Hello all, I'm thinking about getting satellite radio and was wondering if anyone here has it?. It has just become available as of Dec 1 here in Canada and there's two providers, XM or Serius. I'm thinking on getting XM and want to be able to have it for home use and car use. I'm interested because they advertise it as near cd quality sound and there's lots of different stations to discover new music. Any advice from user's would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Dave
I think it sounds much worse, but I've also heard people say it sounds good. My reciever may be worse than the average. My complaint is with the weird effects it has on cymbals. If you can enjoy a MP3 at 32 kbs, you may find it acceptable. I listen to the talk stuff a lot where it's not an issue.
Who would ever pay $5 a month for something that's free???
That's what I said three years ago. I love XM and from some brief experiences, think it's better than Sirius. If your music includes classical, there are three of those stations. I also enjoy their bluegrass station. Love the X-rated comedy thing also in addition to NPR and BBC. During the holidays they have added three Christmas music stations... makes party music a no-brainer. A couple decent classic rock stations also...
I run it as source using the headphone jack on the Delphi boombox. I also have a car adaptor for the sailboat.
The quality is very listenable for background. It lacks "air" but what's left of the signal is fine by most standards. It's like a mediocre CD recording.
I'll rate it a "9".
That's what I said three years ago. I love XM and from some brief experiences, think it's better than Sirius. If your music includes classical, there are three of those stations. I also enjoy their bluegrass station. Love the X-rated comedy thing also in addition to NPR and BBC. During the holidays they have added three Christmas music stations... makes party music a no-brainer. A couple decent classic rock stations also...
I run it as source using the headphone jack on the Delphi boombox. I also have a car adaptor for the sailboat.
The quality is very listenable for background. It lacks "air" but what's left of the signal is fine by most standards. It's like a mediocre CD recording.
I'll rate it a "9".
Thanks chipco that is encouraging to know. I'll just go give it a listen soon myself and see if it's worth it for me. All the different venues of music really appeals to me and being able to discover lots of new music. Someone told me that the hardwired receivers have the best sound and to stay away from the wireless ones etc. Thanks Dave
Hi,
I cannot compare UK to US standards.
Here in UK I find that FM sounds nicer than digital radio. (off terestrial digital link).
However the bass of digital seems more extended but still controlled. This is just evident on music, but more pronounced on TV sound tracks.
Our FM system has a bandwidth of about 20Hz to 15kHz. It is transmitted around the country as a 14bit companded digital signal and converted back to analogue for final transmission.
As far as I know this feed is never compressed. It always sounds as good as the studio producer wants it to be.
The Digital radio and TV sound tracks stay digital all the way through. They use a compressed format that is lossy and it shows. I believe that different suppliers pay for the compression rate they want their listeners to receive. At busy times the cheap suppliers get their compression rates increased to the detriment of sound quality. The adverts often get priority because they want the most impressive sound tracks so anyone else on that band will get squeezed.
The DAB radio adverts NEVER refer to this variable sound quality nor do they refer to the reduced quality compared to uncompressed CD or companded FM.
Can anyone confirm the strategies the US suppliers apply to the digital links, particularly during very busy times.
I cannot compare UK to US standards.
Here in UK I find that FM sounds nicer than digital radio. (off terestrial digital link).
However the bass of digital seems more extended but still controlled. This is just evident on music, but more pronounced on TV sound tracks.
Our FM system has a bandwidth of about 20Hz to 15kHz. It is transmitted around the country as a 14bit companded digital signal and converted back to analogue for final transmission.
As far as I know this feed is never compressed. It always sounds as good as the studio producer wants it to be.
The Digital radio and TV sound tracks stay digital all the way through. They use a compressed format that is lossy and it shows. I believe that different suppliers pay for the compression rate they want their listeners to receive. At busy times the cheap suppliers get their compression rates increased to the detriment of sound quality. The adverts often get priority because they want the most impressive sound tracks so anyone else on that band will get squeezed.
The DAB radio adverts NEVER refer to this variable sound quality nor do they refer to the reduced quality compared to uncompressed CD or companded FM.
Can anyone confirm the strategies the US suppliers apply to the digital links, particularly during very busy times.
