How good is the audio on Sirius or XM? Hope it's not an overcompressed mp3

[wa2ise]

Is the sound good, or does it sound like a bad mp3 done at 128Kbits and not joint stereo? Music done that way gets a wishy washy warbly sound that I really can't stand.

Another question: How fussy is the reception? Does it work say in the basement of a surburban split level house, or do you have to position the antenna just so to get it to work?

[KingBubba]

I have Sirius with my Dish Network. It sounds bad to my ears. I suspect that it is heavily compressed. I thought I would use it. I don't.

[cabinover]

XM comes with the DirecTV package. I've used it once or twice for an hour. That's in one year. I'm not impressed with satellite radio.

[similost]

everything I've ever hear from Sirius, or XM has always sounded really good. I never noticed any compressed sound to it.. I've heard it from small boom boxes, cars, and on several high end home system

[willyrover]

Sounds about as good as FM to me. Fine for the car. Never tried it at home but I'm sure it would sound about as good as hooking your MP3 player up to your home system through the headphones jack. :sigh:

[Twenty20Man]

sounds as good as FM to me and a far far better selection of music so unless you like changing cd's or lp's all evening. its not bad at all.

[barrynsue]

I run it all day in my office as background noise . I rather enjoy the selection of choices I have with XM and as was mentioned, no changing of LP's or CD's. At home, I have a pretty revealing system and compared to some CD's I have heard, it can sound OK.

Am I saying it is as good as some other analogue sources? No, but it ain't bad! Also, different stations are better than others but I find Top Tracks, Deep Tracks, and the Jazz/Classical stations sound decent. There are some who really look down on it but to each his own.

[meggy]

Ditto. Just fine in the car. Blips out at the weirdest places though. Move the car another couple inches forward, it comes back.

[dr*audio]

I have a stand alone Sirius receiver and I use it's built in FM modulator to play it through all the tuners in the house. I have also borrowed a friend's XM receiver. I think the XM sounds like an MP3 made at 128KBPS, and the Sirius sounds much better. I also find that the sound quality on Sirius varies with the source they used. I think they may be using MP3's for some songs on some channels. Most of the time I listen to "The Vault" and I would say it is near CD quality. On the channel that plays Show Tunes, the quality varies.

[gadget73]

Anyone ever compared XM back to back with Sirius for sound quality? I've only ever heard XM, and its a bit warbly to my ears. I know they're merging, but I was thinking if one had superior sound quality to the other, it might influence my reciever choice. If its 6 of one, half dozen the other, I'll get an XM since I can add the extra reciever to my parent's account and get it for like half price. I'm all about being frugal when appropriate :)

[Luckyman]

I have XM through Direct TV. It sounds ok. A friend of mine has Sirius in his
car, and in his house. He thinks it sounds fine, but to my ears, it is very
compressed. I put on a good redbook cd, and the difference was amazing!

[spartanmanor]

I have had XM for two years now. I listen at work and in the car both not very demanding listening venues. I love it for the selection; it has turned me onto lots of music I would have otherwise not known about. The quality of sound is pretty good but not great. In these non demanding environments I cannot tell the difference from FM.

[technut]

The XM stations in my wife's car are hit and miss for sound quality, some stations sound excellent and are on par with a good analog FM station, others have a rolled off high end and poor dynamic range. Jazz, pop, rock and country get the best sounding pipes. Meanwhile metal, reggae, indie and talk seem to get low priority. I have heard some of the stations change sound quality mid-song so maybe it's a reception problem not related to bandwidth. The receiver in her car is a factory built in unit and sounds a little better than the stand alone units you can buy at the store, so your mileage may vary.

You need a direct shot at the sky for XM to pick up a signal, when the car is in the garage or driving around downtown next to the skyscrapers the reception is very spotty, in an underground parking structure I get nothing at all.

Overall, I'm not really thrilled with the sound quality, but the selection of stations more than makes up for it especially since Omaha is blessed with some exceptionally bad FM stations.

[liquidluvr]

The Delphi small recievers really let you know how bad the sound is. I bought a Polk Audio XM Reference reciever. It sounds much better due to the processors inside. It sounds even better when I digitally hook it to my California Audio Labs CL-15 processor. The music is compressed and you can't fix that but you can make it better. Also I have found that certain stations used better source materials and some of their music is better sounding(Watercolors) for example. You just cant beat satellite for programming content and LACK of commercials....I hate radio and their corporate shitty playlist which is the same in every city you go to!!!:nono: Same shitty stations,ssame shitty music !!!!! Thanks satellite for giving me a choice:thmbsp:

[Fisherdude]

I have read both here and on other boards that both XM and Sirius use 48 kbps to a MAX of 64 kbps.

With the vast majority of music transmitted at 48.

[barrynsue]

There is definently different compression ratios on different stations and must agree that the Polk receiver is much better overall that the smaller units.

I am listening to it right now through a McIntosh C-2200 and Khorns and sounds decent and while it may not be perfect, I am certainly enjoying the music.

[uofmtiger]

No one buys satellite radio for sound quality. It is about selection, lack of commercials, and the ability to pick it up all over the country while traveling (with a few exceptions).

If your question is whether the SQ will be acceptable to you, I can't answer that. I know it is acceptable to me in the car and for background music.

[barrynsue]

No one buys satellite radio for sound quality. It is about selection, lack of commercials, and the ability to pick it up all over the country while traveling (with a few exceptions).

If your question is whether the SQ will be acceptable to you, I can't answer that. I know it is acceptable to me in the car and for background music.

The sound is dull and not very lifelike as everything feels rounded around the edges when compared to your tuner/vinyl/cd but as background music goes with the variety and no commercials, it is tolerable. Best in your car however but when I don't feel like getting off my butt at home, it works well enough.

I also listen to a variety of music that I would otherwise never hear so there are benefits.