Which is better Digital Cable Music Channels or Sirius?

[willdav713]

I have Time Warner Digital Standard Service with a set top box which receives the Music Choice Channels.

My father has a Toyota Avalon with Satellite Radio installed. Also Direct TV which has the Sonic Tap channels.

The music sounds better on Time Warner's Music Choice channels.

XM sounds way to compressed like listening to AM but without the noise.

So which one do you prefer Digital Cable Music Channels, Direct TV or Dish Music Channels, or XM Satellite Radio?

What is your take on the quality comparison?

 

[K6JHU]

I have Music Choice (cable) and XM. I would say that generally Music Choice has better sound. But not in the car which is where I listen to XM. Can't get Music Choice in the car

Sometimes I like the announcers (XM) and sometimes I prefer not to have the announcers (Music Choice). It is a toss up.

For channels that have comparable programming, Music Choice seems to have a wider playlist than XM. But sicne Music Choice is 41 channels where I live and XM is 100+, I can see why the playlists are wider on Music Choice.

 

[willdav713]

I have Music Choice (cable) and XM. I would say that generally Music Choice has better sound. But not in the car which is where I listen to XM. Can't get Music Choice in the car

Sometimes I like the announcers (XM) and sometimes I prefer not to have the announcers (Music Choice). It is a toss up.

For channels that have comparable programming, Music Choice seems to have a wider playlist than XM. But sicne Music Choice is 41 channels where I live and XM is 100+, I can see why the playlists are wider on Music Choice.

I can do Music Choice in a car, well one that has a CD player or cassette. My set top box is connected to my Home Theatre system Onkyo with a Pioneer CD Recorder, and Optimus Dual Cassette Deck. Of course I can then rip the CD onto USB and use that.

I would agree that it is missing the announcers. Though my favorite is the Solid Gold Oldies Channel, I just don't like the fact the XM only has Decades and not one channel where the 60s, 70s, and some 50s is added on just one channel.

I thought about getting an XM Walkman until I heard all the horror stories about it.

 

[Darth_vader]

Re: Which is better?

"So which one do you prefer: Music Choice, Sonic Tap, Muzak or XM Satellite?"

Muzak, obviously. They've been doing it the longest, so they'd know a few things about how it's done. DMX's programming can be somewhat repetitive and doesn't have the variety, yet the audio is usually good quality and easily rivals Muzak. Music Choice sounded okay the few times I've heard it, although a bit too "pumpy" (they seem to have their compression set a little high sometimes.)

I've never heard (of) "Sonic Tap" so I can't comment on it--I never use DSS; it's a DVB world nowdays.

XM Satellite/Sirius Satellite: consistently bad audio ~95% of the time; useless for music. They also have commercials and talkovers (which D and M don't), therefore decreasing their usefulness significantly.

 

[willdav713]

Re: Which is better?

"So which one do you prefer: Music Choice, Sonic Tap, Muzak or XM Satellite?"

Muzak, obviously. They've been doing it the longest, so they'd know a few things about how it's done. DMX's programming can be somewhat repetitive and doesn't have the variety, yet the audio is usually good quality and easily rivals Muzak. Music Choice sounded okay the few times I've heard it, although a bit too "pumpy" (they seem to have their compression set a little high sometimes.)

I've never heard (of) "Sonic Tap" so I can't comment on it--I never use DSS; it's a DVB world nowdays.

XM Satellite/Sirius Satellite: consistently bad audio ~95% of the time; useless for music. They also have commercials and talkovers (which D and M don't), therefore decreasing their usefulness significantly.

That pumping could be from your cable signal not pushing enough bandwidth. I have perfect cabling and dbs, so perfect the converter box is hooked up to a room that uses RG-59. Main line is RG-6 and it connects to a coax jack that is feed through the roof to the bedroom. Setup works good for my A/B Switch (Watch one channel and switch it and record another) But I guess that is because I live in an Apartment. Could also be your amp to, as I connected mine to a vintage 70's Sanyo Quadraphonic receiver.

 

[Darth_vader]

I wasn't listening via cable (Crapcast wants everybody to give them money for Music Choice stuff here, so it's not on QAM), this was directly off one of the Galaxy birds about a year ago on my Pansat, when the MC DVB transponder was still up. No, I wouldn't dare listen to the third or fourth-generation bit-starved, reprocessed stuff that goes out over the cable when I can get a cleaner sounding, first-generation copy off the air. (I've heard what ¢om¢a$t Vancouver puts out, and it's vile. I'd say it probably goes out at 80K at best, and in stereo yet.)

This is due to the dynamic range processing being set too aggressively either at Music Choice or the uplink, not the data rate.

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* I think DMX, on the other hand, might still be in the clear on G17 C-band but it's been a long time since I've scanned out the band (reason: lack of a suitable dish.)