I heard XM a while ago and just got a chance to hear Sirius. It reminds me of a 96 kbit mp3........
I did some research and found that it is actually 48 kibt (a better codec than mp3) but still. I mean FM sounds 10x better. Of course that depends on location, we have some VERY strong FM stations here.
And before people start asking:
The XM was was built into a factory stereo. I played a CD through the same system for comparison and the difference was huge.
The Sirius was connected though RCA line in. Again, played CD for comparison and night and day difference.
Whats sad is that it COULD sound great. But the providers compress the signals in order to broadcast more channels, choosing quantity over quality.
It's funny, everyone else who listens to it says "I don't hear anything wrong?" and I'm like "how can you listen to this crap?"
Of course, everyone else think Itunes files (128 kbit AAC) sound good too......... I can't stand them. Better than the satellite radio but not by much.
I can't listen to mp3s at less than 192........ and can distinguish those from CD. I can tell 320 from CD on SOME songs, not all.
/rant
I just want to know what people here who use itunes or sat radio think.
I use Itunes...and At times i just put a cd in for the same reason...I had XM for a while I couldnt stand it...Not worth it at all...Im glad to hear u say that sirius is the same...so no need to even look into it
idk ms my sirius sounds cd qulity, i pump it in through the fm jack adapter, it's block that goes befor you factor ant and all aux jacks on thier units seem fugged. but the way i did it i love it and i get crystal sound out of it i mean rarely will a talk show come on that u can tell lost quality, i can even email u a show i recorded it sounds as good as cd, it's all in the setup.
It's not possible for the setup to be causing what I was talking about....... I meant that I can hear the compression artifacts in the audio.
Audio that has been compressed too much has a distinctive bad sound in the higher frequencies, which can only be introduced through compression. What I'm getting at is it can't be the setup that's causing it.
As I said, I know a lot of people who think it sounds just fine. My conclusion is that some peoples hearing sensitivity just sucks.
i admit yes there has been a decent amount of compression, i notice it, it just prob got worse cause the only time i used to hear it was every now and then from howard stern but it's been about 3 months since i turned sirius on. due to xm and sirius merger "i gotta read up on" they might be getting shiiity but idk i'll have to take another listen.
