XM Radio Sound Quality - What Happened?

**tbird2340** · 07-05-2005, 06:54 AM

I just got a XMD1000 and made my own cable. I went on an hour roadtrip and tried it out. For that hour I freakin rocked out.. The music was awesome and the sound quality was awesome as well. I was using Frodo Sattelite Alpha 3 and I hadn't adjusted any EQ settings (it was enabled in the INI file however).

The next time I got in my truck when my PC booted up (from hibernation) it made some nasty sound for a couple seconds then went to the music. The music seemed to have a lot of static and even at low volumes it sounded like it was freaking cranked.

I turned off the EQ via the ini file and it seems to sound better but still not like the first time I went out with it..

Any ideas??

Thanks

**jcdillin** · 07-05-2005, 07:21 AM

I've found that if it's getting signal only from the ground repeaters the sound quality is much worse than with the sat signal

you might also try it with the built-in frodo XM app, because i've had some trouble with that EQ built into the program sometimes even though i've disabled it, it seems to still be affecting it

**tbird2340** · 07-05-2005, 07:35 AM

JC, what are the ground repeaters? How do I know when it's getting a sig from those or from sat?

Thanks

**jcdillin** · 07-05-2005, 04:43 PM

the ground repeaters are signal towers that are located on the ground so that when you go into areas that dont have a sat signal, like a parking garage you can still have radio

you should have three signal bars in the XM application, the top 2 are sat signal and the bottom one is ground signal

**tj!2k4** · 07-05-2005, 04:55 PM

lately i've noticed that if the sat signal strength is low, the xm will only come in as mono..

**jcdillin** · 07-05-2005, 04:58 PM

yeah so have I, I just think sometimes the XM has trouble recovering and going back into stereo

**tj!2k4** · 07-05-2005, 05:08 PM

true, because when i notice that it's mono, i switch to another channel, and i've got stereo again. but like i said, i only seem to have noticed the mono thing going on lately... and just as an aside, i'm using an xmpcr.

**jcdillin** · 07-05-2005, 05:33 PM

yeah, should be the same tuner module in both the PCR and the XMD, so it might be a flaw, or just by design

I just did the opical mod to mine a couple weeks ago, soon as I can figure out a way to make the optical in work on my sound card i'll let you know if that helps at all.

**tbird2340** · 07-06-2005, 08:00 AM

Man, I'm still having problems with the SQ?! WTH happend?!? It was friggin rocking the first day!

What I did notice that with the line in not muted I have a lot of feedback (sounds like the volume is turned up to 100%) then when I mute it the sound is gone (so def the line in).

I uninstalled FrodoSat program and rebooted and then unmuted the line and it was fine. It wasn't blaring. Then I reinstalled disabling the EQ before I even went in and it's still bad. Not AS bad but still not like it was the first time..

Man, this be blowin...

**oekundar** · 07-06-2005, 08:09 AM

Funny thing is that I am experiencing a sound quality issue as well, and I'm not sure if its frodo related. The laptop sounds fine if using the speakers in the docking station, but once I plug in my plug into either the headphone/line out plug, my highs seem to go straight to crap. I changed the volume control setting in the settings 1 menu and that seemed th help for a bit then back to the junk. The next thing I did was launch Windows media player and I didn't seem to experience the same problems. I still need to do some more trouble shooting, as well as install a ferite core on the RCA cables. I will keep you updated.