Is there a reason my XM sounds like poop?

Fallout · 08-21-2007, 10:39 PM

whats the big idea with XM, sounds like AM radio on steroids? To me it's not worth the subscription. I hooked up my XM PCR to the 'ol carputer and it did not sound good at all, guess Im going with either the HQCT-E or jsut mp3s. any thoughts on this?

jim8675309 · 08-21-2007, 11:13 PM

What channel were you listening to? The default channels (1 and 254) sound quite "poopy". Channel 84 sounds substantially better in my setup.

boomintrac · 08-21-2007, 11:53 PM

its bandwidth issues, if they would knock down the listening selection to just 3-5 channels they would probably be close to cd quality, but then they wouldnt have any subscribers.
Aron

dupa2 · 08-22-2007, 08:10 PM

Is sirius any better? I assume it's not, but who knows?

boomintrac · 08-22-2007, 10:47 PM

Ive heard the same about sirius, But Ive never listenned to Sirius so I cant truthfuly comment.
Aron

Fallout · 08-24-2007, 06:20 PM

well when i hooked up my XM to see if it worked, you get just channe 1, the preview channel. So based off that, Im not sure if I want to subscribe. Souds like Im listening to crappy mp3 downloads.

RedGTiVR6 · 08-25-2007, 03:59 PM

That's just XM radio...I've recently hooked it up in my car again after a 3+ year hiatus (originally dropped it because of the lack in quality) and am even more dissapointed in the sound. I wouldn't even say AM on 'roids...

Maybe a 64 bid MP3 being broadcast over AM radio?

paragraph · 08-26-2007, 07:11 PM

My sirius is CD quality

I'd check to make sure the connections are tight and good quality, wrap 'em in electrical tape if you have any couplers involved.

the problem also could be the quality of your sound-card

i've never had any quality complaints about sirius, then again, i don't have XM

RedGTiVR6 · 08-26-2007, 08:48 PM

They are both the same. Squeezing too many stations onto too little bandwidth.

boomintrac · 08-27-2007, 12:57 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by paragraph

My sirius is CD quality

i've never had any quality complaints about sirius, then again, i don't have XM

Please dont take this the wrong way, alot of people dont notice the difference in sound between XM (Siruis) and CD mainly because they don't have the ear for music that a few people on the boards have developed. I for one have XM, (I hate XMs quality but I do use it for about 3hrs a month when I dont feel like listening to the music on the P.C.) My wife also has XM and loves it to her it sounds just as good as the CDs that comes out of her stereo. Kind of like the loudness button feature on radios, Some people use the button because they love the way distortion sounds then they maxout the radio, but myself I would not use the loud button when I had CD players because I could hear a difference in the music other then making it louder.
Aron

ODYSSEY · 08-27-2007, 01:19 AM

XM Radio Bitrates as of March 2007

Code:

