I just got an XM satellite tuner installed in my car yesterday,
thinking it would go great with my relatively decent car stereo. Then
I come to find out, after spending $150 for the damn parts and another
$75 or so for installation, that the quality of satellite radio sounds
like ****.

Sounds to me almost exactly the way steaming audio sounds over a
dial-up modem connection on the internet. I had wrongly assumed it
would at least be as decent as a standard 128 kpbs MP3 file... but I
was sadly wrong.

Maybe some people are "happy" with the sound quality, but no offence,
these people are either idiots, deaf, or as listening to the music
with blown 5 1/2 inch tweeters bought at WalMart for $19.95 a pair,
and think they sound "neat". Sad..

Don't anyone else make this awful mistake. XM radio is owned by
(guess who?) ... Clear Channel anyway so tell them to ***** off* and
don't fall for their BS.

I don't know what you're listening to, but on the music channels, my XM is
CD quality. I have an alpine head unit, alpine adapter, 5 channel alpine
amp, Boston Acoustic speakers and kicker sub-woofer. It is by far, the best
sounding radio I've ever had.

I will admit that the talk channels can sound like streaming audio at times.
Apparently they allocate more bandwidth to the music than they do to the
talk. I think the worst sounding channel is the local traffic and weather.

I sure like my XM,
I even have oe on my home stereo and it also sounds
great.....

You must have a bad one or a TIN EAR....

Scott Tenorman wrote:

I just got an XM satellite tuner installed in my car yesterday,
thinking it would go great with my relatively decent car stereo. Then
I come to find out, after spending $150 for the damn parts and another
$75 or so for installation, that the quality of satellite radio sounds
like ****.

Sounds to me almost exactly the way steaming audio sounds over a
dial-up modem connection on the internet. I had wrongly assumed it
would at least be as decent as a standard 128 kpbs MP3 file... but I
was sadly wrong.

Maybe some people are "happy" with the sound quality, but no offence,
these people are either idiots, deaf, or as listening to the music
with blown 5 1/2 inch tweeters bought at WalMart for $19.95 a pair,
and think they sound "neat". Sad..

Don't anyone else make this awful mistake. XM radio is owned by
(guess who?) ... Clear Channel anyway so tell them to ***** off* and
don't fall for their BS.

(Scott Tenorman) wrote in
om:

I just got an XM satellite tuner installed in my car yesterday,
thinking it would go great with my relatively decent car stereo. Then
I come to find out, after spending $150 for the damn parts and another
$75 or so for installation, that the quality of satellite radio sounds
like ****.

Sounds to me almost exactly the way steaming audio sounds over a
dial-up modem connection on the internet. I had wrongly assumed it
would at least be as decent as a standard 128 kpbs MP3 file... but I
was sadly wrong.

Maybe some people are "happy" with the sound quality, but no offence,
these people are either idiots, deaf, or as listening to the music
with blown 5 1/2 inch tweeters bought at WalMart for $19.95 a pair,
and think they sound "neat". Sad..

Don't anyone else make this awful mistake. XM radio is owned by
(guess who?) ... Clear Channel anyway so tell them to ***** off* and
don't fall for their BS.

How is the XM audio being input into your system? FM modulator? If so,
that's the problem - not XM radio.

If it really sounded that bad, don't you think they would have folded by
now due to everyone dropping it?

Most music channels sound great, occasionally on the 80's channel, I will
here some weird swishing in the highs, but other than that - everything is
great.

"Eddie Runner" wrote in message
...
I sure like my XM,
I even have oe on my home stereo and it also sounds
great.....

You must have a bad one or a TIN EAR....

Scott Tenorman wrote:

I just got an XM satellite tuner installed in my car yesterday,
thinking it would go great with my relatively decent car stereo. Then
I come to find out, after spending $150 for the damn parts and another
$75 or so for installation, that the quality of satellite radio sounds
like ****.

