XM Sound Quality

[DowntownHazleton]

Several posters on different threads have said that XM sound quality is poor. I drive a GM product and have a Delphi SkyFi-2 receiver. My receiver is an add-on bought and installed at Best Buy, not original equipment. Now maybe I have a tin ear, and I'm not used to driving a vehicle with a GM-Bose system in it, but I have found that the sound that I get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio stations and sounds great. In my mind there's no comparison.

 

[Ai4i]

> ...I have found that the sound that I
> get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio
> stations and sounds great.
>

The biggest improvement is that your local stations process the hell out of the music they play. They boost the lows and highs and maintain the volume at a consistantly high level. Sirius and XM do not do this. They present the sound as it was intended to be heard. Digital artifacts are another matter. Heavy processing generally does not apply to classical and/or NPR stations.<P ID="signature">______________
Proud 2 B a pioneering satellite radio subs¢riber
Ai4i is always on the trailing edge of technology
______________</P>

 

[SamBuca]

You are obviously tone deaf. The spectrum analyzer doesn't lie.

But Sam still likes you <P ID="signature">______________
</P>

 

[JeremyAndrews]

> Several posters on different threads have said that XM sound
> quality is poor. I drive a GM product and have a Delphi
> SkyFi-2 receiver. My receiver is an add-on bought and
> installed at Best Buy, not original equipment. Now maybe I
> have a tin ear, and I'm not used to driving a vehicle with a
> GM-Bose system in it, but I have found that the sound that I
> get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio
> stations and sounds great. In my mind there's no comparison.
>
I have a friend who has a Skyfi. It definately sounds better then my Roady and MyFi.<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[djdanska]

> The biggest improvement is that your local stations process
> the hell out of the music they play. They boost the lows
> and highs and maintain the volume at a consistantly high
> level.

I can't stand that! Horrible. I can care less what a spectrum analyzer says. I like the quality and it sounds nice in my car. That's what really matters to me. Some people like how fm processes the audio. It's all personal preference.

 

[OldAkronite]

> Several posters on different threads have said that XM sound
> quality is poor.

For me, in specific, the talk/news/sports channel sound quality dropped through the floor starting one week ago today (3/1), conveniently timed with the addition of four new channels that could presumably take bandwidth and require adjustment to the other channels' codecs.

It got MUCH better on Monday (3/6) and has been OK since, though there is still too much of a hiss/whistling sound when people use an "S" sound.

Again, news/talk/sports channels only...I'm not talking about music channels here.

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

 

[Kent]

> Several posters on different threads have said that XM sound
> quality is poor. I drive a GM product and have a Delphi
> SkyFi-2 receiver. My receiver is an add-on bought and
> installed at Best Buy, not original equipment. Now maybe I
> have a tin ear, and I'm not used to driving a vehicle with a
> GM-Bose system in it, but I have found that the sound that I
> get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio
> stations and sounds great. In my mind there's no comparison.

I find the XM sound quality to be worse than the local FM stations, for the most part. There are some FM's that have sound quality issues on some of my receivers, but most are far better than XM in quality. However, I don't find XM to be unlistenable by any stretch of the imagination. I also find XM to have far superior sound quality to Sirius.

 

[rcolbert]

> Several posters on different threads have said that XM sound
> quality is poor. I drive a GM product and have a Delphi
> SkyFi-2 receiver. My receiver is an add-on bought and
> installed at Best Buy, not original equipment. Now maybe I
> have a tin ear, and I'm not used to driving a vehicle with a
> GM-Bose system in it, but I have found that the sound that I
> get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio
> stations and sounds great. In my mind there's no comparison.
>

I have a SkyFi 1 and Roady 2 and they sound amazing but the Samsung PNP I have sounds flat and horrible.

 

[staticradio]

> > Several posters on different threads have said that XM sound
> > quality is poor. I drive a GM product and have a Delphi
> > SkyFi-2 receiver. My receiver is an add-on bought and
> > installed at Best Buy, not original equipment. Now maybe I
> > have a tin ear, and I'm not used to driving a vehicle with a
> > GM-Bose system in it, but I have found that the sound that
> > I get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio
> > stations and sounds great. In my mind there's no comparison.
> >
>
> I have a SkyFi 1 and Roady 2 and they sound amazing but the
> Samsung PNP I have sounds flat and horrible.

I got a Pioneer Airwave not too long ago to replace a 3 1/2 year old Sony PNP, and that sounds better then the PNP (well, obviously). Some channels differ, as well as songs (depending on how each song was originally recorded). Newer music comes off equal or better then FM, IMHO (and I have a hearing impairment mainly in one ear).

 

[titoisradio]

> You are obviously tone deaf. The spectrum analyzer doesn't
> lie.
>
> But Sam still likes you
>

Sam, the average consumer could care less about a spectrum analyzer. Let me guess there are some upper frequencies that are not heard on XM. Could you post what is heard and not heard since you obviously have the technology at your side.

 

[SamBuca]

> Sam, the average consumer could care less about a spectrum
> analyzer. Let me guess there are some upper frequencies
> that are not heard on XM. Could you post what is heard and
> not heard since you obviously have the technology at your
> side.

