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XM Radio's Sound Quality is BRUTAL

R

russhaney

Guest
I know this is probably like beating a dead horse, but I have been a subscriber to Sirius for 3 years and my new car came with XM installed, so I figured I would try it out. I get 1 free year of XM... XM couldnt pay me to carry their service for a year. It is worse than listening to a 32k Shoutcast stream. Content and programming is great.... sound quality is unlistenable. it's AWFUL.

Of course they wanted to blame the 8 BOSE speakers in my car on the bad sound quality. Has this always been an issue with XM?, or is it because XM is now avail in Canada? I have been talking to A LOT of XM people on the internet and they have actually told me that the sound quality has improved over the last 2-3 months.... please tell me this isn't so, and only a temp. sound quality issue.

As for the programming of the stations.... hands down XM is better than Sirius, which is why I am a little upset about the sound quality :(
<P ID="signature">______________
www.1club.fm</P>
 
Depends on what you're listening to. Some use more audio processing than others, but I think overall the music channels on XM sound decent. (Closer to a 128K feed than a 32K.)
Most of the talk offerings sound good. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News sound just as good as the cable feeds.
Among the spoken-word offerings, I'd most like to see Radio Classics (164) improved. I think the channel is now in full fidelity, but the shows are digitally processed with some sort of noise-reducing gating which also clips the highs.
The lowest-fi channels are the weather/traffic channels (210-230), Canada 360 (channel 244), emergency info channel (247), the French channel on 245, deportivos (147), and the Spanish baseball channel on 190.
Getting back to Radio Classics, the bad quality is intermittent, thus seemingly due to the way the source material is processed.
Not the way it was originally, because the "Gunsmoke" series is normally quite clean in most places, and these vary according to noise level/modulation.
By contrast, Sonic Theater on 163 doesn't use this annoying processing. I'd rather hear noise than gating.
 
> I know this is probably like beating a dead horse, but I
> have been a subscriber to Sirius for 3 years and my new car
> came with XM installed, so I figured I would try it out. I
> get 1 free year of XM... XM couldnt pay me to carry their
> service for a year. It is worse than listening to a 32k
> Shoutcast stream. Content and programming is great.... sound
> quality is unlistenable. it's AWFUL.
>
> Of course they wanted to blame the 8 BOSE speakers in my car
> on the bad sound quality. Has this always been an issue with
> XM?, or is it because XM is now avail in Canada? I have been
> talking to A LOT of XM people on the internet and they have
> actually told me that the sound quality has improved over
> the last 2-3 months.... please tell me this isn't so, and
> only a temp. sound quality issue.
>
> As for the programming of the stations.... hands down XM is
> better than Sirius, which is why I am a little upset about
> the sound quality :(
>

All depends on the radio and the setup. But there will always be those artifacts from the AAC compression they use. I got a Roady2 in August of this year and the FM modulater sounded poor. Direct connection to the computer sounded like a CD.

Now I have a Myfi. The modulater sounds great. Direct connect sounds more poopy.

Skyfi's are supposed to be good apparently.


The traffic/weather channels and the Canadian news channels are EXTREMELY compressed to the point where it sounds like a robot is talking to you.
<P ID="signature">______________

</P>
 
My parents have a new car (2006 Maxima) with the Bose speakers and the built-in XM radio. The quality is very bad! I'm not sure if the speaker setup makes it worse, as music from my own CDs do sound mediocre at best, or if the tuner/decoder is having an effect.

You're very right to say it's like a 32k stream, it's actually so bad there are harmonics adding additional "melodies" to the music. I've heard a Roady played over stock radio and speakers in a Chrysler minivan with both cassette or modulator and it sounded better.

Anyone know why XM's sound quality is even worse in these car installs?<P ID="signature">______________
здравствулте!</P>
 
> Depends on what you're listening to. Some use more audio
> processing than others, but I think overall the music
> channels on XM sound decent. (Closer to a 128K feed than a
> 32K.)
> Most of the talk offerings sound good. CNN, MSNBC and Fox
> News sound just as good as the cable feeds.
> Among the spoken-word offerings, I'd most like to see Radio
> Classics (164) improved. I think the channel is now in full
> fidelity, but the shows are digitally processed with some
> sort of noise-reducing gating which also clips the highs.
> The lowest-fi channels are the weather/traffic channels
> (210-230), Canada 360 (channel 244), emergency info channel
> (247), the French channel on 245, deportivos (147), and the
> Spanish baseball channel on 190.
> Getting back to Radio Classics, the bad quality is
> intermittent, thus seemingly due to the way the source
> material is processed.
> Not the way it was originally, because the "Gunsmoke" series
> is normally quite clean in most places, and these vary
> according to noise level/modulation.
> By contrast, Sonic Theater on 163 doesn't use this annoying
> processing. I'd rather hear noise than gating.
>
This all leads me to wonder something. I have the old Sky Fi 1. Do the music channels sound any better on the newer Sky Fi 2? Of course, now I'm using DirectTV for home listening/recording, and it really does sound like a CD. Have it fed through my computer and I'm using Bose computer speakers. Only place I've used the Sky Fi recently is in the boombox, but if the Sky Fi 2 sounds better, I may consider upgrading at some point.
 