     Low Transponder                   High Transponder 
  1 XM Preview        16,384     75 Hear Music           40,960 
  4 The 40s           24,576     76 Fine Tuning          65,536 
  5 The 50s           32,768     77 Audio Visions        40,960 
  6 The 60s           32,768     78 Escape               40,960 
  7 The 70s           40,960     80 The Move             32,768 
  8 The 80s           40,960     81 BPM                  32,768 
  9 The 90s           40,960     82 The System           32,768 
 10 America           40,960     83 Chrome               32,768 
 11 Nashville! cm     49,152     84 XM Chill             32,768 
 12 X Country         40,960     90 Fuego sp             32,768 
 13 Willie's Place    32,768     91 Viva sp              32,768 
 14 Bluegrass Juncti  32,768     92 Aguila sp            32,768 
 15 Folk Village      40,960     94 Caliente sp          32,768 
 16 Highway 16        40,960    100 Air Musique fr       32,768 
 17 US Country        40,960    101 The Joint            32,768 
 20 Top 20 on 20      40,960    102 Sur La Route fr      32,768 
 21 KISS cm           49,152    110 XM Classics          57,344 
 22 MIX cm            49,152    112 Vox!                 57,344 
 23 The Heart         40,960    113 XM Pops              65,536 
 24 Sunny cm          49,152    115 Radio Disney         32,768 
 25 The Blend         40,960    116 XM Kids              32,768 
 26 Flight 26         40,960    121 Fox News             16,384 
 27 Cinemagic         40,960    122 CNN                  16,384 
 28 On Broadway       40,960    123 CNN HDLN             16,384 
 29 U-POP             32,768    124 ABC News & Talk      16,384 
 30 XM Hitlist        40,960    125 Weather Channel      16,384 
 32 The Message       32,768    126 CNN en espanol       16,384 
 33 Spirit            32,768    127 CNBC                 16,384 
 34 enLighten         32,768    129 Bloomberg News       16,384    4,096 
 40 Deep Tracks       40,960    131 BBC World Svc        16,384 
 41 xL Bone Yard      32,768    132 C-Span Radio         16,384 
 42 xL XMLM           32,768    133 XM Public Radio      32,768 
 43 XMU               32,768    140 ESPN Radio           16,384 
 44 Fred              32,768    141 ESPNEWS              16,384 
 45 XM Cafe           40,960    142 Fox Sports Radio     24,576 
 46 Top Tracks        40,960    144 XM Sports Nation     16,384 
 47 Ethel             32,768    145 IndyCar Racing        4,096   16,384 
 48 xL SquiZZ         32,768    146 PGA TOUR Network      4,096   16,384 
 49 Big Tracks        40,960    147 XM Deportivo sp      16,384 
 50 The Loft          40,960    150 xL XM COMEDY         24,576 
 52 The Verge         32,768    151 Laugh USA            16,384 
 53 xL Fungus         32,768    152 EXTREME XM           16,384 
 54 Lucy              32,768    153 xL Laugh Attack      16,384 
 60 Soul Street       32,768    154 National Lampoon     16,384 
 62 Suite 62          32,768    155 Take 5               16,384 
 64 The Groove        32,768    156 Oprah & Friends      24,576 
 65 xL The Rhyme      32,768    161 WSIX cm              40,960 
 66 xL RAW            32,768    162 E!                   16,384 
 67 The City          32,768    163 Sonic Theater        16,384 
 68 The Heat          32,768    164 Old Time Radio       16,384 
 70 Real Jazz         40,960    165 Talk Radio           24,576 
 71 Watercolors       40,960    166 America Right        24,576 
 72 Beyond Jazz       40,960    167 Air America          16,384 
 73 High Standards    32,768    168 Fox News Talk        16,384 
 74 Bluesville        32,768    169 THE POWER            16,384 
174 Sports Guide           0    170 FAMILYTALK           16,384 
247 Emergency Alert    4,096    171 Open Road            24,576 
                   ---------    172 Sport Plus fr        16,384 
   Primary Payload 2,035,712    173 WLW 700              24,576 
                                175 MLB Home Plate       16,384 
                                176-190 MLB pbp x 14    229,376   16,384 
                                190 MLB en Espanol        4,096   16,384 
                                191-199 College pbp x 9  36,864  147,456 
                                200 XM Live               4,096   32,768 
                                202 xL the ViRUS         32,768 
                                204 Home Ice             16,384 
                                205-209 NHL pbp x 5      81,920   16,384 
                                210 Boston                4,096 
                                211 New York City         4,096 
                                212 Philadelphia          4,096 
                                213 Baltimore             4,096 
                                214 Washington DC         4,096 
                                215 Pittsburgh            4,096 
                                216 Detroit               4,096 
                                217 Chicago               4,096 
                                218 St Louis              4,096 
                                219 Minneapolis           4,096 
                                220 Seattle               4,096 
                                221 San Fancsico          4,096 
                                222 Los Angeles           4,096 
                                223 San Diego             4,096 
                                224 Phoenix               4,096 
                                225 Dallas/Ft Worth       4,096 
                                226 Houston               4,096 
                                227 Atlanta               4,096 
                                228 Tampa                 4,096 
                                229 Orlando               4,096 
                                230 Miami                 4,096 
                                244 Canada 360            4,096 
                                245 Quoi De Neuf fr       4,096 
                                                      --------- 
                                      Primary Payload 2,039,808

http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t...&postorder=asc

RedGTiVR6 · 08-27-2007, 08:47 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by boomintrac

Please dont take this the wrong way, alot of people dont notice the difference in sound between XM (Siruis) and CD mainly because they don't have the ear for music that a few people on the boards have developed. I for one have XM, (I hate XMs quality but I do use it for about 3hrs a month when I dont feel like listening to the music on the P.C.) My wife also has XM and loves it to her it sounds just as good as the CDs that comes out of her stereo. Kind of like the loudness button feature on radios, Some people use the button because they love the way distortion sounds then they maxout the radio, but myself I would not use the loud button when I had CD players because I could hear a difference in the music other then making it louder.
Aron

bingo!

paragraph · 08-27-2007, 08:57 AM

well, i can't tell the difference, and i really don't care

sounds good to me and thats all i care about.

travisroy74 · 08-29-2007, 07:46 PM

For now, for me XM is more about the programming than the quality, kind of like mp3's at first were all lower bitrates because we had much less hard drive storage. Now with bigger drives becoming cheaper and cheaper i'm re-ripping my collection at higher rates and often times as a lossless file.

XM did redo something with the bitrates early this month, but i dont know the end results, I believe they redid the VBR math so that a channels bit rate was dependant on what other channels were playing at the time. I could be completely wrong on this.

Fallout · 09-01-2007, 03:41 PM

well, let me try this XM for a month. we'll see.