Listen to SiriusXM Free Through December 6

[Mikey Radio]

I noticed today that SiriusXM has many channels switched on and available without a subscription. According to their website, they'll be offering certain channels for free through December 6.

I often tune in during these free periods to see if the audio quality has improved enough for me to consider subscribing, because at the time I bought my latest vehicle and got a free 6 month subscription, the music stations especially were almost unlistenable to me as the audio was so thin, most likely due to bandwidth restrictions. Today I only listened for a bit to "Holly" which is their Christmas music channel on 105. Again, to my ears it was thin and somewhat lifeless, especially compared to FM radio or selections from my iPod. The first song that came on was Josh Groban's "O Holy Night". His rendition has a strong and powerful bass line and when listening to it on SiriusXM, it just doesn't have the same presence.

 

[Ai4i]

The problem with commercial FM stations is that the VU meters are never allowed to drop below 99%.
The Sirius and XM networks both allow for dynamic range:
FROM THIS (to this)

 

[Kelly A]

Today I only listened for a bit to "Holly" which is their Christmas music channel on 105. Again, to my ears it was thin and somewhat lifeless, especially compared to FM radio or selections from my iPod. The first song that came on was Josh Groban's "O Holy Night". His rendition has a strong and powerful bass line and when listening to it on SiriusXM, it just doesn't have the same presence.

As Ai4i mentioned, SXM does a small amount of software-based audio processing as compared with FM that needs to (in theory) stay within 75kHz. deviation. Thinking over processed audio is a good thing is for someone enamored with audio processing and loudness, not most listeners.

 

[Mikey Radio]

As Ai4i mentioned, SXM does a small amount of software-based audio processing as compared with FM that needs to (in theory) stay within 75kHz. deviation. Thinking over processed audio is a good thing is for someone enamored with audio processing and loudness, not most listeners.

I believe you worked for them at one point @Kelly A so you probably know more about their processing than most here. That said, I'm not the first person on this site to comment on how crappy the audio, both spoken word and music, on SiriusXM sounds. It's almost mid-rangy and lifeless, without crisp highs or a solid bass presence. Others have commented that it's a bandwidth issue and that they were trying to solve it a bit when launching new or additional satellites. Again, I'm sure you can speak to those types of tech questions better than most.

Tastes in audio can be subjective. For me the audio from SiriusXM just doesn't sound as good as other sources, certainly not good enough to entice me to want to subscribe long-term.

 

[Kelly A]

I believe you worked for them at one point @Kelly A so you probably know more about their processing than most here. That said, I'm not the first person on this site to comment on how crappy the audio, both spoken word and music, on SiriusXM sounds. It's almost mid-rangy and lifeless, without crisp highs or a solid bass presence. Others have commented that it's a bandwidth issue and that they were trying to solve it a bit when launching new or additional satellites. Again, I'm sure you can speak to those types of tech questions better than most.

Sirius in particular has taken a legitimate beating as to the audio quality over the years. Much of that was due to cramming in more formats and channels left some channels sounding bit-starved. The new recent satellites replacing the second generation birds have much more bandwidth, and to me, the quality is much improved. To my knowledge they aren't processing any more or less, but there are just many more bits in the bucket.