So I installed a Sirius receiver in my car. It plugs in directly to an Auxilary input, but it still sounds pretty bad. It just sounds overly compressed all the time, like poor satelite radio t like 68 kbps. Not sure what the issue is here. Is this how it always sounds? It sounds much worse that FM and it should sound better. Suggestions?

1/11/2008 9:35:22 PM

it depends on the compression on the channel and how much eq the channel is using

i know, for instance, on XM, flight 26 sounds WAY better than top 20 on 20.

it's always going to sound compressed because it is... heavily...

but it should still sound at least equal to FM, if not better - i know my XM is better.

1/11/2008 11:04:27 PM

should sound better.

1/11/2008 11:29:16 PM

Quote :

"it depends on the compression on the channel and how much eq the channel is using i know, for instance, on XM, flight 26 sounds WAY better than top 20 on 20. it's always going to sound compressed because it is... heavily... but it should still sound at least equal to FM, if not better - i know my XM is better."

sirius doesnt use the dynamic bandwidth allocation that xm uses...each channel should sound exactly the same

you probably have issues with your audio and/or power connection introducing noise...if everything is connected properly it should sound almost cd quality

i have a few questions for you: what unit do you have and what kind of cable do you have going into your aux port? is that cable hooked up to the fm transmitter port or the line out port because it should be connected to line out (they are different sizes but without knowing any more this is a possibility) how is the unit getting power?

[Edited on January 11, 2008 at 11:43 PM. Reason : 

1/11/2008 11:42:34 PM

Where'd you place your antenna at?

1/12/2008 8:17:02 PM

generally if you get signal you get signal. if you don't get signal you don't get anything. i don't think that would make it sound worse... you should be getting cd quality. and ofcourse sirius is much better than xm (except for a little bit of electronica and latin).

1/12/2008 8:40:49 PM

Do other things sound shitty through your aux input?

1/12/2008 8:43:13 PM

Quote :

"Where'd you place your antenna at?"

that shouldnt matter, its a digital signal so you either get it or you dont

1/12/2008 8:55:11 PM

oh, I thought poor placement didnt necessarily mean bad reception, but also interference from the car itself. That doesnt affect digital signal either?

1/12/2008 9:07:34 PM

i didnt think about that...maybe but it is a GHz signal

1/12/2008 9:30:30 PM

The signal going over the dubbing cable is in the 10-22000 Hz range. Could be interference in that range too.

[Edited on January 12, 2008 at 9:33 PM. Reason : ]

1/12/2008 9:33:32 PM

Quote :

"sirius is much better than xm "

Yes if you were happy with the quality of station programming on FM already.

Sorry if I think the much deeper playlists are a good thing, and thats why I chose XM. I guess your happy with just playing the Top 40 in whichever genre your listening to, because thats what you get with Sirius.

1/12/2008 9:45:05 PM

there are plenty of channels that are devoted to deep cuts

1/12/2008 10:03:19 PM

did you ever figure this out.

im about to get sirius for NFL converage . I think, from what ive seen, the xm recievers are much better looking.

1/13/2008 8:42:37 PM

the NFL games may sound bad in general because they are feeds from the team's radio teams

usually the only good sounding broadcast for NFL is something like espn radio

1/13/2008 9:21:35 PM

Still haven't figured this out. I have it plugged into an AUX port. I plug in an Ipod to this port all the time and it sounds as good as an Ipod can, no problems. The sound quality definitely sounds like I am getting an over compressed signal.

I have the starmate 4. Its plugged into the cigarette lighter. I have the antennae exactly where the instructions told me, on the roof 6 inches from the rear of the roof. All music stations sound like total trash, not even close to FM. I can't figure this out at all. I may have to call these guys or something. I don't know if its possible that they could be sending me a poor signal. Any suggestions?

1/14/2008 10:30:59 AM

They're not sending you anything, you're just passively receiving a signal.

1/14/2008 10:39:33 AM

The quality of certain stations on Sirius is far worse then others and that includes stations in the same genre.

1/14/2008 11:41:09 AM

I've listened to a bunch of different stations. I assumed that the talk stations would be more compressed, but I listened to the indie rock station, classical stations, and even the decade stations as I figured they would sound the best. They all sound like trash.

^^ Perhaps my radio is set to receive a lower bandwidth signal? I don't know. Its just really bizarre.

1/14/2008 1:37:55 PM

If your sound system accentuates higher frequencies then it will most definitely sound compressed.

If your sound system is fairly balanced between high, mid, and low then you won't notice it as much.

Must custom systems and shitty car stock systems are biased to low, high or mid or some asinine combination of the two. In my Civic and Mitsubishi, sirius radio sounded like music played through a straw.

In my BMW it sounds fine.

For most channels.

1/14/2008 3:40:28 PM

Interesting. Wouldn't think that this would be caused by my stereo itself, mostly because CDs, radio, and the Ipod sound fine. Audio definitely sounds compressed though. I really figured it wouldn't sound any worse than FM, despite this.

1/14/2008 4:28:11 PM

So I'm about to spend 13$ a month on something that will sound like ass?

Wtf!!

I would question the cig. lighter ground versus the head units ground.

When you use your ipod you dont have a ground to the cig. lighter.

Do you have a friend with an ipod car charger, try using that and see if it impacts your audio.

You will most likely hear the audio distort in relationship to engine rpm when grounds are poor. It sounds like a supercharger in my civic.




