Originally posted by: BD2003
Originally posted by: getbush
I have sirius and in my room it is wired to a home theater receiver with the rca plugs. I can definately notice the compression they have to do, as music is a little muddled and isn't as dynamic as a CD. About like an MP3 at 128kbps, or worse. I think you get about the same with both due to the compression they have to do to fit the content into their bandwidth.
Its more like a 64-48kbps WMA file.
For XM, I think its something like 64kbps AAC. I also think some channels are alotted more bandwidth then others.
Something tells me the dont have the smartest audio engineers working there, or at least working on their web-broadcast system. They stream using 64kbps WMA9, with many channels using 44kHz, but most using 48kHz, which is too high for WMA9 at 64kbps, there is definatly artifacting that happens and its pissing me off.
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
kinda sad they chose such a low bitrate,, but i guess they are afraid of piracy or something. too bad.
There are technical, financial, and politicial restrictions on the amount of bandwidth they can use. And they are trying to squeeze as many channels in as they can, for as little cost as possible.
And yea, I agree, the sound quality is defintly lacking. XM sounds significantly worse then CD's or even 128kbit MP3s from my iPod, hooked up the exact same way.