Just heard Sirius for 1st Time

[ricoontheradio]

Anyone else have experience with Sirius or XM in really-big electrical stroms?

Yes, drove through Texas during a very ugly electrical storm. XM stayed "strong." I put strong in quote because their quality has really gone downhill lately.

Side note: I called XM a couple of weeks ago to cancel because the quality was just becoming unlistenable. After them trying to tell me that I'm crazy, they then say "It is company policy to give your our service for three months free in hopes we can re-gain your confidence in XM."

Do they plan on changing something for the better in the next 90 days? ha! right!

 

[smashedcd]

Anyone else have experience with Sirius or XM in really-big electrical stroms?

Yes, drove through Texas during a very ugly electrical storm. XM stayed "strong." I put strong in quote because their quality has really gone downhill lately.

Side note: I called XM a couple of weeks ago to cancel because the quality was just becoming unlistenable. After them trying to tell me that I'm crazy, they then say "It is company policy to give your our service for three months free in hopes we can re-gain your confidence in XM."

Do they plan on changing something for the better in the next 90 days? ha! right!

i am keeping xm for sports. i need to call and cancel to get the three free months ;D

 

[XM RADIO]

XM and Sirius, i have both, and Im a big fan of "Wolfman Jack" on XM, that is my favorite show! XM is the First Sat. I got when KRFC 99.7 changed their format in 2005. I have to say Sirius Gold is "Out of Sight" I heard it at Circuit City in Concord , the line up was exactly what I wanted!! They play a blend of late 50 s up to 1964 on "Sirius Gold" XM just didnt play what they did!! But XM has Phlash Phelps and his morning show is great! Im a big fan of Satelite Radio, What a great replacement for Terrestrial radio! And finally @ 12.95 a month, its a mere 44 cents a day for commercial free radio !! Its a Bargain!! Kenny in Concord Calif. 6 XM s and one Sirius!!

 

[stljohn]

Drove the rental car from St Louis to Chicago on the Nov 10th. It was just starting to rain in STL, with plenty of lightning static on the AM dial. I remembered the car had Sirius 184 enabled, so I thought I'd check the weather on Sirius.
It did not work. Not once, during the 300 mile drive did I hear anything decode.
Don't the satts work in rainy weather? I was able to hear the AMs' weather from either STL or Chicago, despite some static crashes..

antenna problem. my sirius works in tornado weather. it never doesnt work.

agrree. i live in st louis and have been on the road to Chi and St Paul, the only exception is when I get stuck under some overpasses.

 

[Tom Wells]

Maybe the service was just out on that period (5PM-10PM) and the electrical storm was coincidental.
Unfortunately, I could not check other channels on that radio.
I will be in Houston tomorrow. Who knows what that rental car will offer?

Let us hope its not another one with a 5-day old sippy-cup of milk festering under a rear seat.

 

[Tom Wells]

Re: Just heard Sirius MUSIC for the 1st time.

Well, this week's rental car is another PT Cruiser, with fully enabled Sirius. I thought XM seemed bad (2 yrs ago).
This is unlistenable and unacceptable. Subscription indeed. We should be paid to endure such distortion.
8-tracks actually sounded better, and didn't have swirlies.
Blech, Blecchh.

 

[smashedcd]

Re: Just heard Sirius MUSIC for the 1st time.

Well, this week's rental car is another PT Cruiser, with fully enabled Sirius. I thought XM seemed bad (2 yrs ago).
This is unlistenable and unacceptable. Subscription indeed. We should be paid to endure such distortion.
8-tracks actually sounded better, and didn't have swirlies.
Blech, Blecchh.

yea whatever

 

[Tom Wells]

yea whatever

I really did want to find out that the Sirius sounded better than the XM.
I do not have a chip on my shoulder, and actually welcomed the new sat services as possible source for CONTENT.
But I am very disappointed in the lossy compression, and accurately relating it.
I'm not just here to rag, and have no interest other than upholding the high standard of RF engineering I was trained in.

