well said...
but please dont let this get in to a bashing, cuse IM sure Hugh will close it.. and we are having some realy good discussion here...

Sorry if it came across that way. The last half was to be humorous. Sometimes I am the only one that gets my jokes :)

ok I just call the sirius rep in CB and I told him about the monural sound from the AUDIO out jack.... and he said YES.... THIS IS TRUE WITH THE SRIUIS ONE. I was like whaaaaaaaaaa??? ok so this guy admited it.... he told me the next one up the chain the SIRIUS Starmate would sound way better but still be in like "simi" mono... I asked him that is there anything I can have that would make it sound good and he told me the only way to get TRUE digital and stero sound was to buy the addon tuners for car decks....he also said that they send out the music UNCOMPRESSED AND IN DIGITAL SURROUND SOUND, but the little chepo units just cant do it.... mmmmmmmmmmmm I wonder iif this guy knows his stuff... or is he just filling me some bull????

he's BSing you... All Sirius units receive the same 4.5mbit/sec datastream which contains all channels compressed using iBiquity's PAC4 compression scheme, which if you do your calculations, you'll realize is an extremely small bitrate for so many channels hence the terrible sound quality.

If you do not have the equalizer set to the proper settings, or (even worse) you do not have an equalizer, your audio will be poor, period.

Point taken.

Now, how should I set my EQ?

hehehehehehehe
yeah.. I wanna know how this fellow and make mine sound better just by setting my EQ....

he's BSing you... All Sirius units receive the same 4.5mbit/sec datastream which contains all channels compressed using iBiquity's PAC4 compression scheme, which if you do your calculations, you'll realize is an extremely small bitrate for so many channels hence the terrible sound quality.


Well I have been listening with my Starmate Replay this week hooked into my aux input on my car deck and I definitely have no complaints--no dropouts as well. Sounds good to me.

P.S Results may vary.

Hi Kevin007 and ken0042,

Generally speaking, audio calibration and equalization settings are a matter of personal taste, and set according to a specific music style. The settings I use for trance and electronica may be wildy different from what one would use for "loud 1980's rock music", for instance. All that is required is a good ear for frequency and resonance.

That being said, it sounds as if Kevin007 requires professional audio calibration to meet both his capacities and standards. A System Two Cascade would do the trick, as it would usually include both spectrum analysis and a wavelet test to determine audible loudspeaker distortion.

Hi Kevin007 and ken0042,

Generally speaking, audio calibration and equalization settings are a matter of personal taste, and set according to a specific music style. The settings I use for trance and electronica may be wildy different from what one would use for "loud 1980's rock music", for instance. All that is required is a good ear for frequency and resonance.

That being said, it sounds as if Kevin007 requires professional audio calibration to meet both his capacities and standards. A System Two Cascade would do the trick, as it would usually include both spectrum analysis and a wavelet test to determine audible loudspeaker distortion.
jesus speak english man.. lol and in the car audio comp world I have one of the "flatest SQ on the visual meter" there is in my area....that means I KNOW how to set it it up.... TRUST ME... and I returned the "sirius one" and got the starmate and it is noticeably better... A LITTLE more separation but FM(max 104.9 bathurst, and c103 in moncton, sound WAYYYYY better!!

AND with all due respect (no flaming please) those who say it sounds awsome and doesnt have a monoral like sound , frankly just dont know any better and should sit in a car that gets a GOOD fm radio station and flip between the both,,, and I AM USING THE AUDIO out on the sirius starmate too.
or have just factory decks that are crap anyways(no disrespect intended) even if you have a 70,000 bmw, I know cuse the Grandfather has one
I may not beable to spell and type well... but dudes I know car audio and how to set it up.... and used to make a living installing custom installs and co-ordinating car audio contests...as well as being a judge in lots of Car stereo contests all over NB and parts of NS, and we were going by IASCA rules...

My addon tuner from Kenwood will be in a few days from now(the 14th) and then I will know if it is better...

http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30957&sid=a9c06b240c7b4c69335b7b4e2514ac5d

I guess THAT answers my question about the add on tuner... DAAAAMN

My addon tuner from Kenwood will be in a few days from now(the 14th) and then I will know if it is better...

Yes, you will be able to enjoy the low rate digital bitstream in all its crappiness, completely unmasked by intermediate devices :)

:P hehe

Sound quality issue is b/s. The sirius radios have a built in fm transmitter that broadcasts through your fm radio. You may have it on a station that isn't clear. You can change it from the menu. For instance, my radio comes preset to 88.1. I had to change it to 88.3. You can also hard wire it if you wanted to, but changing the frequency is easier...

Just to futher back up that sound quality is not that great, I have had XM for over a year and have heard Sirius on several occasions. It sounds mediocre due to the heavy compression used on the streams.

