Saab 2004 9-3 Infotainment System

What do you mean with difference? Is the sound volume constant or do you not hear any volume increase? The latter is basically what you should expect, when increasing the speed you should not experience any _relative_ increase vs. the setting at low speed, i.e. the relation between the audio system sound and the car noise should be the same. To really get the feeling you must of course drive on the same type and quality of asfalt as the audio system cannot compensate for road noise. Actually I feel that varying road noise due to road quality is more of a nuisance than if it varies due to the speed. An improvement here would be nice, maybe by introducing the same kind of systems that are available for propeller aircraft, an active noise reduction system.

Do you hear less sound? Or does the sound stay the same? Be aware you can set the sound dependent volume to 3 sensitivity settings...

This feature worked quite nicely on my '96 and '00 93C, however on my '04 93 sedan the change in volume, even on high sensitivity, does not seem to be sufficient, as I have to adjust the volume manually.

So I guess there's a problem with the system. I am not too bothered about it though.

To answer both questions: The sound volume level stays the same i.e. it doesn't get quieter when the car slows down and doesn't get louder as the car goes faster. I have been through the settings and yes I know there are 3 sensitivity settings, Low, Medium and High. I have tried all 3 but still no difference. Do either of you have this system in your cars? If so, does it work on yours?

Are you actually measuring the volume with a sound level meter, or are you going by what your ear perceives?

I have a 2004 9-3 as well. I have the speed-dependent volume control set to medium. I don't notice the system fiddling with the volume (i.e. the volume is never too high at high speeds or too low at low speeds) and I don't need to constantly adjust the volume manually (i.e. the volume is too low at high speeds and too high at low speeds). The fact that I don't experience those two extremes makes me think the thing is working just fine.

The system doesn't alter the volume, only increases the top and bottom ranges. Bass and Treble are often lost as the noise of the car increases. It is true that an active noise reduction system would work better than this.

I have tried it out and there is not much of a difference. In fact, I found it better with it turned off as, as has been mentioned before, it's all down to road noise and not speed. Concrete and tarmac roads sounds completely different.

One way to test is to stick some frequency tones onto a CD. Then play the CD at various speeds. That would prove the system.

Or count it as another sales gimmick that doesn't really work :-)

SP.

I have a 9-5 AS2, where you can only enable/disable the function. When the car was new it was fairly well calibrated towards the increased noise with speed but as the car gets older it becomes significantly noisier at higher speeds and the feature is now less useful. Thus the compensation algorithm seems to use only car speed and not cabin noise. The sensitivity adjustment would have been nice.

Thanks for the advice. The "technician" at my local dealer reckons he could hear the difference!! Must have super sensitive hearing! I'm glad someone else has recognised this as a problem, even if Saab can't!!!