LOL, yeah, depends who is sitting there!

 

Yep. If it's my partner she's great.

 

I was the guy that said I liked the Camry sound system. One reason I liked it was that I drove the Camry from SF to LA and back on a rental. I had a lot of time to sort through the sound and took CD's and an mp3 player with me of material I was familiar with. Now, I can't say it was "amazing", but when there was the added road noise of traveling down the highway, taking care of some of the bad (and good) frequencies here and there, it was actually quite decent sounding. I started out not liking it at all and ended the trip thinking it was quite a bit better than I was expecting. To me, you can't really judge a car system completely unless you are driving down the highway. A case in point: my little Prius had an awful system. I gutted it and completely hot rodded the buggar and it sounds amazing, subs, hi end amps and all. However, because there is a lot of road noise in that car, it all but eliminates the best of my system unless I crank the crap out of it at 85mph to hear a lot of what goes away as you drive. The doors, the deck, the frequencies of the road noise and the amounts of it, is what helps or hurts the sound system in the long run. It's more than the individual components. The "car" is an intregal part of the whole system.

I tried the Levinson system in the IS350 on my test drive, but unfortunately didn't have a lot of time to really get the best of it since I was also concentrating on the vehicle performance a bit more. Glad you found the Levinson system to your liking. I too am an audiophile for over 30 years and have spent way too much time and money auditioning and buying high end gear so I know the type and the criteria for acurate sound, without hype. I guess what is happening with me lately is that I have decided to accept a compromise I can live with, as long as the rest of the vehicle kicks my ***. I suspect none of the cars we've all tested have a really great system for us crazy audiophile types with our never satisfied eccentricities. I know I haven't heard it yet.

The G35 Bose system is passible considering the car is so cool. That's the bottom line for me nowadays. I buy the car first, then deal with the stereo later if it bothers me enough, which it usually does - just ask my wife.

 

i just came back from a two hour drive on the freeway (i280 for whoever's interested ) with the windows down and the music at full or one or two bars under full..the sound is amazing, even at 100+mph the music is loud, crisp, clear, and boomy too. I tried the fade to the front trick, didnt notice much,maybe that was cuz of my speed and the windows being down. Even at those speeds, road noise is no noise when the music's turned up. I bloody love this car.

 

I love the speed of cars on I280. Everyone goes 80mph+, especially during busy hours (that way, you don't stand out but can still drive frickin' fast). I have noticed, however, during the night, a lot of CHP roam around, hiding at on-ramps to catch speeders. How did you drive 2 hours on I280? Between SF and SJ, round-trip?

 

This is an interesting thread, and I like hearing everybody's opinions. Most of the blame for the current debate rests squarely on Infiniti's shoulders - as they are the ones who hyped up this new stereo as the second coming, when clearly it is not. Its a good stereo, but I think the advertising and hype machine overpromised and underdelivered on this one ...

 

I am an amateur audiophile who posted this article on my aftermarket sound system installation here: https://g35driver.com/forums/audio-video-electronics/85590-reviews-i-audio-system-upgrade-ii-various-codecs-versus-wav.html.

Today, I test drove the 2007 M35 and listened to its Premium 2 Channel Bose System (part of the standard Technology Package). I also listened (but did not drive) the 2007 G35 sedan's Studio on Wheels system. I am comparing these two systems against my aftermarket system comprised of an Eclipse Head Unit, DLS Ultimate speakers, and DLS Reference amplifier set up for a 2 channel front sound stage format. I used specific tracks on my .WMA encoded CD-R in all three systems.

Overall, I was impressed with both 2007 systems and they are huge improvements over my 2004's factory system, not to mention pretty darn good for a factory system. While neither 2007 system matched the clarity and dynamics of my aftermarket system, I would say that I could happily live with either system and see them as well balanced in the same vein as my own aftermarket system.

I was turned off by a couple of items in the 2007 systems:

1) Still no mid-range adjustment.
2) No display in text of the song's artist or title even though these are embedded in my .WMA files and are displayed on my Eclipse.
3) No way to navigate through folders, only advance or go back incrementally from track to track.

I would say the M35's system did a better job than the G35's on instruments, but the G35 did a better job on vocals. Both were about equal on separation, clarity, and the dynamics. Although I prefer the front sound stage of the G35 system, I did find it a bit bright and do feel the M35 system, like my current aftermarket system, will not tire the listener's ears after hours of listening. In both systems, I set the bass two bars above flat, and the treble one bar shy of maximum.

One final note: both systems are designed for well-balance sound, not for jamming at ridiculously high volume levels or for thumping the neighborhood.

 

Actually you have the ability to navigate from folder to folder quite easily with Compact Flash - I don't know about CD-MP3 discs though. There are both hardware controls and voice command of "Folder N" where N is some number.

