XM Radio

Airplay355

I got XM radio for Christmas. I hooked everything up and I must admit, it has all of the problems I expected it would have. It fuzzes in and out occaisionally, doesn't work as well in **** weather, and above all sounds like complete compressed garbage. My XM sounds like 56kb streaming mp3's. I have the adapter kit so I can hook it up to my car stereo and my home stereo. It sounds crappy in both places. There is no deep bass and no high frequencies, no soundstage, and no depth. It makes my stereo sound like a Sony boombox.

I figured it might be the tuner I have. I went to CC and found it for $20. It's an audiovox and it looks like a POS. Do I have a **** tuner or does XM have no relation to quality. If this is how it's going to sound I think I'll stick to the free radio that doesn't sound like crap.

bsmith15

I found the Delphi receiver with the adaptor sounded like crap on my home system; no gain and no soundstage. In no way rivaled CD's. Once I got the Polk XRt12 satellite receiver I really started to enjoy XM. Granted that some stations are compressed (Rock especially), but if you ejoy Jazz, Classical and Instrumental the stations sound great. I had the XRt12 hooked directly to my pre-amp with the RCA connections, but now have it routed through a DAC and it comes close to CD sound (of course on those stations that I mentioned).

disneyjoe7

I say if it looks like a POS it must be a POS.

Other then that I say **** tuner for Home I strongly suggest the Polk XM tuner.

Airplay355

It seems completely redundant to pay for XM radio when I can hook my computer up to my stereo as well as use the 30 or so stations I have from digital cable.

Plus, I can't take my Polk tuner in the car with me so that doesn't solve my sounds-like-****-in-the-car problem.

Is there really no way to get it to sound good in the car?

bsmith15

The Delphi unit sounded OK in the car. My current GM has a XM receiver as part of the audio system and it also sounds OK; but I do not put much merit in stock OEM car audio. I am sure that with a higher end vehicle audio system with built in XM you could get a better sound. Satellite radio was originally marketed to over the road truckers as a means to lock into a station nation wide; they still have alot of ad's on the talk/news stations for freight companies, and for most sound quality was not that important in that environment. The sound quality hopefully will improve as they market to more home users; but again if you are into certain types of music they just do not sound pleasing. Same with FM; some formats sound great and some just do no have any soul. Overall I have found satellie better than FM but not anywhere near CD quality as advertised. I also have not experienced any issues with the reception; today is overcast and cold in Central Ohio and the reception has the max bars (three). We enjoy it, but if I listened to rock and similar types of music I could not take the poor sound quality.

brettw22

Dedicated XM system for the car and a dedicated system for the home. Price on the second system will be half of the primary account, and you don't have to transport crap from home to car and back again.

brettw22

I was in Tweeter the other day and they were playing Sirius through their sound room and I was blown away at how good it sounded. I damn near started movin like a club dancin beast.....

Ron-P

Air, I've had XM for several months now and I don't have any of the problems that you list. Sounds great and no fading of any stations. It is built into the factory radio.

HiPerf360

Airplay355 wrote:

I got XM radio for Christmas. I hooked everything up and I must admit, it has all of the problems I expected it would have. It fuzzes in and out occaisionally, doesn't work as well in **** weather, and above all sounds like complete compressed garbage. My XM sounds like 56kb streaming mp3's. I have the adapter kit so I can hook it up to my car stereo and my home stereo. It sounds crappy in both places. There is no deep bass and no high frequencies, no soundstage, and no depth. It makes my stereo sound like a Sony boombox.

I figured it might be the tuner I have. I went to CC and found it for $20. It's an audiovox and it looks like a POS. Do I have a **** tuner or does XM have no relation to quality. If this is how it's going to sound I think I'll stick to the free radio that doesn't sound like crap.

I agree, my wifes Denali has it built in to the Bose/navigation unit and it sounds so bad i would rather listen to FM, but on the other hand a friend of mine has a new Dodge with the infinity/sirius and it sounded really good for a factory system. Not nearly as compresed sounding.

disneyjoe7

I doubt that the satellite programming / signal is better on Sirius over XM I heard the contrary XM is better sounding over Sirius.

