HD Radio problem

[mk1]

I haven't seen this mentioned so here goes.

I have the tech package and today the HD radio acted flaky. Normally when tuning to a station there is a second or two delay and then it switches to the HD version of that station (if available). Today when this happened, the volume decreased by almost half and it sounded very watered down. It happened on every HD station; I checked everything in the menus but came up empty.

I shut the car off to run into a store for about 10 minutes, came out and then everything worked fine.

Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance!

 

[hokienutzz]

Yes. I have been disappointed with the lexicon system since I purchased the car. I even had the whole system replaced the day after I got the car because the Nav didn't work. It sounds good with CDs/DVDs and with the thumb drive, but my radio and XM sound terrible. They both sound as if the music is coming out of a tin can. Fooling around with the band equalizer does nothing. The HD radio will go out immidiately after going under a bridge. I would expect that from XM maybe, but not HD radio. I have a feeling that they never really looked at the connection with the rear window antenna when they tried to fix everything the first time.

I've heard people rave about the HD radio, but on my car is sounds worse than regular FM. It also takes a few seconds to receive the signal for each new channel. I don't know if that is normal or not either.

 

[hokienutzz]

has anyone else noticed issues with HD Radio? Isn't it supposed to sound better than regular FM? Does anyone else have HD radio that sounds like people were talking through a tin can? please let me know if I seriously have another issue with my genesis...

 

[mk1]

has anyone else noticed issues with HD Radio? Isn't it supposed to sound better than regular FM? Does anyone else have HD radio that sounds like people were talking through a tin can? please let me know if I seriously have another issue with my genesis...

Curious to know...when your radio switches to HD, does the volume drop considerably?

 

[hokienutzz]

Curious to know...when your radio switches to HD, does the volume drop considerably?

I wouldn't say considerably. but the bass drops out and it becomes all tinny. and the HD channels dont come in automatically. For example, if I use my preset button on the steering wheel and go back to an HD channel it wont find it and defaults to the regular channel after about 5 seconds. So when I cycle from 100.3-1 to 94.7-2, it wont find 94.7-2 and goes to 94.7-1 after a bit, but the radio thinks it is on 94.7-2. It is weird, and sucks.

 

[mk1]

I wouldn't say considerably. but the bass drops out and it becomes all tinny. and the HD channels dont come in automatically. For example, if I use my preset button on the steering wheel and go back to an HD channel it wont find it and defaults to the regular channel after about 5 seconds. So when I cycle from 100.3-1 to 94.7-2, it wont find 94.7-2 and goes to 94.7-1 after a bit, but the radio thinks it is on 94.7-2. It is weird, and sucks.

These are the same symptoms I experienced - bass drops, tinny, volume decrease. It happened only twice in the first week I owned the car, my dealer had no idea what could be wrong. Fortunatley it hasn't happened since so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have 60K miles for it to be a major concern

 

[Nabber]

These are the same symptoms I experienced - bass drops, tinny, volume decrease. It happened only twice in the first week I owned the car, my dealer had no idea what could be wrong. Fortunatley it hasn't happened since so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have 60K miles for it to be a major concern

We don't have HD radio in my area so I haven't been able to test. Although I do have the HD setting checked, does the radio's EQ change when it switches to an HD source... thus reverting to the stock 0db settings? I keep my bass and treble boosted near the top. If it switched to 0db, there would be a large difference in sound for me.

 

[mk1]

We don't have HD radio in my area so I haven't been able to test. Although I do have the HD setting checked, does the radio's EQ change when it switches to an HD source... thus reverting to the stock 0db settings? I keep my bass and treble boosted near the top. If it switched to 0db, there would be a large difference in sound for me.

The two times this happened to me I checked the equalizer settings to see if they changed and they didn't, which I believe is how the radio should work. Luckily I was near my dealer when it happened so I stopped by to show them. Of course they said they'd never seen this behavoir and they couldn't locate anything in the database for a fix.

BTW, it's too bad you don't HD reception in your area. I'm new to HD radio and I've found that the local stations transmitting in HD have one or two extra feeds that you can access with the DIS contoller knob. One in particular plays obscure songs from the 70's that I haven't heard in years!

 

[Nabber]

The two times this happened to me I checked the equalizer settings to see if they changed and they didn't, which I believe is how the radio should work. Luckily I was near my dealer when it happened so I stopped by to show them. Of course they said they'd never seen this behavoir and they couldn't locate anything in the database for a fix.

BTW, it's too bad you don't HD reception in your area. I'm new to HD radio and I've found that the local stations transmitting in HD have one or two extra feeds that you can access with the DIS contoller knob. One in particular plays obscure songs from the 70's that I haven't heard in years!

Does HD Radio broadcast in more than 2 channels? I'm hoping for 7.1!

 

[hokienutzz]

The two times this happened to me I checked the equalizer settings to see if they changed and they didn't, which I believe is how the radio should work. Luckily I was near my dealer when it happened so I stopped by to show them. Of course they said they'd never seen this behavoir and they couldn't locate anything in the database for a fix.

BTW, it's too bad you don't HD reception in your area. I'm new to HD radio and I've found that the local stations transmitting in HD have one or two extra feeds that you can access with the DIS contoller knob. One in particular plays obscure songs from the 70's that I haven't heard in years!

Sounds like I'll have to take it in, cause I have the reverse issue. I have had it come in well about 2 times, and all the other times it's been terrible. one of the times it did come in well it was when I turned the car from going north to directly west. perhaps it was the change in direction of the antenna, or the turn jarred the antenna connection back to good from its usually bad position? I would guess the second. I've already had the head unit replaced once, and on the last one it had the same issue. (It was replaced because the navigation didn't work) Thanks for letting me know that I am not the only one seeing this problem.

