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?

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.

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.

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

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:

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.

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.

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

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.

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 :)

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!

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have been trying to listen closely to XM and then flip to F.M. in my Honda Element. F.M. wins easily for having a lot more high end freqs in the program material. The very nice thing about SAT radio is that if there's a quiet spot in the program material, there is absolutely no noise in the audio.
XM and probably Sirius are in the same boat for using similar technology to squeeze as many channels on a limited RF carrier(s) from the satellites. Transponders eat up energy and the solar panels and batteries are limited to their ability to supply the juice needed. They want something that's not going to crap out, they are trying to get probably 10 yrs service out of the sats.

Fred

I've had XM for awhile. 82 The System used to sound like 64kbit mp3 to me. High end was hashy and attenuated. However, other channels sounded better, like the Jazz and Classical stations. Those sounded like at least 128kbit mp3.

Since the merger all the channel lineup changed. I mostly listen to The Area on 82 and it is improved, now sounds like 128kbit mp3 (compared to how Armin van Buuren's ASOT sounds when I listen to it streaming off the Internet at, yes, 128kbit)

For giggles I just put on Symphony Hall on 78 and Real Jazz 70. I would say it is plenty listenable on my main system here. Pretty sure this new receiver would resolve any excessive digital hashiness. I'm listening to drum work on this Jazz station. The high hat (?) hits sound passable. I would say my CDP or TT surpass this level of sound quality with no trouble, but this isn't bad at all.

As for how it compares to FM... that is a tricky question. With good vintage tuners and excellent stations (like KVOD classical and KUVO traditional jazz here in town), my FM source can sound astonishingly good -- close to my best sources. Whereas the bad stations like 93.3 the local alternative station, sounds compressed and ultra- ultra-crappy.

So the Jazz and Classical stations sound like a fairly decent FM station. Not a great one, but not a bad one. It's ok if you're into it for the music and willing to overlook some sonic imperfection.

EDIT: I should qualify my eval by saying that I don't hear above about 13khz or so. So if you're old then it's ok :)
EDIT2: I should mention my receiver is an Audiovox Xpress. The main advantage for me is the ability to listen to these tunes in the Jeep which oftentimes is in remote parts of the state on/to/from the off-road trails.

Hope this helps.

Michael

It sounds awfully compressed to my ears. I also noticed that songs on the 60's channel (XM 6) that have noticeable stereo separation on CD sound almost as though they're in mono on XM.

I find it pretty much unlistenable because of the compression, especially the voice channels like the comedy stuff. I've installed it in a number of high-end AV systems, and also inherited a few free XM receivers from a client that was an XM invester...couldn't stand the quality & gave them away.

I could deal with it as background or distributed music, but it'd still be irritating me.

je

IMO it sounds like crap but the great variety makes up for it. You won't get reception in your basement without an external antenna unfortunately.

I would rather listen to Pandora IMO.

Evan

As far as your reception question, the antenna has to be facing south, like through a window. It will not go through walls, although attic mounting will work. Height is not an issue, I have one on my window sill in the basement and the reception meter is pegged.

I think the sound quality of Sirius/XM has gotten worse since the merger. Most channels sound very compressed especially the decade channels. I'm getting better audio quality from free internet radio stations right now.

The quality has degraded slightly since the merger...here's why.

Before when they were seperate, they weren't cramming as many channels in to the same bandwidth and everyone had a little more breathing room..but you're still talkin 64kbps AAC-SBR at best. (SBR, in case you don't know, is Spectral Band Recreation...only a "fingerprint" of the high-frequencies is sent...the actual audio spectral bandwidth is much less)

Since the merger, every one's been squeezed even tighter. The quality of Sirius/XM is fine for your car....however, I will NOT listen to the actual service on any kind of hi-fi equipment. The only way I'll listen to sirius/XM on a good hi-fi is through the rebroadcast on DirecTV/Dish which, while the same audio, comes from a much higher bitrate mpeg stream than what they're pumping to the dedicated units.

Ok, as far as antenna aiming...I do not have Sirius..but let me explain XM.

They both work in the L band....this band CAN penetrate thin layers of plywood and roofing materials. Clyde is half right....however I will tell you my XM radio has worked...indoors...with the antenna in the middle of the room not even close to any windows. It will penetrate better than you think, but not as well as say FM reception. Windows are good...attic is good...but sometimes, you can get a good signal if you "aim" it south. This does not include terresterial repeaters you may/may not live near. I happen to live a few miles from a MASSIVE repeater used to cover a wooded area (last spec I read on the thing said 50k watts)...so as long as i'm facing the general direction of south, i get reception in my bathroom! XM sats are in geo-sync orbit.

