clearer sound stage, where you can echo locate individual performers and instruments. With a poorly EQed stereo like the SR was with earlier software, it smudges out the sound stage, just like you'd see a JPG get blur added. Sorry to be a bit off topic here, but it's related to Tidal in the sense that if you start with a crap signal (a blurry or overly processed image in my analogy) then you aren't getting to get good results.
