Dump of background information now follows. If you aren't interested in the nitty-gritty of Bluetooth used for streaming audio playback from your phone, you're about to be bored so just skip to the TL;DR.
First, we all know that Tesla cars do not have 3.5" Aux In jacks, which look exactly like the infamous headphone jack that Apple hates except used for receiving audio instead of transmitting it. Most if not all cars have Aux In jacks because it's the simplest way of delivering audio from your phone to your car, and it's also the highest quality method for doing this even today since phones don't generally have HDMI outputs and cars don't have HDMI inputs.
Bluetooth sound quality for streaming to headphones and speakers used to suck. It used to be more awful than listening to a really weak AM radio signal. This is because the base Bluetooth audio compression algorithm for streaming audio was SBC (Low Complexity Subband Coding), which more or less actually stood for Shitty Bad Compression. If you've heard Bluetooth audio using SBC you know what I'm talking about.
The early days of Bluetooth corresponded with the early days of the smartphone era, and so eventually after years of suck smartphone manufacturers worked to improve Bluetooth audio quality. Apple implemented a method of streaming higher quality audio over Bluetooth from iPhones. This was of course AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), the same format used by the iTunes Music Store. Android was a bit more complicated but ultimately the higher quality format that the industry settled on was AptX, a different format currently owned by Qualcomm.
Today, Bluetooth headphones and speakers support the horrible SBC as mandatory baseline so any Bluetooth device will work. However they also typically support AAC and AptX for modern devices which support it to improve sound quality. AAC is required for the iPhones, AptX for the Androids. You will find it difficult to find a decent quality Bluetooth headphone or speaker today which doesn't support AAC and AptX.
This brings us to Tesla. Until 2015, Tesla's Bluetooth only supported SBC for streaming audio from your phone to the car's sound system. Even if you paid the $2500 for Ultra High Fidelity Sound (now Premium Sound), it was still going to sound like *sugar* unless you copied all your music to a USB stick and forced yourself to use the car's built-in media player, which by the way in 2017 doesn't support Random playback.
Sometime in 2015, AAC support was implemented and iPhones can now enjoy higher quality audio over Bluetooth from their phones to their cars. However, as of this moment in 2017, AptX support is not implemented. So if you own an iPhone, you can get good quality audio from your car streaming directly from your phone. If you own an Android, let's just be charitable and say you're kinda ****ed.
Why in 2017 there is no support for AptX on Tesla's Bluetooth is a mystery which cannot be solved. Remember, without an Aux In jack you can't just plug your phone into your car. You need to use Bluetooth, unless you want to copy your entire music collection to a USB stick and enjoy no Random playback. Tesla really, really needs to implement AptX so Androids can also get good quality playback of audio to Tesla's cars. Especially the ones which have the $2500 upgrade to Ultra High Fidelity Sound (now Premium Sound).
I don't really know if anyone from Tesla is reading this but this is really kind of important to the music listening experience of 50% of Tesla owners in the US and 80% of Tesla owners worldwide. This is the market share of Android devices. I realize that Elon owns an iPhone and probably isn't even aware this problem exists but someone should tell him. Not supporting AptX over Bluetooth in 2017 is a pretty glaring oversight. Everyone else supports it. Literally. You will not find a car Bluetooth system in 2017 which omits AptX and only support AAC, because cars are sold worldwide and Android enjoys a large install base worldwide. (You also won't find a car without an Aux In jack but that's beyond the point. Tesla has never had a jack and never will.)
TL;DR: Dear Tesla, please support AptX over Bluetooth so Android device owners can enjoy better music quality in their cars!
First, we all know that Tesla cars do not have 3.5" Aux In jacks, which look exactly like the infamous headphone jack that Apple hates except used for receiving audio instead of transmitting it. Most if not all cars have Aux In jacks because it's the simplest way of delivering audio from your phone to your car, and it's also the highest quality method for doing this even today since phones don't generally have HDMI outputs and cars don't have HDMI inputs.
Bluetooth sound quality for streaming to headphones and speakers used to suck. It used to be more awful than listening to a really weak AM radio signal. This is because the base Bluetooth audio compression algorithm for streaming audio was SBC (Low Complexity Subband Coding), which more or less actually stood for Shitty Bad Compression. If you've heard Bluetooth audio using SBC you know what I'm talking about.
The early days of Bluetooth corresponded with the early days of the smartphone era, and so eventually after years of suck smartphone manufacturers worked to improve Bluetooth audio quality. Apple implemented a method of streaming higher quality audio over Bluetooth from iPhones. This was of course AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), the same format used by the iTunes Music Store. Android was a bit more complicated but ultimately the higher quality format that the industry settled on was AptX, a different format currently owned by Qualcomm.
Today, Bluetooth headphones and speakers support the horrible SBC as mandatory baseline so any Bluetooth device will work. However they also typically support AAC and AptX for modern devices which support it to improve sound quality. AAC is required for the iPhones, AptX for the Androids. You will find it difficult to find a decent quality Bluetooth headphone or speaker today which doesn't support AAC and AptX.
This brings us to Tesla. Until 2015, Tesla's Bluetooth only supported SBC for streaming audio from your phone to the car's sound system. Even if you paid the $2500 for Ultra High Fidelity Sound (now Premium Sound), it was still going to sound like *sugar* unless you copied all your music to a USB stick and forced yourself to use the car's built-in media player, which by the way in 2017 doesn't support Random playback.
Sometime in 2015, AAC support was implemented and iPhones can now enjoy higher quality audio over Bluetooth from their phones to their cars. However, as of this moment in 2017, AptX support is not implemented. So if you own an iPhone, you can get good quality audio from your car streaming directly from your phone. If you own an Android, let's just be charitable and say you're kinda ****ed.
Why in 2017 there is no support for AptX on Tesla's Bluetooth is a mystery which cannot be solved. Remember, without an Aux In jack you can't just plug your phone into your car. You need to use Bluetooth, unless you want to copy your entire music collection to a USB stick and enjoy no Random playback. Tesla really, really needs to implement AptX so Androids can also get good quality playback of audio to Tesla's cars. Especially the ones which have the $2500 upgrade to Ultra High Fidelity Sound (now Premium Sound).
I don't really know if anyone from Tesla is reading this but this is really kind of important to the music listening experience of 50% of Tesla owners in the US and 80% of Tesla owners worldwide. This is the market share of Android devices. I realize that Elon owns an iPhone and probably isn't even aware this problem exists but someone should tell him. Not supporting AptX over Bluetooth in 2017 is a pretty glaring oversight. Everyone else supports it. Literally. You will not find a car Bluetooth system in 2017 which omits AptX and only support AAC, because cars are sold worldwide and Android enjoys a large install base worldwide. (You also won't find a car without an Aux In jack but that's beyond the point. Tesla has never had a jack and never will.)
TL;DR: Dear Tesla, please support AptX over Bluetooth so Android device owners can enjoy better music quality in their cars!