Sirius...I don't now much about...does it have a repeater network? can't tell ya...what i do know is thier three satellites are in a LEO (low earth orbit), so they're not stationary...they move...and for the most part unlike the geosyncs that are typically around 40 degrees above the horizon...these suckers pass right over top of your head.

there is no radio on the market that uses both systems at once..i believe they have some planned..but it'll be probably a major software/hardware overhaul. they might have decided not to...they might have decided to do it. I don't know...but when they get those units out...reception will be much more reliable for a crappy audio stream to begin with.

It's a shame we don't have DAB over here...DAB actually uses I believe either layer 2 or layer 3, but, still, they too are slightly overcompressed.

I listen to XM/seroius via directv/HT audio. sound is ok but some selections have low volume. Not a huge listener mostly old stuff and not for great lenghts of time. I'm glad it's there tho.

It's extremely bad.

i run sirius in my car.. wired direct, no fm modulator. the sound is cd quality.. no compressed sound at all.. xm on the other hand is tinny and compressed.. always consider your set-up and source...

I had a Sirius radio in my car for a while, which has a pretty decent stereo. Satellite radio is tinny, compressed crap, the fact that there is more of it only makes it worse. Great way to have the soul sucked out of your favorite music and the listening experience in general

i run sirius in my car.. wired direct, no fm modulator. the sound is cd quality.. no compressed sound at all.. xm on the other hand is tinny and compressed.. always consider your set-up and source...

what's interesting is when I had both sirius and XM to compare them...the XM signals...while crap, were less crap than Sirius. A spectral readout on Sirius showed more SBR bandwidth than actual audio bandwidth.

XM paid more for thier codecs than Sirius did...yet both of them were $89mil in the hole from the get-go becuase that's how much the broadcasting slots cost.

It's the most compressed sound I've ever heard. I cancelled my subscription and was especially pissed when I listened on the way home from work, the same song I heard on the way to work....unbelievable.

Wow! There's almost as much love/hate for satellite as there is for HPM 100's!!

I just hooked up my Sirius Home Kit today to my Yamaha CA-1000 tuner inputs, and with the antenna just sitting there in the middle of the house (I was planning on running it from the peak of the roof down thru the attic), I am getting GREAT reception and perfectly acceptable sound. Sure, there is nowhere near the stereo separation and detail of my best LP's, but I never intend to use it for pure/critical listening. For low level background listening, I love The CoffeeHouse (channel 30), as my system (CA-1000/Epicure Model 4) brings out the best in the vocals.

Dar Williams' version of "Comfortably Numb" just played, and really kind of surprised me. I am very happy with this "modern" source integrated into my vintage gear!

It's all about content, content, content. I love it. I Have three units including my original Sony XM pod from 2002, A Polk XM reference tuner in my bedroom, and the newer Pioneer XM Inno which has the recording feature.

I use a small CCrane FM broadcast unit with the Sony to send the signal to FM tuners all around my house, garage, and yard.

When I travel, I take the Inno and check into south facing rooms in hotels.

Here's an example of how great the service can be: I have a vacation condo facing the gulf in Gulf Shores, AL. It is a fourth floor condo in a concrete and steel hurricane-standards highrise. When we first moved in I could pick up one religous FM channel and WWL AM from across the Gulf. Otherwise it was radio hell. When they first came out, I plopped my Sony antenna pod out on the patio deck and suddenly the whole world was opened up to me.

Of course XM sounds like crap on the traffic channels, and sports channels when a game is not on etc, but the music is pretty darned good. And I'm hooked on late-night talk shows to sleep.
:music::boring:

get it "free" on directv. for my music, 50s, sound is mostly good sept when on some songs the vol. is down. I dont sub as I have buncha cds w/50s/doowop and other music I like. But as a brake from all the tv dribble and comercials I go to 802 and am back in hischool. But compression is the name of the game in that business so we gotta take it or leave it.

Yes same with Bell sat. expressview, listening to CBC Radio on it, instead of my tuner FM since I had a bit of hiss on it, reception problems, so I tryed CBC on expressview, I noticed it right away "crap tin box" went back to my FM tuner with the hiss, read an artical later that it is only 48kbps, CD quality is 128kbps up to 320Kbps.