AndrewT said:
In the UK DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) is of considerably lower quality than FM radio transmissions - and some are even mono only on DAB. Basically it's down to compressing them excessively to squeeze them into a limited bandwidth.
The radio stations on satellite digital from Astra 2 are far better quality, and exceed the FM radio quality - but they have MUCH more bandwidth to play with.
As far as I can see DAB is pretty useless, low quality and poor coverage of the UK - a complete waste of time that nobody wanted, it's another example of the 'digital must be better' phenomenon (which mostly is completely untrue!).
Digital TV is another example, before the UK analogue satellite transmissions ceased we used to put identical sets on at work, one on analogue and one on digital, same programs - the analogue picture wiped the floor with the digital ones!.
After 2 months I ditched my XM service. I enjoyed the content, but hated the quality. On most of the stations you could easily hear the compression artifacts (mainly that sparkling sound). Although on some stations it's comparable to a good FM signal. So now I have a Skyfi2 and car kit rotting in a box under the bed 
My Dad has XM in his Acura and he loves it. When I drive it or am riding with him I enjoy XM and I find the quality to be better than FM, I'm not sure how it compares to CDs though.
I like the programing for the most part, I wish there were more channels for my type of music (which I have heard Sirius has), but my Dad is quite adventuresome and listens to a ton of stations.
He is in his car constantly with clients and everyone seems to enjoy it, but if your not going to listen to it very often, I'm not sure its worth it. I would definately say that, if going on a road trip, the comedy channels are the thing to listen to, very funny, and something a lot of people can agree on.
I'm about to go to college and have been considering a MyFi. But since I've never heard Sirius, and no one I know has it, there is no way to compare which company to choose, XM or Sirius. I've been hoping that at some point the satelite radio companies will realize that right now people are trying to decided which company to go with and they need to let the consumers try out their stations, be it on the internet or something, I think it will not only help the consumers choose which company to go with, but hopefully (for them) create new customers.
Josh
I like the programing for the most part, I wish there were more channels for my type of music (which I have heard Sirius has), but my Dad is quite adventuresome and listens to a ton of stations.
He is in his car constantly with clients and everyone seems to enjoy it, but if your not going to listen to it very often, I'm not sure its worth it. I would definately say that, if going on a road trip, the comedy channels are the thing to listen to, very funny, and something a lot of people can agree on.
I'm about to go to college and have been considering a MyFi. But since I've never heard Sirius, and no one I know has it, there is no way to compare which company to choose, XM or Sirius. I've been hoping that at some point the satelite radio companies will realize that right now people are trying to decided which company to go with and they need to let the consumers try out their stations, be it on the internet or something, I think it will not only help the consumers choose which company to go with, but hopefully (for them) create new customers.
Josh
I had the opportunity to listen to Sirius off D!SH Network satellite a while back... I liked the selection of stations, but the playlists needed to be bigger; it got repetitious. It isn't fair to evaluate the audio quality, since the encoding must be completely different between a TV receiver and the Sirius tuners, but it was lacking compared to CD.
I haven't checked lately, but it used to be possible to listen to the Sirius channels over the internet; check their website.
I really had high hopes for digital radio 10 years ago, when it was expected to have completely replaced conventional radio by about now. Free, hundreds or thousands of channels, better than CD quality, all the college and community radio stations... It could still happen; auctioning off the FM spectrum to commercial interests should bring in a staggering sum, hopefully enough to put the birds up and keep them up. Unless wireless internet access becomes universal and free and fast enough for decent audio bandwidth.
I might come around to XM or Sirius, but right now something like the Omnifi DMP1 hard drive player will do a fine job of providing music, for about the same price and no monthly fees.
I haven't checked lately, but it used to be possible to listen to the Sirius channels over the internet; check their website.
I really had high hopes for digital radio 10 years ago, when it was expected to have completely replaced conventional radio by about now. Free, hundreds or thousands of channels, better than CD quality, all the college and community radio stations... It could still happen; auctioning off the FM spectrum to commercial interests should bring in a staggering sum, hopefully enough to put the birds up and keep them up. Unless wireless internet access becomes universal and free and fast enough for decent audio bandwidth.
I might come around to XM or Sirius, but right now something like the Omnifi DMP1 hard drive player will do a fine job of providing music, for about the same price and no monthly fees.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.