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[mk1]

Sounds like I'll have to take it in, cause I have the reverse issue. I have had it come in well about 2 times, and all the other times it's been terrible. one of the times it did come in well it was when I turned the car from going north to directly west. perhaps it was the change in direction of the antenna, or the turn jarred the antenna connection back to good from its usually bad position? I would guess the second. I've already had the head unit replaced once, and on the last one it had the same issue. (It was replaced because the navigation didn't work) Thanks for letting me know that I am not the only one seeing this problem.

Good luck and let us know what they tell you.

 

[mk1]

Does HD Radio broadcast in more than 2 channels? I'm hoping for 7.1!

I'm not an expert in this area so I don't know the answer. What's cool is that when a station comes in HD, a push on the DIS controller allows you to access any additional feeds from that station. You access those feeds by then turning the know. Very cool!

 

[rcerulli]

Hd radio for me out in long island is pretty unstable, i have turned it off for now unless im driving closer to NYC where the signal is stronger. On some stations the bass dropped and the highs became tinny, however i have a feeling most of us have increased the treble on our systems in order to make normal radio sound better. So when we get the higher quality versions, the treble makes a noticible and annoying difference.

 

[hokienutzz]

Hd radio for me out in long island is pretty unstable, i have turned it off for now unless im driving closer to NYC where the signal is stronger. On some stations the bass dropped and the highs became tinny, however i have a feeling most of us have increased the treble on our systems in order to make normal radio sound better. So when we get the higher quality versions, the treble makes a noticible and annoying difference.

I live smack in the middle of DC, so I should'nt have a reception problem. And my EQ is set to mid for everything and it still sounds horrible. I do think there is a serious problem with my system though. So I will go in and complain about the radio and the suspension. I just hate to go back, as I was in there for an entire week when i bought the car. I really shouldn't have this much buyer's remorse on this car, but it has given me no choice.

Thanks for chiming in on you HD experience though. It really helps us determine what the norm is.

 

[mk1]

I live smack in the middle of DC, so I should'nt have a reception problem. And my EQ is set to mid for everything and it still sounds horrible. I do think there is a serious problem with my system though. So I will go in and complain about the radio and the suspension. I just hate to go back, as I was in there for an entire week when i bought the car. I really shouldn't have this much buyer's remorse on this car, but it has given me no choice.

Thanks for chiming in on you HD experience though. It really helps us determine what the norm is.

It does sound like you have a problem...please report back as I fear mine will inevitably exhibit the same problem again and I'd like to know what the solution is ahead of time.

 

[skyfox99]

Unfortunately HD Radio is not meeting to what all the hype is... It is not anywhere near the standards that we would call HD... it depends much more on line of sight than any other OTA broadcast (I am sure those who have had XM/Syrius for quite some time will have experienced this quality difference, even just between channels). The biggest thing we all have to note is the quality of the Lexicon system. Unfortunately since the quality is such a high caliber for a vehicle audio system, it will really pronounce the quality of the signal being played (hence why CDs and USB drives sound great, where as poorer signals like HD Radio and XM sound poor). The system will really make defects in the source very noticable, where as lesser systems would maybe even sound better on certain signals since they would not pronounce the "defects" of the sourc.

 

[rv65]

Also the bad sound quality could be due to multiplexing. Some of HD radio stations will mux the feed so that they can add extra channels. When you multiplex you lower the quality.

 

[mk1]

Unfortunately HD Radio is not meeting to what all the hype is... It is not anywhere near the standards that we would call HD... it depends much more on line of sight than any other OTA broadcast (I am sure those who have had XM/Syrius for quite some time will have experienced this quality difference, even just between channels). The biggest thing we all have to note is the quality of the Lexicon system. Unfortunately since the quality is such a high caliber for a vehicle audio system, it will really pronounce the quality of the signal being played (hence why CDs and USB drives sound great, where as poorer signals like HD Radio and XM sound poor). The system will really make defects in the source very noticable, where as lesser systems would maybe even sound better on certain signals since they would not pronounce the "defects" of the sourc.

Not sure what you mean - HD sounds fantastic on my car. There is no in between with HD for me - I either get it or I don't. When I do pick up an HD signal, it is ALWAYS good - much better than standard stereo and much better than XM.

Perhaps there's something wrong with your unit or I'm just not understanding your point?

 

[Calvin]

I had the "tinny" sound only once on an HD station and it was followed by a screen that read something like: " External devices not connected". Then the screen switched back and everything sounded normal. It only happened once and it was right after I washed the car. I seem to remember some other threads that had strange things happen after a rain storm or car wash. Next time I wash her I'm keeping a note pad handy just in case I need to write down exactly what the screen says.

 

[skyfox99]

Not sure what you mean - HD sounds fantastic on my car. There is no in between with HD for me - I either get it or I don't. When I do pick up an HD signal, it is ALWAYS good - much better than standard stereo and much better than XM.

Perhaps there's something wrong with your unit or I'm just not understanding your point?

HD sounds fine in my car, never had any problems with it, although I really must say I don't listen to local radio broadcast after having XM for so long and a rather large music collection. I was relating the quality of HD to CD/USB/mp3 format. HD compared to regular OTA broadcast or XM is much better, but still NO where near the qaulity of the CD/USB/mp3 capabilites. And the signal of HD Radio requires higher reception and better line of sight to the broadcast towers, where as unlike regular broadcast where you can have a quality that represents fuzzy to clear broadcast, with HD, I found you either have a signal for HD or not... I was really trying to get the point across that the Lexicon is such a high end mobile system that the user will tend to notice "defects" in the source because the system will pronounce them more than a lesser system, so as poorer signal might sound better in a cheaper car system.