[ezmaass]

So, one of the things I've observed (and is maybe one of my first nit-picks about the 5) is the Sirius radio. It appears to have a very small buffer, so when it loses connection to the satellites, the radio will cut off pretty quickly. My wife's Audi Q5 appears to have a good 10 seconds or so of buffer, so little obstacles like intermittent heavy tree cover or overpasses don't phase it. The 5, on the other hand, appears to cut off with only a few seconds of interrupted sky view. I noticed this today while driving on some windy back-roads that had spots of poor sky visibility due to tree cover - and mind you, the leaves aren't even on the trees (winter).

I'm curious what others here have experienced regarding Sirius?

As far as entertainment goes, though, I've also loaded my first CD into the onboard HD today. It's was reasonably quick (not lightning fast though) - perhaps 7 - 9 minutes for a CD with roughly 14 tracks. I enjoyed the fact that it let me listen to the CD at the same time as ripping it.

Aside from the satellite radio, ripped CDs, and the standard radio, I'm also looking to use the music on my phone. For those who have been at this for a while, what do you suggest - (1) play/stream the music off the phone using the External Device blue-tooth option, or (2) move the music to the car's HD? I've done the first but haven't figured out the second yet (haven't looked either, I suppose). I like the idea of streaming the music since I can have one authoritative "copy" of my music on my phone (which I use in many other places), but I'm also weary about battery wear on the phone, potential issues with swapping to calls while the music playing, etc - curious about peoples' experiences here, too.

[SonicEndeavor]

Satellite radio does cut out in certain areas of parking structures on mine but overall it works well.

I don't use the hard drive for ripping CD's because the bitrate is too low for my taste. I copied a flash drive full of music to the hard drive and that works well because its a straight copy so there's no audio quality degradation. dts 5.1 audio works fine as well when copied from a flash drive to the hard drive. If you're picky about audio quality, flac is fully supported.

As far as music on the phone, I just connect my iPhone via the USB port in the console and play either from my iTunes transferred music or from MOG (typically MOG downloads vs. live streaming) - both are fully controllable from the iDrive.
There's no problem with incoming calls. Music is paused.

[skalberti]

Originally Posted by SonicEndeavor

Satellite radio does cut out in certain areas of parking structures on mine but overall it works well.

I don't use the hard drive for ripping CD's because the bitrate is too low for my taste. I copied a flash drive full of music to the hard drive and that works well because its a straight copy so there's no audio quality degradation. dts 5.1 audio works fine as well when copied from a flash drive to the hard drive. If you're picky about audio quality, flac is fully supported.

As far as music on the phone, I just connect my iPhone via the USB port in the console and play either from my iTunes transferred music or from MOG (typically MOG downloads vs. live streaming) - both are fully controllable from the iDrive.
There's no problem with incoming calls. Music is paused.

I have a hard time with my MOG on my 2014. Keeps losing Bluetooth connection and I have to reconnect. Doesn't do that on iTunes. However I like MOG and 320 Kbps

[lindros2]

Originally Posted by ezmaass

So, one of the things I've observed (and is maybe one of my first nit-picks about the 5) is the Sirius radio. It appears to have a very small buffer, so when it loses connection to the satellites, the radio will cut off pretty quickly.

Yes buffer on 2013/2014 sucks compared with earlier (2011).

I also have cutouts of ~0.5 seconds on random occasions.

[ezmaass]

Originally Posted by lindros2

Yes buffer on 2013/2014 sucks compared with earlier (2011).

I also have cutouts of ~0.5 seconds on random occasions.

It's odd because sometimes it seems like it can buffer for at least a few seconds without problem, and then other times just driving under an overpass, where I'm under it for maybe 1 second MAX, it clips for .5 seconds or so. Maybe a SW update can/will fix this in the future. It's not bad, but it does get a big annoying if you're driving in a more urban environment. My wife's Q5 rarely loses sirus - you need to stop under an overpass for a goof 4 - 5 seconds before it'll cut out. That said, that's about the only thing I can say Audi does better. And speaking of which, I'm honestly pretty shocked how poorly quattro performs in the snow compared to xDrive. I was always under the impression that given how much quattro means to Audi's heritage that it would be amazing. But I'm so completely underwhelmed with it. It's certainly CAPABLE, and it's better than most cars would be... but I think xDrive has it beat. The Q5 seems to slips in so many circumstances where I just don't get even a fraction of a wheel slip with the xDrive. Sorry, off topic now...

[SonicEndeavor]

Is it just Satellite radio that cuts out, or other audio sources as well? I ask because several owners have reported random 1 second audio cutouts across all sources. I drove 3 different 2013's and 2 of the 3 had this audio cutout problem, and there was no correlation with any overhead obstructions.

[ezmaass]

Originally Posted by SonicEndeavor

Is it just Satellite radio that cuts out, or other audio sources as well? I ask because several owners have reported random 1 second audio cutouts across all sources. I drove 3 different 2013's and 2 of the 3 had this audio cutout problem, and there was no correlation with any overhead obstructions.

Just sat radio for me. All other sources work just fine, and it's definitely correlated with driving under overhead obstructions.