question about sat radio audio quality

[Van]

I have a serius replay ( slightly early christmas gift ) and Ive noticed that the voices on various stations has an almost "tin" like quality to them, is this to be expected or is there something that Im missing in the menue settings?

 

[charper1]

Give us some of your personal examples.

Some of the talk radio stuff sounds like mono or AM because of how it is produced at its source and that is the way it is delivered to Sirius and XM.

 

[minorthr]

Its due to compression. On talk stations it is usually very noticeable.

 

[Van]

Ok thats all that I needed to know, thanks guys.

 

[GeorgeLV]

Its due to compression. On talk stations it is usually very noticeable.

Yeah, based on a minute of Googling, XM use AAC (apparantly at the shocking low bitrate of 32kbps) for the music channels, but the voice channels use a speech codec called AMBE. Sirius use a proprietary codec called PAC by Lucent, but I don't know if they have a seperate speech codec like XM.

 

[Horsnuts]

The sound quality of the music stations( On Sirius ) really sucks. It sounds like "streaming music over the internet". I got a replay for christmas too, and i'm glad that I only paid for a month. I love the content, but the quality sucks. Is XM any better?

 

[charper1]

How is your Sirius connected/used? What make & model? Consistent signal strength?

I listen to most of the rock genre daily via a well placed & tuned FM mod in the car and direct connect to my home A/V and the audio is much better than FM, as good or better than new audio tape, but not near CD as it should be. I only hear what you describe on some talk and comedy channels. My neighbor has XM and it sounds no different, it is good as it should be for its medium.

 

[Horsnuts]

I have the sirius starmate replay. I use 98.1 as the broadcast freq. since there aren't any stations near the mark. I use a Kenwood deck to tune it in. I don't get much, if any, static using that station. The audio doesn't sound clear like an FM station does. It doen't have that STEREO quality. My reception level is maxed out also. I'm thinking of giving the unit to my wife and buying the kenwood tuner to see if it gets any better.(She bought this thing for me for x-mas, so giving it to her is gonna be hard) I also like the rock genre, and find myself listening to Octane the most, hard attack next. Does anyone else have this same issue?

 

[Van]

Ive noticed that sometimes the music stations also seem a bit tin like but its rare. I transfer the starmate from my mini van to my work van so I dont hear alot of diference between the two. Any of the talk stations do sound somewhat to very tinny regardless of what station I use to transmit and receive the service on, but the tin I can deal with on talk as it really isnt a big deal though I do have to say that I was expecting something better such as being atleast as good as AM audio quality.

 

[Horsnuts]

And FM quality!

 

[biged007]

I would only buy a HU if you have a choice because there is a tremendous difference in quality. My Pioneer XM HU really rocks, but I wont even attempt to listen to music on my Sirius Sportster. Im a trucker an have put them both to the test all over the country.
There are so many FM stations it is hard to find a FM freq. not used and besides that Sporster actually sucks in FM stations....you can find a freq and in a few minutes there is a "S" comming up indicating its found a FM stat. Anyone know of a way to use the Sportster withtout receiving the signal via FM?