However, most factory car stereos sound so bad it doesn't make a difference. I take my XM in rentals and you can't tell the differnce between FM and XM, they are both bad.

This has been tested with both the lineout and FM modulator.

Listening on a home system is even worse.

We're talking bit rates of less than 50 kbit/s so what can you expect. Even with the advanced codecs that are used to compress the music that's over a 20 to one compression ratio. There are going to be things that are lost.

But ultimately not a day goes by that I don't listen to sattelite radio. The selection of music and variety of stations mean I will never go back to terrestrial radio.

well this post alone has seriously made me decide against getting a sat radio.

I assumed that even the sirious one.. would be providing a sound quality equivalent or better than my regular FM.

I dont know much about radio signals and KB's and whatnot but this seriously sucks.

I guess I will pass on sat radio.

I dont see the point of paying more than the cost of the sirious one or starmate...

Can anyone else confirm its really that bad?

Can anyone else confirm its really that bad?

Some think it's bad and can't live with it.
Some think it's bad, but in the absence of alternative, learn to live with it.
Some think it's as good or better than FM.
Some think it's as good as CD. (don't smile, I've heard such comments too )

You'll have to find out the hard way which category you belong to. :) If you know what the words "SACD" and "DVD-A" mean, you will surely be in category 1 or 2.

I keep saying the best way to catagorize the sound quality of Sirius is, equal to the average "internet radio broadcast", unfortunatly :(

I don't know about "average" either. When I open Winamp media explorer, the avaliable internet radio stations are sorted by bitrate starting from the highest, and almost all of the 500 listed have higher quality than Sirius.

well this post alone has seriously made me decide against getting a sat radio.

I assumed that even the sirious one.. would be providing a sound quality equivalent or better than my regular FM.

I dont know much about radio signals and KB's and whatnot but this seriously sucks.

I guess I will pass on sat radio.

I dont see the point of paying more than the cost of the sirious one or starmate...

Can anyone else confirm its really that bad?


PLease get it for your self... buy it at CNDtire or walmart.. it will cost you just 17$(if you in NB) to try out for a month,,,,, if after a few days,,,,, just return it and you can get your money back..(not the 17$ but the price of the radio.. Returns are easy (just make sure your packaging is in good shape when you put it back together... I was gonna return it.... but the Maxim and hair nation ch grew on me and I am listening to it so much now that I am used to the sound....(but a mp3 and FM sounds better...)

PS... its not THAT BAD!!! it kinda grows on you.... and only those with high end stereos in their cars will complain cuse we are used to hearing good MP3s and cds in our cars, those with factory decks..(even peeps with 70,000$ bmw's) will prolly not notice it much... so go ahead.. try it.... I bet you a WEEK of listening to it you will keep it.... 5000$ car stereo or not.....

I have a decent car audio setup (Focal and Audison) and have no complaints about sound quality. The CD, FM, Ipod and Starmate Replay all sound different. I personally prefer the sound of my Replay to my IPod at the default bitrate. Some say the 3G chipset provides better sound.

The 4.5MBit/sec stream is spread across the equivalent of approximately 80 channels (talk and news/weather have lower data rates). That works out to approximately 64Kbps. The MP3 codec is not very good, so it would not be hard to imagine similar quality to 128Kbps MP3.

If you have a factory system, IMHO the sound quality of Sirius is plenty adequate. The Bose system I replaced was equivalent to listening with ear plugs in your ears.

As others have said, let your ears be the judge.

I have had Sirius up here in the great white north for over 1 year now.....

I agree that the quality of the talk radio stuff is definitely worse than am but the music channels sound pretty good in my Car, comparable to FM. The positives with Sirius is that I have the choice of listening to whatever I want and not have to put up with commercials! I love my old hard rock and "Hair Nation" and Buzz Saw" sound great. The DJ's are not hampered by what they can and cannot say (even swear! my goodness) Their song lineup is much more varied than your standard FM station and did I say, no commercials....all the way to my cottage:D

..I know I can put on a CD, mp3 etc....but for what I want this works great!

I have an Panasonic Tuner that is "sirius ready" with its external Sirius tuner (no FM modulation) so perhaps thats why mine sounds great? Please dont respond telling me that I am not an "audiophile" expert etc... This setup works great and millions of people can't all be wrong? Maybe one day they will "scale back" the amount of channels they currently have so as to dedicate more bandwith and thus improve the overall quality. Or better compression will come, who knows but for now I am a happy camper!

hey I love HAIR NATION too.... and I am getting very used to the quality now also...(oh my god) and is it just me or is hair nation actualy sounding better latly.. or am I just used to it now..... I can say this though,,,,, there is NO separation,,, that is for sure... when compared to FM or MP3, but I kept my startmate,,,, and I love it, its dam hard to turn off maxim when there doing the 12 days of xxxmas ... and sex toy price is right........