I've found that the reception is pretty poor in my new Cayenne. Is this typical? Stations that i've never had issue with before don't come in that well.

Oh well, good thing for Satellite and BT streaming.

 

I also noticed that the FM reception on the Cayenne 2011 is not as good as the one from my Infiniti FX45.

 

+1. Poorer reception for both FM and satellite than I have experienced in other cars...BMW, Acura, etc.

 

Haven't even programmed my FM just use SAT.
I find it to be pretty good though with very few errors with direct line of sight.

 

I have only had issues with the fm station we use for the headrest DVDs to play through. Kind of crackly

 

Very bad reception and sound quality for FM in an urban area with lots of quality FM stations. No such issues with other cars so its the Cayenne. Will have to have it serviced to see what the deal is.

 

FM quality sucks for me as well in Chicago and I also think the XM quality sucks. I had HD Radio (FM) and Sirius hardware in my last car that sounded much better, so this has been one big drawback/downgrade moving to the Cayenne. Sucks.

I think the 2012's have HD Radio at least which would improve things a lot.

 

No HD radio in my 2012, but my reception has been fine. Satellite comes in even when I am in parking garages (at least for the first level).

 

No FM reception problems at all w/my '12 CSH...in the SF Bayarea....

 

It's not about the reception as much as the actual audio quality. I get satellite reception in parking garages, that is not the problem. It's that the actual XM technology seems inferior to me. For instance, when reception does cut in and out I hear what appears to be analog static.

When the reception would cut out with the Sirius hardware in my BMW the audio stream had hard cut ins and cut outs that were more digital (on or off) in nature. This difference carried over into the audio stream quality, the Sirius stream sounded much higher quality than XM does to me.

This isn't a Porsche thing, I think it's an XM vs Sirius technology issue. I have noticed the same static/analog vs digital audio quality in numerous rental cars of all makes that have legacy XM and legacy Sirius hardware technology. I have never heard an XM HD stream but I suspect that is closer to what Sirius is like.

On the FM side, it sounds the same way. The FM audio quality is really bad compared to other cars. Reception is fine for me being in a huge city with strong broadcast signals.

 

I just picked up a 2014 Cayenne S and my FM reception is pretty bad. it can't even hold an HD channel. I'm thik about installing a shark fin antenna.

 

I'm in the Bay Area my fm stations volume changes when bad reception. Even if the station has HD like 101.3, 96.5 all if them has bad reception. Sometimes it says HD signal lost for couple seconds, even if the car is moving. I think SAT radio is better.

 

I am east of N.Y.C. and never had HD before. I was amazed at how it takes several seconds for the HD channel to come out when I select one. The radio just stays silent till it comes on. That is really strange. and the stations drop in and out as if it is switching back to regular FM- ridiculous.
So I listen to satellite but it's audio quailty is so inferior compared to everything else that is is annoying also. There is an old thread on here from a guy who was involved with how the satellite stuff is transmitted and he explained why it is has such poor quality.
Loading up the JUKEBOX function with MP3s or playing a CD sounds much better.

 

I'm in the Bay Area as well and "glad" to read I am not the only one dealing poor reception. It's pretty spotty - great in some areas and not so great in others. It's kind of annoying...

 

Bad FM and extremely bad AM, same with our Cayenne and Panamera, the Panamera has Bose which does not make things any better.