This is do the fact Sirius has fix channel bandwidth where XM using a variable bandwidth on their channels. I agree Rock is too compressed on XM it must have a small consumer request for this type of programming, but thinking there must be a fix bandwidth being transmitted by the satellite so if this goes up making it sound better something has to come down making it sound worst.

HiPerf360

Rock, classic rock, comedy, and news are all i listen to. From my limited experience with both the sirius sounded better. I have heard the XM on a very well balanced aftermarket car system and sirius still sounded better. I would be interested to hear XM on a home system with a quality tuner like polk's but i dont see how it could turn tin to gold.

disneyjoe7

HiPerf360,

I still feel it's the programming you prefer only, Rock / Comedy / News. With Sirius sending the same data stream level to each / on XM I feel all above get a smaller data stream level to them while given a larger data stream to say Jazz / Country / ? . I feel this is better then Sirius method since I believe this sounds better with a larger piece of the pie if you will.

Disclaimer,
This is from what I read / known, never heard it my self but since Polk makes the XM reference tuner I don't feel any cheesy tuner so going to compare.

HiPerf360

lets be real honest with ourselves...polks tuner is what? 200.00?

Polk probably has around 75.00 dollars in additional expense in simple production issues. (i.e. case, buttons, display, remote, etc.) so that dosn't leave much money for technical upgrades to improve the sound quality.

but this still dosn't touch the market share problem that the polk tuner has with other tuner manufactures that necessitates a larger profit margin to offset the lower volume of sales.

so this leaves maybe 5-6 dollars left for technical improvements?

The XM tuner i have heard was in a 2300.00 dollar pioneer head unit with nice aftermarket component speakers and amps, it sounds better than my GM/Bose/XM radio in my wifes car, but not by much.

I am not saying the polk/XM sounds bad, i just want you to see why i have a hard time justifying buying one of these units.

disneyjoe7

HiPerf360 wrote:

lets be real honest with ourselves...polks tuner is what? 200.00?

Polk probably has around 75.00 dollars in additional expense in simple production issues. (i.e. case, buttons, display, remote, etc.) so that dosn't leave much money for technical upgrades to improve the sound quality.

but this still dosn't touch the market share problem that the polk tuner has with other tuner manufactures that necessitates a larger profit margin to offset the lower volume of sales.

so this leaves maybe 5-6 dollars left for technical improvements?

Knowing something about electronics, I say's it's simply more then the buttons pretty case. :rolleyes:

If you don't like XM it's cool, I don't care one why or the other.

madmax

A $20 tuner? Just think of the high quality mindset. How much could you expect when you compare to your CD player? Even a $60 CD? The XRt-12 sounds reasonable, my old first generation Sony with the docking sleaves sounds good but not quite as good as the XRt and several newer ones my friend has had sounds like crap. They started out cheap and have become ultra cheap in these days of the average consumer not wanting to pay more than $50 for anything unless it does everything. Like most things audio you get more these days for less, but there is a threshold. I think the XRt is probably beyond the limits of XM quality. Even so, a $200 source can't be expected to do much more than the XRt.
madmax

disneyjoe7

madmax wrote:

I think the XRt is probably beyond the limits of XM quality.

Not when you listen to maybe Watercolors / Jazz 71 where XM shines IMO.

WilliamM2

I finally got to audition the Polk XM tuner in a freinds system. I also thought the sound quality was quite poor. I was also shocked at how cheap the component looked and felt for it's $300 retail. Cheap plastic face, even cheaper looking plastic buttons. You would think for that kind of money it would at least have a quality build.

Kinda bummed me out, as I have wanted one of these for about six months now. It's been crossed of the list.

disneyjoe7

Again what is the music you like, what channels where they?

WilliamM2

We listened to several different kinds of music, and some did sound better than others. But none of them were up to my standards, seemed lifeless. Reminded me of MP3's, which I absolutely cannot listen to for any length of time.

brettw22

HiPerf360 wrote:

The XM tuner i have heard was in a 2300.00 dollar pioneer head unit with nice aftermarket component speakers and amps, it sounds better than my GM/Bose/XM radio in my wifes car, but not by much.

