James5

I had some great MB Quart speakers in my truck and that was the only reason I didn't want to sell my truck. Im not sure they even make MB Quarts any more...

Anyway, after having about 3 amazing Alpine head units stolen, I went with a crappy pioneer because I knew my speakers were good enough to put out great sound...and they did!

jkeifer3

I've been using FLAC for a long time at 192khz/24bit. Super sound but I don't think that kind of resolution or DAC performance is available in the iPhone or iPod world.

Malu59RT

LOL, I had a rattle in my door/dash on my 06 GS430 with Mark Levinson. I took it in multiple times for them to add insulation/tape/deadening foam, etc. Their eventual solution was to neuter my subwoofer and now it has very weak bass. It was a very noticeable difference, but they said they didn't do anything to the audio system.

Now with 110k miles on the car, there is a very large rattle in the center dash (defroster vent I'm guessing) at above 80mph in cold weather. Guess I'm just going to have to live with it.

dseag2

Not to hijack the thread, but I haven't heard that name in years. I had MB Quart speakers in my '01 BMW 330Ci. They were outstanding!

Back on topic, I LOVE the ML system in my GS F Sport. I don't crank it up really loud so I don't have rattles, but then again I don't need to. The tight bass and the separation is great. No complaints or regrets whatsoever.

modthispny

so i switched some music over to lossless 1000+ kbps..couldn't hear the difference, not sure if it's because of the iphone 5, but went back to 320kbps.

SupraBlur

I know this is an old thread, but I was a lot more of a geeky audiophile back in college, spending big money on Nordost cables and using studio DACs just to listen to music, but the reality is that the difference between a 320kbps MP3 and 1000+ MP3 is very miniscule, hardly noticeable on over 99% of equipment (as tested by a few third parties using blind a/b testing), and more importantly not noticeable with the kind of noise floor that a running car has (even if it's a reasonably quiet luxury car).

If someone's ears can really (and I mean, be honest, really) discern the difference between a properly extracted 320kbps vs FLAC while in a moving car, then that's probably to your detriment because the chase for perfect sound will never end.

Also glad that someone mentioned that Bluetooth doesn't necessarily equate to quality degredation. As said, the bandwidth for Bluetooth is way higher than the source material, so if there's any loss, it's due to poor DAC, not the Bluetooth protocol. The BT interface in my '09 Audi S5 (2G MMI, for any Audi geeks) had horrible loss, but it was totally the Audi interface's fault. Using the same iPhone connected to my '12 GT-R over BT, there was no discernable loss vs using a CD of the same material.

Valueguy

For those of us who listen to HD radio, XM and pandora in the '13 GS which is the best for sound quality?
My daily commute is 35 min each way every day. I don't play my iPhone 5 or CDs in the car very often or at all.

So, which one of the three gives the best sound?

yardie876

Well you can put xm 3rd for sure. I mostly listen to hd radio and am thoroughly pleased with it. I use pandora through bt (as opposed to the app) and it is great too.

jkeifer3

Here's my take on it: When I am driving I cannot afford to be distracted from giving my full attention to my vehicle and the surrounding environment in which I drive. I used to drive with the audio system hell bent for destruction and on two occassions I found myself being overrun by a fire truck and a police car because I couldn't hear the sirens and I won't let that happen again. I've learned to listen to the car's audio system at reasonable levels that still allow me to know what's going on around me.

While I can understand that high dollar, high power, sonically accurate systems are seductive, I feel they can only be fully utilized when the car is stopped or when involved in contests to determine who's got the best system.

I guess this is the price of getting older and more sedate.

(PS) I have the premium system and it's more than adequate for me.

95bat

These cars are so well insulated, even without the music up it is hard to hear sirens. I had my radio on about volume level 10 a couple days ago and couldn't hear the fire truck behind me until it was nearly next to me. Good thing I check my rear view mirror regularly

Stew4HD

On a side note to the audio system, I could have sworn I read in the owner's manual that these cars will play DTS CD's, but I can't get any to play, the unit reads it, shows tacks and the time counter starts but no sound.

JohnBon20

Is there a HDD for storage of music on the stock system?

yardie876

Nope, no HDD in the 4GS.

JohnBon20

Wow. That's pretty crazy given others in this class have it .

Stew4HD

Got my answer:

The following products may not be playable on your player:
●SACD
●dts CD
●Copy-protected CD
●DVD audio
●Video CD
●DVD-R
●DVD+R
●DVD-RW
●DVD+RW
●DVD-RAM