[johnsonad]

So I've been wondering, how hard would it be to build a satellite radio receiver with a sweet DAC? There are a few companies out there that do this but they above what I would expect. Is it easier to find a satellite receiver with a coax output and use your DAC of choice? What are your ideas and recommendations on this? Thanks!!

 

[johnsonad]

Does nobody listen to it? It doesn't seem like it would be hard but it is beyond my skill. There are several manufactures out there that sell units with Coax out and I may end up with one but it would be cool to have one built with a standard front end, and a DAC of your choice... You could even use two different front ends in one unit, one for Sirius and the other for XM which would be even better. Anybody interested?

 

[JackH]

Sirius and XM use proprietary systems, so you have to use their radios, and find those with digital outputs... I remember seeing one for XM, and one or two for Sirius. From there, it's a standard DAC, no different from any other.

I've not heard much of XM, but I have Sirius. They use so much digital compression, I can't imagine that even the world's best-sounding DAC would do anything to improve sound quality. The damage is already done before the DAC can do anything about it.

 

[Dougigs]

A good DAC would be wasted on satellite radio. The sound quality is truly dreadful - - extremely large amounts of compression.

That said, if you're North American it would be useful to have a satellite receiver with an SPDIF output, so it could be one of your switchable inputs on your DAC... I'm surprised none of them have it.

Here in Europe, most DAB receivers, even cheap ones, have SPDIF outputs (DAB also has the advantage of being free).

At first, a lot of us were hooking up our DAB receivers to our DACs. But the amount of compression used - - even by quality stations like BBC2 - - was really bad, and they kept increasing it in order to buy more bandwith for a greater number of stations.

The jitter on DAB/satellite radio is also extremely high. There's really nothing you can do about that - - it's in the nature of radio transmission of digital signals. Between the high jitter and high compression, you're not going to get much more than pocket-radio sound.

 

[pageman99]

I've a Polk XR12 XM receiver which I listen to a bit. It has internal Burr Brown dacs, but I forget which model.

It also has digital outs which I played through my Musiland MD10 when I had a separate dac. The sound improved a bit but nothing spectacular. Not the Musiland's fault either. Just too much compression, limiting the final product.

A shame too, because I listen mostly to find new music and rediscover old music that I've simply forgotten about.

BTW, even with so so sound quality, it's hard to beat satellite if you travel a lot by car. I put 50-60k a year on my car and XM is a godsend.

 

[Dougigs]

A shame too, because I listen mostly to find new music and rediscover old music that I've simply forgotten about.

Streaming internet 'radio' stations are better for this, and you have more options for the reproduction of the sound... here in UK I listen to KCRW Santa Monica and Radio Nova from paris, both of which offer decent bitrates and listenable sound quality.

(There are a few stations that stream at rates higher than 128 - - worth seeking out - - but they tend to come and go)