Good idea, but it will only reflect what g35driver.com readers think. That limits the results of your poll to a specific demographic, which is a very small subset of g35 buyers. It's validity cannot be extrapoated beyond the typical g35driver.com participate. Let's just say, for arguments sake, that g35driver.com was dominated by owners who get a lot of satisfaction out of customizing/modifying their cars. By definition, they might not be as happy with ANY feature of the G35 as the average G35 buyer ....

John Feng

re. Feng.

No disrespect taken, however when you said "I do not think it is an accurate reflection of the '07 G35 owner community".

You might want to check some of the other car forum threads like this one titled "Poor Stereo in 2007 G35 Sedan" over at Freshalloy's Forums. A different crowd of people over there. The main complaint? Weak Bass.

I've let several co-workers ride in my new G. These are not car nuts and not "audiophiles" and both of them said the same thing... Bass sounds kinda weak, turn it up. Well I can't "turn it up" and that's the problem.

I think you're going to find that a larger portion of the population than you think will say the bottom end in the SOW is weak.

The maddening thing is, it was so close to being a really killer system. Vocals are awesome. It's got some of the clearest mids and upper mids I've ever heard but as soon as you put on anything with heavy drums or bass guitar it's just not right. 10% boost on the low frequencies would have made a world of difference.

I was listening to the CD Moving Pictures by Rush on the way home today. On Tom Sawyer the bass guitar was weak, the bass drum was tolerable but the toms were weak too. This is a song known for awesome sounding drums and bass.

The rest of the CD was just horrible. At low volumes the bass was just not there at all. No warmth at all. I have found a few CD's that sound pretty good. Some old Dokken and Def Leppard. Mostly stuff where the bottom end was a little hot to begin with, but Rock CD's that sound good on the SOW are few and far between IMHO.

Let me say something about my philosophy on tone controls, and then I'm going to offer you something. First of all, I would prefer it if tone controls are designed so they can't screwup the accuracy of a sound system too much. The operative phrase is, "too much." Let me give you an example. If a bass tone control hasit's corner frequency set too high, dialing in boost will cause the lower midrange to get fat ... fatter ... muddy. Yet, this is something I see more often than note on OEM audio systems. Second, how much bass boost is so much that the sound will be totally screwed up? Well, that's a subjective judgement call. At one extreme, if a hypothetical system had a flat frequency response down to 20Hz ... any amount of boost on top of that frequency response might be considered adding inaccuracy to the system. With a good system, even +6dB of bass boost might be enough to turn the lower notes of an acoustic piano into a boomy mush.

Here's what I'll do. I'll get that Rush album and have the engineer that tuned the G35 listen to it. I'll try to make some time to have a listen myself as well.

John Feng

Railgunner, I know exactly what you're going for here. Unfortunately, making the Rush CD, along with many other rock CDs, sound right to you will be a pretty tough problem to solve unless you were given more options to adjust the bottom end to your liking. As it stands, it sounds to me like you are a candidate for some 3rd party add-ons to satisfy your craving for more bottom to have at your ready.

The problem is that most rock engineers and producers in the last 30 years have really been all over the map on what is important to the final tonality of each project. Many coked out engineers in the 80s had our heads taken off with excessive mids dominating the mix because they couldn't hear 3k and kept craking it up on everything, as a result making mixes with hardly any perceivable bottom end. Yet there were plenty that knew what they were doing to get a sound that rocked with a more balanced, open, top and full, round bottom, which probably sound great on this system. And nowadays, it almost doesn't matter what they do at the mix because they squash the hell out of it at mastering so much that it all just sounds - LOUD - with no dynamic range. Really wearing after about 6 songs cranked full blast.

So if the guy that tuned this system listened to the Rush CD, he'd really not be able to help you out much because that's only 1 in a million different sounding rock CDs. Many with different problems in the low end that would require different frequency adjustments to get it the way you would like it to sound. Can't do that very well without a parametric EQ or at the least a 5 band, or a subwoofer with adjustable xover and separate volume control. All of which is not in this system. I'm almost sure having the ability to turn up this systems bass control louder wouldn't really get where you want to go.

I could go on for years about this subject, but you see my point. Without the extra adjustability you require in your attempt to re-eq what the mix engineer originally had in mind, is pretty hard to do with this system in the way you would like. With a fairly flat sounding system such as the SOW, you'll have problems trying to satisfy yourself, especially when it comes to metal, without adding some bottom end enhancement.

