GoHabsGo

Hi. I have noticed that the sound for XM is not as good as i thought it would be. It just doesn't seem crisp and sharp. It sounds kinda flat and almost like standard AM reception, even though the signal reception is perfect. I have adjusted all the sound settings with no real improvement. Its not the speakers because when i play a CD it sounds awesome. I was under the impression that satellite radio would deliver CD quality sound. AM i wrong? is this normal? Any suggestions?

neo1738

its because xm is so compressed its only about 64kbps vs cd is about 128-190kbps and i dont even know how high DVD-A is but i'm sure its better than cd.

Patronus

Yeah they compress the music stations quite a bit and I believe they compress the news/talk stations way more...it sounds terrible - like really low quality MP3 format.

Compared to my iPod plugged into the Aux, well, there is no comparison and I find I really can't turn the iPod off and listen to XM very long, unless it is to check the news or CNBC.

johnny99

XM music quality is so terrible that I never listen to it. I would rather listen to MP3s (mine are all 128 or 192kbps). DVD-As are great, but the selection is terrible.

I only listen to talk shows on XM, e.g., CNBC or Bloomberg.

catnippants

And here once again, we have the basic marketing issue. They advertise all digital, and schmucks like us all think 'wow! must be CD quality'!

Digital doesn't necessarily mean better!

Mike

portwashguy

Everything you all say may be true, but I still really enjoy the XM service and audio system. I've come to realize that I am just not the type to burn cd's etc. Also between XM on the radio and a FIOS DVR at home, my life is coming close to being commercial free.

scottRDX

I agree with everything you all are saying regarding the sound quality of XM, etc., it is disappointing, but I also enjoy the diverse selection of music, no commercials, and it's really nice on a road trip.

cFoo

I like the selections on XM but the quality is crap when compared to MP3 and CD. It's also crap that you lose your music when you don't get direct line of sight to the satellites. I'll stick with regular FM and CD when my 3 months trial is up. Honda should get out of the XM business now before they make any more bad business decisions.

steev

what selection are you referring to, exactly? They have no NFL, no Howard Stern, and the progressive stations just play B-52s and REM over and over. XM is the worst pile of crap I've ever used. I would love to switch my car to Sirius, if there is a clean way to do it and still use the screen.

phoward_15

Well if what you're interested in is Howard Stern and NFL then of course you're going to hate XM. But for the most part they have exactly the same channels and music. I love satellite radio because I hate Top 40 music and it really allows you to listen to bands that are up and coming instead of the same old crap on the radio every day.

XM does have Baseball though and that's really the main difference. Not enough IMO to make me move from one to the other. We have XM in my wife's car and it's great for long trips, especially the comedy channels.

portwashguy

And only XM has Oprah!! <vbg>

cFoo

I'm not going to bother ask how you know this.

phoward_15

I was giving this some more thought as I was driving into work today. My dad has an MDX and TL and I've driven/ridden in both of them quite a bit over the years. Whenever I'm listening to XM in either of them the sound quality is quite remarkable.

Why would the sound quality in the RDX be so bad? I find it hard to believe that the RDX wouldn't have the same tech specs or even better than older MDXs or TLs. Which makes me wonder if a lot of people on this post are just very fickle and huge audiophiles and want something higher quality (which is ok too). I'm just trying to get to the root cause of why people think it's not good.

For those of you who went from one Acura with XM to the RDX with XM do you notice a difference?

catnippants

XM quality really depends on what station you are listening too. Although none of the stations are even as good as a 128K MP3, some are compressed more than others. The talk stations for example, are the worst. Some of the more popular stations use more bandwidth to provide higher quality sound.

Unfortunately what bugs me is that they highly compress each station so they can fit as many crappy stations as possible into the satellite bandwidth they have. I just find it unbelievable that we can send HDTV over the airwaves, but we can't handle a bunch of CD quality music stations?

I like XM too - much better than Sirius. They just both stink quality wise.

Mike

MMike1981

i look at it this way....unless u drive all day on sundays...the NFL on sirius means zero lol. watch football from my house or a bar, or go sit in my car and listen to it? hahah baseball seems to be a much better, spread out program to enjoy.

what im just aggrevated about satellite in general...after all these years, what, NO IMPROVEMENT IN SOUND QUALITY? take some of our subcrip money and invest that SH*T.

GoHabsGo

I am not a crazy audiophile, BUT i do love to listen to my music very loud...(at "11"). XM sound at any volume level is really bad. It sounds like AM radio. Is there an aftermarket way to improve the sound quality? It is really my only complaint about the car...

GoHabsGo

I am driving a benz E350 today with Sirius satellite. It sounds great!! The stereo system is not any better than my RDX, but why does it sound so much better??? Why is XM sound so crappy? Can i fix it in any way?