Today I took my 5 week old RDX on a road trip from Long Island, N.Y. to Storrs CT. and back. It was 144 miles each way. Tonight I am so happy I bought this car. The heated seats are so comfortable, this car drives so well on the highways, I was doing 80 and it felt like we were just floating on the road. Pickup was great as I was passing cars with a vengeance when I needed to. The XM radio was tuned to one station both ways and we heard great songs on a great sound system and heard very little road noise. Tonight I am a very happy owner. It's trips like these that really make all of the little complaints people seem so small compared to the fun of driving this car.

 

thx for the post, do you sat radio folks notice any decrease in audio sound quality over say a CD or MP3 mixed CD? Ive noteiced this in audis in the past, and wasnt sure if it was the sat radio signal quality being low, or the audis stereo being the culprit.

 

Actually the XM is better than most of my mp3's because XM is DOLBY PLII, I was messing around and it let me turn it on for XM so I did.

 

You can turn it on for mp3s too...

 

I got a TSX as a loaner for a couple of days and I have to say that while XM radio is convenient, it sounds terrible. The reason it sounds terrible is that each channel is compressed to 64kbps because that's the maximum bandwidth that a satellite radio channel can handle.

XM and Sirius claim that their audio compression algorithms are good enough to preserve good audio quality at that low of a bit rate, but that's hard to believe - and easily dismissed by simply listening. If high quality audio can be had at 64kbps, you would think that companies like Napster and Apple (iTunes) would have done it as well. However, they all use 128kbps encoding.

While listening to any rock or rap/hip hop station, I noticed distortion in the highs (cymbals, snares, etc.). In other words, they sounded "crackly". Over all, it just sounded like I was listening to everything with a tin can held up to my ear.

There's no way I'll pay $10 per month for any satellite radio service. Just load up an iPod with a few gigs of music and some news podcasts and you get the same variety, only better quality.

Plus, with the RDX's integrated traffic routing, the only benefit I see from XM -- nation wide traffic reports -- is now useless.

 

Isn't the real time traffic on the RDX through an XM subscription? I don't think you can get the traffic routing without the monthly XM fee.

 

Both of these features require monthly fee and both are not available in CANADA

 

I don't normally listen to XM for music, but I listen to NHL hockey games, the comedy channels, and the nascar races, so for me it is a terrific service. And if I did listen to music, it is still better qualilty and variety than listen to the radio, and less commercials...

 

I don't want to start a flame-war about XM vs Sirius, but having had Sirius since 2003 in my A6 and then TSX ... moving to XM was not as much a "non-event" as I thought.

Here's my quick compare:

1. Music quality ... Sirius kicks serious butt. Even with the Dolby PL... effect turned on, it's really noticeably different. For the hell of it I plugged in my old Sirius unit to the Aux port ... and yes, there is a BIG difference in the music quality.

2. Music selection ... this is really personal and depending on which genres you like, one will be "better" for you than the other. I love Sirius' The Wave ... the closest thing on XM is "Lucy" (wtf came up with the Fred, Ethel, Lucy names ???). The XM 80s channel just plain sucks. Sirius 80s has some interesting finds, but XM 80s is like listening to awful top 40 - 20 years later. Same goes for the 90s channels. XM "The Blend" is pretty cool. Jazz and Blues seem comparable, but I'm not an expert by any stretch.

3. Talk ... ironically, the XM talk seems to have a higher sound quality vs. Sirius. As for content, this also depends on your political, religious, or other characteristics. XM has Air America exclusively (they moved from Sirius about a year ago). Sirius has a "Talk Left" channel with Bill Press, Lynn Samuels, Stephanie Miller. Both have a "Talk Right" channel - in addition both also have Fox News Channel. For news, XM looks like it dropped MSNBC although it's on the line-up. Both have CNN, CNN Headline, BBC. Sirius has 3 NPR channels - none of it live (i.e. no Morning Edition or All Things Considered). XM has a "Public Radio" channel with some of the NPR and PRI shows. Sirius has a Gay/Lesbian channel (OutQ) while XM broadcasts a 2-hour/week show from HRC every week.

4. Traffic/Weather ... XM wins, no contest. Cities have their own channels, whereas Sirius usually pairs 2 cities per channel. XM sound quality on the traffic channels is so poor, though, that even though the people reading the weather and traffic are real, they sound computer-generated.

5. Other ... if you're a Howard fan, Sirius is for you. Opie and Anthony? XM. There are some differences in sports, comedy, and lifestyle channels that you'll have to look at and make the determination as to what's your thing.

I already cancelled my Sirius ... while I do overall like Sirius more, having integrated traffic and an integrated receiver weighs more positively to me. I may change my mind over time, it's a close race.

My $0.02,
mj

 

should have added ... my WMA/MP3 CDs sound WAYYYYYYY better than XM, and I can pack a few thousand songs on 6 CDs. I also bring podcasts with me on my Sansa.

I may downgrade to traffic-only when my 3 months are up.

-mj

 

Great review mj. I like the lack of commercials on XM but I end up listening to WBUR most of the time anyhow. Is there an option to get real time traffic only?

 

ncie review, thanks.and to the other guy confirming that the audio quality is still sketchy on sat radio, thanks too!

 

According to XM, "The XM NavTraffic service is available as a stand alone package (without XM audio) or as a premium package coupled with XM audio at $3.99 per month over the $12.95 monthly audio subscription. That is roughly $1 per week for the real-time traffic information provided by XM NavTraffic."

Hmm... not sure it's worth $10/month. If I can score a $77/year deal, I'll probably keep it.

 

You'll like having XM at fund-drive time

mj

 

At least I'll end up with my morning edition mugs!
Where do you get $77 a year? That does not sound too bad.

 

...and you're supporting a good cause (I have enough mugs !)

The $77 is from the RL forums ... sounds like it takes a little work to get, but lots of folks are reporting success.

-mj

 

Well, I think that XM radio is AWESOME! Maybe it's something near you or elevation?? Up at this altitude, it sounds great, not "tinnie", better than cd's, (mostly) ...don't have an IPOD or mp3's yet, so......it sounds great. my

 

Heard that if you tell the people from XM when they call that the plans are too much money right now, they will call back in a week or so and offer you about half price. Anyone else have luck with that?

 

Not sure from your post what the stand alone price for XM NavTraffic is (without XM audio). Could you please clarify?

 

NavTraffic alone without radio is $9.95 per month

 

Thanks sasair