Poor Sound from SiriusXM

[pctek]

I have the Shaker Pro system in my '15 GT. When I listen to SiriusXM the audio quality is pretty poor. The music from my iPod or CD sounds way better.

Has anyone else experienced this? Even HD Radio sounds better. Thanks

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[Jeepwx03]

I've experienced it with every car with Sirius. It's compressed and sent over a satellite so it is lower quality and would be difficult to compete with other media

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[stoli]

It's just the nature of xm. The bitrate is as low as it comes, max of 64kbps but more often than not, it's less than half that.

 

[pctek]

Thank you for the info.

 

[EcoBoostang]

Yeah I remember reading that its somewhere between 64 and 96 kbps bit stream... mp3 minimal standard is 128 and most sources are now 256kbps.

Gotta love Ku band satellite ;)

 

[Alloye]

Yep. Sirius sounds terrible. And it's not just the low-bitrate stream. I've caught them pumping out at least a few songs in mono. Anyone familiar with the stereo effects in Steve Miller Band's Abracadabra, for example, will know what I mean.

 

[GoBlues38]

yep. sirius is good background noise when doing long drives. no rocking out.

 

[EcoBoostang]

Yep. Sirius sounds terrible. And it's not just the low-bitrate stream. I've caught them pumping out at least a few songs in mono. Anyone familiar with the stereo effects in Steve Miller Band's Abracadabra, for example, will know what I mean.

Now I'm interested and want to listen for this...

 

[Poppacapp]

I listen to satellite radio only as long as the 90 day free trial on a new car lasts... after that... nope... sucks for quality.

 

[Rickycardo]

This

 

[smdandb2]

I remember when Sirius and XM were new and had just launched their satellite radio services. They were CD quality because they had the bandwidth to do so. When they launched I believe they had less than 80 channels. Now I think they are closer to 200ish with all the sports and talk channels. Stereo now streams at 39kbit/s and mono channels at 16kbit/s.

So yeah, quality is shit and they know it. People who care about quality over quantity will always get the short end of the stick... there just isn't enough of us compared to the general population.

To top it off, the receiver in the Mustang is one of the worst ones I have ever heard for satellite radio. I don't know how Ford managed to screw that up so badly... hell I didn't even know it was POSSIBLE to make SiriusXM sound worse than it already does, but Ford managed to do it.

 

[rumble]

Agree totally, with all posts

 

[Barrel]

Google Play @ 320kbps...way better than SiriusXM could ever be. But I need my NFL channel, so...satellite radio stays.

 

[filmamigo]

Stereo now streams at 39kbit/s and mono channels at 16kbit/s.

I knew it sounded bit-starved, but that is TERRIBLE!

It seems like they throw a few more bits at a few channels, and really starve the talk radio and anything "niche." I love EDM but their EDM channels always sounded even worse than the crap Top 40, or 60's and 70's.

 

[smdandb2]

I knew it sounded bit-starved, but that is TERRIBLE!

It seems like they throw a few more bits at a few channels, and really starve the talk radio and anything "niche." I love EDM but their EDM channels always sounded even worse than the crap Top 40, or 60's and 70's.

It's some proprietary AAC codec, so not like it's a 39kbit/s mp3. AAC handles compression a lot better, but it really should be at least 64kbit/s to sound decent.

And I agree with what you say about some channels sounding better. I know damn well some channels are prioritized over others. I noticed the exact same thing with the Top 40 channels vs. BPM or Electric Area.

The only thing they are good for is long trips across the country where you might not have cell service everywhere or don't want to burn up your data streaming music.

I recently started getting mail from them daily telling me to renew, so I have to assume my 6 months is up. I'll check on my way home and see if it redirects me to their signup channel.

The only way I will ever pay their monthly extortion is if they bring on a 24/7/365 Coast to Coast AM channel. Give me some old school Art Bell damnit!

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