thanks hoopsrob -

the car is really sweet-silver gray is the best color IMHO and I was really torn between black and auburn but really love my choice -

I think the non-xi 530 will look even better with the M-aero as it rides a little bit lower-but with the 123 wheels and 245 40 18 tires my 530xi looks transformed compared with the stock 17 inch wheel/tire combo on the base 530xi -

some niggling problems as you see by my pics but overall-awesome!

 

Great Photos - you have now given me hope of upgrading to the style 123 18" rims from my stock 17's, since yours looks great and really no issues on the height look. Since the winters in NJ are not as rough as in Boston, I am thinking of going the Pirelli PZero Nero M+S Ultra High performance All Season Tire route, so I can keep them on all year round.

We will see! Thanks again!

 

good idea! i'm thinking of getting the same Pirelli tires for the summer on Style 135 wheels with the correct offset for the 530xi - i may go with the runflat version (if I can find them)

the Boston winters are probably harsher and so I opted for dedicated winter shoes - but was not willing to give up the 18 inch look or the OEM BMW wheels - I may have compromised some snow handling but I'll keep the forum updated....

In any event, she's now kept safely in the garage and the RX330 has been banished to the outside...

wulff1

ps - leave the details of your E60 order on your signature...cheers!

 

Generally stated, signal strength will not impact quality of sound. Its a digital processor at both ends so if you have any signal its enough. On the other hand, both SIRIUS and XM use compression codecs (think of MP3 as another codec) to squeeze all their channels into a limited bandwidth. SIRIUS takes some of the bandwidth from talk only channels and "gives" it to their music channels in an effort to reduce the impact of this compression. None of the channels does, however, get as good as FM capabilities and certainly less than MP3 at even 64kbs, which nobody here would use. But because most automobile audio systems are not that great to begin with it is normally hard to discern the impact of the compression except on certain types of music. Any slow, quiet passages such as a single piano or other single instrument might more easily orivice the listener some clue to this impact.

Late this year SIRIUS is going to try passing video streams through their system. I expect they will either have to reduce the number of audio channels or change codecs to help improve current channels on less available bandwidth. I hope they can do this without impacting or further degrading their current capability.

 

I'm glad you like it!! The color combination is great and I love your license plate Keep on driving m8!