John, while the poll limits responses to car owners on this site it doesn't limit it to a specific demographic. There is a wide variety of members of vastly different age, occupation, previous car ownership and geography to name a few. I agree it's a tiny subset of '07 sedan G35 buyers for now and is not statistically important or accurate but in time that may represent a significant number of owners. There are over 40,000 G35driver members here now many of whom own one.

Most likely many forum members here would be considered car ethusiasts but that does not necessarliy make them anymore likely to be unhappy with any feature. In fact it could be easily argued they would be more discerning and more likely to appreciate quality engineering than a non enthusiast.

I love that Rush CD as well, but the bass is subtle.. One of my "reference" CDs I like to use is Dire Strait's Brothers in Arms, which I feel is one of the better recorded and produced CDs of the past few decades. When listening to this CD, it does sound nice and open, but it seems the midbass is overdriven just a bit. Moreover I think the real expression I'm used to hearing is limited by the drivers rather than the rest of the system.

Still, for what it's worth, the sound is phenominal for a OEM system and gives a good base to build upon. The headunit seems ok, but now I'll auditioning some aftermarket drivers, perhaps some Focal Utopias From what I've seen so far it appears the OEM drivers are 2ohm (unverified), so I may also start looking for an amp that takes balanced inputs so there's a wider choice of options.

Has anyone else started modding their SoW system? I feel that this good system can be made to sound great with just a bit of effort, but it is good enough as is I'm in no hurry.

Not only this, but honestly why would anyone that is currently satisified with their SoW system bother responding in this thread? I think any "What do you think?" thread will attract a very disproportionate number of people with complaints rather than praise (and then the online thing would evangelical-ize both people with praise and those with complaints).

New G35 owner here with SOW and I think the system sounds very good. To tell the truth, I didn't even turn on the stero during the test drive. If I want superb sound, I will go to my 2 channel system in the home.

I was really expecting it to be very terrible based upon some of the threads here and at fresh alloy.

What I have found is this sytem, like any other, is source dependant. On my poorly mastered material, it sounds lifeless. On some of the good recordings I have, it images like crazy. If fact, my nephew even commented on how well it was imaging when he took it for a spin. Now he could have just been being nice, but he usually doesn't pull any punches.

It is just fine for the type of music to which I mostly listen, but I tend to prefer soundstage and image to impact.

FWIW I really enjoy the SOW

Throw in some Steely Dan, Pat Metheney, Wayne Krantz, Rush, Jeff Buckley...

To me the SOW reproduces the music of musicians I admire quite admirably.

Music that was recorded poorly or is from a crappy source I don't expect much from but that would be on any system, mobile or otherwise.

Nice to see a guy who worked on the system (Feng) actually posting. We in this community should be happy that he takes the time to respond in an environment (internet forum) that typically sucks in encouraging civil discourse.

Does anyone know how to update the Gracenote database so it can apply album and track titles to newer audio CDs? The more I listen to the SOW system, the more I enjoy it. I have to admit, I hated it at first because the sound wasn't thumping and dynamic enough. Now, I find it very full, rich, and encompassing of most of the sound range. It brings my old audio CDs to life again.

Sweet, thanks! Too bad this doesn't update/expand the list on the hard drive. I'll keep ripping my old and new audio CDs before doing the transfer onto my PC, so I don't have to make several trips.

Quality music will yield quality sound; especially Steely Dan, Pat Metheny and Pink Floyd(you didn't mention PF but I thought that I would throw that in there...... ).

I find the bass levels in the SOW system more than sufficient. The problem with many people today is that if a system does not blow them out of room (or car) with overpowering bass, they are unimpressed. I find that too much bass overshadows the better, upper-range sections of music.

Well at least people are happy with the mid and upper-range quality (I think it's fantastic) so all you need is a massive subwoofer that completely destroys what trunk room there is.

lol Mr Ryte, I agree!

I put in say, the Dans "Two Against Nature", crank it up and to me, the system is amazing and enveloping.

I also hear things that I haven't heard before in the music which is always a treat.

Just a question. Why would you pay for the SOW if you were just going to rebuild it anyway? Doesn't it make more economical sense to just get the standard stereo and modify to your heart's content? Just asking because that's where I've come out in the overall discussion. Since I intend to modiffy the system anyway, I may as well pay less for the overall unit since basically all that will still be stock in the end is the head unit (which I'm going to amp anyway).