Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Which after market audio?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.

WannabeOwner

Well-Known Member
Nov 2, 2015
9,140
5,312
Suffolk, UK
I bought the standard audio because threads I read suggested that: Standard was "poor", Premium "expensive" and maybe not superb, and as a company car there are benefits to keeping the purchase price down and "upgrading" later. I thought the standard audio might be OK, but sadly it isn't.

We aren't audiophiles who can tell the difference between this fatter-speaker-wire and that gold-connector :cool: but Wifee and I are disappointed with the audio quality of the Standard package. We have below-expectation radio reception (crackle on FM which we haven't had a problem with in previous cars, although in fairness we have had Bose audio (option I presume) fitted to the last few iterations of Golf and Audi before that) and a lack of "depth" of the sound.

I would appreciate any suggestions please - not sure if this has any specific UK twist, but thought I'd start in the UK forum first.
 
I will be interested to see what is added to this thread. You might have to post into the USA/world forum.

My bugbear is not so much the sound, but the lack of iPod connectivity, with controls from the screen, as I have had on previous cars. I can get similar control of playlists and ordering using Spotify, but it feels a shame to leave behind my old playlists, my Ipod in the car, and to pay £10 a month!

I feel the idea you have will not integrate with the car's touchscreen, so the iPod connection will interest me less, I still hope that v8 will address the Apple/iPod issue.

Tony
 
1200 bucks (no premium audio pre-installed in my car) doesn't sounds at all bad ...

... still got the poor radio reception to consider. Arrived somewhere yesterday, perfect reception (FM radio - maybe it re-tuned en-route). Stopped for 5 minutes, got back in the car to pure static, and at a relative high volume.
 
I don't think the radio has RDS so the radio will stay on the same frequency and not jump to a better frequency when a stronger signal is available.

Thanks. I know enough understand your explanation, but I don't know enough to diagnose the problem ...

I come home on, say, Radio 4 and as I park up the reception is crystal clear.

Following morning I open the car and all I get is a whole load of relatively loud static ...

I had kinda thought that RDS (or somesuch) was active on the way home, but the following morning whatever variation-channel had been adopted [when I had been coming home] was forgotten / discarded, and the radio had gone back to the "Favourite" as stored for Radio 4 ... although ... almost certainly I set the favourite for Radio 4 (and the others I wanted set up On Day One) when I was sat on my drive. But I could deliberately delete all the favourites, and recreate them, whilst sat on my drive, to try to prove/dis-prove that.

I'm open to ideas :)

I contacted LightHarmonic.com asking when their kit would be available (given that the website is asking for deposits for a future-product), and how difficult it would be to export to UK, and they said "Send us your details and we'll send you an invoice". Seemed to be the answer to a different question! so I haven't done that yet (or had time to figure out a car entertainment outfit nearby who come recommended enough that I might ask them to give me a proposal).
 
P.S.

Tangential thoughts:

Seem to remember some comments in the last week, or two, that audio had improved somewhat - assumption being that there was a change in an OTA update. I haven't had-a-listen carefully to see if I can spot anything that is improved.

Being a lazy person! I am inclined to wait for 8.0 before doing anything, in case that improves things, or changes my options.
 
I don't have a Tesla yet but if you have DAB you could try that or listen to Radio 4 on the iplayer,
BBC - Radio 4 PM - 18/08/2016


Thanks. I know enough understand your explanation, but I don't know enough to diagnose the problem ...

I come home on, say, Radio 4 and as I park up the reception is crystal clear.

Following morning I open the car and all I get is a whole load of relatively loud static ...

I had kinda thought that RDS (or somesuch) was active on the way home, but the following morning whatever variation-channel had been adopted [when I had been coming home] was forgotten / discarded, and the radio had gone back to the "Favourite" as stored for Radio 4 ... although ... almost certainly I set the favourite for Radio 4 (and the others I wanted set up On Day One) when I was sat on my drive. But I could deliberately delete all the favourites, and recreate them, whilst sat on my drive, to try to prove/dis-prove that.

I'm open to ideas :)

I contacted LightHarmonic.com asking when their kit would be available (given that the website is asking for deposits for a future-product), and how difficult it would be to export to UK, and they said "Send us your details and we'll send you an invoice". Seemed to be the answer to a different question! so I haven't done that yet (or had time to figure out a car entertainment outfit nearby who come recommended enough that I might ask them to give me a proposal).
 
I did use DAB for Radio-5-Sports-Thingie to catch some Olympics - I was expecting it to break up in some areas, but come-to-think of it I don't remember that happening. On the two previous cars we have had DAB was unusable as it cut out more often than it transmitted.

I'll give it a go and see how I get on. I (or more correctly "Wifee" :) ) has raised with Tesla Support the fact that Radio blasts out loud-static when we get back into the car. If we get some traction on fixing / working around that I'll report back.
 
Some have suggested ditching DAB (Dead And Buried) and go internet/3G/LTE radio for all stations, which may have been mentioned already?

Light Harmonic have a new EU install operation going and a new cheaper option for their upgrades.

While you drive the world’s best electric vehicle, you should be listening to the world’s best stereo.

Rainbow Road Distribution - Light Harmonic Audio for Tesla distributor  -  rainbowroad based in Netherlands

Found this on Teslapedia for UK HiFi install

http://teslapedia.org/model-s/tesla...aftermarket-audio-option-uk-specific-article/
 
Listening to a specific radio channel over TunedIn (or anything on Spotify, for example) is definitely much clearly and without the static I get on FM. My issue may be unique to my car / aerial connection or somesuch (not had time to take car to service centre as yet).

Given that Internet music clarity is very good if I can fix the issues with FM I may not need any upgrade (and the upgrade presumably won't help FM radio quality anyway ...) [I'm out int he sticks, so internet is non-existent to patchy for the first part of any journey I make]