Sounds to me almost exactly the way steaming audio sounds over a
dial-up modem connection on the internet. I had wrongly assumed it
would at least be as decent as a standard 128 kpbs MP3 file... but I
was sadly wrong.

Maybe some people are "happy" with the sound quality, but no offence,
these people are either idiots, deaf, or as listening to the music
with blown 5 1/2 inch tweeters bought at WalMart for $19.95 a pair,
and think they sound "neat". Sad..

Don't anyone else make this awful mistake. XM radio is owned by
(guess who?) ... Clear Channel anyway so tell them to ***** off* and
don't fall for their BS.

From: (Scott Tenorman)
Date: 4/29/2004 7:18 PM Eastern

Maybe some people are "happy" with the sound quality, but no offence,
these people are either idiots, deaf, or as listening to the music
with blown 5 1/2 inch tweeters bought at WalMart for $19.95 a pair,
and think they sound "neat". Sad..

Sounds good thru my 7998 HU, Boston pro series and JL amp and subs thru FM mod.

Everyone I talk to likes the SQ of XM, I don't know what you are doing wrong or
if you have a problem with clear channel and are trying to slam them??

Good Luck Sparky

The SQ on mine is great. I add a little treble and it sounds damn near CD
quality. I originally had mine hooked up through a FM modulator and it
sounded terrible. It's now hooked up via RCA cords and I couldn't be
happier. And my system is pretty high-end.

Tony


--



What's more likely? That an all-powerful mysterious god created the
universe and then decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that
he simply doesn't exist at all? And that we created him so that we wouldn't
have to feel so small and alone. -Eleanor Arroway, Contact

"Chuck P Adams" wrote in message
...
From: (Scott Tenorman)
Date: 4/29/2004 7:18 PM Eastern

Maybe some people are "happy" with the sound quality, but no offence,
these people are either idiots, deaf, or as listening to the music
with blown 5 1/2 inch tweeters bought at WalMart for $19.95 a pair,
and think they sound "neat". Sad..

Sounds good thru my 7998 HU, Boston pro series and JL amp and subs thru FM
mod.

Everyone I talk to likes the SQ of XM, I don't know what you are doing
wrong or
if you have a problem with clear channel and are trying to slam them??

Good Luck Sparky

Hmm.. Maybe it is the FM modulator. Thats how mine is connected. The
thing is though, the distortion sounds like audio compression
artifacts and not FM signal noise. Maybe I'll look into getting a
different adaptor.

YES, SATELITE RADIO DOES HEAVY COMPRESSION ISSUES.

The fact is that they are trying to pack as many channels as possible
in the bandwdth they have at their disposition in the hope that most
people won't notice, and in most cases, it sounds bad. And please no
talks about CD quality here. Grab some headphones and take a listen on
your home system if you have one, you may be surprised.

I mean, this is no picky sound guy bitching here; I can definetely live
with 128 kps MP3's, but if I'm going to shell out 200 bucks, and get
milked 10-12 bucks a month, it will have to get A WHOLE LOT better.

I think the compression is around 60kbps, and not with the best encoder
to add to the problem. Compare that to CD quality ?

CD "clarity" should be the term used here. I can only imagine adding an
FM transmitter to the equation; I might be able to get better streaming
quality out of my 12kbps CDMA smartphone.

Want commercial free music ? Keep your Ipod...



Scott Tenorman wrote:
Hmm.. Maybe it is the FM modulator. Thats how mine is connected.
The
thing is though, the distortion sounds like audio compression
artifacts and not FM signal noise. Maybe I'll look into getting a
different adaptor.

Wrote:
YES, SATELITE RADIO DOES HEAVY COMPRESSION ISSUES.
Yes, I agree, XM doesn't even come close to CD quality. But even
worse XM doesn't transmitt above 15khz. They don't think there is
anything worthwhile listening to at that range. S**t why am I buy
speakers that are flat to 20khz? I think there are too many here that
were brought on up 64kbs mp3 so XM sounds real good.


