Ideas please...

[kspv]

I do not know whether this is the right forum to put my question in, or I should try in "Everything Else". But since my question pertains to something digital, I am posing it here anyway.

Did anybody here ever try tweaking a satellite radio? Worldspace transmission in India is digital, encrypted, and has good program choice. But though Worldspace claims their transmission as "near CD quality," I am very disappointed with the sound, and so are many others.

Worldspace radio receivers distributed in India are from India (BPL), Korea (Joy-ear, Tongshi, Polytron), Taiwan, and Japan (Hitachi, Sanyo, Panasonic, JVC). As per the regulation, all of them have line-level output sockets to be connected to an external amp. But linked to a hi-fidelity stereo amplifier, the sound is 40% less in volume than any CD source, even with the receiver showing the full five bar signal, and is muffled.

I was guessing that as the transmission is digital, the receiver may be employing a DAC, and perhaps the poor quality of the DAC (the receivers are fairly cheap) may be resulting in poor sound. If that is so, perhaps changing the DAC may help.

So any ideas on this? Any hands-on experience?

[Elso Kwak]

Originally posted by kspv
But linked to a hi-fidelity stereo amplifier, the sound is 40% less in volume than any CD source, even with the receiver showing the full five bar signal, and is muffled.

I was guessing that as the transmission is digital, the receiver may be employing a DAC, and perhaps the poor quality of the DAC (the receivers are fairly cheap) may be resulting in poor sound. If that is so, perhaps changing the DAC may help.

So any ideas on this? Any hands-on experience?

Hi kspv,
I am using an external NON-OS KWAK-DAC with my Philips DSR2000 digital satellite receiver. The DSR has a digital output.
Sound is better that way but not tremendous. I am reluctant to do mods in the receiver because it is still in warrenty and almost all components are SMD. Satellite transmission uses some form of MPEG compression. I guess that is responsible for the rather muffled sound. I noticed that too.