[Edited on January 14, 2008 at 6:44 PM. Reason : i have one if you would like to try]

1/14/2008 6:42:23 PM

no

he is an isolated case

ive has a receiver in my car for 13 months with the antenna mounted on the inside and it always sounds fine

[Edited on January 14, 2008 at 6:46 PM. Reason : 

1/14/2008 6:44:58 PM

It doesn't sound distorted, it sounds COMPRESSED. Like a crappy, low bandwidth internet radio station. From what I have been ready on AVS forums, the quality has been going down for a while as they have been over compressing to push out more stations. that said, it should still sound at least as good as FM.

^ Aficionado, you be willing to take a listen to my set up and see if you can help out?

1/15/2008 2:22:48 PM

In all honesty I personally prefer XM.

1/15/2008 3:01:32 PM

I'd like to hear it.

If it were not for nfl coverage I wouldnt consider any sat. radio.

1/15/2008 6:01:52 PM

Quote :

"^ Aficionado, you be willing to take a listen to my set up and see if you can help out?"

unless you are willing to drive to atlanta, im not going to be able to help you out

if i were you id return the unit for a different one to see if that helps and just go through all your connections one more time, test all the cables, etc to make sure your good

[Edited on January 15, 2008 at 6:49 PM. Reason : 

1/15/2008 6:36:22 PM

how do other things sound via the aux input you have? Hook up an mp3 player...

I made an aux input for my saab and have had xm, then sirius for about 4 years... SIRIUS sounds SO much better than my XM did - better antenna I think (it still plays where my XM cut off, same location for the antenna)

1/16/2008 12:30:38 PM

What kind of aux input, i'm having hard time understanding the setup. Is it a basic audio input jack?

The reason i ask is because over the weekend my dad and i went to best buy, he was wanting to get an XM receiver for his car. (I have Sirius in my truck, factory hardwired and it sounds great)

A guy I know works at said best buy and was helping my dad out answering questions about satellite radio. One thing he openly said was that with new government regulations the satellite radio companies were limited on...details get foggy but it was about frequency/signal strength. But he said this greatly hindered the sound quality on the basic plug n' play receivers and was one reason the receivers had gone down in price so quickly. So with that, the plug and play receivers (using the tape deck) were a 3 quality on a 1-10 scale. He pointed out this product (i think this is it) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8362808&type=product&id=1177717628634 http://www.amazon.com/Audiovox-XMFM-1-Adapter-Satellite-Receiver/dp/B000CRQI4I
which he said cuts directly into your FM radio signal and boosts your basic receiver to an 8 on a 1-10 scale.

could be something to look into.


But since you said you are using an aux line-in, I really don't know of another solution

[Edited on January 16, 2008 at 2:58 PM. Reason : add]

1/16/2008 2:56:34 PM

Ok

Don't ever listen to anyone from best buy on anything, even price.

Not a single rep in that entire store ever in the history of electronic stores has ever known what they were talking about.

Signals haven't 'gotten weaker' due to 'regulation.' Signals have gotten weaker because more content is being crammed into ~1mbps stream.

1 mbps / 150 channels = no quality

The only government regulation in question concerns the merger of XM and Sirius, which is currently stuck in the DoJ.

1/16/2008 4:21:33 PM

^^ seriously, I would call my friend at best buy and tell him he is an idiot - AND, he needs to quit spouting nonsense to consumers.

1/17/2008 8:35:58 AM

Like a said before, its just an aux input. I have plugged an ipod into it and it sounds fine, just as good as an ipod can. My Sirius sounds like everything is streaming through youtube.

1/17/2008 10:23:30 AM

^^haha thankfully he's only an acquaintance.

1/17/2008 11:14:51 AM

dont want to sound stupid here, been awhile since I have had to play with the units... did you make sure the plug n play unit is set on AUX-In AND that the FM modulator is OFF?

What unit is it?

1/17/2008 12:01:34 PM

Quote :

"Like a said before, its just an aux input. I have plugged an ipod into it and it sounds fine, just as good as an ipod can. My Sirius sounds like everything is streaming through youtube."

Your ipod is powered by an isolated power source.

1/17/2008 1:45:08 PM

^ I'm still betting on the audio settings being wrong on the plug n play unit. I dont think b/c its powered by 120v would make the difference in sound he is describing.

1/17/2008 2:40:15 PM

the bestbuy guy was probably talking about how some sirius and xm units were broadcasting too much from the fm transmitter. so the unit would back down and not broadcast as loud. thus if you are like me and want to put your signal on 97.5 as it sucks, you can't because it doesn't block the other station, you have to find a noise free frequency and broadcast to that.

that has nothing to do with an av in or the signal from the satellite to your car, which should either connect or not.

1/17/2008 3:41:34 PM

Its a Starmate 4. The FM transmitter is set to off. I dont know what you mean by making sure the plug n play unit is set to AUX-IN

1/17/2008 3:50:44 PM

well, if the FM mod is off... and the ipod sounds fine... not sure what could be wrong there unless its just a bad connection. I searched google for that model and aux-in problems. I did see one person who said that aux-in was only working if they wiggled the connection OUT a bit... makes no sense but they were saying their dock was not working when it was plugged in all the way. if that were the case I would just be going back to get another one. I really dont know what it would be beyond this... please let us know what you find out.

1/17/2008 4:03:56 PM

Hey I got a great idea of something you can try

1/17/2008 7:09:11 PM