> My parents have a new car (2006 Maxima) with the Bose
> speakers and the built-in XM radio. The quality is very bad!
> I'm not sure if the speaker setup makes it worse, as music
> from my own CDs do sound mediocre at best, or if the
> tuner/decoder is having an effect.
>
> You're very right to say it's like a 32k stream, it's
> actually so bad there are harmonics adding additional
> "melodies" to the music. I've heard a Roady played over
> stock radio and speakers in a Chrysler minivan with both
> cassette or modulator and it sounded better.
>
> Anyone know why XM's sound quality is even worse in these
> car installs?
>

LOL - same car i have. I took it up to Best Buy today.. and they had me buy a $29 FM adapter thing and wanted to charge me $60 to install it.. so I said what the hell... well when I pulled my car in there.. they said that I had to take it to the dealership because they did not want to touch the navigation screen on my dashboard... Im pretty sure that you are hearing what I am hearing, which is a HUGE disappointment.. It just sounds awful... so anyways, I will let you know if this solves the problem... keeping fingers crossed. If this does not solve the problem, then I will have to go back to Sirius.. I know Sirius is not as good as CD, but waaaaaaaaay better sound quality than XM.

Now, from what I have been hearing on XM so far.

Kiss - much better than Sirius Hits 1
BPM - Kicks the living (BLEEP) out of The Beat
Country channels are nowhere near as good as Sirius :(
Everything else is pretty much the same as the other.
<P ID="signature">______________
www.1club.fm</P>
 
> This all leads me to wonder something. I have the old Sky
> Fi 1. Do the music channels sound any better on the newer
> Sky Fi 2? Of course, now I'm using DirectTV for home
> listening/recording, and it really does sound like a CD.
> Have it fed through my computer and I'm using Bose computer
> speakers. Only place I've used the Sky Fi recently is in
> the boombox, but if the Sky Fi 2 sounds better, I may
> consider upgrading at some point.
>

i have a skyfi 2 in my car and couldn't be happier. it sounds great. i can't tell the difference between the car and the boombox in my office. i do have it hard wired in the car though, it goes into my controls for a cd changer so i do not need a fm modulator. hope that helps.
 
>
> Now, from what I have been hearing on XM so far.
>
> Kiss - much better than Sirius Hits 1
> BPM - Kicks the living (BLEEP) out of The Beat
> Country channels are nowhere near as good as Sirius :(
> Everything else is pretty much the same as the other.
>
I would definately agree on "BPM" being much better than "the Beat", but "Hits 1" is much better than XM's "Kiss" or "20 on 20" IMHO. "Kiss" is a boring jukebox, while "Hits 1" has dj's and sounds like a real station.
 
> >
> > Now, from what I have been hearing on XM so far.
> >
> > Kiss - much better than Sirius Hits 1
> > BPM - Kicks the living (BLEEP) out of The Beat
> > Country channels are nowhere near as good as Sirius :(
> > Everything else is pretty much the same as the other.
> >
> I would definately agree on "BPM" being much better than
> "the Beat", but "Hits 1" is much better than XM's "Kiss" or
> "20 on 20" IMHO. "Kiss" is a boring jukebox, while "Hits 1"
> has dj's and sounds like a real station.
>

I actually like the "Jukebox" sound.... if I wanted to hear jocks talking crap about dumb (BLEEP) all day, I'd turn on Y100.7 here in Miami all day. Im one of the few radio lovers that dont like jocks talking.<P ID="signature">______________
www.1club.fm</P>
 
> I would definately agree on "BPM" being much better than
> "the Beat", but "Hits 1" is much better than XM's "Kiss" or
> "20 on 20" IMHO. "Kiss" is a boring jukebox, while "Hits 1"
> has dj's and sounds like a real station.

Sirius Hits 1 usually takes the lead on new music as well. I wish XM had one adventurous American CHR station. In all other categories, XM has the more daring music stations.
 
>
> i have a skyfi 2 in my car and couldn't be happier. it
> sounds great. i can't tell the difference between the car
> and the boombox in my office. i do have it hard wired in
> the car though, it goes into my controls for a cd changer so
> i do not need a fm modulator. hope that helps.
>

I also have the SkyFi2 in my suv and it sounds good. I will say that XM needs to do some fine tuning,ie,levels between channels,some distortion at times (audio not reception),etc. I use the modulator at home and the the suv,I have ver few problems.

