The XM on G37 is my first experience with sat radio ever. My initial assumption that it being digital, it would be superior over FM. However, it doesn't appear to be the case, as I am finding my FM reception/quality to be vastly clearer/crisper than my XM.
Is this normal?? I am located in Canada if that makes any difference (not sure if the XM coverage here is degraded..)

 

I've always thought the same thing. Had it in my previous car as well. With both cars, the FM quality sounds better than XM.

 

I've got Sirius in my VW and it sounds crummy too. It sounds like MP3's.

 

Wikipedia: The sound quality with both satellite radio providers and DTR providers varies with each channel. Some channels have near CD-quality audio, and others use low-bandwidth audio suitable only for speech. Since only a certain amount of bandwidth is available within the licenses available, adding more channels means that the quality on some channels must be reduced. Both the frequency response and the dynamic range of satellite channels can be superior to most, but not all AM or FM radio stations, as most AM and FM stations clip the audio peaks to sound louder, even the worst channels are still superior to most AM radios, but a very few AM tuners are equal to or better the best FM broadcasts when tuned to a local station, even if not capable of stereo. AM does not suffer from multipath distortion or flutter in a moving vehicle like FM, nor does it become silent as you go behind a big hill like satellite radio.

 

I thought it would be better as well. My first experience with my own XM.

 

I don't find the XM quality bad by any means, but it's not quite what I expected. One thing I have found is that the volume on XM is far lower than FM. When I switch from FM to XM I have to turn the volume up a fair bit to be at the same sound level.

 

The advantage of satalite radio is not the sound quality but the content. Commercial free music stations, shows for news and sports, and traffic warnings for larger cities. It is great to have this in Colorado just because our radio stations suck for Hip Hop and old skool R&B.

 

This is partially erroneous because I am an avid downloader of Mp3's usually entire albums via bittorrents. Anyways I download direct Cd-Ripped mp3's with 192-320 bitrates and they are crisp and clean as hell, the human ear can can virtually not distinguish between the two..That's why Im enjoyng burning mp3 cd's with 100+ songs for my G and just leavin that $hit on shuffle....

Mp3's are all about the source...if it was ripped with low quality, encoded bad, taken from radio, cassette, microphone etc it will be crummy

Anyhow i do not like XM or Sirius because even satellite can get repetitive and no station usually matches your exact musical taste...its a good deal for those who are busy but me I still have enough time to burn occassional CDs from my own database of high quality mp3s....I reccommend burning Mp3 loaded cdr's to all U G Drivers...100+ songs on each disk easy..

 

word...satellite sound quality sux...i dont even use it

 

Bottom line.........what is the best sound quality in the G37....straight CD's or CD's downloaded to the harddrive in the NAV MODEL?? (WOULD THE SOUND QUALITY BE THE SAME??) How about compared to the Ipod cord?? I don't have my car yet and am curious to know upfront. And how does FM and XM really compare??

 

The uncompressed AIFF files on your CD will sound superior to any other digital format. The problem is that they are such huge files that they would fill up even a large HD quickly at that bit rate.

 

I admit my ignorance......I assume music cd's are AIFF files?? If so does it degrade the sound quality by downloading them to the harddrive?? What quality comparison are IPOD type mp3 files?

 

Yes. I believe that the Bose HD system is using WMA files. Those are compressed audio files. That said, just choose the higher bit rate in the Settings menu and enjoy not having to lug around your CDs. Sounds fine to me. Just needs some bass, but that's not the compression's fault.

Now where's my subwoofer...

 

What subwoofer set-up are you considering??

 

The guy at the audio shop is pitching the MTX Thunderform as the least invasive way to install and for me to keep most of the tiny trunk. It's a self-contained module w/amp and speaker that would fit on the side. Not as powerful as the other options but it's a trade off. It's also about $500 cheaper than component. He's checking to see if they have one that will fit.