Rok

Sounds great to me!

bcb97

I turned my treble a good ways up and that helped alot. I think it sounds pretty good now.

bluefor3

I used to work in the radio business and I know this for fact. Both Sirius and XM use coders/processors to help make their compressed stations sound better. I am not joking/kidding. To save bandwidth and space both Sirius and XM compress their channels--They do this so they can add new/more channels. No different than compressing an MP3 to save hard drive space on your computer. Well what happens when you compress an MP3? It sounds more tinny and more swishy I call it. Well the same thing is happening at Sirius/XM. You lose sound quality when this happens. Well to override this problem Sirius/XM use very hi-tech/very expensive processors to off-set the decrease in quality that happens from compression. While the processors help it is interesting to note that most of you are noticing this. Now I think XM has figured out their processing much better than Sirius has. So I think XM sounds better-in terms of sound quality than Sirius. Just an FYI for ya all. Yes Sirius and XM carry the same channels, but the coding/processing is the very last thing that happens before the sound is sent off to satellite for broadcast. Sirius/XM simulcast however they each have their own processing/coding equipment. I have seen it with my own eyes so that is how I know all of this.

Lazyeye

This is good info..Thanks!! is there anything we can do about the poor bandwidth that some of us are experiencing? Mine sounds very muddy and like its under water as some have said. Seems like every station is different when it comes to sound quality!

bluefor3

You are very correct sir. Every station is different when it comes to sound quality. Some stations are compressed more than others. So no matter how much processing happens you are still going to notice the decline in sound quality. The Voice or "talk" stations are compressed the worst. Reason being is you aren't going to notice the decline in sound quality as much when it comes to talking. However for some reason Sirius/XM compress some music stations more than others. I am not sure why. I just know it happens. It gets more complicated too because not every station broadcasts from the same location. Most XM stations are broadcast from Washington D.C. and most Sirius stations broadcast from New York City, New York. However some stations broadcast from all over the place. "The Highway" music channel for example broadcasts from Nashville. Well some locations add their own processing and this can further complicate things, however sometimes it makes it sound better. As you can see there are so many variables as to why some stations sound pretty decent and some just sound horrid.

The only thing you can do about the bad sound quality is what the guy above said--adjust your treble, base so it is least noticeable as possible. That's about all you can do.

Hondafan

Here is the real explanation: different station use different compression ratios some sound quite bad some sound a little better than FM. In fact the best quality audio you can get on a car radio is from HD FM stations, of course, that is if their own source material is any good... IN general the sound from I pods is mostly bad, not because the gear is bad but because the music you buy from the I store is absolute and an adulteradted crap, terrible compression, whacked out volume levels and most of all artificial overboosted bass. Amozon's MP3 are much better quality. Its the same dilema as with CD vs vinyl everyone complained that CD's sounded worse, not true the issue was most of the recordings on CD were crap too! If you made sure you bought well recorded CD's (DDD) they were as good and many times better than vinyl without vinyls dirt pop and scratch issues. Unfortunately the best possible technology HD audio from Dolby and DTS are not available in any car stereo are the only formats that have the bandwith to record a perfect copy of a master recording. If you want the best over the air qulity stick with HD radio. Another point to notice, on the cars equipped with drive storage, the quality of the drive recordings is the same as a regular MP3 codec thus compared to the original CD its a little less crisp but pretty good overall.

Hondafan

All true should have read your post before I wrote the same thing

GhostRider117

I agree with the op that the sound quality is not impressive. FM radio sounds much better in my opinion.

truth

Anyone that has an OEM system and thinks that it sounds great isn't someone you want to ask about audio quality.

Wired_In

It sounds ok to me, but not near as good as my 256K AAC music on my iPhone.