Hey, HL and other Sirius subscribers

Inkara1

Inkara1

Well-Known Member
Is it just me, or does the sound quality seem to have gotten worse lately? Like they switched from 320K mp3s to 96K?
 
To a minor degree. I thought it was just me.

I also notice it's worse on some stations than others. Perhaps a word to the customer service pukes is in order.
 
It varies by song, too. I heard Queen's "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" on the way home from work yesterday and the compression absolutely butchered Freddie Mercury's voice. It's really noticable in my car because of the upgraded speakers that have actual treble. I still need to borrow a ladder to get on the roof at home to put the antenna in a place not blocked by the massive pine tree next door, so I haven't listened much there.
 
They've also noised around about video content for a long while. I wonder if they're paring back bandwidth in preparation to accomodate that?
 
I'd rather they didn't, personally. I subscribed for the music; at home I can get video through the digital cable or the internet and I don't need streaming video in the car.

Thing is, though. Pat St. John and Kristine Stone sound the same, while the songs sound different. So I think the bandwidth from NY to the satellites and to the end users is the same, but the disk space usage in NY is lessened. In any event, any move that would lessen sound quality seems ill-advised because XM's sound quality reputation was better even before this started. I'm sure the number of audiophiles who would consider switching satrad providers because of sound quality is comparitively small, but when you're second out of two and are trying to gain subscribers, it makes no sense to drive away any customers in a move that would gain none.
 
maybe they are scrambling to diversify since Stern's audience didnt flock to the service en-mass as they were expected to do.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that the bump in subscribers started quite a bit before he actually stopped his terrestrial radio broadcasts, which is, I'm sure, a good part of why there's not a huge spike afterwards, and is also why he got all those bonuses early on.
 
Hey, HL, you still having issues with reception at the house? If so, is there a spot on the roof that allows a clear view towards North Dakota? If so, get a Sirius car kit (brand doesn't matter, as the antenna connector is standardized, and if you can get the antenna by itself without the car dock, all the better), and stick the magnetic antenna to some flashing or something else metal. I found a metal plate on my roof that was covering up where a roof-top swamp cooler used to be. Now I'm getting full-strength reception on mine, which I rarely got at the old apartment; here, I was lucky to get sporadic reception with the other antenna mounted on the side of the house, looking between a couple of trees.

The car antennas (at least mine) have a 20-foot cord, so you may need the extension cable, but the extension cable is thick and the car antenna cable is real thin, so if you need to go through a window or something, like I did, you'll want to find a place that puts the thin wire where you need it.
 
I already have a car kit gathering dust from the old Dodge, and I have the head unit slapped into my boom box at work. I'd just as soon bring the box home for parties, since you're not dependant on an FM transmitter. You're right, though, I could unplug the antenna and use the car one permanently placed at home.

Hmm.
 
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