To be clear, the actual signal procesing has little to do with the headunits that Pioneer sells. Most of their decks are XM/Sirius ready, but you have to buy the external receiver/antenna/processor (about $100). Most of the Pioneer decks utilize very similar processing capabilities in most of their $400+ systems, but no dollar pricepoint exists to improve a signal that's lacking in the transmission rate.

HiPerf360

brettw22 wrote:

To be clear, the actual signal procesing has little to do with the headunits that Pioneer sells. Most of their decks are XM/Sirius ready, but you have to buy the external receiver/antenna/processor (about $100). Most of the Pioneer decks utilize very similar processing capabilities in most of their $400+ systems, but no dollar pricepoint exists to improve a signal that's lacking in the transmission rate.

That is EXACTLY what i mean, the higher end stuff sounds a little better but still dosnt sound good.

brettw22

The XM quality issue is dependent on what type of music you listen to according to what's been said above.

I heard Sirius at Tweeter the other day in their listening room and was VERY impressed with the sound quality. I'm contemplating having it installed in my car this week actually.

amulford

I have it in the truck. It sounds pretty damn good. That being said, I also have Sirius, well some of the stations, at the house courtesy of Dish network. Nowhere near the SQ an in the truck. But that is coming through their tuner.

I also have XM at the house. And it is true, some of the station's SQ is horrendous. A few of them are quite good. But most of the rock stations suck. And interestingly enough, I did an A/B with a friend's Roady one night. You could here the difference on the good stations, but not the bad. Wasn't a HUGE difference, but a difference. You're limited by the broadcast.

I'm probably going to buy portables for both. Background tunes for various areas. It's the no commercials that has me hooked.

You have to remember, this IS radio. Your are not going to get audiophile quality sound, regardless.

Dennis Gardner

No commercials is a stretch..................they advertise XM every 2-3 songs. What a pain in the ****.

wingnut4772

I have friends who have XM and they have the same complaints.

speakergeek

wingnut4772 wrote:

I have friends who have XM and they have the same complaints.

Depends on what station(s) you listen to.

speakergeek

HiPerf360 wrote:

That is EXACTLY what i mean, the higher end stuff sounds a little better but still dosnt sound good.

Compared to what? My set-up sounds quite good, and it isn't high end.

amulford

Dennis Gardner wrote:

No commercials is a stretch..................they advertise XM every 2-3 songs. What a pain in the ****.

Maybe, but for what 15 seconds? Or maybe the DJ talks about upcoming events? Sure they are going to do SOME self promotion.

But you don't have three or four or five or six ads in a row blaring out how their condom is going to change your entire love life if you use it, or how you NEED to contact this ambulance chaser if you stubbed your toe on the curb in front of Macy's. I've heard promo runs sometimes 3 to 5 minutes every 3 or four songs on some stations.

HiPerf360

speakergeek wrote:

Compared to what? My set-up sounds quite good, and it isn't high end.

The 200.00 dollar tuner sounds better than the 50.00 dollar tuner...

you could hear the difference on best buy components.

ian1386

I just picked up an xrt12 the other day (got it for $225cdn including all taxes), and so far I'm REALLY happy with it. I do agree, some stations sound better than others. Jazz stations sound awesome and, unfortunately, the rock stations do sound noticebly more compressed.

That being said, I really bought it for content, and I just decided on the xrt12 because since I was going to get one anyways, I wanted the best one I could get. There are only a few radion stations near me, and none of them play any music that I enjoy, since I like pretty much every genre OTHER than mainstream pop. I find myself often listening to Jazz, Folk, Eclectic, Punk, and some of the rock stations. There aren't really "commercials", but instead there are short spurts where they mention upcoming events/songs/etc. I like having these notices however, as if there IS a live event coming up that I'm interested in, I'd rather hear about it between tunes than not know about it at all.

The bottom line is, if you're an audiophile, you won't be happy with xm. If you're happy with traditional radio, you'll probably like xm even more. And if you don't like radio because of the lack of stations playing your preferred types of music, you'll probably find something you like on xm.