Just got Sirius-- Seriously bummed!

[ctjr]

I have XM in one of my vehicles, just playing it through the tape deck and sometimes the FM transmitter. Sound was never stellar, but really not bad at all.

I just bought a new car that came with built-in Sirius. Holy Cow! EVERYTHING on there sounds like a heavily compressed mp3. I'm not an audio snob, but particularly if there is a lot of cymbal or other high "splashy" sounds, it actually gives me a headache to listen to it for long. My wife even commented, which is usually how I know something in the A.V world must REALLY be bad!

I guess it could be the unit, but CDs and iPods running through the system sound great, very clear and robust. It's just the Sirius that is stinkin' up the joint. And the issue is definitely compression. Any chance that will change once they merge? I think I would like the programming they offer, but the sound quality....!

 

[john262]

As far as I'm concerned they both sound like crap. On some XM music channels it sounds like the music is coming from inside a tunnel. When are consumers ever going to wake up and demand better from these companies?

 

[reddice]

Blame all of that useless Talk and Sports they added through the years.

 

[Bobby]

Blame all of that useless Talk and Sports they added through the years.

Useless is a matter of individual taste. Myself, I don't listen to either Talk or Sports, but there are a ton of other folks who do.

 

[vtjman]

That is interesting, I had the exact opposite experience as you. I had the Sirius starmate plug and play radio for 2 years, and the sound was pretty good. I got a Honda that had XM built in and I tried it for free for 3 months, and I thought the same thing as you, the sound was awful, tinny, and just sounded overly compressed. I'm beginning to think that maybe these factory radios are just crap.

 

[DSpud]

Sorry, my XM sounds great. I don't want to demand anymore from them. They may raise my monthly price. For the price, the service is stellar. I swear they could give some people all the bandwidth per channel thats possible and people would still complain. Its 170 channels of Commercial-Free music, tons of sports (both services) and plenty of talk, news, comedy for 13 bucks a month! It could sound like FM (without the static) for 13 bucks a month and I would be happy!!

 

[darrencp22]

Useless is a matter of individual taste. Myself, I don't listen to either Talk or Sports, but there are a ton of other folks who do.

I have XM and I listen to mostly sports and talk. Get rid of them and I drop satellite radio in a heartbeat.