Rivian Elevation audio system - in house design change began February 2023?

[kvenom]

By the time my order is fulfilled next year, the camp speaker is probably an optional extra, the wood trim is now plastic and the front trunk is manual opening...

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[Dark-Fx]

The link returns a not-too-useful error and I cannot determine what you were searching from the URL.

Strange. Based on when this was trademarked, it would seem this was something they planned on doing for a while.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Well, traditionally... lower trim levels get the "GM/Ford" audio system and the "Premium Trim" levels get the name brand audio. Rivian want's to be a "Premium" brand... while using in-house brand components. We'll see how that works out for them...

I think there were variations on that, too. I seem to recall some systems branded as Bose, Engineered by Bose, or similar on the head unit where the manufacturer used their own speakers and Bose did something with equalizer settings and/or processing to wring better sound out of them. Replacing the stock speakers with aftermarket speakers could make a significant difference. Other systems actually had Bose or whatever brand on the speaker grills and those had drivers supplied by the audio brand rather than the manufacturer’s parts bin.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Strange. Based on when this was trademarked, it would seem this was something they planned on doing for a while.

Thanks!

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Interesting. Definitely more vertical integration and control over signal processing... however, unless they manufacture the components themselves, supply constrain will still be a bottleneck. But, at least this is one less middleman. Rear speakers mostly serve fill function, so I'm not too concerned about sound quality.

e time my order is fulfilled next year, the camp speaker is probably an optional extra, the wood trim is now plastic and the front trunk is manual opening...

And you have ALL that time to cancel. Very convenient.

 

[frostbit3]

What's next, remove the audio system completely and have 2 Camp speakers on the dash setup in stereo?

Not gonna lie, while the Rivian audio system is much better than average vehicles, it didn't "wow" me. But that damn camp speaker wows me everytime I use it for music while working in the garage, that small speaker puts out very good quality sounding music for such a small device.

 

[bael]

Wayback machine still has it called Rivian Elevation back in Nov 2021 - just has by Meridian in it

 

[connoisseurr]

Not gonna lie, while the Rivian audio system is much better than average vehicles, it didn't "wow" me. But that damn camp speaker wows me everytime I use it for music while working in the garage, that small speaker puts out very good quality sounding music for such a small device.

There must be something wrong with my camp speaker because it's a pile of shit. Low volume and doesn't sound well at all. We have a Sonos Move that goes around the house with us, if we're in a room that doesn't have other Sonos speakers.

 

[zefram47]

Mine should be a February build date. Guess I'll see when I get it...s00n.

 

[crashmtb]

Tesla in-house audio is great! Better than Bose or Bang Olufsen I’ve had in other cars

The tesla goodnes mostly comes from excellent DSP. A fried is an engineer at pedal, his company car runs prerelease soutward. One day the audio went to shit…apparently the DSP calibration was changed ?

 

[NineElectrics]

Generally, premium cars have premium audio systems with more speakers, not less, allowing each speaker to specialize. Not a great direction to be heading in. That said, Tesla manages to do a great job without paying for anybody’s name. Mainly though spatial audio processing on their verb overkill CPU. Rivian’s isn’t nearly as good.

 

[kewlasu]

I thought the discontinued 'Explore' trim supposed to have this one instead of the Meridian sound system?

 

[bgoldber88]

Pretty disappointing news. I just configured a few days ago and had heard good things about the Meridian system. I'm not an audiophile, so hopefully the sound system will still be good. However, its a bummer to pay the same price for less. The 12V change doesn't impact me, so I didn't mind, but this change impacts something almost every driver is probably interested in, including myself.

That being said, this is going on throughout the industry, unfortunately. I've been mulling a handful of vehicles for a number of years, but haven't bought anything due to the pandemic impacting what's available. I was watching the BMW X5 and X7 for years and both those vehicles have had serious downgrades in standard equipment and available options. There were long periods over the past few years where you couldn't even get Bose on an X5 and the base sound system in the X5 is truly atrocious, with no aftermarket options really worth noting. And of course, everybody knows the Tesla changes. They didn't tweak their sound system (that I know of) but they removed or modified features that seem very critical to me, such as radar, while raising prices.

 

[RexRemus]

They're going to keep cutting features until the early pre-order pricing becomes profitable, and then they'll finally deliver them

 

[SASSquatch]

This is all good and great and I’m all for bringing costs down as a shareholder and this could end up resulting in a better overall user….where the ??? is the redesigned tonneau cover???

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