Yeah, but the ones saying the quality is fine appears to be the younger ones. I'm 58 and the audio quality of SiriusXM is terrible and easily noticeable. I can only guess that the folks that grew up with low bit rate mp3's just don't know the difference -- sad!
Brian
jjsbasmt
Senior member
- Jan 23, 2005
- 485
- 0
- 71
Hi Brian, I'm 63, but my thought for me is that in the car I don't expect or want audio that is studio or home quality. I use the radio for background company on long drives. If the fidelity gets too good, it might detract me from my main task - driving.
LTC8K6
Lifer
- Mar 10, 2004
- 28,520
- 1,575
- 126
I'm 48.
All of the mp3's on my factory radio's hard drive are 320K. They sound wonderful with the amp and the BA speakers. Far and away better than the Sat radio.
However, the fidelity of the Sirius radio is okay for me. I have never heard anything better on a radio broadcast. I doubt anyone else has, either.
(It's a 2008 Jeep, and the HD still runs like a champ and the touch screen still works fine!)
Don't know what to tell you but the 6 months I had SiriuXM in my car and numerous other times in rental cars and at no time did I think to myself, this isn't so bad. Every time I've listened to it I could easily hear the compression artifacts and I hate compression artifacts.
I also have 320kbps music, 16GB of it, and at that bitrate the audio quality is pretty decent and largely avoids the obvious artifacts of compression. The audio quality of digital TV is usually OK though certainly nothing to write home about so it is certainly possible to encode audio to be of decent quality. The fact for me remains that I have never listened to SiriusXM and be happy with audio quality. My guess is the bitrate average less than 60kbps.
Even with high bitrate music like 320kbps high frequency sounds like cymbals sound a little splashy and the lower the bit rate the worse it sounds.
Brian
I also have 320kbps music, 16GB of it, and at that bitrate the audio quality is pretty decent and largely avoids the obvious artifacts of compression. The audio quality of digital TV is usually OK though certainly nothing to write home about so it is certainly possible to encode audio to be of decent quality. The fact for me remains that I have never listened to SiriusXM and be happy with audio quality. My guess is the bitrate average less than 60kbps.
Even with high bitrate music like 320kbps high frequency sounds like cymbals sound a little splashy and the lower the bit rate the worse it sounds.
Brian
Eug
Lifer
- Mar 11, 2000
- 23,790
- 1,361
- 126
As some may know from my other thread, my car just got totalled. So now I have a rental car with Sirius XM.
However, it also reads the audio files off my iPhone too.
So despite having the free Sirius XM, I'm listening to my iPhone, or else the radio.
At CAD$15.99 I can't fathom why I'd pay that, esp. when I'm paying CAD$7.99 for Netflix. Maybe if it was CAD$4.99 I'd consider it.
However, it also reads the audio files off my iPhone too.
So despite having the free Sirius XM, I'm listening to my iPhone, or else the radio.
At CAD$15.99 I can't fathom why I'd pay that, esp. when I'm paying CAD$7.99 for Netflix. Maybe if it was CAD$4.99 I'd consider it.
crashtech
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2013
- 10,573
- 2,145
- 146
I don't think an expectation to meet or exceed the fidelity of a broadcast technology (FM) that has been mainstream since the early '70s is out of line.
Isn't this basically a technophile forum? Are you really trying to tell us to stop complaining and accept a very clearly inferior product when our technology can easily produce so much better?
I do expect better. Sorry you don't understand.
HeXen
Diamond Member
- Dec 13, 2009
- 7,828
- 37
- 91
Sirius claims 32-64kbps. Measurement's however haven't been quite that high, sometimes as low as 20kbps but averages 24-46 kbps. They use HE-AAC compression but it's still sounds pathetic imo.
Certainly not worth the $10-$20 per month asking price.
KentState
Diamond Member
- Oct 19, 2001
- 8,397
- 393
- 126
The price of a year of Sirius/XM is a drop in the bucket and it's nice to have a variety of music to listen to. Tried the streaming Google Music over Bluetooth from my phone and it just wasn't any better and ended up being interrupted by notifications, signal loss or incoming calls.
If I want something higher fidelity I will stick to flac or 320kbps depending on what the car supports.
If I want something higher fidelity I will stick to flac or 320kbps depending on what the car supports.
Wuzup101
Platinum Member
- Feb 20, 2002
- 2,334
- 37
- 91
This is pretty much why I have it too in both my cars (though I haven't played with the play from usb function yet). It's also great for road trips because it plays everywhere constantly.
That being said I pretty much listen to BPM all the time.
But that's the point, the constant artifacts and artificial "flanging" sounds brought on by the severe compression made me just haul around CD's in my car. (thanks GM for no audio inputs or bluetooth or USB)
As I said before I have 16GB of high bitrate music and I play that from my phone or tablet into a pair of headphones and through a decent car stereo in my car. In my car, a 2012 Ford Focus, I can play the music directly from a thumb drive so I don't need to use my phone though I can do that as well.
Again, it is possible to encode compressed music with decent or even good audio quality but it does require more bandwidth than most providers are willing to use as they prefer to add more channels/streams instead.
I don't Pandora either. If you can find a nearby FM station with the kind of music you like the audio quality, though altered in other ways, is without the painful digital compression artifacts and is to me more listenable. Sadly, there are not many local FM stations playing the kind of music I like any more and even when they do the dynamic range tends to be heavily compressed even though it lacks the annoying digital compression artifacts. DR compression isn't the same as digital bandwidth compression.
