TL;DR: Sitting in the back sucks if you like listening to full-sounding music, sitting in the front is only slightly better. Service Center and Mobile Service won't/can't resolve it, seems to be a fundamental design/engineering area of opportunity.
Hi TMC,
I've been fighting this issue for as long as I've had the car and I'm at my wits' end. I'll preface by saying thank you for taking the time to read through my frustrations and I hope this visibility help bring a solution down the road.
Background
About a month ago, a few good friends of mine were excited to ride in my "new" (Sept. 2018) Tesla Model 3 Performance to dinner. The first passenger sat in the front and the second two climbed into the rear seats and we were off! Their reactions were cookie-cutter at this point: "wow the glass roof, omg this thing is fast," etc.
However, halfway through the ride a rear passenger complained that the bass, specifically the mid-bass (think bass guitar frequencies), was lacking in the rear. We played many songs and this was apparent in all of them.
My heart sank. How could such a futuristic, excellent road vehicle have such compromised audio in the rear? After a few Q&As, it seems that passengers back there can feel the seat vibrating from the trunk subwoofer, but can't audibly discern mid-low sounds in the music. Other people I've asked echo these sentiments when sitting there.
Issue
That evening, I spent a whole hour in my garaged car sitting in the rear and listening to many different songs and genres. Even with playing with the EQ, I was only able to finally hear mid-bass after 8.0'ing the two leftmost sliders, which doesn't sound good when you sit in the front.
Having someone else drive while I sat in the rear was a completely different story. Due to poor road/wind noise isolation, the mid-low frequencies generated from two woofers in the front doors are severely drowned out, further compounding the issue. Especially when at speed, audio sounds tinny and empty to all passengers, more so for those seated in the rear.
As a result, I'm cranking the audio to 60%+ every time I hop on the highway and this results in listening fatigue on longer trips. I think I now have a mild case of tinnitus because of it.
Troubleshooting
Scope
September 2018 Tesla Model 3 Performance w/o Performance Upgrades Package
iPhone XS Max
Steps
None of this worked too well.
The only permutation that seemed to help was to:
Attempted Resolutions
Probable Root Cause
It seems that the Tesla's omission of woofers in the rear doors severely compromise the sound back there. The subwoofer doesn't serve midbass frequencies, so all of the sweet midbass sounds that the front door woofers generate have to serve the entire cabin.
Even then, the front door woofers don't serve much mid/mid-bass frequencies either, they're like tiny subwoofers. So, we're looking at an issue with the crossover levels between the sub and door woofers.
"Take it into service."
I've had this issue looked at by both the SoDo-Seattle and Bellevue SCs multiple times, who state that there is no issue with the sound. Yikes. Okay then, how about Mobile Service? They came out and added a bit of sound deadening to the front door cards in the front to help reduce resonant frequencies that may interfere with the audio when at speed, but it didn't help this issue all that much (although it did make the door shut sound a bit beefier).
Research & Findings
The Mobile tech did notably mention that newer Model 3's were shipping with a composite board covering the rear trunk shelf port, whereas my Model 3 looks like this. Interestingly, the showroom and inventory vehicles I've seen at SoDo, Bellevue-20th, and Bellevue Square all have this new composite board there. Maybe someone with a newer build can post a picture of it here so all of us can see it.
What this does to the car or its audio, I'm unsure. Both the Mobile Tech and Parts Department at both SC's say they can't seem to order that part. The online Tesla parts catalog for the Model 3 doesn't list that as a part either (likely hasn't been updated).
All in all, six total service center visits with loaners and those Model S's all have had great, full sounding audio, though it did have less clarity than my Model 3. My 2015 Mazda3 seemed to have more full sound (though, again, with much less clarity than Tesla) since it has woofers in all four doors, despite that car being an entire class smaller in size and much louder on the highway.
So, what else? I took to the internet. From reading this forum, Tesla forums, Model 3 Owner's Club, and Reddit, it seems:
I've already sent direct feedback to Tesla about this and have been updating my car at every opportunity to no avail, so here I am today with many questions without answers. I love my car, and I love it so much that I want this aspect of my experience to be as top-notch as the rest. Thanks for reading.
Hi TMC,
I've been fighting this issue for as long as I've had the car and I'm at my wits' end. I'll preface by saying thank you for taking the time to read through my frustrations and I hope this visibility help bring a solution down the road.
Background
About a month ago, a few good friends of mine were excited to ride in my "new" (Sept. 2018) Tesla Model 3 Performance to dinner. The first passenger sat in the front and the second two climbed into the rear seats and we were off! Their reactions were cookie-cutter at this point: "wow the glass roof, omg this thing is fast," etc.
