XM radio audio quality...

Hi...

Is it me or, audio quality for XM channels is horrible ?
My FM stations sounds ok, but with XM it's high pitch, distorted, you can easily hear the aliasing caused by poor sampling rate.
If it's normal, why do people suscribe to such horrible audio ? Honnestly, I never listen those XM channel only because of that horrible sound...

I agree with you about the audio quality - I let my trial lapse primarily because of that. Even the Bluetooth Stereo audio connection is much better quality that this. I often use Pandora from my smartphone then play that through the Bluetooth connection. Or MP3s played from the USB stick or smartphone.

The XM salespeople will tell you 'but so many are pleased with our music channels'. Not me.

I think it depends to a great deal which channel(s) you are listening to... Some sound much better than others and I suspect that they use different data rates from channel to channel depending on the popularity of the channel and the content...

ve2maa said:

Is it me or, audio quality for XM channels is horrible ?

Click to expand...

Ditto on the audio, some stations are allocated less bandwidth and use high compression / lower bit rate. Must be a $$$ thing. They sound like bad mp3 files.

Yeah, definitely my experience. I certainly won't be subscribing once the trial is up. I probably wouldn't have even with great audio quality though, but the tinny sound on "Hair Nation" pretty much makes that decision a no brainer.

I have Sirius radio in another car and a $3.50 per month internet radio subscription. The Sirius internet radio played through my phone and then into the LEAF audio system via bluetooth audio sounds about the same as the XM in the car. Most of the channels I listen to are on the internet service (including ones I listen to that are not on XM) so that is how I will get "satellite radio" after the trial period is up. No reason to lock into another subscription.

my XM sounds ok...when its playing. we have audio dropouts constantly making it much less desirable then streaming radio like Pandora or Slacker (FM is better but has much less coverage) and its not a Leaf thing (i think) since the XM on the Prius worked no better.

now, one thing i noticed that while driving around town in Olympia, it seems to work best but get on the freeway and i can guarantee at least a half dozen fuzz outs every 5-10 miles. now am i traveling too fast to get a good lock?? LOL!! sorry just had to put that out... probably just a coincidence

TomT said:

I think it depends to a great deal which channel(s) you are listening to... Some sound much better than others and I suspect that they use different data rates from channel to channel depending on the popularity of the channel and the content...

ve2maa said:

Is it me or, audio quality for XM channels is horrible ?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

XM does, in fact, use different bit-rates for differet channels, so some are worse than others. Back in the 101 channel days, audio quality was quite acceptable, definitely better than most FM stations. Then XM got into a channel war with Sirius, and with every round of added channels, the audio quality got worse. XM needs to go back to their original 101 channel model, but I'd be surprised if they do ever do it. Audio quality is obviously not important to them.

Interesting... Other when when I pass under some bridges, I have not had that experience on either of our vehicles... Maybe it is the lower geo-stationary angle up there...

DaveinOlyWA said:

now, one thing i noticed that while driving around town in Olympia, it seems to work best but get on the freeway and i can guarantee at least a half dozen fuzz outs every 5-10 miles. now am i traveling too fast to get a good lock?? LOL!! sorry just had to put that out... probably just a coincidence

Click to expand...

tps said:

TomT said:

I think it depends to a great deal which channel(s) you are listening to... Some sound much better than others and I suspect that they use different data rates from channel to channel depending on the popularity of the channel and the content...

ve2maa said:

Is it me or, audio quality for XM channels is horrible ?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

XM does, in fact, use different bit-rates for differet channels, so some are worse than others. Back in the 101 channel days, audio quality was quite acceptable, definitely better than most FM stations. Then XM got into a channel war with Sirius, and with every round of added channels, the audio quality got worse. XM needs to go back to their original 101 channel model, but I'd be surprised if they do ever do it. Audio quality is obviously not important to them.

Click to expand...

Looking at the Wikipedia article for XM Satellite Radio: Basically, they use AAC+ encoding with a variable bitrate of between 4 to 64 kbps.

With the expanded stations and services SiriusXM provides now, my guess is that the average bitrate is between 4 and 32 kbps. I frequently listen to Digitally Imported (DI.fm) and SKY.fm streamed on my cell phone at 64 kbps (AAC+ encoding) and it sounds much, much better than XM ever has.

now it was about 3-4 years ago when a few local FM stations announced that they were now broadcasting in 3D which was supposed to sound better if you had the proper hardware. i did not hear a difference the day it was turned on and the announcers stated they did not hear a difference either.

so was this a product that failed? or is there still 3D FM?

as far as audio issues, someone told me that large trucks did affect signals some time but then again i would get fuzz out when there was not another vehicle within 200 yards of me so i kinda doubt this person's statement

DaveinOlyWA said:

now it was about 3-4 years ago when a few local FM stations announced that they were now broadcasting in 3D which was supposed to sound better if you had the proper hardware. i did not hear a difference the day it was turned on and the announcers stated they did not hear a difference either.

so was this a product that failed? or is there still 3D FM?

Click to expand...

3D FM? Never heard of it... Maybe you mean HD Radio? HD Radio is a digital simulcast of the main audio channel (much higher quality) along with multiple "sub-channels" (usually referred to as HD-1, HD-2, or HD-3 stations).

Looks like there are a lot of HD Radio stations in the Seattle/Tacoma area (http://www.hdradio.com/stations/Washington-WA/Seattle-Tacoma-82).

Here in Portland, HD Radio is alive and well too (http://www.hdradio.com/stations/Oregon-OR/Portland-69).

Ok I go with HD then. But I remember the morning when KZOK went HD So this could have tuned our ears to expect higher quality sound which may have contributed to the perceived low sound quality of XM?

DaveinOlyWA said:

Ok I go with HD then. But I remember the morning when KZOK went HD So this could have tuned our ears to expect higher quality sound which may have contributed to the perceived low sound quality of XM?

Click to expand...

The XM Classical Music stations are broadcast in "high defintion". They are the one channels that sound decent.

HD Radio (which is digital) is technically called IBOC (In Band, On Channel). It proports to give FM quality to AM radio and CD quality to FM radio (along with additional channels for the FM implementation). It requires a special receiver for either AM or FM and without one, you will not hear any difference. FM HD works quite well but AM HD is fraught with problems and has never performed well. In fact, because of interference problems, many AM stations are not even allowed to use it at night.

DaveinOlyWA said:

Ok I go with HD then. But I remember the morning when KZOK went HD So this could have tuned our ears to expect higher quality sound which may have contributed to the perceived low sound quality of XM?

Click to expand...

DarkStar said:

I frequently listen to Digitally Imported (DI.fm) and SKY.fm streamed on my cell phone at 64 kbps (AAC+ encoding) and it sounds much, much better than XM ever has.

Click to expand...

Many of the XM music channels were ~53 kbps back in the 101 channel days; now many are 32 kbps or less. For a while, at least, XM was running a couple 64 kbps channels; I used to listen to "Fine Tuning" before I canceled my XM when they merged and continued with Sirius only. Now I have XM in the LEAF, but I have not really checked the music channels that closely. Mostly I've listened to BBC.

I've been to the XM studios in DC 3 times. Quite an impressive facility! To bad they use such low bit-rates, because they certainly have the stuff to make really qood sound at the studio. I am a former broadcast engineer, who got out of broadcasting in the late 1980's because the FM loudness war screwed up the good sound that was coming out of the radio studios I built.