I have noticed that the stereo reception seems very week a lot of the time. This is the case for both XM and FM. Has anyone else noticed this? I live about 25 miles north of Manhattan and have never had issues with a weak signal. Is this something I should have the dealer look at?

 

Feel reception is just fine IMO! Live in Bucks County PA.

 

Take it to the dealer, you have a weak radio or bad antenna system. My radio pulls in stations like a bandit. Crisp and clear, no fading. Amazed how many HD Channels there are.

 

Same problem here, my other car has no issues going through the mountains but the vette does.

 

My sirius is great, but the FM reception is really worse than my 1942 Studebaker. I don't understand that.
Seriously, anyone else notice the FM sucks?

 

I realize how displeasing it can be when faced with a reception concern like this Group501, and though you're seeking thoughts and opinions, I would be happy to communicate this situation with the designated Customer Experience Manager at your preferred dealer if you feel an official diagnosis is necessary. Feel free to message us privately if you'd like to proceed, or discuss this situation further.

Kindly,

William R.
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

Chances are it's just something you are going to have to get used to. While people may be quick to suggest this is a dealer fix, diversity antennas that these cars use can be kind of weak in certain areas and especially in rural areas. A traditional post style antenna typically does a better job than the diversity antennas do in our cars. Also, if you have HD Radio enabled, you may want to try disabling it to see if that helps. It could be that your radio is trying to maintain an HD signal that is weak and dropping out as a result.

Having said that, I never use FM or AM. I've been using XM or Sirius since it was first released several years ago and will never give it up. Nothing like commercial free non stop music with dozens of stations in your favorite genre. I have a few vehicles and all are Sirius/XM subscribed.

 

I have this issue too (San Francisco Bay area). I will try disabling the HD radio as the poster above mentioned as it seems like that theory may be true given all the hills I'm driving around.

 

+1 , In my Lexus i get all the channels very clear.In the vette there is always static.

drives me nuts.

 

I don't think taking it to the dealer is going to help. They'll show you a Chevy Malibu with My Link, like the one I rented last week, that also has horrible reception. GM doesn't build a good tuner anymore apparently.

Michael

 

Actually, this seems to be a systemic issue with HD capable radios and really isn't a case of GM building poor tuners. Just do a search of "poor radio reception on BMW" or Tesla for example. It's seems to go hand in hand with HD radio capable receivers and likely has to do with the way the antenna is split up to handle the multiple streams of the broadcast. I think the end result is weaker reception on the analog band.

 

One other thing of note. If you turn off HD radio, make sure you resave your presets/favorites with HD Disabled. Because of the way the station broadcasts works via specific frequencies, if you save a station while HD is enabled, that frequency is what will be stored for the station and if you select a preset that was saved as HD, HD Radio will likely default back to on because the original frequency may have been an HD signal. Just like listening to XM and hitting an FM preset, the radio will change. I could be wrong but I know this to be the case with many HD capable radios.

 

While I agree that the switch between HD/non-HD creates issue, I can tell you the stations I was listening to were non-HD AM. The AM tuner just plain stinks.

Michael

 

Thanks for all of the replies. I will try to disable to HD and see if that makes a disserence.

 

I have a 1LT so no HD to interfere and the reception still sucks on FM. No issues with XM though.

 

My FM is pretty good, but the XM fades a lot more than my other XM-equipped cars. I think it's the antenna location (wherever it is...) That. plus the farther north of the equator, the weaker the signal, so TX, FL cars should get better reception than CT,RI cars

Ed

 

Again, this is not so much the tuner but more an issue with the antenna's that combine HD radio with standard AM/FM and it's not limited to GM cars. As I said, the issue is present in high end cars like BMW, Tesla, MB and others. The way I understand it is that the antennas split the signal up between HD and the analog signal instead of being a dedicated analog antenna which means they technically they weaker when it comes to analog reception. That and the fact that diversity style antennas are not as powerful as a standard pole antenna.

FWiW, I do believe that AM is also broadcasted in HD with certain stations.

Most stations broadcast up to two HD streams each at a slightly different band but right next to each other. If one band (HD1) suddenly encounters a weak signal, the tuner seeks the second HD band (HD2) for that station and when HD2 encounters a weak signal then it will transition to the analog band. If you program in HD1 for example and are listening to HD radio and encounter poor reception, the tuner will automaticly switch to HD2 seamlessly. If you encounter poor reception on both HD1 and HD2, the transition from HD1 to HD 2 to analog may not be seamless and the result could be temporary lost signal. If you program in HD2 as your favorite, a poor signal will usually result in a smoother transition to analog.

Another thing to consider is that AM/FM signals travel horizontally and as such, places with large buildings and or mountains are typical for poor signal strength. Another factor is interference and the electronics in our cars actually impact the quality of the AM/FM reception. Modern cars have so much electronics in them that they are part of why many of the new cars like our Vettes, BMW's, Tesla's etc are seeing poorer reception. When you couple that with the HD tuner the ability to obtain and maintain decent signal strength is compromised.

I guess my point is that it's very easy to blame GM but if you do some research on how HD radio is implemented into modern tuners and dig around on poor radio reception, you will see that we are not alone in this. HD radio in many ways is a step forward in terms of audio quality but it does so at the expense of analog reception.

Im pretty certain the XM antenna is in the passenger side mirror as it was on the C6. This places the antenna is not so ideal location depending on where you are in relation to the satellite and what is between you and the satellite. I believe the XM sat is low on the horizon in the eastern sky. Tunnels, building and mountains can impact the reception since it is largely based on line of site to the satellite. The XM tuner actually buffers a bit of the signal to compensate for that but it only buffers several seconds ahead if that. If you encounter an area where signal is dropped for more than a few seconds, you will notice the signal drop. That said, it would be very easy to upgrade the antenna and place one on your roof if you so chose. The Sirius/XM tuner in our cars uses a standard sat radio antenna connector which you could disconnect and utilize an off the shelf antenna mounted on your dash or on the roof. Most GM cars locate the XM tuner behind the glove box. If I get time later, I will take a look at my glove box and see if it drops down like every other GM car I've owned and if so, I will look behind it and see if the tuner is back there. If it is, it would be a very easy experiment for you. I'm sure a local best buy or stereo shop would have an extra antenna lying around that they would give you since most after market stereo installs take advantage of the built in factory sat radio antennas in our cars instead of installing a new one because the plugs are the same.