XM Music

[psyclguy]

Anybody know what kind of quality or bandwidth D* uses for their XM Music channels. Is it CD or HD Radio quality?

[Fab55]

They used to put in their advertising that it's all CD quality, but that was a couple of years ago. I don't believe that with the compression it's quite HD quality yet, but that's just a guess on my part.

[BlueMonk]

I have had multiple XM subscriptions for years. While they used to advertise 'CD' quality, it was never true IMO. The sound quality is somewhere between OTA FM and a CD. Probably closer to the OTA FM.

Multiple discussions at XMFan.com

[cartrivision]

From various discussions I have read in these forums and elsewhere, the DirecTV feed of the XM channels doesn't come from a XM satellite radio receiver and it is supposedly actually of higher audio quality than what the XM radios produce.

[ActiveHDdave]

Just get bigger speakers.

[LOCODUDE]

Hah!!!!...:D

[bscott]

Just get bigger speakers.

Ya know...there is some truth to this. I have multiple XM subs and one of them is a Sony digital surround sound receiver with a set of Cambridge 5.1 surround speakers. I have my HR-21 hooked in through a digital fiber optic line and the receiver has a built in XM tuner. The sound through my Sony XM receiver is just a little bit better IMHO than the D* channel sound but the quality of the speaker probably has just as much to do with the sound than the signal itself. I like to use the Sony receiver for my XM but my wife just uses the D* tuner. She said she can't tell the difference. Our upstairs Vizio LCD doesn't sounds nearly as good with the XM on D* as when I use my Belkin boom box with my XM receiver.

As far as quality? In my opinion the music channels are fairly close to CD. The news/sports/talk channels are about the same as OTA-FM and the traffic/weather channels have FM clarity but their bandwidth is so clipped that it sounds like a congested VOiP telephone line.

[paulman182]

I sometimes listen to my XM radio output directly on a pair of Sennheiser headphones.

To my ears it sounds "ragged" and nowhere close to CD, lacking in upper highs and lower bass.

[bscott]

I sometimes listen to my XM radio output directly on a pair of Sennheiser headphones.

To my ears it sounds "ragged" and nowhere close to CD, lacking in upper highs and lower bass.

I do agree with that. I've come out of my Belkin with headphones and it sounds a little hissy and loses the highs and lows. Also sounds that way if the volume is set at 1 or 2 coming out of the speakers. I've never tried listening through headphones out of my Sony.

[bagreene]

I've got XM in my car as well as through DirecTV. I love the programming immensely, but audio quality is a little lacking in my opinion. In my car the levels of audio quality are CD, FM, XM from best to worst (assuming good FM reception for what I'm listening to). At home it's similar, although I don't really listen to FM in the house. A CD definitely sounds better than XM though. XM definitely compresses to less than CD quality in my opinion.

[Reggie3]

Anybody know what kind of quality or bandwidth D* uses for their XM Music channels. Is it CD or HD Radio quality?

First XM is compressed more than regular CD but is close to it. I suspect that there is probably some more processing done to get D* to transmit it. I think I can hear a slight difference on my Marantz receiver when I play XM over D* vs XM over my portable XM Delphi Skyfi receiver. I prefer the sound over the Delphi.

[ThomasM]

From various discussions I have read in these forums and elsewhere, the DirecTV feed of the XM channels doesn't come from a XM satellite radio receiver and it is supposedly actually of higher audio quality than what the XM radios produce.

It would be a cute trick if the XM channels on DirecTV came from an ordinary XM feed because the music heard on DirecTV appears about 15 seconds BEFORE it appears on an actual XM receiver...

[Jeremy W]

It would be a cute trick if the XM channels on DirecTV came from an ordinary XM feed because the music heard on DirecTV appears about 15 seconds BEFORE it appears on an actual XM receiver...
Yep, this is because XM applies very aggressive compression, and also uses temporal diversity to maintain higher availability of their signal. None of that applies to the feed DirecTV gets.