06/06/2026
Ever since they arrived on the scene, Teslas (sans the original roadster) have always been among the most complex, time consuming and risk prone cars to work on for car audio professionals. The unique way this company goes about doing things, coupled with iffy interior build quality, not to mention the over abundance of electronic monitoring that can result in a “bricked” car if not careful, makes them cars to avoid for many shops.
For us though, as we are located in the heartland of Tesla country, 10 mins from the original plant, Teslas have become a way of life. Over the years, we have worked dozens of them in all shapes, sizes and configurations, but one specific model we have not done yet, is a Plaid.
Realistically speaking, working on a Model S plaid, such as this brand new 2026 model, is identical to working on any current gen S, but still, it is kind of cool for me personally to notch this on my belt.
The goals for this project is to achieve a nice level of sound quality on a somewhat modest budget (as far as Teslas and our shop is concerned), Also, to integrate an Es**rt 360 built in radar/laser system that the client is used to in his other cars. The radar install is relatively straightforward, but there were specific requirements on where the display and the controller should be mounted, which required some delicate custom work and quite a lot of disassembly. As is the goal with a vast majority of our tesla builds, we wanted to keep the cargo area completely stealthy and stock looking, using only the storage well under the floor to house the products.
I performed all the audio related work on this project, while Jesse tackled the radar system.
First a quick word on the aforementioned radar display and controller. I could not have done this so efficiently without help from my good friend Erick Markland, of Markland Designs of Atlanta, He is a wiz with 3D printing and helped me design and adapt his existing models to fit my needs. If any of y’all is in that area of the country, I cannot recommend him more as both a car audio professional, and a human being 😊
After the 3D mounts came out of the printer, I sanded, primed and painted them and installed the controller and display to them, these were then secured to the car’s panels using machines screws and tapped holes on the mount themselves. The display went in front of the steering wheel behind the instrument cluster where the customer specified, while the controller and the LC1 bass k**b, I installed into the removable panel below the screen, putting both at easy reach from the driver seat.
For audio, as is the case with every single one of our tesla projects, starts off with a dual signal source. The stock multi-channel signal was taken and run back to a Mosconi Aero 812 DSP, which sums and processes the stock signal, while a plug in MOS-BTS LD4C high quality BT streaming dongle is also used as a pure secondary signal source directly inputting into the processor.
For front stage, we went with a set of Morel Elate Carbon 63A 3 way component set. With the newer Model S and X cars, taking off the dash to access the dash mounted speakers has become not practical due to the sheet number of things that are actually bolted to the dash pad itself. Hence, all of these models will utilize pillar pods.
For this car, the oem pillars were removed, the stock Alcantara ground off, and mounting rings for the Morel MM3 and MT450 were installed, the entire structure was wrapped in real black Alcantara when done. It is a shade darker than the tesla proprietary color of Alcantara but it is by far the closest we have found out there.
The MW6 elate midbass went into the stock lower door location with full 3 layer sound proofing of the doors. The oem rear door speakers were retained, acting as rear fill.
All other speakers in the stock system were disconnected at the amp or removed.
For sub duties, with the very limited amount space in the well and a lot of gear, the Wavtech Thinpro 10s, with their tiny 0.3 cubic foot sealed enclosure requirement, is a godsend. Two of them are used to provide ample bass output in a 0.7 cubic ft sealed enclosure.
For amplification, two Arc Audio X2 1100.5 amps are used, powering the interior speakers with 8x150 watts RMS, while each Thinpro 10 gets 500 watts RMS, slightly underpowered, but suits well with this customer’s listening tastes, which doesn’t involve huge bassy music at all.
The standard operating procedure on all new 16V Teslas, for us at least, is by tapping into the front jumping post under hood, then running a cable, double protected by dual 50amp circuit breakers, and feeding a XS Power RSV-S6 lithium battery designed to run in the mid 15V range. The system is then powered off this battery, while the car is constantly supplying a 40 to 50amp charge it. We have found that for systems of this power consumption level, a single S6 is sufficient, while bigger systems will require two of these powerhouses.
Our design for the storage well in Model Ss have been relatively similar for the past decade. This almost always involves stacking the amps above the subs for space purposes. What is interesting is that on a few installs where the amps are NOT over the sub(s), which IMO act as a partial loading baffle, the bass actually isn’t any better.
Once again, I had to use every ounce of my brain power to squeeze two amps, dsp, battery and two subs, along with all the wiring, distribution and protection, into the confines of the stock well. It is both stressful and rewarding at the same time. The basic structure itself contains the subbox and the battery and dsp, while additional supports for the amps and a magnetic trim panel goes on after.
A simple magnetic cosmetic top panel covers and protects everything and features a raised tesla logo for a little added visual appeal. The truth is, all the structure under this panel could have been left in bare wood vs painted and vinyled, but I did not know if I was going to do see through grille or carpeted grille until the last day of fabrication. So I wanted to cover both basis. After looking at the color combination of the trunk, I felt that the silver top plate of the amps didn’t contrast well with the black and graphite of everything, so I decided to maintain a consistent top panel look by carpeting the grilles with breathable trunkliner.
From the very first power up, I could already tell, this car was going to sound really really good. As there was no crazy problematic areas that needed to be sorted once gain, crossover and time delay was set.
What also surprised me was how good I was able to get the stock MCU source to sound. Perhaps one of the latest updates on the stock premium system have made it this way, but the only major deficiency I found with the stock source is in the subbass, where there is an overabundance of 60 to 100hz that can only be tamed to a certain extent without it sounding weak at lower volumes. All other differences between the two sources are more subtle and nuanced, such as sounding more open, bigger, more airy. The customer was able to pick it out, but I think for others who will occasionally drive this car, the improvement on the stock source will be easily good enough.
Imaging and staging on this car was SUPERB, depth is out of the windshield in the middle on some tracks, with a very solid center that is 8 inches or so off the dash. Width is pillar to pillar and overall just very precises with a great sense of space.
Tonally, I didn’t find any weak points, the mids and highs, as is the case with all the builds using the morel Elate carbon set, is just great. Detailed, smooth, awesome resolution, just never unpleasant. The midbass impact is quite solid for two 6.5s in the door and always does a good job of anchoring the bass note. The two Thinpro 10s continue to impress us with their overall well rounded performance. They can do the low notes and at low volumes but also blends very nicely with the front stage on more delicate music, never making their location know. We have done literally a dozen different sub combos in Tesla storage wells since the beginning, and to be honest, theses sound as good as any of them but with a much smaller enclosure and have a bunch more output and extension. The focal utopia 10 is perhaps the closest comparison to these.
Super happy with how our first Plaid Tesla came out, thanks for reading and as usual, check out the pics for a more detailed look at the build.
Onto the next Tesla!
Cheers
Bing