Marc
 
> Kiss - much better than Sirius Hits 1

I got XM specifically for Kiss because I love the recurrent and gold variety. 60s, 80s, 90s, 20 On 20, Mix, The Heart, Ethel, Radio Disney (beats AM with IBOC hiss and having to be glued to the TV for Music Choice to hear it) are all favorites now.<P ID="signature">______________

</P>
 
> I actually like the "Jukebox" sound.... if I wanted to hear
> jocks talking crap about dumb (BLEEP) all day, I'd turn on
> Y100.7 here in Miami all day. Im one of the few radio lovers
> that dont like jocks talking.
>

That's the same reason I like BPM over The Beat. That and The Beat sounds like "circuit" dance tracks all day long. I have a display in my car for the titles, I don't need a person to repeat what I already know!

Before you switch to Sirius (if you decide to) you might want to ask the dealership to let you hear a car with Sirius preinstalled. I'm know the audio is better with Sirius, but I'm suspicious about the setup in the Nissan cars.

As far as fixing anything, it seems most of the newer cars have everything built-in, so if you don't like it you have to live with it. The panels in the cars are so customised that I don't see how you can add an after-market receiver. Especially the ones with the nav. systems.<P ID="signature">______________
здравствулте!</P>
 
> > Kiss - much better than Sirius Hits 1
>
> I got XM specifically for Kiss because I love the recurrent
> and gold variety. 60s, 80s, 90s, 20 On 20, Mix, The Heart,
> Ethel, Radio Disney (beats AM with IBOC hiss and having to
> be glued to the TV for Music Choice to hear it) are all
> favorites now.
>

I think its a cool station.

Im really not happy with XM's Country Channels though... they actually suck to be honest with ya.. Ive been driving around all day listening to them and they are way all over the place with their song selections.<P ID="signature">______________
www.1club.fm</P>
 
> > Depends on what you're listening to. Some use more audio
> > processing than others, but I think overall the music
> > channels on XM sound decent. (Closer to a 128K feed than a
>
> > 32K.)
> > Most of the talk offerings sound good. CNN, MSNBC and Fox
> > News sound just as good as the cable feeds.
> > Among the spoken-word offerings, I'd most like to see
> Radio
> > Classics (164) improved. I think the channel is now in
> full
> > fidelity, but the shows are digitally processed with some
> > sort of noise-reducing gating which also clips the highs.
> > The lowest-fi channels are the weather/traffic channels
> > (210-230), Canada 360 (channel 244), emergency info
> channel
> > (247), the French channel on 245, deportivos (147), and
> the
> > Spanish baseball channel on 190.
> > Getting back to Radio Classics, the bad quality is
> > intermittent, thus seemingly due to the way the source
> > material is processed.
> > Not the way it was originally, because the "Gunsmoke"
> series
> > is normally quite clean in most places, and these vary
> > according to noise level/modulation.
> > By contrast, Sonic Theater on 163 doesn't use this
> annoying
> > processing. I'd rather hear noise than gating.
> >
> This all leads me to wonder something. I have the old Sky
> Fi 1. Do the music channels sound any better on the newer
> Sky Fi 2? Of course, now I'm using DirectTV for home
> listening/recording, and it really does sound like a CD.
> Have it fed through my computer and I'm using Bose computer
> speakers. Only place I've used the Sky Fi recently is in
> the boombox, but if the Sky Fi 2 sounds better, I may
> consider upgrading at some point.
>


yes the skyfi 2 has been improved..the stereo seperation and the audio levels have been improved..roady xt also sounds very good..
<P ID="signature">______________
note to the NAB..satellite radio..its worth paying for!!</P>
 
SkyFi2 vs. SkyFi

I just upgraded to the SkyFi2 vs. the original SkyFi.

I've only listened so far in the boombox, but the 2 seems noticably improved from the original. As mentioned, the audio levels are much higher...the original was too low, IMHO. And the music channels have better stereo separation. Even the talk channels are more listenable, and don't have as much "fuzz" on SkyFi2 with the boombox as the original had.

There is still some artifacting on the talk channels, but it seems more muted on the 2.

My only complaint so far is that the boombox doesn't support the 2's built-in FM modulator. I'd like to be able to push the audio to other radios nearby if needed. It's not a huge deal, but I'd like to see it. I haven't had this thing in the car yet, so I don't know how good the FM modulator works.

Oh, and another small negative - the modulator only covers about 12 frequencies, 6 at the top of the FM band and 6 at the bottom. Why it doesn't do all FM frequencies...I don't know. But around here, with two or three nearby markets feeding into my radio, the top and bottom of the band are the most crowded...

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
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