Radio reception suckage - 05 LX

[rookie]

Well, the subject says it all.

Even when we had no tint - the reception was not that great - when driving around DFW I often hear reception kind of "fade out" a little as if it switched to mono or something.

We got the tint on the car (installed by the stealership) few days after we got the car so I can't tell the difference that much. Dunno if they used metallic tint, guess so as its lifetime warranty.

Now - I did some searching and - I gather that the antenna is in the back window. What I don't get is this: the tint goes on the INSIDE of the rear glass so I guess it can affect reception only if the antennas are in general front of the car?

Anyhow - I'll proly go to the dealer and complain, lets see what they want to do. But this is worse than 2 other cars I had since moving in this area of DFW; my Altima has metalic tint and I have 0 problems so I guess stock unit or the antenna are not too hot to begin with eh. :dunno:

[psyshack]

05 sedan and recpetion kinda sucks also on the radidio. Wifes going to have it tinted also. Doubt she will notice. But I que'd in on it fast. I was hoping there would be away to make it recalbrate its gain.

[dougm]

I've always had reception issues in the DFW area, but the Accord's been about the best I've had AND my car came with dark tinted windows installed by the dealer. My Nissan, with diversity antenna, was maybe a little better. There might be something wrong with your head unit. I assume it contains some type of signal amplification which, possibly, isn't working correctly on yours. I'm just north of DFW (Frisco area) and I only have a problem sometimes when I try to pull in the Mesquite High School station (KEOM). KLTY, KLUV, KRBV, KDMX, KVIL, and KHKS are all perfect. I haven't been in one of my C/W or hard rock moods since I got the car and have spent a little time trying out XM (speaking of reception that "sucks". Too many big buildings and bridges around and I hate when the radio looses it's signal completely in the garage... I'm not paying to continue past the trial.) so you may be listening to things I'm not, but definitely have the dealer check it out. Try to get him to swap the head unit out and see if things get better.

Doug M.

[98EXL]

it's the OEM radio, it sucks. And no, I'm not going to bother explaining myself

[frooky]

I also experience lack of reception in my '05 LX V6 coupe. I wonder if somebody makes an antenna amplifier for our cars? It's a good thing there's an in-dash 6 CD changer, although I sure wish it played mp3 CDs.

[princess]

Welcome frooky!! :wave: Go look in the pit in the birthday thread.... :D

[ertyu]

I've been driving out to the boonies a little too often this year and I notice that I get better reception out further than in other cars. I think the problem basically boils down to multi-path. The receiver/antenna is too sensitive and is receiving multiple signals taking different paths which leads to noise and signal cancellation.

[dougm]

Exactly why a diversity system works so much better... I've come to the conclusion that the head unit in at least the '05 EX-L was designed around XM. It works very well for that and has a lot of really neat features like the ability to show what song and artist is playing... Features that FM has been trying (somewhat feebly) to accomplish with RDS, which the Honda radios don't have.

Honda spent their budget on the XM part of the radio and not the FM part. Bummer for those of us who live in an area that has great FM stations and wouldn't otherwise need to pay for good radio, but I'm guessing that most of the country isn't as lucky as we are so Honda probably made the most logical choice. If they spent money for everything to be great, they'd be priced in the range of BMW or Mercedes. :thumbsdow

[MichNYC]

I've had no reception problems in my coupe, even when driving in Manhattan! I haven't driven the Honda in the DFW area, but when I lived there, I never had any problems with radio reception in my old sentras, or either of my parents' nissans, or my ex's '92 accord.

of course, i'm not a huge audio freak, so maybe i just don't notice crappy qualitiy? :dunno: :lmao:

[EXLNavi]

Can't say for the LX but in my EX with Navi reception isn't as good as other cars I've driven. But it's acceptable. It's not great, just acceptable.

[IMOL]

My LX-SE seems fine on normal FM stations. There's one station that I listen to that comes from ~50 miles away that has spotty reception in any car - the Accord seems no better, no worse than anything else in that regard.

FYI for those in AZ - the station I'm talking about is KCDX 103.1 in Florence. For those not from AZ, this is a station run by one guy - no DJs, no ads, just wall to wall rock music (60s to modern) including lots of album tracks and B sides. http://www.kcdx.com

For example, here's the playlist from the last half-hour or so:

5:47 pm - AC-DC - Who Made Who
5:50 pm - Crowded House - Everything Is Good For You
5:54 pm - Squeeze - Tempted
5:58 pm - The Boomtown Rats - Up All Night
6:02 pm - Brian Eno - Baby's On Fire
6:07 pm - The Beatles - Yesterday
6:09 pm - Robert Cray - I Guess I Showed Her


IMOL

[CA05LXDriver]

Exactly why a diversity system works so much better... I've come to the conclusion that the head unit in at least the '05 EX-L was designed around XM. Honda spent their budget on the XM part of the radio and not the FM part.

I thought the XM in the accord is FM modulated, no??? (or is that just the accessory one that's modulated).

I live in an area with many strong signals, and I noticed poor reception from day 1. On AM, the voice quality is quite annoying, and took some time to get used to (akin to listening to talk show radio on XM.. poor sound modulation)

I just listen to a CD (or XM once installed) if it bothers me.

[EXLNavi]

I thought the XM in the accord is FM modulated, no??? (or is that just the accessory one that's modulated).

Only the dealer add on one is FM modulated.

The factory installed XM is a direct connect and it uses the CD changer bus.

[princess]

A reason for the poor reception is being in the window it's more directional than the mask kind.

If you don't like it now.....try tinting your windows!!!! You'll have nearly ZERO!!! :lmao: We used to pick up the '9er games from way down south, just north of the "grapevine" (Bakersfield) & now it's fuzzy in Stockton! That's a very strong SF station (KGO)!!

I can't get Radio Disney in my car. It's beamed out of both SF & Sac. Oh well, I really don't listen to the radio anyway. It's all CD's for me.

[EXLNavi]

Yeah but other manufacturers have window antennas yet their reception is better, if not much better than the Accord's.

[princess]

True, but they ALL went downhill with window antennas..... I think that's why they've come & gone a few times! I like the looks better though!