efzauner Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 I just hooked up my XM roady in the house yesterday. It is very easy to set up, and the antenna aiming is not that critical. I dont have the in house adaptor, so I just stuck the antenna on a metal filing cabinet. The choice of music is astounding, and the built in FM transmitter is strong enough to be able to receive on any FM radio in the house! However even with direct connection to my receiver, the quality of the sound is just crap. Sure, no noise etc, but it is compressed like hell and I need to boost the treble like crazy. The quality is worse than good FM, I would say almost AM like. Definitely worse thatn 128kb MP3. The music and radio that my digital cable provider Videotron sends is much much better. It is such a shame that such amzing technology ends up being wasted. I was kinda prepared for that, but got it anyway, I am driving to Boston on Tuesday and music reception along the way is bad, let alone the lack of choice. Ditto for the drive from Montreal-Toronto, which I do regularly. Anyway, I recommend it for background music, or where there not much choice of FM reception. I will report back after my trip to Boston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Just feed the audio signals from the XM receiver into a DBX 3BX-DS 3-Band Dynamic Range Controller with Impact Restoration and uncompress them! Makes a huge difference, I get most of the XM channels via my DirecTV satellite dish and with the DBX unit, most channels are undistinguishable from a CD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.4knee Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 I have XM in my truck and it blows the FM staions away sounds just like a CD but I am not feeding it through an FM converter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Its ok to hear xm but I can't listen to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Fish wrote the following post at 03-21-2006 5:20 PM: Its ok to hear xm but I can't listen to it. That's pretty much my take on Sirius via Dish Network Satellite -- great variety of music, but the sound quality just isn't good enough to really get into. It's good enough for background listening, but that's about it; not as good as good FM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Tu Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 For indoors -according to XM, antenna placement is critical - try placing the antenna in a south facing window at an angle towards the sky and see if this helps you. I had to play with the angle to get the best signal. Mine sounds like a CD playing. The one in my car sound great too, but not under viaducts or in garages... Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 I dunno. I think it sounds very good. It goes from the DirectTV dish, DirectTV TIVO unit, to the back of our old Sanyo receiver that's in the living room. I definitly notice a HUGE difference in sound quality between various songs. Some songs sound great while others sound like they were recorded in a tin can. I listen mostly to The Boneyard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAS Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Hmmm. That's funny. It should be good digital quality, and while all radio nomatter the source will be composed of compressed audio (you don't think they have stacks of CD's lying around, do you?) it shouldn't lose as much as you're stating. I can't see your configuration exactly, but something is amiss. It should definitely sound better than a pathetic 128k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 (you don't think they have stacks of CD's lying around, do you?) Well, now that you mention it.... Yes. I've always wondered how someone would call up some old song to listen to and the DJ could get the song up so quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 A lot of station do still have stacks of CDs. Most of the call ins are recorded so they can have the CD ready and sound like they have it right at their fingertips. But that will be going away for sure. My beef is the compression used to feed the transmitter. Some stations are just aweful. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efzauner Posted April 20, 2006 Author Share Posted April 20, 2006 Ok, So I have had XM for about a month and it is not so bad. I am still using the FM modulator but that may not be the issue. My aftermarket car deck has a "media expander" that makes a huge difference in the sound. I have a 10" subwoofer, component Viva tweaters and Rockford Fosgate (all Hafler internals) amps all round. I will be adding an electronic xover and separte amp for the tweets soon. I will be using RCAs directly, but do not expect a huge improvement. But will report back when I do. Only gripe is that NPR has so many reruns! As if there where not enough issues on this continent to talk about. BBC is better! Oh, and Chrome: All they seem to play are the top 40. Those are what gave disco the bad reputation. They never play any of the good disco nighclub stuff. Thats why I still have all the disco I downloaded from Napster years ago!... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 When I purchased my 2005 Accord they offered to install the antenna for free and give me a number of months 'free' service. I said 'no thanks' I have CD's and I burn my own Cd's. I don't need ipod or other cheesy MP3 encoded 'music' offending my ears. Besides, how many years do you give it until there ARE COMMERCIALS? MTV was commercial free at first, so were some FM stations. Mark my words, this will be commercially-plagued within a few years. They can keep their little antennae! M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 XM came with my new car purchase, it has some nice features. I have listened to some sports and news, in terms of music for the car I am a huge fan of MP3s and since the car has a six CD changer which supports MP3 play back, I spend most of my time listening to my own mixes. I doubt I will renew when the intro offer is up in 2 1/2 months, but that said I have heard of a special offer for 77.00 bucks a year for XM. I used to like Opie and Anthony (WXPN in Philly), who are now on XM, but I never commute in this car so I have not heard them yet. (BTW - David Lee Roth is GD awefull, can't believe they still have him on the air, but I won't pay for Stern) The sound to me is a little worse or equal to a 320kbps MP3 playback and my car has the antenna built in so I hope that is not the problem for the quality of sound. It could be the fact that it is (children and ladies cover your ears) a Bose system, but usually MP3 do usually sound better. For critical listening a car cannot compare to a home system all things being equal. Which in my case they are not, my home set/speakers are awesome (IMO), but for a stock car stereo the bose is fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuckster Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I can't believe we've come to the point in time when we pay for RADIO. Are you kidding me, paying for radio, it's always been free, so now if you want noise free, good sounding music, you pay a monthly fee, more greed, and joe consumer continues to pay. When does this maddness stop, paying for radio......[:'(][:S] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColonialHoo Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 XM radio is not commercial-free. There may be a few channels without ads, but I hear them all the time. I've had XM for about a year now. It came with my new car (and I did subscribe for a few years). There are only a few channels I listen to (Comedy and Jazz channels, along with news every so often). The comedy keeps me laughing and is a good wind-down on the drive home from work. Also, as I am a novice when it comes to jazz, I like the exposure I get to all levels of jazz. It's a nice learning tool for me. It's also good for the longer trips I take for work. I don't have to search for a new channel every hour or so. I do agree that the sound is lacking. However, nothing I hear in the car will ever come near what I listen to at home (when I'm relaxed and can focus - or let my mind just go). Since I'm not looking for perfect sound in the car, it suits my needs just fine. Just my $.02. Chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efzauner Posted April 21, 2006 Author Share Posted April 21, 2006 Sure FM is free, where you can get it. Like I mentioned in my first post. Canada is a wide open country, and the only stations available on the 401 from Montreal to Toronto is CBC, maybe some US NPR, bible thumpin stations. Similar for Montreal-Boston. As for sound quality, of course cars are a difficult environment, but with good speakers, properly placed, and external applification, you would be surprised. In the high end, the speakers are essentially high end drivers from ScanSpeak, Vifa, Focal, etc and othe big names. Most car systems just cannot even compare. Forget Bose. Keep in mind that my car system woud retail for over $2000 not counting custom installation. The amp is a Rockford Fosgate, which is owned by the same company that owns Hafler and the circuitry is identical to the Hafler studio amps. It puts out about 75watts RMS x 4 plus about 300Watts for the 10" sealed subwoofer. As far as I know, few factory installed systems come close. A typical Honda am/fm CD stock car system would have 4 cheap 6" speakers. Get the expensive 6 speaker high end audio option and all they do is add a pair of $5 tweeters in the dash and a cd changer. You could reproduce the entire system for about $200 retail. No wonder stock car audio is crap. Right now I have no home setup because of lots of renovation priorties before getting to the HT room. So my car system is the only one I get to enjoy for now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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