Brian
Again, it is possible to encode compressed music with decent or even good audio quality but it does require more bandwidth than most providers are willing to use as they prefer to add more channels/streams instead.
I don't Pandora either. If you can find a nearby FM station with the kind of music you like the audio quality, though altered in other ways, is without the painful digital compression artifacts and is to me more listenable. Sadly, there are not many local FM stations playing the kind of music I like any more and even when they do the dynamic range tends to be heavily compressed even though it lacks the annoying digital compression artifacts. DR compression isn't the same as digital bandwidth compression.
Brian
Fuck Sirius. I just went on their site to cancel our auto-renewal billing and they won't let me. They have no option to do that online. I have to call their 800 #. Fuckers.
HeXen
Diamond Member
- Dec 13, 2009
- 7,828
- 37
- 91
Could be worse. I had to hand write and sign a letter just to cancel my Honda care free trial so it didn't automatically start billing me into their full service. Dealer kept saying, it's a 60 day free trial..blah, blah, blah and then not tell me how it had to be hand written if I wanted to cancel....I consider it a shady practice at best.
Reminds me of trying to cancel a credit card or AOL account where they practically refuse to cancel you by making you go through a lengthy question and coercion process.
NutBucket
Lifer
- Aug 30, 2000
- 27,044
- 556
- 126
You know, so you don't "accidentally" cancel LOLIt's for your convenience!
Spicedaddy
Platinum Member
- Apr 18, 2002
- 2,305
- 75
- 91
They bait you with their 15$ for 3 months offer just to get your credit card, then renew you for a full year at 15$/month. And they renew you months in advance before you think about cancelling. And cancelling is a PITA, waiting on the phone, getting disconnected, etc. Once you manage to cancel, they don't even reimburse you the year you just paid for.
SearchMaster
Diamond Member
- Jun 6, 2002
- 7,791
- 114
- 106
Agree. The sound quality is certainly not phenomenal but it's good enough that it doesn't piss me off. I wish it had HD Radio quality, which is pretty good.
When my 6 month trial expired, they called to have me renew. I offered to pay $10/month which is the max I felt it was worth, but she was insistent that the price was like $17/month and not a penny less so I told her to cancel. The retentions dept. called 3 days later and offered it for $78/year which I accepted. When that contract expired, my credit card had since been cancelled for fraud and Sirius was relentless. I told them just to cancel because again they wanted $17/month and would NOT accept less. I kept hanging up on them but then they started threatening to send me to collections which infuriated me. Finally got a guy who said he could do the $78/yr again which I took, but if I go through that hassle to cancel next year I'll probably just axe it.
Midwayman
Diamond Member
- Jan 28, 2000
- 5,723
- 325
- 126
I can listen to the same station analog and HD. The analog signal sounds much better. Plus my favorite station plays a lot of vinyl
There must be something wrong with your local station. All the local HD radio stations are quite a bit better than FM. I especially notice that they don't seem to have a subsonic filter and I get a lot more bass out of them. At a minimum its 100kb/s MPEG4 he-aac based on a hybrid station and can be up to 300kb/s There is no technical reason FM should sound better.
Both are miles ahead of XM though. I can't stand to listen to XM for more than a few minutes. The quality is really inexcusable, even for non-audiophiles.
Nebor
Lifer
- Jun 24, 2003
- 29,582
- 12
- 76
SiriusXM quality is absolute garbage. They called me and offered it to me for $6 a month or so and I told them I'd happily pay $20 a month if it didn't sound terrible. I cited the low bit-rate of their music and they had no retort, simply said bye.
The quality difference IMO goes SiriusXM<FM<HD<Bluetooth<Auxin\usb\harddrive
My station wagon has a 40gb hard drive built in, and once a month I buy everything from the billboard top 100, load it on a USB flash drive and add it to the hard drive. The sound quality is relatively great (even though my Bose sound system is mediocre at best) compared to other sources.
FWIW I also have a Pandora and Xbox music subscription.
The quality difference IMO goes SiriusXM<FM<HD<Bluetooth<Auxin\usb\harddrive
My station wagon has a 40gb hard drive built in, and once a month I buy everything from the billboard top 100, load it on a USB flash drive and add it to the hard drive. The sound quality is relatively great (even though my Bose sound system is mediocre at best) compared to other sources.
FWIW I also have a Pandora and Xbox music subscription.
Midwayman
Diamond Member
- Jan 28, 2000
- 5,723
- 325
- 126
I think you missed one
XM<silence<<fm<HD<=bluetooth<local storage.
The issue with bluetooth is mainly one of implementation. While it supports multiple codecs the default one is pretty terrible while the bit rate is typically higher than HD. Well implemented bluetooth should sound better, but that's largely a matter of getting the right pieces of hardware together.
SBC is the default codec as an example at a pretty normal setting for bluetooth.
http://soundexpert.org/encoders-224-kbps
So I cancelled. Had a $50 credit on one car and $70 on the other. They don't automatically refund. They "hold" the remaining balance you paid up front for the year in case you reactivate. WTF.
I asked the guy on the phone if he thought I was ok with them sitting on $120 of my money. Told him I expect the refund and he processed it.
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