First let me say overall I am very happy with the QX-56 as a whole, it is much more comfortable then my previous ride (2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee) and more comfortable still then the '04 avalanche which is the other truck I have of comparable size.

Also let me say I am still learning how to use the systems (Nav, bluetooth, etc...) but have made great strides so far.

My concerns so far-

The audio/sound quality... Playing the same MP3 files an AUX input on my old Jeep (which had the "Infinity premium sound" (no relation) system) vs. playing it directly from the compact flash card on the Infiniti radio - the music doesn't sound as good. It's not bad, but I fully expected to have a better quality sound from the Infiniti then the Jeep- but it's marginally worse in my opinion, and the Bass is noticeably lacking- to the point I'll probably need to get a sub-woofer installed somewhere- and I'm not one of those people that like loud radios- I mostly listen to Sinatra and such.

Sticking with this radio, the fact that compact flash reader can only read the first 512 files on the CF card is kind of a downer too- I hope this may be fixed one day with a firmware upgrade...

I haven't tried playing the mp3 off a CD to see if the sound quality is better but I doubt it will be.

The nav system- much better then nothing - but the portable Garmin Nuvi I was using in the Jeep gave better routes to get to places, better spoken directions on when/how to turn, and it gave better info, like ETA instead of time remaining. Also, and hopefully this is something I can change (haven't read the nav system manual yet) it gives too much useless info... When I have a route in I only want to see the turns I have to make, not a bunch of useless exits that I'm not going to take anyway.

As for the Bluetooth - the sound quality on both my side and the person listening to be is good to very good. However, it doesn't seem to be able to handle 'call waiting' at all... If I'm talking and get a call waiting beep- there's nothing I can do on the system to switch to the new call... On the phone I can manually switch over but then I can never switch back again, be it from the phone nor system. So lately if someone's beeping in I have to just tell the person I'm on the phone with I'll call them back rather then 'hand on' - on the subject of the bluetooth- the incoming call number display- half the time the number coming up is the last number I dialed from the phone rather then the number of the incoming caller- I don't know the how or why this happens, but it definitely happens. FYI the phone I'm using is a Treo 700 wx from Verizon which has it's share of problems too, and I'm not sure if these shortcomings are the car's or the treo's.

I knew from the get go you can't watch DVD's on the front screen when moving... fine... but it was new to me that I had to press the parking brake to be able to use the system. The parking brake is a real pain for me to get to (long legs) and twice while trying to feel for it I ended up popping the hood with my foot instead. I think the parking brake thing is overkill and will bypass it if I can.

These are all mostly small things that could probably be addresses by a firmware update, hopefully sooner then later.

The overall drive is very good- it's a tad bit more noisy then I expected but not bad overall.

Still happy I bought it- and if I went into as much detail about the things I like about it as the things that annoy me, there's be too much to type.

Your car looks exactly like my Armada LE!

Very clean looking ride!

I love the new interiors on the QX56 and the Armada.

I like the color. We got the Tuscan Pearl and love it although it is white white. Unfortunately it's rained every minute of every day since we bought it so haven't had a chance to really see it under the bright sunlight. Your comment about the aux quality has prompted me to go try out my player and check the quality. I've got an iPod and several other brands so I'll try and little comparo and get back with you on it. Hey, I've been using those awful cassette adapters in both my rigs so this has got to be an improvement over that scenario.

OK, I compared an iPod nano and an iaudio U3 using the aux input on my 08 QX56. The only real complaint I have is the volume is a little lacking. In my opinion they could have boosted the signal a little more but I have the same issue on every home system I’ve ever plugged one of these portable mp3 players into so it’s no big surprise. I recorded several songs at 128kb/sec for the test and found the both bass and treble to be more than acceptable. I’ve found that bit rates less than 128k are noticeable but 192k to be overkill on these players. At least to my ear 128kb/sec seems to be the sweet spot. Another thing to remember is that every recording is different so just because you’re converting from an audio CD to MP3 at 128kb/sec doesn’t mean every MP3 file is going to come out the same. For example my Def Leppard, Pyromania CD sounds like it was recorded on cassette tape whereas Yes, 90125 has phenomenal dynamic range. The Yes album is also recorded at a higher volume which directly translates to higher volume after the CD to MP3 conversion. I guess the biggest problem I have now with the whole AUX thing is it’s just one more thing hanging off my dash that’s not really necessary as long as I keep my favorite tunes on a CF card, which, by the way doesn’t suffer from the volume issue. I wasn’t aware of the 512 files boundary on the CF reader but lucky for us compact flash has come down in price to the point that having 2 or 3 loaded up with songs isn’t a big deal and it allows you to separate out your music by card instead of using the dial on the dash to scroll through a 100 albums to find the song you’re looking for.
Modified by q56er at 6:27 PM 2/13/2008