I was looking for some new ways to waste money and I started shopping for replacement speakers for my GS. As the guy was switching the display board to play different speakers I noticed that when he used XM as the source it wasn't as clear as when he played a CD. Since I listen to XM 100% of the time I 'm beginning to think that it really won't be worth the money if I just switch out the door speakers since XM as a source will never be as clear as a CD.

If it matters I narrowed my choice down to Diamond Audio S600S components.

Thoughts??

 

Satellite radio signal quality is much worse than CD, it's about equivalent to listening to 96kbps mp3's. You'll probably hear some sonic improvement from aftermarket speakers, but it's hard to say how much.

 

Keep in mind that it's not usually quite as simple as dropping in new speakers in these vehicles. Not sure if you have the ML system or not, but it's still more complicated than the old skool "deck and four" systems that used to come in cars.

As for hearing the difference, keep in mind that a display board is going to be vastly different than the sound you will hear in the car since the door will offer more airspace, more holes in the "enclosure" area, and will not be facing directly at you. That said, you will definitely hear an improvement over the factory speakers, which have proven to be just about as cheap as they can get. If the overall cost is worth it, do it! Just be sure that the shop can handle the job and will do things the right way and enjoy.

Big Mack

 

I understand what you are saying. The point that I was making was that if my source is XM radio then I may never be able to achieve the sound quality that I'm looking for.

 

I recently upgraded - only the four door speakers though. Not center and not woofer - XM sounds a lot better than before. But as you said, it is still not quite as good as CD. I replaced these with JBL components and the sound is very acceptable.

As AZ IS350 said, XM radio is like 96 kbps mp3 - highly compressed and treble sounds are highly sacrificed. JBL components are better at handling these high frequency sounds and the system sounds much better now.

Given that you only listen to XM and are looking to find "new ways to waste money" , I think speaker upgrade (probably cost at least $200 for 2 sets of speakers and ~ $200 for install) will still be worth it.

 

I have upgraded the sub and mono amp a long time ago so I'm good there. Back in the day I upgraded the speakers in my second gen GS to a set of JL Audio coaxials that were about $300 a set and to be honest I'm not sure if it made much of a difference on XM.

The speakers that I was looking at this time were over $500 a set which is why I'm really debating if it is worth it since I only listen to XM.

 

I understood your point the first time, which is why I said that it would likely sound better in the showroom vs. the car. I figured you could draw your own conclusion, and you have. Upgrading is throwing good money after bad if you don't change the source.

Big Mack

 

if you are looking to improve on your sound, and wanting to waste some money try looking into a digital processor from JBL.

its the JBL ms-8 system and I was quite impressed on how much improvement it made on my friends basic system. it really livened up his system, check it out

 

My wife says that about everything I do to my car. Thanks for your words of wisdom Big Mack.


Wow, that thing looks serious (and expensive)! I'm going to do a little research and I may have found my next purchase. Thanks.

 

I did have MS-8 installed on my car - even before I changed the speakers. With factory amp output providing the inputs to the MS-8 - I wasn't really sure if I'd get a really good sound but amazingly it did. Even with the crappy speakers (I realized how crappy they were only after I got the JBL speakers installed).
MS-8 retails for 799 but you can get it for cheaper if you look around. Please see my detailed post here.
What I have is that when listening to XM, I keep highs just one notch higher than midpoint. The system remembers the settings (high, mid and lows) for each of the sources. I keep these flat for CD and iPhone.
This way XM sounds good too and CD/iPhone are not too bright.

 

KayGee,
I think that before you "waste" some more money that you should determine what your system is lacking. That is, does it sound dull? Well perhaps a set of tweeters wired in line with your existing system and mounted on the dash or upper door panels. Lacking in bass output? An aftermarket amplifier and subwoofer would be the logical upgrade.

As far as XM vs CD.........It seems silly that we are now more than 25 years after the invention of the Compact Disc and people are listening to "near CD quality" when they don't really have to. Mostly for the convenience of having 2000 songs at their disposal at any given time. Call me old school but my disc changer holds more than enough music for my trips. I understand the attraction of satellite radio with its rich variety of content. However, the sound quality issue is very obvious.

As an extreme example or analogy.........take FM. The FM frequency response is 30-15,000 Hz +/- 3dB while a CD is 20-20,000 Hz +/- 1 dB (or better). You can take an FM broadcast and equalize it at 30 and at 15,000 and it will sound better. However, you can never compensate for the lack of information at the source. You can't get something from nothing..................Big Mack is right.