Choice vs. Quality

[smashedcd]

On one of my radios the Dial Global standards station sounds like someone is tearing up the street in the background. Or I get squealing on another radio if it's not tuned just right, or oither stations in the background at certain times of day.

The Worthless Classics station (when I bothered to listen) always has an alternative station in the background, or an urban adult station if I try to get away from the alternative station. Unless the weather is just right.

I'm not going to be picky.

your radio is fried then. i dont hear anything but classical music on the classical music channels.

 

[vchimpanzee]

On one of my radios the Dial Global standards station sounds like someone is tearing up the street in the background. Or I get squealing on another radio if it's not tuned just right, or oither stations in the background at certain times of day.

your radio is fried then. i dont hear anything but classical music on the classical music channels.

Well, I am some distance away from the station, but it comes in clearly on other radios.

The Worthless Classics station (when I bothered to listen) always has an alternative station in the background, or an urban adult station if I try to get away from the alternative station. Unless the weather is just right.

I'm not going to be picky.

your radio is fried then. i dont hear anything but classical music on the classical music channels.

I am some distance away, and it is .4 away from both stations that I mentioned. And I am a lot closer to the tower of the rock station than I am to the urban station.

 

[mikl73]

On one of my radios the Dial Global standards station sounds like someone is tearing up the street in the background. Or I get squealing on another radio if it's not tuned just right, or oither stations in the background at certain times of day.

your radio is fried then. i dont hear anything but classical music on the classical music channels.

Well, I am some distance away from the station, but it comes in clearly on other radios.

The Worthless Classics station (when I bothered to listen) always has an alternative station in the background, or an urban adult station if I try to get away from the alternative station. Unless the weather is just right.

I'm not going to be picky.

your radio is fried then. i dont hear anything but classical music on the classical music channels.

I am some distance away, and it is .4 away from both stations that I mentioned. And I am a lot closer to the tower of the rock station than I am to the urban station.

XM channels are not transmitted from different locations

All XM channels are transmitted from 2 geostationary satellites named Rhythm and Blues. In many areas there are also ground based repeaters.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I'm not sure what one has to do with the other. Then again, you're probably telling me I wouldn't have the problem with XM. Most of my radios do pretty well with Dial Global. Except close to or after dark, or at sunrise.

 

[sbe1]

The audio quality sucks. I have a fair quality car stereo and I have to EQ the highs all the way up and boost the bass to get it somewhat listenable. I find the tune out or fatigue factor is high. I can hear artifacts in a lot of the music channels. On the music channels the audio is about the same a AM HD quality which isnt saying much. On the talk channels, the bandwidth is already so low you can hear the swishing artifacts almost all the time and the quality is much worse than a bad AM station. One thing they need to do is put a 25/35 hz filter in their talk channels as I can hear the relay closure signals being sent. Very annoying. The weather/traffic channels are almost unlistenable the quality is cell phone quality, so poor. As a broadcast engineer, I've made AM stations sound much better.

 

[XM RADIO]

!00% satisfied, in fact its Audio is alot better than my Sirius reciever, and going across the SF bay Bridge XM is the Choice, Sirius you have to tune into 88.3 in SF, XMs 29.99 Sportscaster is on powerful reciever, Thanks to Carlos at Circuit City in Antioch Calif for the Deal! Kenny in Concord

 

[PaulO]

The audio quality sucks. I have a fair quality car stereo and I have to EQ the highs all the way up and boost the bass to get it somewhat listenable. I find the tune out or fatigue factor is high. I can hear artifacts in a lot of the music channels. On the music channels the audio is about the same a AM HD quality which isnt saying much. On the talk channels, the bandwidth is already so low you can hear the swishing artifacts almost all the time and the quality is much worse than a bad AM station. One thing they need to do is put a 25/35 hz filter in their talk channels as I can hear the relay closure signals being sent. Very annoying. The weather/traffic channels are almost unlistenable the quality is cell phone quality, so poor. As a broadcast engineer, I've made AM stations sound much better.


There is a big difference between the audio quallity of America right 166 and Air America 167. Does the channel number have anything to do with anything? I wouldn't think so but don't know for sure.

Are they planning to put on anymore HD channels as they call 76 and 113?

 

[smashedcd]

There is a big difference between the audio quallity of America right 166 and Air America 167. Does the channel number have anything to do with anything? I wouldn't think so but don't know for sure.

america right is clear channel. air america is xm. clear channel has diffrent procesing than xm. thats the diffrence. ps i dont listen to either ;D

 

[PaulO]

There is a big difference between the audio quallity of America right 166 and Air America 167. Does the channel number have anything to do with anything? I wouldn't think so but don't know for sure.

america right is clear channel. air america is xm. clear channel has diffrent procesing than xm. thats the diffrence. ps i dont listen to either ;D


I don't think America right is clear channel. They run the same promos in the comerical breaks as the other XM channels that clear channel isn't involved with.

 

[GRAYWOLF]

I would gladly give up channels...as long as I could choose the chanels!!!

