Satellite Radio Sound Quality
 

I have a Sirius satellite radio in my van, and was wondering about something.

Do the better receivers produce a better sound quality? I have a BOTL mobile receiver patched directly into the head unit. There is often a lack of highs and a very compressed sound. Would upgrading to a better satellite receiver make any difference?

I used Kenwood Excelon Flip face head with kenwood serius sat rec and it played like a fine tuned orchestra but cost was around $2,100.00 for the completed system but not sure on standard serius with regular non pre amped with post amped systems I put in the car, I am sure it would modify the hi's and lo's what are you operating along with it?

The Sirius receiver is an "In-V." I have the output from that patched directly into the auxiliary jack of a year-old Sony AM/FM/CD deck.

The Sony's sound quality is fine, and if I put something expensive in the van it would just instigate a break-in. If I could get the Sirius to come in as clearly as the FM I would be happy. The deck is "satellite ready" - I believe there's an input on the back for an underdash Sirius receiver that would be controlled by the Sony itself.

Make sure your antenna (dish) is located in the highest area of the van, concealing it or blocking it with metal/ roof racks etc would cause some problems, and yes your Sony should handle it just fine, I would take it to a local stereo shop if you cant resolve it, this has to be something simple. I would try AUX input settings on your sony head, Kenwood had separate sound settings for AUX in, not sure about your Sony but it should have them.

AUdubon5425-

I doubt any satellite radio tuner sounds much better than any other. The signals have error correction included, and there are probably not very big variations in the quality of the digital-to-analog converters used in one satellite tuner versus others. The big problem, far more than any differences in the receivers themselves, is the limited data bit rates used in the satellite radio signals. I have heard a number of different satellite receivers, and the sound from all of them has been quite variable. One song could sound fairly good and the next one was full of ear-grating hash.

I am on my second reciever for Sirius. Both about the same. Into my bose aux produces nice sound, and in my car it produces good sound as well on the FM frequency. My first reciever was a real cheapo compared to the options of memory and such on my newest, but sound and the depth of sound is no different. I am picky about sound and am satisifed.

I've found Sirius in general sounds much cleaner than FM. Yes you have the digital compression issues and I've found, just like CD's, MP3's and any digital reproduction made for the masses that the quality is hit or miss. The same can be said of the sound coming from FM nowadays also. Almost all of it is prerecorded or goes through some kind of digital conversion even if it is sent in an analog FM signal.

Well, I think we can conclude upgrading the receiver will not make a difference. It must be digital compression.

No they sound like crap!!

My friend has SIRIUS/XM in his car and its awefuk sounding... Heavy un-natural bass,tinny voices.........

I have listenend to XM/SIRIUS on my computer and it sounds OK but directly from the car radio they sound aweful.......

Jesus, this thread is 13 years old.

Dude111 knows no time. He is the immortal foole. In 60 years when this forum is gone he'll find a way to make new posts on the backup on archive.org confusing everyone in the process...

Hehe wouldnt that be amazing if ya could??