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Upgraded SR Partial Audio to Full Premium
- Thread starter Wampa
- Start date
Yes but the wiring harness is completely different and they wouldn't work. In theory someone could figure out the wiring and use a stock amp, but it would still require just as much work, if not more
Kiwiadventure
Member
ElectricEel
Member
Great thread! Thanks.
Having just lost out on a LR RWD that met my criteria (incl. price), I'm in the process of figuring out whether to go with a SR+. The audio system and range have been two primary concerns. For those on the thread that have performed the upgrade, how close do you think the two options (either rear deck alone or rear deck + sub) get you to the full premium system? I realize what speakers it adds, but I'm curious if anyone has a subjective comparison to offer.
Also, has anyone confirmed that the recent changes to the SR+ (including fog light omission...I thought they were actually gone, not just deactivated) included actual elimination of the unused speakers (vs just not running wiring)?
Again, nice work and thanks for documenting the project! Now all that's needed is a DIY range upgrade and fog light activation/addition!
Having just lost out on a LR RWD that met my criteria (incl. price), I'm in the process of figuring out whether to go with a SR+. The audio system and range have been two primary concerns. For those on the thread that have performed the upgrade, how close do you think the two options (either rear deck alone or rear deck + sub) get you to the full premium system? I realize what speakers it adds, but I'm curious if anyone has a subjective comparison to offer.
Also, has anyone confirmed that the recent changes to the SR+ (including fog light omission...I thought they were actually gone, not just deactivated) included actual elimination of the unused speakers (vs just not running wiring)?
Again, nice work and thanks for documenting the project! Now all that's needed is a DIY range upgrade and fog light activation/addition!
ElectricEel
Member
Great thread! Thanks.
Having just lost out on a LR RWD that met my criteria (incl. price), I'm in the process of figuring out whether to go with a SR+. The audio system and range have been two primary concerns. For those on the thread that have performed the upgrade, how close do you think the two options (either rear deck alone or rear deck + sub) get you to the full premium system? I realize what speakers it adds, but I'm curious if anyone has a subjective comparison to offer.
Also, has anyone confirmed that the recent changes to the SR+ (including fog light omission...I thought they were actually gone, not just deactivated) included actual elimination of the unused speakers (vs just not running wiring)?
Again, nice work and thanks for documenting the project! Now all that's needed is a DIY range upgrade and fog light activation/addition!
If your concerned about range be patient and get the LR, I have an SR and I only get a real world 170 on a GOOD day. If I drive like a grandma with no AC I'll get 210. Get the LR on a good day you'll still get ~280
Just to be clear, that's a SR and not a SR+, right? I'm assuming it's not a plus.
Yeah, I think in general I could probably get by most of the time just fine with the range of a SR+. Would I prefer a LR for various reasons? Yes, however, I know the SR+ and SR are great as well (and can be significantly improved with threads like this).
ElectricEel
Member
Yes SR but my full charge is 90% of the SR+, Tesla doesn't recommend charging to 100% unless for s road trip, and even then you are only gaining 20 extra miles.
I haven't experienced a full-premium interior, so I can't speak with any certainty. I can say, however, that just doing the rear deck speakers made a huge improvement in sound quality. The rear sub makes a good bit of difference, too, but not as noticeable of a change.
Also my car was one of the first production SR+'s, new models may be missing these speakers.
Brendwal
Member
So you're saying the best bang for the buck on upgrading the SR+ sound system is to add the rear deck speakers (if they are actually there or not in the 2020) instead of some sort of aftermarket sub?
You didn't ask me, but I will respond
It is a matter of opinion and what you are looking for. For some, the sub-woofer was not as significant as the rear deck but for others, the A-pillars and a sub are more important. And adding a sub-woofer is not a matter of whether you want a loud thump for your hip hop: ALL music is better from a system that can accurately produce the full range of sound. Sound is VERY subjective and discussing it without hearing the differences is woefully inadequate.
The Semi-Premium sound system (what is found in the current SR and SR+) can sound okay. Until you hear the full Premium system and then that is amazing (and the other lacking). For me, when I heard what the Reus system could do, I found the Premium system to be lacking in many areas (not proselytizing for Reus, just using as an example).
There is no magic decision to be made. Even the concept of adding rear deck vs adding a sub is completely subjective to components, installation, and tuning. One could install the "best" sub-woofer, but if not installed and tuned correctly, it is a poor addition with little "improvement."
Brendwal
Member
Fantastic comments. I am picking up my new SR+ this weekend and my biggest struggle was the sound system compared to the LR. I'm an audiofile and love my deep bass (yes typically hip hop!) that I find lacks in typical stock non-premium systems because they lack the sub. I spent $1500 upgrading my pathetic stock Nissan LEAF system with a powered 8" sub (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/alpine-8-powered-subwoofer-system-black/9597106.p?skuId=9597106) and the difference really wasn't that impressive. So now moving to the SR+ system I'm most likely going to be looking for that 'thud' I am missing.
youngmcdonald
Member
AdamMacDon
Member
I'm gonna probably wire these speakers in parallel when I get around to doing the upgrade. I feel like that is the best way to do it, but maybe an audio expert here can correct me.
You need a lot more information to make an accurate determination. Mainly you need to know what the impedance load you are putting on your amp and what the amp can handle. and you need to make sure there are no other drivers already on that channel (if you don't know what else is wired in).
When you run in series, you can simply add up the impedance of all the drivers: two 4 ohm drivers in series puts an 8 ohm load on the amp - generally not a problem. But you don't get as much output.
In parallel, those same two 4 ohm speakers now put a 2 ohm load on the amp. On most amps, you are getting into a danger zone, especially if you drive the system hard. Calculating the resistance in parallel is a little trickier: it is the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals. For example, two four ohm drivers calculation would be
- Reciprocal of 4 is 1/4. 1/4 + 1/4 = 2/4, reduce to 1/2, then take the reciprocal, which is 2 (ohms)
- When they are the same and it is just two, it is easy enough just to halve the impedance of each (4 / 2 = 2)
- It gets trickier when more than 2: three 8 ohm drivers in parallel would be about a 2.67 ohm load: 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 = 3/8, reciprocal is 8/3, which converts to 2.6666.... (also trickier when it is two speakers with different resistance)
- Once as an experiment, we took four drivers, created two series paths with each pair, then ran those series routed pairs in parallel. The net load was equal to the load of an individual speaker. Kind of a silly approach, but was fun to do as a teenager (and completely irrelevant to you right now - sorry I digressed)
I hadn't caught this before, but you may run into issues running one type of driver (in this case, a tweeter) from an output designed for another one (mid-range). Depending on where the crossover is, you could be attempting to feed a mid-range signal into a driver designed for a different frequency range. Sure, you will get sound out of it, but it will sound terrible.
I haven't looked into how Tesla sets things up, but I would venture to guess that they are running active crossovers (before the amplifiers) as that is the more energy efficient way to handle. If that is the case, I would say that unless you wire drivers to matching drivers (mid-range with mid-range, tweeter with tweeter), you would probably be better off not doing anything.
Just my $0.02
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ETA: You probably know this, but make sure you are phase correct when wiring up multiple speakers:
- Parallel: negatives together and positives together
- Series: negative from speaker 1 to positive to the next one in line.
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