For any of you audiophile types.....The info on the forum has discussed different sound quality for different media.....What is the real difference in audible quality between the CD player, Hard drive, IPOD input , media card slot or sattelite radio on the premium package ?? Does the premium package have HD radio capability?? I can't imagine that the hard drive is not state-of-the-art for bit rate or whatever makes the best sound..............What is reality here ???? Thanks for any info....

 

I can't recall the bit rate but there are two options and the top one's over 300kbps I believe. My car's too far away or I'd just pop outside and look. Playing off the hard drive sounds just fine to me at the higher setting. It is still compressed, and current compression doesn't give you the same quality as a full AIFF file found on a CD (or analog lp for that matter—which I prefer), but it sounds fine for what it is.

What I can't get is the lack of any option to upgrade the size of the HD. There are so many huge HDs now available in micro sizes for cheap. Just asked my dealer about it on Friday and they said today that there are not other options right now but would be surprised if there aren't some solutions soon. 9gb doesn't cut it!

 

I think the top end bit rate is 180kbps or so. Also, the HDD is 30GB in size. 9.3GB is what we have left over after NAV, voice rec, etc. It's also not a standard hard drive you'd find in a laptop or a desktop. I don't know the model #, but it's a HDD built for extreme temps/shock/vibration.

 

The real benefit in terms of what gets an 'audiophile' off is the 24-bit Burr-Brown DAC (digital-to-audio conversion) which improves the sonic content and lowers the signal-to-noise ratio greatly over other systems/designs. Some of the best CD/MP3 home stereo players like Denon have this design built-in, very few cars have it, maybe the Mark Levinson in the Lexus.

 

they could have used better speakers... compared to the ML system the lack of clean highs and deep lows is noticeable... dont get me started on the midrange issue...

 

Agree, I cannot stand Bose speakers whether for the home (theater or otherwise) or car....they do suck. Good news is that speakers appear to be easier to change out vs the head unit. Too bad I am leasing, otherwise, I would replace. ML FTW! Or maybe the Bang and Oulfson in the new Audi A5/S5?

 

You make it sound like you can can throw just any of today's large size IDE or SATA HD in this type of environment. The HD in the G is Seagate's Extreme Environment Series HD. Up until not all that long ago, the largest size available was 40GB.

IMO, having a HD that can store up to 3000 songs cuts it just fine. At least Infiniti has this available, unlike the TL, IS, and 3 series.

 

In the settings, you can choose 105 or 135 K for bit rate, which tells me it is AC3 compression. I would have MUCH rather had room for 1000 songs @ 320k. iPOD with higher bit rates is looking like best bet for highest fidelity.

 

thread Resurrection....

No Not yet...alot of people are toying with changin all the speakers including me... not sure if anyone has pulled the trigga yet...

Welcome BTW....

 

Yeah I agree this is what seperates it from other cd players. It's all about DAC, since CD's are recorded from analog to digital back to analog and thats what decodes it back to digital.

 

The Bang and Oulfson that they have in the new Audi's is sick. They have a 7.1 surround sound setup, expcept for the R8 5.1 setup, and it also has a built in microphone in the system that will adjust the sound (EQ) for different road conditions/noise like when it rains, snows etc.. all by itself. I've been a fan of Bang and Oulfson for awhile, there home audio equipment is really nice, and sounds so clean.

 

It does make a difference when you download songs, with a higher bit rate it will sound better then a song with a lower bit rate, and sounds pretty good. What you have to understand is when you download songs they are compressed so much that it cuts the midrange and some highs, think of it as the song being squished from it's original format.

 

As a long-time audiophile, I got a kick out of the "24-bit DAC" advertised in the premium system. Any resolution gained from the DAC (if even implemented well) will be overcome by road noise and/or interior resonances anyway. I used to do high-end car audio right, but it is much easier to get even better audio at home. You can only do so much with the small interior volume of a car (although DC power is a big plus). The Lexus Mark Levinson systems are not bad, definitely better sounding to me than our "premium" system, but much more expensive also. Our premium system sounds much better than the base system, though.

 

[QUOTE=alot of people are toying with changin all the speakers including me... not sure if anyone has pulled the trigga yet...[/QUOTE]

Trigger pulled.

Head unit stays. Alpine PDX 4 x 150 and PDX 600 x 1 already here, Dynaudio System 362 and RF 3Sixty.2 arrive tomorrow. JL 10w6v2-d4 in 4080's enclosure already installed.

TBD: Buy Dynaudio MW 172's (maybe 162's?) or keep MB Quart Q's for the back deck? The Q's are great but the MW 172's match the System 362 woofers.

TBD: Replace center speaker with Dynaudio MD 142 or leave stock? Can the head unit drive this speaker without the Bose amp (which will be removed)?

First rate shop on standby for install with dynamat, speaker enclosures, etc. Making final decision on TBD's after the install.

To do: Put JL 500/5, 300/2 amps, MB Quart Q's, DTC 169's and 4080 box from G35 on Ebay.

Next TBD: Go with Laser Interceptor or stay with Blinder M20 laser jammer. M20's worked great in the G35 but specs on the Interceptor are better. V1 already installed.

-Troll

 

Heads up.

The Dyn's are here. My installer says that, because of the built in speaker grills on the mids and tweeters, a "custom" install may be necessary. That means a stealth install might be impossible.

Waiting on a response from Dynaudio about whether or not those grills can be removed without voiding the warranty.

Excrement has occurred.

We're talking some serious bucks invested. Any suggestions?