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.

tbird2340 · 07-06-2005, 08:21 AM

Please do because at this point it's almost pointless to be paying for XM..

guino · 07-06-2005, 12:09 PM

I'd suggest trying a different XM player or perhaps pluging the XM Audio output onto a different hardware (or straight to an AMP) and check the sound quality, that should give away if it is a hardware or software issue... you just can't be trying to solve this "blindly"..

amthar · 07-06-2005, 12:22 PM

This might be completely unrelated but...

I have both an XMDirect unit (that I connect to via a TimeTrax converter box) and an xm2go myfi unit. I have not tested with the XMDirect unit yet, but:

I connect my xm2go unit into some powered speakers here at work. Yesterday it was only coming out of one speaker. I have only had my xm2go for like 3 or 4 days, so I am pretty freaked out. I took it home, shoved it in my bedroom window (only place I barely get a signal if no antenna is connected) and hooked it to some headphones, still only mono. However, I tried it in the car using the FM transmitter and it works fine. However, in the car, it's hooked to a roof-mounted magnetic antenna.

I will test it a bit more today (see what I get if it's in the home kit at home which has that directional panel-stand antenna rather than just putting it in the window and hoping for a signal on it's built-in antenna).

I'll also hook up my XMDirect and see if I can duplicate the issue. Maybe I don't have to send my xm2go back after all!

Troy McClure · 07-06-2005, 12:26 PM

I'm going to go captain obvious here because I had the same issue. You do not want to put your line in volume all the way up. Around 50% is optimal for best sound quality. The output of the XMDirect unit is a little too powerful for the input of a soundcard.

I typically only listen to O&A in the car and their station has a lower volume than the music stations. Anytime I switched to a music station and heard how crappy it sounded I just always said, there goes XM playing with the bitrate again but it was not until I picked up one of those Pioneer AirWave's for out of the vehicle use that I realized that it was not an XM playing with bitrate problem. I then played with the line in and viola, it sounds awesome.

Troy

tbird2340 · 07-06-2005, 12:41 PM

Troy, I think you are dead on. I'll try that on the way home..