jfelten

I purchased a 2007 C280 a few weeks ago, and like it more each time I drive it. The long term reliability prospects are concerning though. My car is affected by the balance shaft gear class action suit, and has the harsh downshifting on the 7G - but anyways..

The car has a preexisting satellite subscription, and while I shouldn't complain the sound quality sucks. I'm not an audiophile, but this sounds like a cheap AM radio. FM radio and CDs are better, but no better than any other cheap car stereo. My initial reaction each day is "man this stereo sucks!"

Last night as I started the car the tried to acquire satellite and locked up resulting in no sound the whole drive. This morning sound was back, and there are a lot of similar accounts on this board.

This is the higher end HK system, and I can't believe it should sound that bad. Do they all sound like this? Or do I ave an amp that is dying? I think I will start turning the stereo off before taking the key out.

Glyn M Ruck

The HK system should sound quite pleasant and balanced. I'm not saying high end but at least decent. Make sure that the subwoofer in the rear parcel shelf is operating. Sounds crap if it goes out.

Regards the harsh gear change. Have the latest software flash done. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. The car will then stop in second before selecting first with no harshness.

jfelten

Thanks I'll check out the subwoofer. I'm getting the tranny flushed in a week or two, and am planning to get the software updated. Maybe they can update my audio software as well.

Moviela

You don't specify if your car has a factory Sirius receiver, or a dodgy FM carrier transportable receiver. If the latter, it will never sound good in a car with an antenna screend on the rear window glass.

If you do have a factory rig, it sounds terrible to many people because Sirius compresses the signal to worse than MP3 "quality". I gave up. I use the Sirius only for traffic, weather, and Howard Stern.

Sirius does not use geostationary satellites because they are expensive. They use high eliptical orbit birds that are always moving across the sky. Sometimes there is not enough signal to all areas because of the position and altitude of the birds. In that case you will not get signal for several hours until one of the other birds comes back around.

Glyn M Ruck

Thanks for the input Movie. I have no experience of Sirius at all. Friend's Lexus had it when I was in Dallas last year but I never used it. Worse than mp3? It must suck!

jfelten

I went out for the first time and played around with the settings, and made it sound better. I have the factory unit, and apparently sirrius just sounds that bad. Certain channels are much better than others. Filler content like the 80s and 90s stations are just terrible. My sound woes appear to be more satellite related that anything else, but I am still not impressed with the HK system. I'm generally not that picky, but the system in our Volvo blows it away.

I'd be more pissed if I was actually paying for sirrius.