Dish Sirius vs. Sirius Direct Sound quality?

[coop1]

Is the Sirius sound quality via E* equipment identical to the sound quality (SQ) on Sirius direct equipment?

Since my E* boxes have toslink outputs I thought they could provide the best possible SQ when connected to my home hi-fi.

Now, I see there are several $250 home component sized Sirius receivers available and I am wondering if they provide better SQ or just more features.

[BoisePaul]

Having both an E* receiver and a Sirius receiver connected to my home audio system, I honestly think the quality of the E* feed is better. Probably has something to do with Sirius's less than perfect codec rather than the actual hardware.

[c_caz]

I have Sirius in my Jeep (OEM install) and Dish at home and hands down Dish sounds better. Yeah my home stereo is a many notches above a Chrysler/Jeep setup, but you can tell it's compressed digital in the Jeep. It doesn't sound bad, it's just not perfect (not CD quality, more on par with FM). I still like it and never listen to the local radio (and my buddies XM setup seems to have similar limitiations)

[mrplow]

The dish sounds better, more bass.

[thxultra]

Does anyone know how dish gets its signel from sirius. Seems better to me but could just be the reciever or maybe dish gets a uncompressed signel.

[coop1]

I share thxultra curiosity about how Dish gets the Sirius signal. Anybody know?

Also - for those of you who have a portable and Dish - is there any delay in the dish signal like the delay between locals OTA and locals via dish?

[James Long]

IIRC they have their own backhaul direct from Sirius.

[BoisePaul]

Also - for those of you who have a portable and Dish - is there any delay in the dish signal like the delay between locals OTA and locals via dish?
Okay, this is going to sound strange, but there is a delay - in the other direction. The Dish signal is actually ahead of the Sirius native signal. Go figure.

[HDdude24]

Does anyone know if we get A username and password to long on to Sirius web site to listen online? Or you have to be a subscriber?

[BoisePaul]

Does anyone know if we get A username and password to long on to Sirius web site to listen online? Or you have to be a subscriber?
You have to be a Sirius subscriber.

[zman977]

We also have sirius in our car and with dish network and it does sound much better at through dish network. Even when we have the plug n play unit running through our home stereo system, the dish feed sounds better than the plug n play unit.

[Jon Ellis]

I have to concur with all of the earlier posts. The feed on DISH sounds much better than the Sirius receiver itself.

[ibglowin]

The bitrate coming in via your Dish receiver is MUCH higher than that coming into your Sirius receiver. I don't recall the numbers exactly but if you search the forum I remember them being quoted once upon a time.

[coop1]

Thanks for the definitive feedback that Sirius via Dish sounds better than Sirius direct.

It is nice that so far everyone seems to agree that Dish delivery has technical advantages and that listeners in a position to compare, report results that are consistent with that position.

I emailed Sirius for their thoughts. If they respond with anything insightful or contradictory to our findings I will post.

This thread saved me the $ and time of installing a dedicated Sirius receiver only to find out I was better off just using my Dish 921. THANKS ALL.

[Steve Mehs]

Does anyone know if we get A username and password to long on to Sirius web site to listen online? Or you have to be a subscriber?

If you're want Sirius online don't bother, the sound quality is awful. It streams at 34kbps. In the year and a half I've had Sirius I signed on to the online player twice, three times max. I'd rather liisten to stations in Shoutcast library in Winamp streaming at 128k, 160k and even up to 256k.

[coop1]

I emailed Sirius asking them, " Is there any sound quality difference in Sirius direct vs. Sirius via dish network? I heard that the compression and bit rate used are different and that perhaps Sirius via Dish sounds slightly better."

Below is their lousy response. I particularly like the part about "surround sound" I guess that is why we all come to dbstalk.com to find info instead of dealing with company's weak 1st level tech support.

"Thank You for contacting SIRIUS regarding sound quality. There is no difference in sound quality with different units, also with dish network. Home stereo receivers may have a little more bass and good sound quality if you are able to hook it up to your home stereo system that has surround sound."

[thxultra]

I emailed Sirius asking them, " Is there any sound quality difference in Sirius direct vs. Sirius via dish network? I heard that the compression and bit rate used are different and that perhaps Sirius via Dish sounds slightly better."

Below is their lousy response. I particularly like the part about "surround sound" I guess that is why we all come to dbstalk.com to find info instead of dealing with company's weak 1st level tech support.

"Thank You for contacting SIRIUS regarding sound quality. There is no difference in sound quality with different units, also with dish network. Home stereo receivers may have a little more bass and good sound quality if you are able to hook it up to your home stereo system that has surround sound."


They don't want to say sirius sounds better on dish because they want to sell more sirius radios.

[Michael P]

Does anyone know if we get A username and password to long on to Sirius web site to listen online? Or you have to be a subscriber?
You should be able to get a 3 day "preview" of streaming on-line from Sirius' web site.

Before E* carried Sirius someone on one of the DBS forums posted a link that gave anyone who used it free online Sirius. It lasted around a month before Sirius shut that link down. It was just the music channels that E* ended up carrying (no talk or sports networks).

[music_beans]

Hey c_caz, why not listen to the local stations?

[Steve Mehs]

I'll answer for him. Local radio sucks. It's been over a year and a half since I listened to regular radio and I have no plans to ever listen to it again. Good riddence.