MannyZ28

iTrader: (1)

Ok, I don't know what it is, but to me, Sirius just doesn't quite make it to CD quality sound. The DJ's voice sounds tinny, it sounds that way especially on news radio of course, but even with the music stations like Octane, etc.. does the voice sound a bit tinny. Also, rock and metal sound uninspired...the guitars just sound muddled and a bit muffled, and the bass is too boomy and overpowering.

With slow music, I was listening to Kelly Clarkson's "Because of you" and her singing just sounded sort of hissy with high pitched whisteling noises.

What's up with this? I am gonna venture out and say it doesn't seem to sound much better than that 34kbit/s stream off the internet on Sirius' website...and yeah...uhm....34kbit sucks compared to your average mp3 at 128 or even 192, and CD's 320!

My Alpine CDA-9855 is brand new, and it has all sorts of Equalizer presets, as well as a 7 band graphic Equalizer built in. I messed with it some since I couldn't stand any of the presets, and it improved somewhat, but it's just not as good as I expected it to be. My CD full of MP3's of my favorite songs sounds noticeably better.

Is there something I need to adjust? Sirius is digital, so you either have signal or you don't, it's not like sound quality improves with a stronger signal, right?

Hmmm...

Opinions?

2K2WS6TA

iTrader: (2)

It's pretty much the same with XM, the sound is not CD quality>
I don't know the technical reasons for it, but I've been told it's due to some type of bandwidth limit, so they have to compress the song, in order for all the channels to fit in the bandwidth allocated, and as they add more channels they compress more.
Something else, as you listen longer the sound quality varies, some days it's really good, others it sounds like a distant FM station
The signal is digital so you either have it or don't, tho I've noticed a difference when the signal meter is down to one bar

transambandit

iTrader: (6)

if you can hook your up directly from the reciever to your stereo it sounds a lot better, when you use the FM modulator is sucks. Its still a little bit below a CD, when i play a cd it is pretty loud at about 15 but for sirius i need to turn it up to 25 on my stereo.

ultraz

iTrader: (4)

youll never get it to cd quality due to the fact that they are charging 13$ per unit, instead of something like 25$ to get close to cd quality........ youll never get cd quality even though they say its "CLOSE", its not. Most people cant tell the difference between fm modulated frequency and cd quality, but everyone has their own standards.

MannyZ28

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I don't have a FM modulator, I have my CDA-9855 head unit and I have a SIR-ALP1 Alpine compatible Sirius Satellite Radio Tuner, no FM here.

I guess I'll get used to how it sounds, it's not that bad...

Manny

DGEN411

iTrader: (1)

It's still better then regular radio.

LS1LUNATIC

iTrader: (3)

I dont have a modulator either, I used some direct hookup from xm to hook my sirius up. Too me it sounds fine, albeit that CD's do sound better but I really dont care. Beats the hell out of Houston radio......

z28pat

iTrader: (10)

I thought the modulator would make it sound better,
why doesn't it?

pat

2MuchRiceMakesMeSick

FM Modulator retransmits the signal to a FM frequency that you tune in on your radio. Quality of the sound is lost as a result.