Let me first start by saying that I am very picky when it comes to audio quality. I have owned a lot of audio equipment and used to work as a
sound engineer.

Overall I am not real impressed with the XM radio sound quality. I have the base system, and there is a huge difference between the CD quality and
XM. I was expecting some difference, but after reading reviews of XM on the web, I was expecting better.

Bass seems tight, but the high end is lacking and you can hear the compression artifacts in the sound, especially in the high end. A good signal
from FM actually sounds better in my opinion.

Am considering changing out the factory speakers over time, but the CD quality is pretty good "Right out of the box", so I was wondering if the XM
experience changed significantly for those that put in aftermarket speakers.

Surfsnow

 

Your comments about the XM signal are correct - and that is because of the compression that is going on. As I understand it, the bit rate is around 32-56, depending on where in the spectrum the channel is sitting. It is a big myth that XM or any Sat radio system sounds better than CD [or a strong signal from FM for that matter]- for CD bit rates are at a level of around 320 - and the fact that the Bose system in this car sucks as a whole if you are an audiophile like me. What I would suggest is installing a DSP line cleaner to remove the DSP/auto EQ crap that the Bose unit is doing, and also install an EQ to tailor the sound to your likening. This is the only way to made this system sounds have-way decent. Just replacing the speakers is not going to help, especially in this system for these speakers are made for this system specifically, and have wired Ohm ratings. In this case, you would have to replace the Bose amp as well, but you could still keep the factory head unit.

Here is a link in this forum that discusses such a modification and others: https://g35driver.com/forums/showthr...hlight=tweater