sat radio sounds terrible

[npeckio]

my fm radio sounds better then sat radio. there is no stereo separation. i opted not to keep the subscription as i feel its not the car, its xm signal strength. has anyone else had this experience?? my ipod and the hard drive sound better then the sat also.thanks

[dividedhighw]

Perhaps you can get your antenna checked out. (confirm there's no damage, has proper connection to head unit, etc)
Modified by dividedhighw at 11:00 AM 6/13/2008

[inteller]

must be a reception thing....or maybe the particular channel. XM80 sounds awesome.

[rodders]

A good FM station should sound better than XM. The digital compression required to get that many channels broadcast takes a toll. To me, the artifacts make XM sound like a poorly ripped MP3. It sounds much worse than I expected.

I'm up in the Seattle area. I wonder if the reception is poorer up in this corner of the coverage area.

[inteller]

Considering that XM is digital and FM is an analog signal, that is highly unlikely. XM uses HE AAC which has been determined to be better than MP3s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HE-AAC

[HilJai]

Hmm.... my radio sounds perfectly fine up here in Toronto. Is Bush testing some secret defensive weapons that blocks satellite signals from the sky?!?

[morning_glory]

I have noticed the same in my EX.

Ipod and FM audio qualities are remarkable but XM sound is very poor...

[rn79870]

I have XM in my Infiniti (in So Cal) and I find the quality to be better than a CD and definitely better than FM. I'll bet it has a lot to do with location.

[EXceptional]

Our FM Dial is getting a little cluttered right now, with some really good channels that seem to offer XM like 24/7 Music.

I'm seriously re-evaluating why I have XM at all.

Lots of people in Canada are subscribing to the US version of XM for the wider variety of Channels to choose from.

To me, I don't care... cause I don't want to listen to 10 more channels of Dance Music and Rap... ethnic Channels... and 40 Channels of Baseball... and 30 channels of Hockey... and Oprah... the 24/7-911 channel that only caters to the USA... traffic reports that only cater to the USA... etc.

Give me ROCK ! I like channels 6, 7, 8, 9, 46 and 49 I'm usually surfing through these channels with my Steering Wheel Radio Controls. However, sometimes channels 7, 8, 9 have crap on them too.

I'm not locked into a contract, even tho I've been offered several times to do so... I want the option to leave at any time. Some people have told me that if you threaten to leave XM, they will offer you a plan for one year for $77.00 That's almost half-price. It remains to be seen what happens after the Year is up.

After I'm done my Summer Trip of driving from Edmonton to New-York and back... I'm gonna cancel XM for a while and see if I miss it.

I don't think my Wife is going to renew her XM Trial once it's done in the EX35. She prefers one of the local Channels.

[rn79870]

I've heard the same thing about the $77.00/year of you decide to let XM go. I've also heard that they have a $19.99 for 3 months that they will try to hook you on.

I agree with your channel choices, but I'll add 164 Oldie radio shows, 24,25 - soft rock and 151/2 comedy.

As I think about it, XM is getting a little old too. I wish we had Howard Stern, at least he's worth a laugh now and again.

[inteller]

when they get Sirius you might just get Howard. I would imagine they would port over channels for each others radios. SO SIrius could get Starbucks channel, XM get howard.

[bttek]

I first subscribed to XM when they first came out and the audio quality back then was actually pretty good. After a few years as they added more and more stations, the audio quality went downhill quickly.

On my EX, I only have XM because it is free for 3 months. After this time is up, there is no way on earth that I would pay for such horrible sound quality. There is NO dynamic range to the music, and as someone posted before, I have 64kb/sec MP3's that sound better.

If anyone says that XM audio quality is good, then either they have no idea what good audio quality sounds like or their frequency response in their hearing should be checked.

Its too bad that XM went quantity over quality... It seems to be the trend these days....

[Mark Booth]

My free sub to XM expired on March 20. While I enjoyed listening to a couple of the channels from time to time (particularly the National Lampoon Comedy Channel), I wasn't about to spend $13 per month for the service. MAYBE $6 or $7. A friend advised me to let it lapse, and wait because the deal would get better.

Sure enough, the subsequent offers to "come back" got better and better. On my third or fourth mailing from XM they offered me $77 for a full year of service. Less than $6.50 per month, or HALF the original cost. Given that my wife and I plan an extended trip later this year (when keeping the same channel as we travel would be a good thing), I decided to go for it.

So, in another year, I'll cancel and wait for the good "come back" deal to come along again. If they don't offer it again, no big deal.

BTW, yes, I understand that I have to CALL them to cancel or they will automatically renew me at the full rate... I've already put a reminder alarm in my calendar for that very event.

Mark

[mike in nj]

I agree that XM sounds awful. I was terribly disappointed with the audio in the car until I stopped listening to XM. I find that FM, CD, and iPod all sound much better than XM.

[nghivdo]

I agree that XM sounds awful. I was terribly disappointed with the audio in the car until I stopped listening to XM. I find that FM, CD, and iPod all sound much better than XM.

Same here! I was totally shocked to find that XM=Terrible sound quality! Strangely, I remember being impressed with the audio quality of XM in a friend's Accord just last year. Maybe I'll do it when they offer it at half price, but until then, think I'll let it go & use my music box, CD's, FM, & iPods.