It is disapponting that the quality/streams ratio so decidely degrades the audio.
May I respectfully ask your age and audio-tech choices?

My perspective is that of one who has hand-wound many coils, designed and built many radios, all tube, and operate a pt 15 AM
of my own design with 20-20khz response and expect BETTER from the professional radio industry.

My cobbled-up AM band antique wood-case baby monitor sounds better than anything I've heard on XM or Sirius, and that's sad.

 

[AZJoe]

Come listen to Sirius in my new 2008 Dodge Avenger with its OEM/Boston Acoustics MyGiG system. It blows FM away, and it has superior sound. You keep getting sucked into bad equipment, do you think 15 million people are wrong and you are right? The only swirlly you'll get is one from Bart Simpson in the john!!

 

[OldNumber7]

yea whatever

I really did want to find out that the Sirius sounded better than the XM.
I do not have a chip on my shoulder, and actually welcomed the new sat services as possible source for CONTENT.
But I am very disappointed in the lossy compression, and accurately relating it.

You know what? You're right. There is no way you and other audiophiles will enjoy Sirius. Even under the best circumstances, it will sound like crap to you. But the other 99.9 percent of the population either doesn't notice, or doesn't care. In my case, as an aging baby-boomer, my ears can no longer detect the advantages in true high-end audio (and my wallet can't afford it anyway). Stick with your $20,000 speakers and turntables and restored Scott tube amps. Meanwhile, I'll be driving down the highway with loads of good tunes on and no commercials.

 

[Tom Wells]

yea whatever

I really did want to find out that the Sirius sounded better than the XM.
I do not have a chip on my shoulder, and actually welcomed the new sat services as possible source for CONTENT.
But I am very disappointed in the lossy compression, and accurately relating it.

You know what? You're right. There is no way you and other audiophiles will enjoy Sirius. Even under the best circumstances, it will sound like crap to you. But the other 99.9 percent of the population either doesn't notice, or doesn't care. In my case, as an aging baby-boomer, my ears can no longer detect the advantages in true high-end audio (and my wallet can't afford it anyway). Stick with your $20,000 speakers and turntables and restored Scott tube amps. Meanwhile, I'll be driving down the highway with loads of good tunes on and no commercials.

I am satisfied with far less than any of what you are suggesting. I couldn't afford them either. I am saying that unfortunately the satellites aren't
broadcasting in "broadcast quality", even to the level of telephone land-line POTS.

I am quite sure every one of my instructors in radio school would also agree this is not acceptable broadcast quality.

I have nameless crummy speakers built into wall baffles, and an unrestored old tube MacIntosh, but do almost all my listening
at home in mono via hi-fi AM radios fed by pt 15 AM.

I wish I had heard what they sounded like before the overloading happened.
Can anyone tell me if they did sound better, and was it ever as pure as perfect FM?

 

[firstimelongtime]

I don't know that you can use rental cars to compare sound quality. I recently rented a Chrysler Sebring with (all channels enabled) Sirrus. I was very pleased with the sound quality, significantly better than my two personal XM radios. Unfortunately we went through three Sebrings that week in order to get one that didn't have a significant major mechanical issue.

A week later I rented a Cadillacs CTS with XM/Bose and was very unpleasantly surprised at the poor sound quality.

 

[zman]

I don't know that you can use rental cars to compare sound quality. I recently rented a Chrysler Sebring with (all channels enabled) Sirrus. I was very pleased with the sound quality, significantly better than my two personal XM radios. Unfortunately we went through three Sebrings that week in order to get one that didn't have a significant major mechanical issue.

A week later I rented a Cadillacs CTS with XM/Bose and was very unpleasantly surprised at the poor sound quality.


Just to throw my two cents in on the SIRIUS sound quality debate. Our receiver in the house sounds great. It's hooked up to a great stereo system. the one in the car however gets a little tinty sounding if that's the right word to use. To me though the tinty sound is worth putting up with to have the commercial free music channels. It bothers me more than my wife. She claims she does not notice it.