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Sirius and XM users, help ... - Page 2

post #16 of 18
9/26/05 at 8:54pm
Thread Starter 
There's a few reviews around here on the XM Polk unit. Sirius has a Kenwood and new self-branded unit. All have a TOSLINK output. I suspect through a nice DAC (or Polks Burr DAC) the sound would improve some espeically through speakers. Anyway curious about the Krell Trio too.

This surprises me a bit, but since the service hasn't been shut off yet (probably midnight), the just arrived HF1s actually sound better with it then the HD650s. Surprise. Figured the more forward Grado highs would increase the obviousness of the compression. Both thru SR71.

Agree these services seem made for car auto. Just enough quality for that (and I agree no problems in my auto system), but little more. Hate that exclusive content will now head for a nearly auto-only service with many in certain cities (NYC, Chicago, SF, etc.) not daily car drivers (yet some of the biggest supporters of Stern, Bob Edwards, etc.). At least until a true sat portable comes out I guess we're kinda out of luck. Optimistically hoping next chips will help though. But compression may not change. We'll see as they move to video which is expected next year.
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post #17 of 18
9/26/05 at 9:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blessingx
There's a few reviews around here on the XM Polk unit. Sirius has a Kenwood and new self-branded unit. All have a TOSLINK output. I suspect through a nice DAC (or Polks Burr DAC) the sound would improve some espeically through speakers.
My opinion? You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A more refined DAC and better speakers are only going to further reveal the limitatons of the source. No matter how it's sliced and diced you just can't get around the fact that both Sirius and XM compress the *HELL* out of their streams. They have a finite amount of bandwidth to work with, and both companies have decided that it makes more business sense to cram more and more programming into that bandwidth rather than use it to improve sound quality. Sports are more important than fidelity, which you'll have to look elsewhere to find. If you're a critical listener (and how many at Head-Fi aren't?) you won't find it with satellite radio.
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post #18 of 18
9/26/05 at 9:33pm
It's XM that got me into HeadFi in the first place -- I received a Myfi (portable unit, think iPod + XM) and read somewhere talking about how a headphone amp would improve the sound.

30 seconds later with google, I discovered headfi for the first time

(nevermind that it doesnt make much sense to use headphone amp with it since there is no bypassing the DAC AND the compression is so bad anyway).

Anyway now that I have spiraled down in my headfi addiction, i NEVER listen to XM or Sirius (i have subscriptions to both). I'm just way too spoiled with the quality of CD quality through high-end equipment to go back. I listen to Bloomberg (business news) sometimes in my 10 minute commute but more often I just leave it completely off. Sad, really, headfi ruined it for me!
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