However, halfway through the ride a rear passenger complained that the bass, specifically the mid-bass (think bass guitar frequencies), was lacking in the rear. We played many songs and this was apparent in all of them.
My heart sank. How could such a futuristic, excellent road vehicle have such compromised audio in the rear? After a few Q&As, it seems that passengers back there can feel the seat vibrating from the trunk subwoofer, but can't audibly discern mid-low sounds in the music. Other people I've asked echo these sentiments when sitting there.
Issue
That evening, I spent a whole hour in my garaged car sitting in the rear and listening to many different songs and genres. Even with playing with the EQ, I was only able to finally hear mid-bass after 8.0'ing the two leftmost sliders, which doesn't sound good when you sit in the front.
Having someone else drive while I sat in the rear was a completely different story. Due to poor road/wind noise isolation, the mid-low frequencies generated from two woofers in the front doors are severely drowned out, further compounding the issue. Especially when at speed, audio sounds tinny and empty to all passengers, more so for those seated in the rear.
As a result, I'm cranking the audio to 60%+ every time I hop on the highway and this results in listening fatigue on longer trips. I think I now have a mild case of tinnitus because of it.
Troubleshooting
Scope
September 2018 Tesla Model 3 Performance w/o Performance Upgrades Package
iPhone XS Max
Steps
- Pairing and unpairing phone
- Two-button MCU reset
- Two-button and brake pedal MCU reset
- Vehicle Factory Reset
- Added RPMTesla glass roof wind noise kit, seemed to help wind noise a bit
- Installed weather seals per this TMC thread, seemed to help wind noise again
- Bought and installed Tesla sun shade for front and rear roofs, no discernible difference
- Various EQ levels
- Immersive Sound on all three settings
- Played with Fader/Balance
- Listened to FLAC lossless content from USB as well as Apple Music in High Quality mode over BT
None of this worked too well.
The only permutation that seemed to help was to:
- Immersive Sound Off or Standard,
- EQ to 6.0, 8.0, -3.0, -3.0, -3.0,
- fader slightly rearward (1/2 diameter of dot), and
- volume to >60%.
Attempted Resolutions
Probable Root Cause
It seems that the Tesla's omission of woofers in the rear doors severely compromise the sound back there. The subwoofer doesn't serve midbass frequencies, so all of the sweet midbass sounds that the front door woofers generate have to serve the entire cabin.
Even then, the front door woofers don't serve much mid/mid-bass frequencies either, they're like tiny subwoofers. So, we're looking at an issue with the crossover levels between the sub and door woofers.
"Take it into service."
I've had this issue looked at by both the SoDo-Seattle and Bellevue SCs multiple times, who state that there is no issue with the sound. Yikes. Okay then, how about Mobile Service? They came out and added a bit of sound deadening to the front door cards in the front to help reduce resonant frequencies that may interfere with the audio when at speed, but it didn't help this issue all that much (although it did make the door shut sound a bit beefier).
Research & Findings
The Mobile tech did notably mention that newer Model 3's were shipping with a composite board covering the rear trunk shelf port, whereas my Model 3 looks like this. Interestingly, the showroom and inventory vehicles I've seen at SoDo, Bellevue-20th, and Bellevue Square all have this new composite board there. Maybe someone with a newer build can post a picture of it here so all of us can see it.
What this does to the car or its audio, I'm unsure. Both the Mobile Tech and Parts Department at both SC's say they can't seem to order that part. The online Tesla parts catalog for the Model 3 doesn't list that as a part either (likely hasn't been updated).
All in all, six total service center visits with loaners and those Model S's all have had great, full sounding audio, though it did have less clarity than my Model 3. My 2015 Mazda3 seemed to have more full sound (though, again, with much less clarity than Tesla) since it has woofers in all four doors, despite that car being an entire class smaller in size and much louder on the highway.
So, what else? I took to the internet. From reading this forum, Tesla forums, Model 3 Owner's Club, and Reddit, it seems:
- road/wind noise is, in fact, excessive on all but the best road surfaces, though loosely comparable to other cars in the class,
- changing the EQ affects the audio signal to all speakers, not just the speakers/woofers responsible for generating those frequencies,
- a non-trivial amount of people are replacing/adding speakers/subs on their Model 3,
- many others are adding Dynamat/sound deadening material, going so far as to remove the frunk to get to the strut towers, and
- the amplifier employs a low-pass filter to protect the woofers/sub.
I've already sent direct feedback to Tesla about this and have been updating my car at every opportunity to no avail, so here I am today with many questions without answers. I love my car, and I love it so much that I want this aspect of my experience to be as top-notch as the rest. Thanks for reading.
