09-28-2012, 02:42 PM | #1 |
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Poor FM reception?
I have the HK audio in my 335i.
My FM reception is not very good at all. Even on strong stations, which I have been listening to for years, the reception gets static. On the stations that also have HD FM, I can't listen to it while driving because the reception is so weak the radio switches between HD and standard FM creating odd sounds and slight repetitions, along with the audio quality changing within seconds. Anyone else have poor radio/FM/AM reception with HK or standard audio? |
09-28-2012, 07:18 PM | #3 | |
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You know, it's not that bad at all really. Yes, it won't play as loud as the HK system as there is less power, but played within it's clean range it sounds pretty good. In fact, the high end sounds more natural than in the HK. HK uses metal dome tweeters and I hate those, they get very fatiguing over longer listening periods. I'm going to install a set of nice silk dome 1" tweets I have, it should improve the high end. I can't believe it cost over $900 for a system that I now have to modify. Sheesh. To the topic at hand, the non HK loaner radio has a good bit less static than my HK. I hope the antenna is loose, otherwise it'll take a lot of effort to convince the gearhead tech's at my BMW service center that there is something wrong. |
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09-28-2012, 08:00 PM | #4 | |
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09-28-2012, 09:40 PM | #5 | |
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09-29-2012, 08:59 AM | #7 |
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I've got four very expensive silk dome tweeters (Morel Signatures: really fab) which I will remove from my GTI and possibly install into the BMW if I'm unhappy with the high frequencies of the HK. There's no doubt that silk domes are better than metal ones. The latter ring and sound harsh especially when listening to Classical music which I do all the time.
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09-29-2012, 05:56 PM | #8 |
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OP did you make sure you installed the correct tint?
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09-30-2012, 12:18 PM | #9 |
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Funny, I noticed this too in my F30 but I thought it might have been my imagination. My wife complains about it, but I don't know if the service guys would take this seriously or not.
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09-30-2012, 09:22 PM | #11 |
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Yes, a LOT of time.
EQ is for fine tuning. It can only do so much. The speaker/drivers, cross overs, and amp/s need to be very good to begin with. My EQ settings are very close to flat. I have a bit of increase for bass, slight attenuation in the upper mids, due to the harshness of sat radio, and a slight bump up in the high end to compensate for my high frequency loss. The EQ can't fix the natural tone of the tweeters though. They are harsh to begin with. Cut too much high end and you lose clarity and "airyness" of the sound. It doesn't help that FM reception is poor, and that satellite signal sucks. CD's sound great. But, HK/BMW left out the ability to EQ for each source. That is a HUGE omission, and frankly sucks in a $950 "upgrade". The sources are so distinctly different in tone and quality that one EQ setting can't suffice for all of them. Each source should have it's own EQ setting, and that wouldn't have been too difficult to implement. EQ setting memory for each source as you switch between them would help. Better drivers would have helped even more. Poor FM reception just adds to the problem. |
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09-30-2012, 09:27 PM | #12 |
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CD's do sound great. Still the best source imo.
But I do like to listen to the radio at times, to hear new music/artists, news, different types of music that I don't own. That's why the idea of satellite was so appealing, the variety. Too bad the sound quality of sat radio is so freaking compressed, it sucks. When I listen to material I am very familiar with I get really bummed in just how bad sat radio is. It sounds worse than some typical quality MP3's. |
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09-30-2012, 10:14 PM | #13 |
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The poor sound from the tweeters my be due to low-end D/A converters in the head unit. The metal tweeters, because they are more accurate, don't hide the poor resolution of the D/A converters. Good D/A converters should fill in the gaps in the highly compressed satellite feed resulting is a decent sound.
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10-01-2012, 12:00 AM | #14 | |
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I prefer the radio in any case. I personally don't like buying electronics that comes with the car. An example are navigation systems; 2x more expensive that commercially available solutions and you cannot throw them out and buy a new better gadget in 3 years time. |
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10-01-2012, 09:18 AM | #15 |
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10-01-2012, 10:00 AM | #16 |
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Are we seriously trying to be Audiophiles in cars? Cars SUCK as sound stages. Accept this as fact and move on.
The reception thing sucks. hopefully it's just on the HK systems
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10-01-2012, 06:49 PM | #17 | |
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If the source is of poor quality it doesn't matter much if the D/A's are good. Metal dome tweets can have good accuracy, but their tonal quality is not to my liking. Couple that with a poor source and the harshness gets accentuated with metal domes. I have a set of JBL home speakers that came with titanium dome tweets. They do have good accuracy but they too created hearing fatigue when listening for a long time at higher volume. I swapped them with a pair of silk domes and the improvement was excellent, just as accurate with a smoother tonal quality, much easier to listen to. |
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