I'm thinking about trying out satellite radio and have been poking around the various user forums on the web. The number of people I've found who are complaining about the lousy sound quality of satellite radio in general, and XM in particular, is surprising. There are many descriptions comparing it to "56K streaming audio", "below 64K MP3 quality", "worse than FM", "on par with bad AM", etc. These complaints are coming from customers using both FM modulators and direct RCA connections to a car/home head unit. Apparently XM and Sirius are in a competition to cram more and more content into their limited available bandwidth. They then have to compress the hell out of it all to make it fit. As a result quality has suffered immensely.
Now, there are three major things that are important to me as a potential satellite radio customer: 1) A variety of music that I can't find on OTA FM stations (crap mostly), 2) Sound quality (at least comparable to good 128K MP3 or equal to regular old OTA FM), and 3) Very few or no commercials. My research so far has found that #2 on my list appears to be a deal breaker for me. How many of you out there (using either service) are happy with the quality of the audio you're getting? How many of you are NOT happy with it? FYI, I'd be listening at home with a tuner connected via RCA to my mid-fi HT setup, and in my car via FM modulator (for now). I'm drawn to the music lineup on XM (I like alternative a lot) but the fact that I can get NPR on Sirius may swing me in their direction. This is *IF* I can overcome my concerns about audio quality. So, I'd love to get information from you subscribers out there. Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide.
Now, there are three major things that are important to me as a potential satellite radio customer: 1) A variety of music that I can't find on OTA FM stations (crap mostly), 2) Sound quality (at least comparable to good 128K MP3 or equal to regular old OTA FM), and 3) Very few or no commercials. My research so far has found that #2 on my list appears to be a deal breaker for me. How many of you out there (using either service) are happy with the quality of the audio you're getting? How many of you are NOT happy with it? FYI, I'd be listening at home with a tuner connected via RCA to my mid-fi HT setup, and in my car via FM modulator (for now). I'm drawn to the music lineup on XM (I like alternative a lot) but the fact that I can get NPR on Sirius may swing me in their direction. This is *IF* I can overcome my concerns about audio quality. So, I'd love to get information from you subscribers out there. Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide.