audihonda

Though I really like my new Q5, I am disappointed with the standard sound system in the premium plus. Listening to XM radio and iPod, the sound is unnatural and distant, definitely not as good as the standard system that came with my Lexus ES350. I checked the settings to make sure that the treble/bass/fader/balance/etc were at the default center setting. Boosting the treble and bass did not help either.

Now I wish I had gotten the B & O. Anyone else feel the standard stereo is lacking?

The G Man

There must be something wrong with your Audi system if it is worst than the ES350's factory's system, because the ES350's system is pretty bad. I find the Audi oem system much better, its more on par with the Lexus' optional ES350 Mark Levison system.

HaveBullDogWillTravel

I have the same system and although it's not as good as the one in my BMW 335i(decent for a BMW) I'm not the least bit disappointed. I took the time to listen thoroughly to the standard system as well as the B&O and made the call to save a few $$$ as the stock system was certainly good enough. Did you listen to it before you bought the car? If so, how can you now be disappointed with something you were familiar with before the purchase. If you didn't listen to it before the purchase you should only be disappointed in your decision not to do so. JAO.

jrjunior31

I have the stock system in Premium + also. It's not phenemonal, but I wouldn't say it's lacking either. Incidentally, I came out of a BMW with B&O and that system was only the slightest bit better, if at all. I prob wouldn't even be able to tell the difference to be honest.

I did a small amount of research on the Audi B&O and people didn't seem blown away by it so I wouldn't regret your decision. I happened to buy my car right off the dealer lot and all I wanted was Premium + and 19s, and they had one without B&O. But even if I ordered the car I don't think I would have gotten B&O since the one in my beemer wasn't that great anyway. It was decent, but not worth paying extra for.

By the way, try adjusting your midlevel down 2 or 3 notches, this improved the sound on my system. You probably don't want everything in the factory setting for the best sound quality. Base can stand to be up a couple notches for sure. Tinker around with your settings you should be fine.

Edit : My iPod sounds fine. As far as XM radio I didn't order that yet but I've heard the sound quality is a total joke. Do some research on it, people say its awful, so I wouldn't gauge your system by that...

The G Man

One thing the Q5's oem sound system is lacking is power. If you like your music really loud, then you need to go B&O or aftermarket.

CrownSeven

Love the B & O system. Sounds best when NOT listening to Sat Radio. Louder you crank it - the better it sounds.

quattro v1.0

I can't go into comparisons to the Lexus, but I will comment on the quality of both sources you mentioned. Sirius in my opinion has horrible sound quality although I like their selections and personalities. The iPod also has one of the lower sound qualities of any MP3 player out there, we don't buy iPods because they sound great folks... The quality of the ipod really became apparent last year on a road trip with a buddy of mine. We had similar (and some SAME) music on both of our iPods as well as on players from Samsung and the Zune. The iPod had the worst sound of anything we plugged in back-to-back. Put my claims to the test, listen to the same song on both the iPod AND the iPad and instantly notice how much better the 'Pad sounds...

Im guessing if you were to put in an actual store-bought CD *shriek* you would be much more impressed with the quality of the system itself - as opposed to the source of the music being at blame.

If I spent as much time in my vehicles as I did several years ago, I possily could have justified the upgrade to B&O but at this point (11,000 miles in nearly 3 years) I really coudn't.

Could you imagine what goes through the mind of a B&O engineer who listens to freakin' satellite radio through their masterpiece? Oh the humanity! The better the sound system, the easier it will be to find flaws in your music source.

jrjunior31

+1 on this. The iPod tracks are compressed down into miniscule MPEG files so you can fit 10 billion songs on your computer and MP3 player. Needless to say this does not help the audio quality. There's a considerable difference between iPod and actual CDs. And of course the CDs would sound better on B&O, but who even uses CDs anymore? Only true audiophiles I would say, and they obviously would opt for the B&O. I love music myself, always have, but I can't be bothered with CDs when I can just plug five thousand tracks in at once through the glovebox.

I guess this has brought up another factor in whether to choose B&O as an option. If you're going to do most of your listening through an iPod, playing it on an upgraded B&O system won't suddenly alter the recording quality. The music should sound better, but by how much?

gat821

This is an interesting point. Anyone have any thoughts on to what encoding bit rate (without resorting to lossless) works best while keeping file size reasonable and still sounding good on the B&O?

m1964

I had to get Prem+ because you could not have B&O on a Prem model. All I wanted was prem +BT+Heated seats, but had to get Prem+ because I wanted B&O.
The OEM system did not sound good enough to me.
Also, there is a BIG difference between B&O without NAv and with NAV-latest sounds better, has more adjustments, however even without NAV (our Q5), B&O definitely sounds "cleaner" then the stock system.

Some people don't care about sound quality, some people want audiophile quality system in their car, but for only $850 it was a good option to buy ( IMHO), esp. if spending a lot of time in the vehicle.