XM Tuners

[rollo]

   Had it in a rental car . Very impressive sound and music. Anyone delve into a home tuner ?


charles

[evan1]

   Had it in a rental car . Very impressive sound and music. Anyone delve into a home tuner ?


charles

I had  sirius tuner that was made for car and home . Stopped using it after they were raised prices a few years ao. Sound was ok . Better off with a Squeezebox and internet radio

[Black Sand Cable]

I have XM in my truck and never use it. Maybe it's the factory tuner or something but I honestly can't listen to it. To me it sounds like FM radio.

When my free trial runs out, I have zero plans on subscribing. I wonder what bit-rate they broadcast at? 48 maybe? Based on the sound quality, I really cant see it being much higher.

I have also tried XM via Sonos and again, nothing special. Napster sounds 500% better as a lot of the internet radio stations that are out there.

I can honestly say that I wish it sounded better as I would love to have it in my truck on a regular basis.

[Bigfish8]

I have a Sirius Tuner in my company car and have been a subscriber for several years.  Audio quality is at least as good as normal FM and you can listen to the music stations for hours without commercials.  I have had friends ask me about the service and I always respond that you need to spead a lot of time in a vehicle to justify it.  I would not consider it for an in home service for music.  The only reason to purchase for in the home use would be to listen to sports broadcasts.

Ken

[Carlman]

I cannot listen to the swirly digital sound of sat radio in my car on some things, especially talk radio.  I can't even understand what they're saying because it's so distracting with all the weee-oooo-weeee-oooo effect.  Most music is tolerable but sometimes it's too swirly for me and I turn it off.  I know it's bad when I listen to a cd and my ears relax.  I do have 'older' technology with the stock 2005 radio and tuner... but who knows.. it's still a low bitrate.  All that said, I've had it in 1 or 2 cars for 7 years now.  I started with Sirius.  The consistent type of music without commercials is worth it to me.

I agree that internet radio though your network is a much better option.  I also prefer mp3's in the car over sat radio.  Since my wife got an ipod, there has been no reason to hookup satellite in her car... just plug in the ipod.  Way better... still not as good as cd.  btw, the Pioneer car cd players sound really good.

-C

[Black Sand Cable]

From the XM Wiki page......

XM Radio Online

XM Radio Online (XMRO), XM's Internet radio product, offers many of XM's music stations and can be accessed from any Internet connected Windows or Macintosh computer, or via the iPhone/iPod Touch SIRIUS XM app. Prior to March 11, 2009, XMRO was included with XM Radio subscriptions, or was available separately for $7.99/month to Internet-only subscribers.

XM Radio upgraded its online audio sound on March 11, 2009.[citation needed] Customers with existing subscriptions were downgraded from the 64 kbit/s stream to a lower quality 32 kbit/s stream for the duration of their subscription contract. However, as part of the upgraded audio stream, XMRO became available as a $2.99/month add-on service with a satellite radio subscription, or as a stand-alone Internet-only service at $12.99/month. The premium subscription stream is offered to XMRO subscribers as a "near CD-quality" 128 kbit/s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM_Satellite_Radio

I can say with 100% certainty that there is no way in hell that the signal coming into my truck is anywhere near 128 kbit/s. So if I have it right, the internet feed is 128 kbit/s and the feed going into my truck is at 32 kbit/s? XM for whatever reason doesn't seem to want to talk bit-rate anywhere.

[Carlman]

You are correct, John.. I confirmed that on the phone when I was asking about the 128kbps thing.. that's online only.  They vary the rate with the radio stations because they have limited bandwidth.  The music channels get a higher rate than the talk stations.. and if there's a big event, that will get more bandwidth than other stations.

I'm not sure what it is off the satellite.. but it sounds bad enough to be around 32 on average.

-C

[allenzachary]

I owned one so I could listen to baseball games (I have a debilitating disease: baseball fandom, and its most virulent strain--Mets).  Living in SC, there is no other way to follow my team without paying $250 or so to the evil cable company.  On ball games, the swirling sound mixes with the crowd in the background, so it's not all that annoying.  Indoors, music sounded like FM when I could get it as my windows point north west.  Not good for sat reception.

I just bought one for my dad.  He lives in RURAL, RURAL, RURAL Colorado.  It's literally 50 miles from the nearest traffic light.  Internet access is available to him, but has has no PC and even if he did he'd be scared to use it.  The satellite controller looks and acts like a radio, which is still is his realm of understanding. He has a huge window facing southwest across a flat treeless plain (which reaches nearly to the horizon) so reception will be fine.  Plus, he's about halfway deaf, so sound quality is not so much of an issue.

[Black Sand Cable]

Y
I'm not sure what it is off the satellite.. but it sounds bad enough to be around 32 on average.

-C

Jeeez, at 32 what is left of the song? Some vocals and back noise......maybe? That is brutal, which clearly explains why I cant listen to it.

I wonder if some car manufactures tweak stock systems to make XM sound better? Rolo said his rental car sounded decent and I know in my truck, it's anything but decent so now I'm curious if some manufactures are running eq's somewhere in the chain or?

[rollo]

Y
I'm not sure what it is off the satellite.. but it sounds bad enough to be around 32 on average.

-C

Jeeez, at 32 what is left of the song? Some vocals and back noise......maybe? That is brutal, which clearly explains why I cant listen to it.

I wonder if some car manufactures tweak stock systems to make XM sound better? Rolo said his rental car sounded decent and I know in my truck, it's anything but decent so now I'm curious if some manufactures are running eq's somewhere in the chain or?

 Actually it was very good. That is what prompted me to write this thread. I was surprised with the tonality and detail. Not hyped or exaggerated. Bass was tight and again quite enjoyable.
   It was a Hyundai.  Go figure.


charles

[tmazz]

Y
I'm not sure what it is off the satellite.. but it sounds bad enough to be around 32 on average.

-C

Jeeez, at 32 what is left of the song? Some vocals and back noise......maybe? That is brutal, which clearly explains why I cant listen to it.

I wonder if some car manufactures tweak stock systems to make XM sound better? Rolo said his rental car sounded decent and I know in my truck, it's anything but decent so now I'm curious if some manufactures are running eq's somewhere in the chain or?

 Actually it was very good. That is what prompted me to write this thread. I was surprised with the tonality and detail. Not hyped or exaggerated. Bass was tight and again quite enjoyable.
   It was a Hyundai.  Go figure.


charles

Since it was a rental car, chances are that it was fairly new. Perhaps that latest generation of XM tuners have some kind of technical upgrade as compared to the earlier ones that all of the guys seem to have problems with.   

[Black Sand Cable]

[/quote]
Since it was a rental car, chances are that it was fairly new. Perhaps that latest generation of XM tuners have some kind of technical upgrade as compared to the earlier ones that all of the guys seem to have problems with.   
[/quote]

Doubt it.....my truck is a 2010!

[tmazz]

Since it was a rental car, chances are that it was fairly new. Perhaps that latest generation of XM tuners have some kind of technical upgrade as compared to the earlier ones that all of the guys seem to have problems with.   
[/quote]

Doubt it.....my truck is a 2010!
[/quote]
So much for that idea

[bmr3hc]

The XM radio sound in the Infiniti vehicles is quite good in my opinion. Since I am in these vehicles everyday, I listen a lot while in the 09, 2010 and now 2011 vehicles. The sound system is  a Bose system designed for the acoustics of the vehicles. Every customer I demo the system to is impressed. I have even considered getting an XM radio for my home system.

Henry