jaykimba

I have 2 questions regarding the XM radio in the RL:

1) I'm disappointed in the sound quality. It's not only not as good as playing a CD, it's not even as good as listening to my local FM stations. Frequency range and dynamic range is not what I'd expect on such a car. Does anyone know if this is a deficiency in the RL's radio or is this a fact of life with XM ? This is my first experience with satellite radio.

2) Only displaying the XM music "Category" on the upper display is annoying. I'd much prefer if it displayed the station title or frequency. I have 3 presets set to Rock stations. Displaying "Rock" for all 3 is pretty useless. Does anyone know if this can be changed ?

Thanks

Scott in Houston

1). It's satellite. Welcome to every car forum's complaint about their satellite sound and reception. Ironically, the RL is one of the best. On my M5 it sounded HORRID (this was a 2006). On my wife's M35 it's "ok".

2). The manual is a wonderful thing. give it a look.
Press the display button on the dash. It will change what shows from category, to station, to song, to musician... whichever you like.

JMikeF

Like satellite TV, XM radio is compressed to offer more choice with less quality. Get some DVD-A discs to really show off the sound in the RL. Amazing!

jhr3uva90

Also, the quality depends on where you live. If you live in an area with more repeaters, you are more likely to get a more consistent sound. If you live in an area with few repeaters where your radio unit has to rely more directly on a satellite, then you will get a less consistent sound.

jftjr

Truth. But there's big differences even in DVD-A discs.... look for ones that have a high sampling rate (96K i think) and that are from good signal sources.

The Talking Heads dual-disc box set is awesome, as is Blue Man Group's "The Complex."

jhr3uva90

Wouldn't it be great if the RL's audio system could play DVD-Video as well as DVD-Audio? I wonder why they didn't include that capability?

klister

Because some turkey would start watching it while driving.

jhr3uva90

But other cars (Infiniti M) allow the audio from a DVD-Video to play while driving. That would be a good feature, don't you think?

Scott in Houston

Infiniti and Lexus allow this. It would be awesome. I really think that's the only thing about my RL that I regret it lacking. My wife's M35 is awesome and playing DVD video is a great feature. You can listen to concert DVD's etc. while driving. You can listen to a movie you may know well also. It's very cool and shows off the surround sound.

I'm going to install a DVD player in my RL, but it won't have true surround which is sad, but it will still be nice to listen to more things than I can currently.

jaykimba

OK, "Scott from Houston", you got me. "Read the manual" -- what a novel idea !! Seriously, thanks. I missed that in the manual. That's exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks to the others explaining the limits of satellite radio.

Scott in Houston

LOL No problem. I hate it when people use the "read the manual" on me, so I made sure to answer it as well as mention the manual. hehe

acuralvr1

DVD-A sounds great in the car. Garbage in- garbage out though. The Steely Dan and solo DVD-A efforts by the vocalist are extraordinary. Lynyrd Skynyd DVD-A was recorded live and is only for huge LS fans- like me.

This reminds me of a Steely Dan joke:
Why has Steely Dan sold 20 million CD's?
Answer: Becasue people that listen to Steely dan don't know how to download music for free off the internet.

Listening to the LA Woman album by the Doors on DVD-A is like listening to them for the first time- amzing quality on a very old product.

XM sounds okay in New Jersey- doesn't compare to DVD-A, though it's better than FM.

jftjr

To wit:

http://cbs13.com/topstories/topstori...180174619.html

jhr3uva90

That's a damned shame! Lexus and Infiniti seem to have come up with compromises where you can only watch video when the car is in park.

SodaLuvr

Moved to Audio section.

jftjr

I know at least the infiniti DVD can be hacked to show while driving... i can imagine that it's as simple as grounding the wire that tells the radio that the car's in park -- that's exactly how aftermarket units are wired, so I doubt it's much more complicated.

Honestly, the last thing I want in my car is TV. I would much rather look at the outside world than have the idiot box along with me for a ride.

And I want to puke every time I see a stupid minivan or SUV showing Barney on the rear-seat monitor for the rugrats. Parents can't even be bothered to supervise their kids for the length of a car ride anymore....I suppose it interferes with their cell-phone-and-Starbucks-time in the car....

jhr3uva90

That's funny! And people wonder why young kids (particularly boys) don't read. . .

Scott in Houston

I have an Infiniti, and I did the hack. It's a matter of putting a switch between for 2 wires between the unit and the sensors. When you throw the switch, no signal is received from the nav system making it think it's standing still and no ground from the park brake which makes it think the parking brake is on.

It's awesome.

I use it often. Especially when going home after basketball practice.


http://cbs13.com/topstories/topstori...180174619.html

PRNole47

No rain fade...never had it, even under the worst of circumstances and weather. In fact, may times I've gone out of the house after losing my DBS signal just to keep up with a the same game being broadcast on my car's XM radio, unaffected by the weather conditons over my house at the time.

Don't know how XM does it it but I wish DBS would not be so prone to rain fade as it is...

jftjr

Different frequencies. XM/Sirius operate on 2.3Ghz... while DirecTV etc operate at 3.7-4 Ghz. DBS TV needs the extra bandwidth that the higher frequency provides, but the shorter wavelength means that atmospheric water becomes more of a problem.

db22

[QUOTE=jaykimba]I have 2 questions regarding the XM radio in the RL:

1) I'm disappointed in the sound quality. It's not only not as good as playing a CD, it's not even as good as listening to my local FM stations. Frequency range and dynamic range is not what I'd expect on such a car. Does anyone know if this is a deficiency in the RL's radio or is this a fact of life with XM ? This is my first experience with satellite radio.

My friend, who writes for audio magazines, just bought the LS430 with the Mark Levinson sound system. He has both XM and Sirrius. His take is that they are both bad but the XM is significantly superior.
I concurr, however, that a CD is far better than XM and XM does advertise "digital quality" all the time.
Has anybody experienced the short fade out and in of the signal of XM? I believe that it is the receiver changing satellites.

Scott in Houston

Most of the time, when you're in cities, you're getting your signal from terrestrial antennas anyway. XM has greater coverage down on earth than sirius does. I rarely get a cut out while in cities.

When I'm driving in the middle of no where, I'll get one if I go under a decent bridge or something. You can tell there's a buffer b/c the 'drop' in signal will occurr a decent amount of time after the loss of signal.

db22

I get a drop out at the same location every time I drive through it. It's very anoying because during that second of drop out, I can hear myself singing!

Scott in Houston

haha. Funny visual.

jftjr

Do you live exactly between the 2 satellites? One's at 85 deg west (approx over TN), and one's at 115 deg west (approx. over NV).

I doubt it's sat switching. It's probably just loss of signal. XM buffers a few seconds of stream to fight signal degredation, but it's probably a nice leafy tree or a big cloud in between your antenna and the LOS to the XM bird.