 

[scanman1]

XM's audio is still decent considering the number of channels they have now. I don't see the need to drop any channels. 8)

 

[smashedcd]

XM's audio is still decent considering the number of channels they have now. I don't see the need to drop any channels. 8)

...


it depends a lot on the radio. the new gen portables are a lot better than the old skyfi's and roadys. the roady xt even sounds like crap! my new audiovox xpress sounds excellent! i put 225 miles on my new xpress today. never did turn on my sirius radio 8)

 

[cyberdad]

The audio quality sucks. 

Yes it does...and if they don't fix it, "I'm outta here". I thought it might just be my first gen sky-fi....but that sounds great on the few channels with full bandwidth (113 for example). The clincher was driving a 2007 model rental car with a high end audio system. The audio on most music channels still sucks....the fm was a vast improvement, and even the am sound quality was just about as good.

I don't mind all the artifacts and other slop on the news/talk/sports channels, but why would anyone want to put up with the garbage sound on so many of the music channels?

 

[smashedcd]

The audio quality sucks.

Yes it does...and if they don't fix it, "I'm outta here". I thought it might just be my first gen sky-fi....but that sounds great on the few channels with full bandwidth (113 for example). The clincher was driving a 2007 model rental car with a high end audio system. The audio on most music channels still sucks....the fm was a vast improvement, and even the am sound quality was just about as good.

I don't mind all the artifacts and other slop on the news/talk/sports channels, but why would anyone want to put up with the garbage sound on so many of the music channels?

i listened to xm 10 this afternoon on a drive. it sounded great! if you want cd quality. than by god cancel and invest in some cds :

 

[cyberdad]

if you want cd quality. than by god cancel and invest in some cds :

Um....yeah.  I've done that, and also I've invested in my Ipod.  Not to mention the superior quality of high-bandwidth steaming audio.  And...at least so far...IMHO, those are all better investments than my cheap, tinny-sounding satellite radio.

Philosophically, I think satellite radio is a great concept. I still have high hopes for it, and I hope that they fix the audio problems.  The XM classical music channels give me hope that it can and will be done.  Cruddy sound quality on some of the music channels is really my only gripe....but its a big one.  A deal-breaker for me.

 

[DashRiprock]

I've heard ads on XM for additional channels. Techies: Does this mean more compression for every channel?

 

[ImageOrthicon]

Re: XM Choice vs. Quality

I agree, XM audio quality sucks.

Most music channels have artifacts that sound like a badly adjusted multiband expander and at times certain instruments and musical subtleties just disappear from the mix. Thankfully the music channels don't have the same level of artifacts that the talk channels do (I cannot/will not listen to those at all). But... if I wanted to hear music that sounded like it was coming from underneath a blanket and with no good extended low end to speak of (and forget about the exaggerated L-R), I'd go back to my old 8 track player.

It would be different (maybe) if you could 'fix' those issues with EQ, but there is just nothing left there to bring up. On most material (and material that I know very well, BTW) there's nothing above about 5-6kHz and below 120Hz. They should ditch those Neural Audio preconditioning boxes 'cause they're probably not doing anything useful in front of the codecs except rolling off the frequency extremes. If that's what they want/need, it could certainly be done lots of 'other' ways.

Good thing that iPods can record linear as that's what's in the car now (XM is reserved for when I get desperate). In fact I cringe when I see XM touting "more channels to come" because all that means to me is that the existing channels will be robbed of even more bits in order to make the new ones fit.

XM, if you're reading this, we have enough channels already! It's time to live up to the audio quality brag and testimonials posted on your website - you know, the one that likely refers back to the early days when the music channels had enough bits.

 

[hman]

all u guys gripe about sound quality,in my little ford focus XM sounds great better than FM,also at home on my aiwa surround system even sounds better,maybe u guys need to change the cars u have and the stereo systems u have at home. :

 

[DashRiprock]

all u guys gripe about sound quality,in my little ford focus XM sounds great better than FM,also at home on my aiwa surround system even sounds better,maybe u guys need to change the cars u have and the stereo systems u have at home. :

XM’s audio quality is comparable to medium bandwidth streams on the Internet. When I listen to my radio on a relatively high end system the compression is more obvious than in my car. For the purpose of this thread, I’ll put you in the “more choices” column. I’ll stay over here on the higher quality side.

I have two subs and I love XM, but I’m a little disappointed in the audio and it looks like even more compression is on the way.

 

[ImageOrthicon]

Maybe if it was "free" I wouldn't complain about the shitty quality. But like many others who are on the "choices" side and who think the quality is fine (and that's okay with me if they're happy with the sound), I'm paying for this service (two receivers) and expect more in terms of the overall listening experience.

That said, I don't generally have issues with the content and enjoy the depth of the playlist on many of the music channels. But I gotta say that the artifacts that I hear, both from the coding process itself and from the attempts of the Neural gear to pre-process the audio prior to the coding really drives me nuts. I think I'd almost rather hear just the pure coding artifacts instead of the combination of those AND the dynamics and spectral manipulation going on.

And yes, I know there is no free lunch when coded audio comes into play, especially at the lower bitrates.