--
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"Kenr" wrote in message
news:1104871348.0f487b9fe51307373813a3651e0a645e@t eranews...

Wrote:
YES, SATELITE RADIO DOES HEAVY COMPRESSION ISSUES.
Yes, I agree, XM doesn't even come close to CD quality. But even
worse XM doesn't transmitt above 15khz. They don't think there is
anything worthwhile listening to at that range. S**t why am I buy
speakers that are flat to 20khz?

I'm not sure. I doubt you could hear it anyway. I think I can only hear to
18k.

Bull****.

Sound quality is better than FM but not as good as CD. But reasonably
good.

Also, XM is NOT owned by Clear Channel.

Idiot.

After a few years of listening to compressed audio, I've become more and
more sensitive to it. If the rate is over 192kbs, it's harder for me
to notice artifacts but they occasionally pop up. I just bought a
Roady 2 and immediatly heard the 'wateryness' and 'hollowness' of
highly compressed sound. I really enjoy the stations and selection
but it's like listening to music over a cell phone. I hope that this
bandwidth issue gets better over time 'cause it's kinda sucky right
now.


--
Mattedj
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You will likely never have music streams on Xm or Sirius at over 48 or
50 kbps, if that. It would be a total waste. Probably 98% of people
simply don't care; most of the rest think they care but really can't
tell the difference in "artifacts" and just noise from FM Modulators,
road noise in the car, and other local connection issues.

I do think those people can be served by XM's upcoming new Napster
arrangement where you can purchase high-quality downloads of music you
heard on XM by tagging the music you're hearing for future downloads.


Mattedj wrote:
After a few years of listening to compressed audio, I've become more and
more sensitive to it. If the rate is over 192kbs, it's harder for me
to notice artifacts but they occasionally pop up. I just bought a
Roady 2 and immediatly heard the 'wateryness' and 'hollowness' of
highly compressed sound. I really enjoy the stations and selection
but it's like listening to music over a cell phone. I hope that this
bandwidth issue gets better over time 'cause it's kinda sucky right
now.

Mattedj wrote in
news:1125581124.93047df9e1a4b8a13f6aec68aff24188@t eranews:


After a few years of listening to compressed audio, I've become more and
more sensitive to it.

I killed my Sirius last year for the same reason.
It didn't matter if I liked the programming, the SQ was unbearable.
I just didn't listen to it.

I went to a dealer show this spring and spoke to a Sirius employee.
He said even if they get more bandwidth allocated, they have no intention
of improving the bitrate. He said (and I believe him) that most people
don't care, and they'll use whatever bandwidth they can garner to put more
channels on.

I gotta tell ya, every time I hear any type of advertisement use the word
digital to insinuate quality, I wanna puke.

What you have to understand is - most people do not know what they are
listening to, and it sounds good to them. Sirius and XM both sound just fine
on a factory system. Infact, I didn't really hear a major difference until I
went to a 5.1 digital processor.

--
WDW is a Way of Life
"BrianQ" wrote in message
0...
Mattedj wrote in
news:1125581124.93047df9e1a4b8a13f6aec68aff24188@t eranews:


After a few years of listening to compressed audio, I've become more and
more sensitive to it.

I killed my Sirius last year for the same reason.
It didn't matter if I liked the programming, the SQ was unbearable.
I just didn't listen to it.

I went to a dealer show this spring and spoke to a Sirius employee.
He said even if they get more bandwidth allocated, they have no intention
of improving the bitrate. He said (and I believe him) that most people
don't care, and they'll use whatever bandwidth they can garner to put more
channels on.

I gotta tell ya, every time I hear any type of advertisement use the word
digital to insinuate quality, I wanna puke.

Sirius and XM both sound just fine on a factory system. Infact, I didn't really hear a major difference until I went to a 5.1 digital processor.

They're pretty reasonable if you have them on a good system. Not CD
quality, but a hell of a lot better than anything else.

But if you're using an FM Modulator or a crappy system to begin with,
you're going to get crap in return.