I was driving around checking out the free sirius stations yesterday and noticed a pretty low sound quality from sirius. It sounds almost like an mp3, with a lot of warbling in the higher frequencies and sibilance. I have another sirius radio that does not have this issue, and the sound quality is excellent. I'm wondering if they use a lower quality signal for the free stuff, or if something's wrong with mine. Do any of you subscribers have a problem with this, or does your sirius sound clear?

 

My Sirius sounds great / and there should be no difference w/ the free trial period. Sounds like something for the dealer to assess.

 

My Sirius sounds very good too. Seems like an isolated problem.

Cheers!

 

Very good is subjective. I hear it too. It occassionally sounds like a sub 128kbps MP3 file which to my ears, sucks. Some stations worse than others. I'd assume that they vary the bitrate based on time of day or content. Sort of the same bandwidth apportioning scheme as DTV.

 

Yeah, I thought the sound quality would improve when I subscribed to Sirius, but it still sounds like crap. I've got the upgraded Bose system and frankly, I'm disappointed with it. The sound quality all around is pretty poor and why the hell doesn't the lcd screen scroll the names of songs and artists?

 

My sirius sounded pretty bad also. Its a digital signal, and is compressed, so sounding like an mp3 is no suprise since thats essentially what it is. The sound quality is a VERY subjective thing and depending on how tuned you are to various issues in sound quality, it may sound excellent, or it may sound like a crappy signal. Also will depend on what you listen to, some types of sounds are much more prone to distortion when digitized and compressed. For reference, i dont play MP3s at less then 256kps when at all possible. 320kbps is preferred for me.