Sound System Comparison: 200W vs 580W

Todd Burch said:

For those of you who have had nice sound systems in your cars in the past (I have *not*), can you let me know what you think of the difference between the 200W (lower-tier) and 580W (upper-tier) sound system offerings?

For someone who's trying to minimize cost, and is looking for good sound without going deaf, is the $950 upgrade really worth it?

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Besides the higher wattage, the upper-tier system has a dedicated sub-woofer (the .1 in the specs). It takes lots of watts to make good, tight sounding bass (in a small enclosure), so my guess is most of the additional watts are being used to power the sub. Also the speakers are probably of higher quality and have more headroom to play without strain. One thing I would be concerned about is if the head unit can only play mp3 quality files. To much information is lost, the system should be capable of at least CD quality 44khz/16 or better still 96khz/24 or higher capability.

I plan on listening first, then deciding.

To answer your question, if Tesla has done the sound system properly, you will notice the improvement and $950 is not unreasonable. It's not about just playing louder, but playing more faithfully i.e. fidelity. I have a high end home system and the same principles apply to car systems.

Tommy said:

the system should be capable of at least CD quality 44khz/16 or better still 96khz/24 or higher capability.

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On that note...

"200 watt ... includes AM/FM/HD Radio ... storage for up to 500 songs"
"580 watt ... over 3,000 songs"

No mention of CD.

brianman said:

On that note...

"200 watt ... includes AM/FM/HD Radio ... storage for up to 500 songs"
"580 watt ... over 3,000 songs"

No mention of CD.

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It's that over 3,000 songs that has me worried; I hope I can choose the file format quality (44khz/16 to 192khz/24) and not be stuck with just MP3 quality files. From other postings, my understanding is no physical CD slot; music will need to be downloaded into the Head unit.

Tommy said:

I have a high end home system and the same principles apply to car systems.

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I've to note, though, that the best systems I've listened to have had very low power ;-)

Hi,

I can't answer Todd's question whether the upgraded sound system is worth $950, but it should be noted that they are upgrading from two-channel stereo over 7 speakers to multi-channel 7.1 over 12 speakers. The upgraded system also has provisions for satellite radio if you go for the panoramic roof.

Larr

Why does the getting satellite radio require the panoramic roof?

dsm363 said:

Why does the getting satellite radio require the panoramic roof?

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Yeah, I spotted that too. Does the pano roof act as an antenna for sat radio or something (tongue firmly in cheek)?!! :smile:

dsm363 said:

Why does the getting satellite radio require the panoramic roof?

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they are installing the receiver in your skull and it requires line of sight to the satellites to function properly ... ;~)

clea said:

they are installing the receiver in your skull and it requires line of sight to the satellites to function properly ... ;~)

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That's the best explanation I've seen so far:smile: It's probably the typical throw in a feature people want with the 'sunroof' bit that most car companies do. I certainly hope it's a technical reason.

My guess is that the antenna is in the car and gets blocked by the steel roof.

Andrew Wolfe said:

My guess is that the antenna is in the car and gets blocked by the steel roof.

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Thanks. All is right with the world now:smile:
I'm glad it's probably some technical reason. I wasn't planning on getting the panoramic roof since I'm in Texas but guess I'll need to see how much I want satellite radio I guess. With pandora and the iPod, there's less of a need for it in my case.

dsm363 said:

Thanks. All is right with the world now:smile:
I'm glad it's probably some technical reason. I wasn't planning on getting the panoramic roof since I'm in Texas but guess I'll need to see how much I want satellite radio I guess. With pandora and the iPod, there's less of a need for it in my case.

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I'm in the same boat. I like having Sat. radio - but prefer the look of the solid-roof car. Hard choice.

Todd - One thing to also check is the robustness of the amplifier. A sign of a very good amp is its ability to double the the wattage when the resistance is halved. Now it's debatable if a bullet-proof amp sounds better and a weaker amp, but most people usually associate a well built amp to quality hi-end sound.

Todd Burch said:

I for one am glad there's no CD slot. That's so 90s .

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Agree. Our Leaf has a CD slot, it has never been used. I always play music from my iPhone over bluetooth. I assume the Model S will have the same bluetooth capability.