My biggest complaint has to do with the lack of a voice command for browsing by album on the Music Box. I treat my Music Box system like a CD changer, so I just use the tuning **** to go right through the list. But it'd be a lot easier if you could do something like the street listing - voice command a list of numbers from the Search by Album list. Is there some way of pulling that off?

 

Maybe you don't prefer accurate reproduction of music. It's not a right or wrong, but a preference thing.

The new system is vastly more accurate in tonal balance and imaging, and has much more output and bandwidth. But, that's only important if you want accurate reproduction of what the recording/mixing engineers want you to hear. Sorry to hear we didn't hit the mark for you, but that system definitely errs on the side of accuracy rather than the tiz/boom that most of you guys seem to prefer. I not passing judgment, just explaining what the system was designed to do.

John Feng

 

they are workin on adding an upgrade to more voice commands in the future

 

[QUOTE=Railgunner]more...

Just a little background... I played drums back in the 80's for several touring heavy metal bands and later ran sound for dozens of rock and some country bands for about 15 years. In other words, I listened to live music about 3-4 nights a week for about 15 years. Hundreds of bands, thousands of live performances. I know what a kick drum sounds like and I know what it feels like and I can tell you this, the system in the G35 does not accurately reproduce live sound.

Let me tell you something about studio soundmen (recording engineers). These guys mix via a couple of "reference" monitors. Special speakers with a flat response. You won't find a "sub" in the recording booth at very many recording studios and the speakers they mix with are incapable of reproducing the true sound of a kick drum, or an explosion, or any other low frequency sound because they simply can't move the quantity of air required to reproduce the feel (the "thump").

"Studio" recording engineers usually suck at running live sound. 1st they put in their ear plugs, and then it goes downhill from there [\Quote]

That is a very interesting persepctive, and I don't disagree. I've never been to a live rock/metal/country concert where sound quality could be described as anything except loud. That includes outdoor/indoor/theater/club etc. Great experience, but SQ sucked from pretty much every seat in the house. I've also heard a modest amount of nearfield mixing systems, and generally they a sounded really good (accurate, realistic). When you hear a sax playing 10 ft away, and then you can walk into the mixing room and compare it to the mix ... it's a pretty good situation for judging whether or not the mix is faithful to a good sounding live event. And I'm sure you know that most good mixing engineers use very good monitors (Genelec, Near, Event, JBL, etc.) so I disagree that they have a screwed up perspective of the sound/mix.

Maybe, maybe not. Personally, I'd rather listen to a good set of monitors in a well treated room than a huge stack of EV's in a basketball arena. But, I'm sure you're dead on for some percentage of people. For them ... they need to buy a system with a "stadium" DSP mode ...

John Feng

P.S. Many of the people who auditioned the system were studio musicians, and the guy who tuned the SOW system is a very good professional musician.

 

(sigh) You do want ever you want to do. It's a free country...

John Feng

 

RLampke says it's too forward. You say it's not. Either he's right, you're right, or you just like different things. You like the image to the right, and I like to sit laterally centered in front of the band. Oh, but maybe you're much taller/shorter than me. Try moving your head around (fore/aft or up/down) ... the sound (in any car) will change with head position ... sometimes dramatically. Maybe you've got a little bit of an elevated threshold in your right ear? Maybe .... maybe a click or two to the right actually gives you more centered image. Whatever works for you is the right thing.

Bass: Listen to it with the car off, then start the car and drive it. Notice how much of the bass gets masked by road/engine noise? There is no one perfect setting for bass level for all operating conditions.

John Feng

 

One other thing to noe, Feng, is that forward movement of a vehicle causes a decided roll-off of low frequencies reaching the ear due to the doppler effect. Many people on here seem to be oblivious to this effect. Ultimately, this system was designed for a middle of the road, high resolution at flat settings audio experience. Unfortunately, so many people's expectations have been colored by their in-car experiences that they have no concept of live music or true high end, in-home 2-channel audio.

There's no sense trying to defend it. Just let it be. The nay-sayers will never be convinced and the pundits already enjoy it.

At the end of the day, audio is one of the most subjective topics ever addressed by mankind. No system will ever appease the "masses".

Personally, I enjoy the new system and think that given the ambient noise of a daily commute that it will more than suffice. Anyone wishing for more than that needs to stay home and spend his/her days listening to his/her Krell/Mark Levinson/Moon/Linn/Audio Research etc. sound system with his/her Wilson/Avalon/Quad/Canton/Martin Logan etc loudspeakers.

Enough said.

 

just my opinion, i'm no audio expert, but the low end kinda sucked, high end was pretty impressive. descent base and i like the fact that on the high end the sound quality doesn't distort and it's still really clear. not bad for a stock system