SiriusXM Quality is Horrible

Banjo · Jul 11, 2022

It has been years since I had a SiriusXM subscription but I recently signed up for 3 month trial that was offered for free with no credit card requirement. I was appalled at how bad the tonal quality had degraded and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this as I have become so accustomed high quality music through streaming to my radio through my iphone. How the hell do they stay in business?

CheechDogg.0n37s · Jul 11, 2022

I stopped it after the 1 free year when I got my truck, it really sucks lol ...

audiophile · Jul 11, 2022

Only issue I have is my antenna drops signal in various parts of my city. No issue with sound quality. The one on my wife's van works and sounds great.

Irishthreeper · Jul 11, 2022

Mine works great, as does the streaming version in wife’s Civic

SitKneelBend · Jul 11, 2022

Its possible a different firmware issue will change the quality. There are drastic differences in sound quality between firmwares. My main problem with SXM was always signal drop...

stormcom · Jul 11, 2022

updates updates and more updates.

GTyankee · Jul 12, 2022

T-Mobiles G5 towers have a very short range, so the towers have to be closer together

When i had Sirius, the station i was listening to would cut out when ever a T-Mobile tower was within a city block away.
My town has so many towers, that if you want to hear a song all the way through, i have to switch over to FM

If you don't think the T-mobile messes with Sirius, read this, it has gone to court & Sirius lost the case.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/fcc-rules-against-sirius-approves-t-mobile-and-verizon-spectrum-swap

T-Mobile US, Sirius XM clash over tower interference

Sirius XM is asking federal regulators to look into reception problems reported near T-Mobile US towers in major U.S. cities.

www.rcrwireless.com

....................................

Andy Seybold Offers Solution to T-Mobile-SiriusXM Interference - Inside Towers

On Monday, Inside Towers reported Sirius/XM subscribers in some cities were experiencing troubled reception when near T-Mobile cell sites.

insidetowers.com

CheechDogg.0n37s · Jul 12, 2022

GTyankee said:
T-Mobiles G5 towers have a very short range, so the towers have to be closer together

When i had Sirius, the station i was listening to would cut out when ever a T-Mobile tower was within a city block away.
My town has so many towers, that if you want to hear a song all the way through, i have to switch over to FM

If you don't think the T-mobile messes with Sirius, read this, it has gone to court & Sirius lost the case.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/fcc-rules-against-sirius-approves-t-mobile-and-verizon-spectrum-swap

T-Mobile US, Sirius XM clash over tower interference

Sirius XM is asking federal regulators to look into reception problems reported near T-Mobile US towers in major U.S. cities.

www.rcrwireless.com

....................................

Andy Seybold Offers Solution to T-Mobile-SiriusXM Interference - Inside Towers

On Monday, Inside Towers reported Sirius/XM subscribers in some cities were experiencing troubled reception when near T-Mobile cell sites.

insidetowers.com

I think that t-mobile might also be messing with the garage door opener frequencies , there is a few of them around our community lol

Dirt_Dobber · Jul 12, 2022

I love music - but the music file compression that Sirius uses mutes portions of a particular track. Sounds like I'm listening thru a tin can.
And it's not "just my system" as I have talked with both a Hollywood sound engineer and true audiophiles. I won't be extending my service.
It's a shame as Sirius has been doing this for over 10 years and with newer technology I thought they would have improved on this.

Scottly · Jul 12, 2022

Banjo said:
I was appalled at how bad the tonal quality had degraded

I never knew them to be good to begin with. The only reason I ever subscribed to them was because I had not yet discovered Apple music. Since I have, I'd never go back to them...I have a serious home stereo system, old school with tower speakers and surround sound and I couldn't get SiriusXM to sound anything better than an old transistor radio powered by a 9v.

Fatbob Frank · Jul 12, 2022

Mine sounds awesome!
It's all I listen to anymore...
My wife has it in her Jeep GC too and rarely listens to anything else, but I think it sounds even better in my truck...

British Bulldog · Jul 12, 2022

I just get fed up with the ‘looped’ music. I can listen in am, then in pm, I happen to here a song I haven’t heard in a while…….which made me note it first time. I can then predict next few songs……it’s a loop!
Yes, some live stuff.

Gavin K · Jul 14, 2022

This was actually the main reason I optioned my RAM with the UConnect 4C w/Navigation head unit -- I don't particularly need the Nav, but it also comes with HD Radio which I find to be superior to XM in sound quality (if not variety). It's nice to give your ears a break from the tinny, super-compressed sound that XM delivers and there are "hidden" HD-only radio channels that give you some extra options (obviously ZIP code dependent

Marshall · Jul 14, 2022

I haven’t noticed it being bad
I listen to old stuff so if the quality is poor going in, it will be poor coming out
Only place I loose it is next to taller buildings
We have no T mobile around here and just 3 g but that has nothing to do with sat radio
My main problem is the cost, but if you want to stop it gets way cheaper

My ears are not what they use to be

Doug Ram · Jul 14, 2022

SiriusXM sound quality varies from channel to channel depending on music source quality and how much compression is used on that channel. To me it seems better on Classic Vinyl, Underground Garage, Springsteen, Deep Tracks, Blues, and especially the classical and jazz channels. It's not so great on many pop and metal channels. It's worse on most news, sports and talk stations and then even worse on many sports play by play channels. But the absolute worst are the weather and traffic channels, which are borderline impossible to understand.

And sound quality varies a lot between cars and radio equipment. Our Ram truck's is pretty decent, but it's not as loud as the FM or Aux inputs. The SiriusXM receiver in my wife's Toyota 08 Solara is borderline awful. It suffers from loss of signal much more than any other Sirius or XM car receiver I've ever had... and we've had Sirius, XM or SiriusXM in all our cars since both services began so many years ago.

StevenB · Jul 14, 2022

Satellite radio will not sound as good as FM or streaming from the internet. Satellite radio signals are compressed so you can’t experience the full sound. Doesn’t matter what stereo equipment you may have, it lacks the high quality sound as other sources may have.

Doug Ram · Jul 15, 2022

StevenB said:
Satellite radio will not sound as good as FM or streaming from the internet. Satellite radio signals are compressed so you can’t experience the full sound. Doesn’t matter what stereo equipment you may have, it lacks the high quality sound as other sources may have.

Generally I agree, especially when it comes to locally generated content and classical music. But compression is used very extensively in internet streaming and is now seeping even into broadcasting, which is often content provided over a compressed stream from a central studio or office. Internet streaming from mainstream music providers and programmers is usually not as badly compressed as satellite, but it can be.

BillyNC · Jul 15, 2022

I have a 2010 Ram and got Sirius XM really cheap due to the age of the radio. I get better quality using the XM app on my phone connected to the aux jack. Give it a try.

KoboldTaco · Jul 15, 2022

Fatbob Frank said:
Mine sounds awesome!
It's all I listen to anymore...
My wife has it in her Jeep GC too and rarely listens to anything else, but I think it sounds even better in my truck...

I have the same experience. In my Toyota cars and Lexus, the Sirius radio never sounded ‘tinny’ whereas in the Fords, it was awful. I was a little nervous about that for my Ram before it showed up and I think it sounds better than the HD channels on FM by far And better than the Toyota head units.

Also, I read somewhere that the channels on the satellite are not all bitrate Equal. On the Ram, I can’t tell the difference. Maybe it was **** that I read but I have zero complaints with the Sat in my 2500 running U5.

RDNKB34R · Jul 15, 2022

Crap, now I got to buy digital copies of Bat out of Hell , CCR, and Bob Seger.

SiriusXM Quality is Horrible

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