I know him...just busting his balls.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>

 

[johndavis]

> Several posters on different threads have said that XM sound
> quality is poor. I drive a GM product and have a Delphi
> SkyFi-2 receiver. My receiver is an add-on bought and
> installed at Best Buy, not original equipment. Now maybe I
> have a tin ear, and I'm not used to driving a vehicle with a
> GM-Bose system in it, but I have found that the sound that I
> get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio
> stations and sounds great. In my mind there's no comparison.
>

I'm not as happy with the sound quality since the new channels went up on March 1.<P ID="signature">______________
...co-moderator of the Satellite Radio, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, and San Diego boards...</P>

 

[Ivan]

Re: XM Sound Quality - it is different.

> > The biggest improvement is that your local stations
> process
> > the hell out of the music they play. They boost the lows
> > and highs and maintain the volume at a consistantly high
> > level.
>
> I can't stand that! Horrible. I can care less what a
> spectrum analyzer says. I like the quality and it sounds
> nice in my car. That's what really matters to me. Some
> people like how fm processes the audio. It's all personal
> preference.
>
I am an audiophile (I am more probably sensitive to sound more than 99% of the public) and I have noticed a difference in he channels. Some music channels sound more muddy. The talk stations are really cut down.

With that said, I really appreciate that XM does not process their sound like FM. I find it increasingly difficult to listen to the FM processing after adjusting to the XM sound. This poses additional problems for FM in the future.

 

[CHR]

> Several posters on different threads have said that XM sound
> quality is poor. I drive a GM product and have a Delphi
> SkyFi-2 receiver. My receiver is an add-on bought and
> installed at Best Buy, not original equipment. Now maybe I
> have a tin ear, and I'm not used to driving a vehicle with a
> GM-Bose system in it, but I have found that the sound that I
> get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio
> stations and sounds great. In my mind there's no comparison.
>

Well I have the MyFi and the sound quality is not that great. When using headphones and really listening I can tell that it sounds all flat and "muddy". The stereo separation on the music channels is absolutely horrible! That's the one thing that really bugs me about XM. The programming is great, but the sound quality really get's on my nerves.

 

[Engineer_Dude]

I've noticed a drop in quality also, but only in my car. I have a SkyFi2 and I can tell a difference based on whether it is in my car or if it is in my SkiFi Audio System.

The programming is still much better than my locals (until CC gets a hold of the XM channels), so I can deal with the quality.

 

[Chad]

> > Several posters on different threads have said that XM
> sound
> > quality is poor. I drive a GM product and have a Delphi
> > SkyFi-2 receiver. My receiver is an add-on bought and
> > installed at Best Buy, not original equipment. Now maybe I
>
> > have a tin ear, and I'm not used to driving a vehicle with
> a
> > GM-Bose system in it, but I have found that the sound that
> I
> > get from XM in my vehicle is superior to the local radio
> > stations and sounds great. In my mind there's no
> comparison.
> >
>
> I'm not as happy with the sound quality since the new
> channels went up on March 1.
>
I've noticed a drop as welll since they added the new channels. I haven't dug out the Sky Fi since I got my My Fi, but there is definately a difference on the My Fi. I've been using the DirectTV feed at home as an antedote to the quality issues. It's all I use for airchecking.

 

[BRH]

Re: XM Sound Quality - it is different.

I've also noticed the changes in audio over the past week. My most listened to XM channel is "BPM" (ch. 81), and the sound quality has definately decreased on that channel in the past week. The "seperation" is not as great as it was and the channel has a more "narrow", monotone sound. Also, the vocals seem to be more in the background and more "muddy" and not as clear sounding. Personally, I vote for improving the audio over adding any other channels. I can definately hear the difference in the past week and it is not good.

 

[mikl73]

Re: XM Sound Quality - it is different.

> I've also noticed the changes in audio over the past week.
> My most listened to XM channel is "BPM" (ch. 81), and the
> sound quality has definately decreased on that channel in
> the past week. The "seperation" is not as great as it was
> and the channel has a more "narrow", monotone sound. Also,
> the vocals seem to be more in the background and more
> "muddy" and not as clear sounding. Personally, I vote for
> improving the audio over adding any other channels. I can
> definately hear the difference in the past week and it is
> not good.
>


most web streams sound better than any xm channel
and fm definatly sounds better
but i guess some people cant tell the different between 1 inch and a foot.
the quality since the new channels is now below what i can tolerate for long
the music channels sound terrible

 

[CHR]

Re: XM Sound Quality - it is different.

> most web streams sound better than any xm channel

In most cases I think you're right. Many times the XM on-line streams sound better and clearer than the audio I get on the MyFi.

 

[listner2]

Re: XM Sound Quality - it is different.

> > most web streams sound better than any xm channel
>
> In most cases I think you're right. Many times the XM
> on-line streams sound better and clearer than the audio I
> get on the MyFi.
>
The major difference between FM and XM is the high frequencies. If you don't have your system set to reveal alot of high end, XM may sound fine. If you do have your high end up, you will notice (with or without audio processing) FM is WAY cleaner than XM. Of course FM is only transmitting one analog signal, and XM has how ever many hundereds of channels in the digital space they should only be transmitting a few. I think they should have put some more sats up or something so they could do better quality before they add channels.

I agree, many internet streams sound better than xm now. The XM channels on AOL Radio sound real nice!