Satellite Radio (XM and Sirius)

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  • Chris D
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Dec 2000
    • 16877

    Satellite Radio (XM and Sirius)

    I'm curious who has experienced satellite radio, and what comments you could make. Obvious attractions for using it would be national radio reception, diverse programming, and perhaps portable capability.

    But how does it SOUND, man, how does it SOUND? From what I understand, the audio signal is compressed, falling somewhere inbetween MP3 and CD quality. For me, this is a concern, as I'm rather turned off by the sound of MP3's during critical music passages, even at the highest bitrate. Is Satellite something that an audio enthusiast should even consider? And if so, should it be kept to mobile environments with levels of background noise like car driving where it is less noticable?

    Also as I understand it, satellite radio is purely 2-channel. This seems disappointing, as an obvious benefit of a satellite audio stream would be multichannel capability. I suppose receivers would have to have multichannel capability, though, which would shoot down most cars.




    CHRIS
    Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"
    CHRIS

    Well, we're safe for now. Thank goodness we're in a bowling alley.
    - Pleasantville
  • Rock Dog
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Jan 2003
    • 417

    #2
    I've been listening to my XM system since Oct 2003. It came standard onm my new car. I would say that is NOT something an unforgiving audiophile would fine acceptable. I would put it just under CD quality. One of my biggest gripes is that the signal amplitude is a bit low. I've got to turn it up quite a bit more than the CDs or DVD-As the car's audio system will play. And the compressed signal does seem to close the soudstage, and shorten the frequency response. I find it acceptable to listen to, based on what it is. An huge leap over commercial radio in terms of genre selection, and playlist depth. The lack of commercials is a big plus as well.

    Now on the other hand. If what you're looking for is an insane catalog of music, stuff you can;t find on radio, or anywhere else for that matter. This is definitely worth the price of admission. I listen to everything, all genres. But I'm a bit of a dyed in the wool 80's rat. I've been able to listen to artist and songs I haven't heard in years, plus songs from those artists I've never heard. I've also spent quite a lot of time checking out their Jazz stations. There is something here for everyone. Frmo "Smooth Jazz" to absolute purist jazz.

    Maybe some of the Rock and Pop I've been listening to is different from the other genres. I'm going to listen to more classical, jazz and world music, and see if there is a difference in clarity and soundstage.




    -Thomas-

    The easiest way to find something lost around the house, is to buy a replacement.

    Hey You! Make sure you stop by the HTguide Off-Topic section. It's FUN!!!

    -Thomas-

    As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.

    Hey You! Make sure you stop by the HTguide After Midnight section. It's FUN!!!

    Comment

    • kendrid
      Member
      • Dec 2002
      • 54

      #3
      IMO XM is nowhere close to CD quality sound. It is far worse than 128K MP3s when played through my Alpine 9815 car deck or a decent set of cans.

      BUT - the variety is amazing. They play a lot of unknown bands, but they are usually very good.

      I also demoed Sirius for a month. It has a better sound quality, but the playlists are very small. They play the same 20 songs over and over. I couldn't stand hearing "Every breath you take" one more time so I kept XM.
      ------
      Kevin

      Comment

      • Sonnie Parker
        • Jan 2002
        • 2858

        #4
        I've had XM for about 2 years now... working on my third. I absolutely love it and don't know what I'd do without it. I do not however use it in my HT room for critical listening... I don't have the setup for that. Well actually I do have the setup for it but just haven't ever tried it. We have the home kit with the Delphi Skyfi receiver that will also plug into a boombox. We used it at the beach last year and it worked flawlessly. At home we use the Delphi in the home kit connected to the small system we have out in our Palm room and also for our outdoor speakers. We mainly use it for background music in this situation versus listening to FM. By in large it surpasses FM. Absolutely no comparison.

        I also have an Alpine 9815 and with the Media Expander feature I find it very pleasing. I can crank it up to 130db with no distortion whatsoever which is quite the opposite for 128bit encoded CD's. I have to encode my CD's at 320 bitrate to be able to crank them as much. I personally believe it sounds as good as a regular CD when listening in my truck. Again, I haven't compared it in a critical listening system so I can't make a judgment there.

        A little while back (over a year or so ago when I was about to purchase my Alpine 9815) I researched Sirius to see if I wanted to change. At that time XM was not commercial free on all music channels and Sirius was. I only found one major review/comparison between the two and XM was found to be superior in quality in that review due to the type of compression technics used. The review explained the technics but I can't remember all the techno babble. Suffice it to say I stuck with XM and purchased the Alpine 9815.

        XM is commercial free now on the music channels for $3.00 less per month and for additional subs only $6.99 per month (up to 5 -and it can be anyone). Plus if you pay XM in advance you also get a discount.

        Here's a little info:



        For what it's worth XM's stock is at ~$24 while Sirius is at ~$3

        Here's another comparison site:

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