I was flipping channels and XM was running a Joan Baez interview/concert. It was actually running simultaneously on two channels, 50 and 15. I found it strange that the sound quality on 15 was much better than 50.

Maybe you should post your ditty on some American boards. There seems to be quite a battle going on over whether there has been a sound quality problem with some XM channels or not.

There was a recent drop in sound quality as well. I listen to 8, 9, 20, 21, 22, 25, and 81 for music. 81 (BPM) always had lower sound quality compared to the rest. But, at of the beginning of March, I noticed that 9 had a decline in quality...it now sounds like 81 did, and 81 now sounds worse. Sure enough, a drop in quality on some channels to compensate for the addition of new channels.

I must agree with SuperDarrell71 regarding the drop in SQ on some channels. I notice it most on CNN. I also read that XM will soon have commercials on some of the channels controlled by Clear Channel (Sunny, KISS, MIX, and Nashville )
Yuk, commercials and reduced SQ :confused:

Not only that, but XM U.S.A. may be adding up to 4 more channels to allow them to advertise that they have the most commercial free music channels. I hope that doesn't add to the SQ woes.:eek:

I hope that doesn't add to the SQ woes.:eek:

Hope is a good thing, but you are pretty much saying - "I'm gonna withdraw some cash from my bank account, but I hope the balance doesn't change."

Just how good/bad is the sound quality? I was thinking of getting a unit to set up at home for extended background listening and identifying new (to me) music. Is it good enough for that purpose or so bad I'll suffer listener fatigue and want to turn it off?

I personally wouldn't use Sirius at home for any kind of listening. Pretty much every internet audio stream sounds better. The sound is barely acceptable to me in the car - as you put it well - for identifying new music and background.

Some channels are getting painful to listen, most non-music channels have definitely lost in SQ. Yesterday I was listing to MLB 175 and it was getting annoying. XM Comedy was okay but Laugh USA was suffering of the same SQ problem. Earlier this week CNN was bad but yesterday got better. Is this the end of XM as we know it or just a temporary fluke? Future will tell.

Arthur, I have the Sirius Boombox at home and sound quality is awesome. In the car I have issues using FM tuner with static at times although still listenable.

Just how good/bad is the sound quality?

It's not that bad overall. Pumping it through a home entertainment sytem makes a vast difference.

I give XM the edge over Sirius with overall music SQ and that is the service I have at home. In the car, both systems sound fine considering road and traffic noise.

Just how good/bad is the sound quality? I was thinking of getting a unit to set up at home for extended background listening and identifying new (to me) music. Is it good enough for that purpose or so bad I'll suffer listener fatigue and want to turn it off?

It's all a matter of how picky you are. There are some who believe there has been no SQ change. Others, like myself, believe there has been. I find that on some channels the highs have diminished. That is, the cymbals, snare drums and other high sounds aren't as sharp as they used to be. For instance, I played Deep Tracks back to back with my local FM station and I felt the FM station's sound was much crisper. I also heard Kashmir by Led Zeppelin the other day on Top Tracks and I thought the SQ was very poor. However, I am not a technician and I can't spell it out in precise terms. There are those who say it's not on every channel. Nothwithstanding, I still believe XM is a good buy and you will probably enjoy it very much. If you want more info, just find some of the other XM forums available out there.

Since XM added those new channels and caused a decrease in SQ, I think XM has tweeked their SQ and sounds back to normal again :)

I just got an XM radio and account after previously being a Sirius subscriber for about a year.

Arthur Dent:

I can definately say that XM sounds a LOT BETTER THAN SIRIUS.

Oh my god, what's that I hear.. it's STEREO SEPERATION and DYNAMIC RANGE, :-O (concepts that Sirius doesn't understand). Now I know what a blind man must feel like after regaining his sight.

XM isn't CD quality but the only problem I notice with it is a "smooth" frequency cutoff that doesn't go as high as CD. But at least it's smooth and "analog-like" in nature, in this sense it sounds a lot more like a good FM radio station, it sounds natural, none of this silly aliasing and pre-echo like Sirius so its not fatiguing. I can't notice any obvious digital distortions and warbling like I always could on Sirius. The audio is actually in STEREO *GASP*. I'd say that the dynamic range is probably in the 60-70db range. Much better than Sirius but about 20-30dB less than a CD. Sirius had a horrible dynamic range that couldn't have possibly been much more than 30-40dB (everything was one uniform volume, a drum beat is as loud as a violin string).

XM is actually listenable for me and quite enjoyable. The only thing I asked of Satellite radio is that it sound at least as good as FM radio. I didn't have any unrealistic expectations of perfect CD quality. I'd say XM sounds at least as good as FM radio whereas Sirius was well below it. Again I'd catagorize its quality as about a good to great FM radio station. The XM talk stations sound like a mono-FM station which is decent. To put that in perspective, I consider Sirius audio as worse than most Internet streaming audio. The talk channels on Sirius are like a CB radio or walkie-talkie in quality and the music stations were like a poor quality AM radio station but with digital compression artifacts as well (so in reality it was worse than AM radio). I think the worst problem with Sirius is that it has a general "harshness" that is always apparant.

Which XM radio did you get, mcpish?

I got the Delphi SkiFi II

XM is only using 75% of its' capacity, so they would have no need to decrease quality. Sirius bought Howard, XM bought the last bit of available piece of spectrum. If you complain about XM, just listen to Sirius for a second and you'll be happy that you're with XM.

From what I can "hear", adding the new channels today has not impacted on overall SQ. If they can add music channels and not impact on SQ, wish they would upgrade Canada 360's SQ !

I have also found a Sound quality drop on channel 81 BPM. Lower volume levels than other stations I listen to. I also have some issues with one of the comedy channels on there. But overall I love my XM.