SilverJ

So I went and purchased a Sirius starmate.
I installed yesterday--2 methods of connection I am using.
Wireless FM modulator---sound is worse than XM(although not by much)---
Tape deck using sony tape deck---worse than the modulator.
My mp3 player sounds GREAT thru sony tape deck adapter...for some reason Sirius sounds better with the wireless FM modulator.
I realize this is not sirius itself but the method of connection.
Ive seen this on the net
http://www.logjamelectronics.com/blitzhonauxdmxv2.html
Its for cars WITH navi which mine isnt. Has anyone used a non nav version of this?
Also I see many people have done their own wiring for various things...where do you get the instructions on how to take everything apart? I certainly dont want to ruin the clean look of my TL.
What I ideally would like is to control my sirius like my XM via a line in aux jack...
If thats not possible I would like an aux in for my mp3 player and one for sirius.
I have never installed even a car radio but I am not afraid to try. I kno this has been talked about before but I guess I am looking for the latest CURRENT solutions.

millerrh

I have noticed the same exact thing you have about Sirius. It is strange to me that the tape adapter sounds worse than the wireless FM modulator since the tape adapter sounds pretty good with my iPod. This makes me wonder if it really is the Sirius signal that has the bad sound quality. It just sounds like a really badly compressed MP3 to me. The high frequency sounds really get distorted. The wireless FM modulator, however, seems to cut some of that out.

One thing you can try is a wired FM modulator. They sell them specifically for the Sirius tuners and they're only like $20. I'm planning on trying that to see if I can get the sound quality to go up. But I'm slightly afraid that it will be like the tape deck was -- where the connection is so good that the bad sound quality of the Sirius signal is more noticeable.

However, on a brighter note, I did hear a sirius radio in a car that had one built into the head unit and the sound sounded fine. So it very well may be the connection and/or the portable units might not sound as good as a true head unit does. Even with the bad sound quality, I still think it sounds better than XM though.

SilverJ

I dont know if its the Starmate or not. The starmate is supposed to be the 3G sirius units which is allegedly their best sounding units. I cant imagine its the sirius signal. To me it sounds a little worse than the XM. I want to have an ipod/mp3 player hooked up anyway so I would like to find out about the "turn 1 aux into 3 adapter" if it exists.
I sent you a pm by the way...

millerrh

I actually can imagine it is the Sirius signal. The satellite companies have limited bandwidth and are packing hundreds of channels in there. Poor audio quality is the compromise for more channels. I'm hoping the wired FM modulator will either prove or disprove this theory. I read some of the Sirius message boards and there are lots of people complaining about this same issue -- at least the issue I'm talking about with the high frequency sounds sounding horrible. Ever listen to an MP3 at 64kbs or so? Sounds similar.

jjh1234

This is probably not your problem, but I found that when using the tape adapter on my Skyfi2 XM receiver, I had to go to the setup menu and turn the line output level all the way down to get rid of the distortion.

jjh1234

HiTEC

Sirius sounds fine in my Audi with OEM Sirius. I think it even sounds better than XM, but not by much.

Yes, some people on the forums complain because it's not CD quality. Yes, it's probably not, but imo opinion XM and Sirius (with OEM systems) sound just fine, but I'm not an audiophile.

Come on bring on the Sirius bashers.

SilverJ

Its so ridiculous to bash sirius or bash XM for that matter. I am happy we have a choice..XM is good for some, not so good for others. Just because theres some hot blondes out there doesnt mean I would want all the gorgeous brunettes to go away ! Its all about variety and having some nice choices

HiTEC

Choice is good, choice brings lower prices, choice brings new services, choice brings new music.

I've found on other forums (mostly XM subscribers) love to jump all over and bash Sirius (even though they know nothing about it) and love to say "Sirius Sucks!" or "Sirius is going out of business!" or "Sirius sounds like crap!"

Having used both now (3 Sirius subs for 3 years & XM only for about 1.5 months). I can say there are things I like about both services. I can say for my music choice, I like Sirius better. My wife likes Sirius because she likes to listen to Court TV (which XM doesn't offer). I think they both sound the same (not CD quality, but OK).

Since my only OEM Sirius unit was in my Audi, and I'm selling that car. I know have OEM XM (which I'm going to keep). So I will have to cancel my Sirius subs, and buy new plug and play XM units. My wife is not going to be happy to loose her Court TV, but I don't want to sub to both services.

bklynpanman

i had this sirius unit connected in my car via a direct AUX connection.. it still sounded terrible.. xm sounds better all around.. no matter what the unit, head to head xm has better sound.. i've installed about 25 of both xm and sirius and xm is by far has better sound.. anybody that says otherwise, doesn't really know much about sound

HiTEC

I guess you're right. I don't know anything about music. You must be right and XM sounds better.

Here is what Car Audio & Electronics magazine said:

But how do the two services sound when compared to one another? Well, as I stated above, I love both of these systems. I would be very happy with either. Both systems come very close to achieving CD-quality sound. I did find that XM seems to preserve the integrity of the original recording better than Sirius, however. On XM, crappy recordings sound like crappy recordings, and well-recorded material sounds like it should -- great! Sirius seems to improve the older and poorly recorded software, giving it a larger dynamic range and improved frequency response. But, on high quality recordings, I found it sounded over-processed.

In my opinion, the job of a playback service or a stereo system is to accurately reproduce the original recording. That means if the recording is poor, the playback should reproduce it just as badly as it was recorded. It should not sweeten or smooth the sound to improve it. Any changes to the original should be considered distortion. So I give XM the edge in this category.

Once familiar with both services' station mixes, I kept scanning in an effort to find the same song on both services. I also looked to find a song that was on one of the CDs that I had in my changer so that I could do a direct comparison to CD quality.

Sirius gave me the first chance to compare its sound to a CD. (By the way, Sirius calls its channels "Streams.") One of my favorite "streams" was "US-1," where I found Eminem's, "Without Me," from his The Eminem Show album. I got the CD and the satellite radio synced up as best as possible and switched between them. I found that the bass line was very CD-like, with great punch and detail. The midrange and lower vocals were excellent and sounded very much like on the CD, very true to the recording. The high frequencies were a little brittle and a little "screamy' when compared to the CD, but much better than the FM signal that I listen to regularly.

The following morning, the Columbia space shuttle disaster happened and I spent most of that day listening to the different news channels on XM and Sirius. Here was my opportunity to do an actual, direct comparison of the human voice and the sound quality of these two services. Both services offer many of the same news programs (Fox News, CNN and CNBC to name a few). I have to give XM the edge in this category. I found XM contained a smoother voice quality and that Sirius had an accentuated sibilance problem ("sibilance" is spitty or over emphasized "s" and "z" sounds in words). XM was easier to listen to on my system. I began to theorize that the Kenwood KCA-R70 might have an internal equalization circuit designed into it to help improve the sound quality of the FM modular scenario. I asked Todd Goodnight about this possibility. He did not feel that there was any equalization done to compensate for the FM modulator, but I was not convinced. (For the record, Todd points out that the FM modulator isn't the only means for listening to their signal. There are direct-connect products from all of the affiliated manufacturers.)

The following day, I finally found a song on both Sirius and XM at the same time! It was a 3 Doors Down tune, and the first thing that struck me was that the Sirius signal was louder than the XM signal on rock 'n' roll music. The second thing that I keyed into was that the Sirius system delivered an axe-handle-like bass line impact. The XM bass line was really good, but Sirius just had more kick to it. However, the XM sounded better in the upper voice and high frequencies. The XM was smoother and the Sirius was a bit sibilant, which brought me back to my question of whether Kenwood has changed the frequency response of its controller.