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XM Music Channels Switching to MONO

J

JohnnyElectron

WTF, has anybody else noticed that about a half dozen of the (original XM DC-based) music channels have crappy MONO audio now? That includes the highly rated channel ESCAPE? Bad enough they compress the heck out of everything, but they take a station with an excellent TSL rating and one that has 98% stereo music content and switch it to mono? Thanks for nothing Mel. Why don't they make their 'single artist' channels mono and see how customers like that (although Elvis has probably an above average mono library, yet remains in stereo)?

Even stranger, Escape is still in (swrilly, metallic) stereo on Sirius, but mono on XM. I don't have a smartphone and I'm not going to pay to stream in my car when I spent money on an XM plug-n-play radio, only to have the satellite radio audio quality reduced even further (going from 40KBS, to 32KBS, to mono).

Do you think that there's anybody at SiriusXM that we can contact that actually cares about the audio quality from the birds on XM anymore?
 
XM may have switched these channels to Parametric Stereo. This means that older XM radios would receive them in mono, but newer radios should still receive stereo. I don't know if this is what they did or not, it's just a thought.
 
Johnathan said:
XM may have switched these channels to Parametric Stereo. This means that older XM radios would receive them in mono, but newer radios should still receive stereo. I don't know if this is what they did or not, it's just a thought.
Click to expand...

They're in mono on my Edge, not exactly a older radio :-\
 
Last time I checked, The 40s on 4 was the highest quality station on XM. I always figured that it was because it was encoded in mono at the same bitrate as their stereo offerings.

Since I'm no longer a subscriber, do you know if the quality of The 40s on 4 has changed?
 
Kids Place Live is in mono on my XM as well. I listen with the children in the car. It sounds bad through my XM radio. If I stream through the Sirius app on my iPhone, it sounds great, is stereo, the way it used to be on XM.
 
SiriusXM Customer Service - 'got your ears on'?

Can you please get with your technical staff and find out what is happening to the XM channel audio going to mono instead of stereo? Thanks.
(assuming SXM tech support actually reads any of these posts?)
 
At first I would have guessed that by switching some channels to mono, it would allow them to squeeze more channels into the already tight bandwidth XM has to work with. It’s still a bummer, but if it means more content selection, then I suppose I can understand.

However, if it is in fact because of the use of Parametric Stereo for newer receivers as Johnathan suggested, then that’s just not cool at all. I still use the Pioneer Inno as it’s all I need or want to use. I shouldn’t be forced to buy a new receiver because of this technical change. If it can’t be fully backwards compatible, then it should never be implemented.

I don’t listen to XM as much as I used to since getting an iPhone. So much great content can be streamed online. The Inno is great in the sense that I don’t have to worry at all about data use, but then again, I could also just take that $9.99 I give to SiriusXM and buy more data. Probably what I’ll end up doing in the long run anyways.
 
Read Here for the reason why they are in Mono. On the Sirius side the music channels are all in stereo.

From Pop2K's FB:
We are in mono, they took part of our signal to split with another channel. And to answer you question no we do not know when we will get that stereo capacity on satellite back. We weren't really informed it was going to happen but we are trying to make some noise about it. And no this channel is not going anywhere that we are aware of
 
How is it that Sirius can still have these channels in (swirly) stereo, but XM can't fit them in stereo? We don't need any more woman's talk BS channels; leave our damn music channels in stereo on the birds dammit. And how did they decide what channels to fork-over? No logic was used for that test, that's for sure.
 
I dropped Sirius shortly after the merger. I dropped them then because the content also shrunk. Several times over the course of that time, I would listen in on free weekends/holiday, etc when my radio was reactivated. Each time I could see why I didn't want to come back and pay for that poor quality.

Just for the heck of it, after reading this post, I checked on my friends' Sirius/XM radio in his truck and sure enough, mono. That is just downright sad in my opinion to pay for quality and get that. What a sorry state of affairs that they won't just take the time to realize how poor the service is becoming and listen to their subscribers. I am absolutely surprised they have managed to stay afloat this long with their business model.
 
nocomradio said:
I dropped Sirius shortly after the merger. I dropped them then because the content also shrunk. Several times over the course of that time, I would listen in on free weekends/holiday, etc when my radio was reactivated. Each time I could see why I didn't want to come back and pay for that poor quality.

Just for the heck of it, after reading this post, I checked on my friends' Sirius/XM radio in his truck and sure enough, mono. That is just downright sad in my opinion to pay for quality and get that. What a sorry state of affairs that they won't just take the time to realize how poor the service is becoming and listen to their subscribers. I am absolutely surprised they have managed to stay afloat this long with their business model.
Click to expand...


It's awful the only reason I like it and keep it is for the NASCAR channel. The message is bad now and so is prime country.
 
Escape is stereo on my Onyx. But the seperation seems to be reduced from what I remember of the LPs that I have.
 
K6JHU, try Escape again; put on headphones; XM69 is MONO as Vincent VanGogh can get. Also true for XM14, XM5 and XM50 - all mono garbage in addition to those previously monoized: xm4 & the two kids' channels.

Meanwhile XM11, 12 & 13 have the highest quality of the music channels! Thanks to Clear Channel.
 
JohnnyElectron said:
How is it that Sirius can still have these channels in (swirly) stereo, but XM can't fit them in stereo?
Click to expand...

Is it possible that Sirius/XM is trying to phase out XM? Do they want us to cancel our XM subscriptions and get a Sirius subscription. Just asking.
 
On the contrary, XM is the one that is being saved, and will be used totally in the future, not the Sirius transmission.
 
Tried 'Escape' today. Sounds like mono. Trouble is that this is a channel that cries out for stereo.

I may go and record some audio using Audacity and check by eye.
 
Thanks for the posts about the mono situation.. Now I have noticed it ...excuse me but maybe if they halfed Mels pay they could lower the subscription rate. Think I will ring em up and ask for a rebate. When I first started, it was like $8 and I had two radios...geez. Getting as bad as Dish Network. Not even a kiss!!! will post what they say after I call em.
 
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