One drivers opinion of the C-7 audio system
I have extracted this review of the C-7's audio system that I found on another site. Based on his review the audio system in the C-7 leaves a lot to be desired.
"...I'll be honest when I say that while the audio system looks pretty; the sound quality leaves a good bit for me to desire. Many people will say that the audio system should be the exhaust note (and damn this car's exhaust note is AWESOME!) or that they are not an audiophile and it doesn't really matter to them. Well, I am an audiophile with a history in the industry of recording arts and high-end consumer gear (another chapter of my life...)
The car I was driving had the 10-speaker audio system that includes a sub-woofer mounted in a 15 liter box. Apparently, the designers did not take time to do any math around acoustically fitting the sub to the payload area, or tuning it to its cabinet size. That or they must have simply thought bigger is better and that's it. The system, with tone controls set flat sounds enormously boomy and the bass response is as floppy and inaccurate as a bowl of el-dente noodles. If you like big, blurry bass to the point that your license plate holder is rattling loud enough to be heard inside the car, or you're one of those people who immediately and automatically turn up the bass without even listening to the system and no regard for anything else in the song that's on, then you might enjoy this system. I ended up turning the bass down about 1/2 to 2/3 of its adjustable range and it still sounded boomy and inaccurate to me. Any lower than that and it immediately went anemic. Last week, a GM engineer told me that the audio team wanted more space for their boom box sub but were told no. Good call... I can't imagine what they were thinking.
I did get in a different car at the track that did not have the boom-box sub option and its system sounded adequate. Not fantastic but better than the more expensive system with the sub."
To be fair, the system does give you lots of source options (3 USB ports) and a confusing array of sound modes (normal, driver, etc.) There is no CD player, showing that GM is staying with the times. I still like a CD player for simplicity and because I'm too lazy to convert my huge library but there's an SD card slot in the center console that will allow one to take many CD's worth of music in the space of a postage stamp, so no complaints from me here. All this while being fairly simple to operate via the MyLink touch screen. As well, it did a nice job of seamlessly integrating with my iPod right on-screen. I spent no appreciable time listening to traditional AM or FM radio, so I can't speak to those abilities.
I took my 5th gen iPod Touch along with me on the trip so I could switch between satellite radio and my own tunes. I am also a person with what I consider to be no musical taste - I like it all. On my trip I listened to everything from Barenaked Ladies to Train, to Warren Haynes (how could I NOT listen to 'Man in Motion'?) to Shpongle, as well as Indian and Western classical. Once the bass was somewhat in control, it was reasonably tolerable. For the price of this vehicle, I was left wanting in this one area of sound quality. Sorry but I just have to be honest here...
