Why does Sirius satellite radio sound so terrible?

We rented a car this weekend, and it had satellite radio. The playing lists from the few stations we like to listen to the most (Deeptracks... Classic vinyl [!]...) had been refreshed quite a bit since last year and held a few surprises to us (Led Zeppelin's "Four Sticks" and "Candy Store Rock", ELP's "Karn Evil #9", Jethro Tull's "Teacher", etc.). But I couldn't believe how bad the sound sucked! Some of the familiar songs sounded upfront like alternate versions (sometimes to both my wife and I!)... It's a like "swirly" or "washy" artefact, and some elements of the stereo image are completey drown out...

 

Very very low bandwidth, so super compressed audio. Like on the order of 32 to 64 Kbps. SQ on Sirius utterly sucks.

 

mp3 sourced, 320 kbps at best?

 

Not even close. Try dividing by 5.

 

people pay subscription fees for Sirius and XM - why can't they improve their bandwidth and limit their compression? Does (ostensibly free if you can stand commercials) FM radio sound better?

 

It's a limit of the technology they built the sat network with. They did the best they could with what they had at the time. To get more out of the bandwidth they have available, they would have to reduce the number of channels, and that would cost them subscribers (in their estimation). Yes, a well engineered FM station (getting harder to find) sounds light years better.

 

Sound quality may not be great (though I had always assumed it was the Bose speakers in my car that suck even more causing the poor sound quality) but I love the programming and find it to be worth the money.

 

one of the first posters I've read who say their Bose speakers suck.

 

Really? Goodness, head off to some other purely speakers based forums and post a troll about the high design quality, superb parts, and rugged build of your Bose speakers and watch the reaction.

 

Agreed. FM absolutely sucks. FM for years now has not cared about the music. It's really just the noise between the advertisements. And even when they do play music, how many times do you want to hear, "Smokin' In The Boys Room"?

SiriusXM doesn't sound amazing, but I don't listen to it for sound quality. I listen because I hate ads on FM. It's that much of a deal breaker.

 

Perhaps you were being sarcastic and I missed it now that I think about it. Here is a FAQ going through the typical Bose discussion in a speakers forum that I thought was pretty funny when I read it.

http://www2.zhome.com:81/ZCMnL/PICS/stereo/bosefaq.htm

 

I don't think anyone would argue that the programming on Sirius/XM isn't a billion times better. It is. The OP's thread is about audio quality. Sirius sucks in that department. It's positively Dysonesque.

 

They run ads on SiriusXM; at least on Howard Stern which is their #1 show in ratings

 

i have a subscription but only listen to stern and BBC world report......when stern retires so does my subscription.......the service will fade away once he leaves....

 

I had Sirius for a couple months on a vehicle I purchased. I don't consider myself to be too much of a snob, but the SQ was almost unlistenable.

I asked a few people if it was supposed to sound that way.

The Dead channel was the most palatable because that's how most of their bootlegs sound anyway.

 

Yeah, it sounds lousy, but I like all the commercial-free channels. And it's cheap.

 

My daughter's new car had it free for one year. "Swirly" and "Washy" are a good description of Sirius' sound, I liken it to sounding the music is being played in an "echo chamber". Just awful.

 

When I can get it free I'll listen, but their range of music is very limited, repeats happen sometimes daily on a channel.

 

Back when they were separate companies, both Sirus and XM were much higher quality. The quality began to drop after the merger. Also, they have a whole other set of channels for background music in businesses, signals for other languages and countries, dedicated channels for more sports, etc. Mo Channels, Mo Money! Quality can be reduced to the point where people actually start cancelling the service, and not a second before. The company is not run by the engineers, but by graduates of various business schools where these type of decisions are not merely encouraged but rewarded.

As for Bose, have you never heard the old taunting rhyme "No highs, no lows, it must be Bose"? That applied mainly to the 901, which proved the folly of trying to produce full range sound via 9 4" mid-range speakers better suited for installation in a clock-radio.

 

I've been a subscriber for years and the sound quality does vary from player to player. Back when Sirius and XM were separate companies, I'd have no problem getting XM in my own car, but if I rented a car with Sirius in it I'd lose the signal if I drove underneath a tree! Not sure what hybrid they've put together after the merger, but the sound quality isn't the point, the programming is. By the way, worth the extra few bucks a month for the online subscription, which is a stream but is much cleaner and more reliable (and lots of on-demand features).

If I hear something on satellite radio that thrills me I have no problem purchasing the actual music to hear it perfectly. And despite its limitations it's still far better than the AM radio many of us here grew up hearing music on for the first time.

 

That has not been my experience at all, as a subscriber of many years.

 

I've had it in my last 3 GM cars, the 50,60,70's channels DO repeat tunes, even sometimes the same day. I've heard it more that I can count.

 

Yeah, I was too quick on the generalization there. Certain channels do have repeats, especially the top 20 channel. You need to go deeper to find the gems.

 

Off topic, but people really should stop assuming all FM stations are at all like those ran by Clear Channel. Albany has about a half-dozen independent radio stations with interesting play lists, I can't believe a city the size of Boston can't easily double that. People are always quick to complain about the repetition on FM radio and when you ask them what stations they listen to will invariably rattle off their local Clear Channel Stations.

 

KPIG!