Sattelite Radio Sucks

[fergusonv]

I just thought I would b*tch about how poor the audio quality of satellite radio is. I subscribe to Sirius and have come to the conclusion that it is of no better quality than listening to MP3's. The bandwith is there to provide much higher quality sound but it's simply not used.

 

[jonnythan]

The bandwidth is *there*, but they would need to get rid of some stations in order to devote it to music stations.

 

[MacManNM]

There is no real bandwidth limitation there, they dont need to get rid of stations to play higher quality. Both types of satelite radio have 12.5 MHz of allocated bandwidth for 100 stations. This turns into slightly less than 120 kHz of analog bandwidth (when you bring in parity and other failsafes). Way more than CD's have at this time.

 

[jonnythan]

There is no real bandwidth limitation there, they dont need to get rid of stations to play higher quality. Both types of satelite radio have 12.5 MHz of allocated bandwidth for 100 stations. This turns into slightly less than 120 kHz of analog bandwidth (when you bring in parity and other failsafes). Way more than CD's have at this time.

Interesting math, there. 120kHz of bandwidth = CD quality audio on each of 100 stations.

The satellites and receivers only support a limited bitrate on the digital signals. Blanketing a continent with CD-quality uncompressed on 100 stations with a satellite is.. uh... optimistic?

 

[fergusonv]

My thinking is this. If I can get Dolby Digital 5.1 on my other channels should I not at least be able to get Dolby Digital 2.0 for music or at least something that dosent sound like a crappy MP3? They don't even have to worry with high video bandwith needs as it has a very limited display showing title, artist info, etc.

 

[racquetman]

If you are searching for quality audio, I wouldn't head for the radio to find it. People that listen to the radio don't listen to it for the inherent quality. You need to remember that people on this forum are the super-minority. We care about quality sound. The vast majority do not. Until millions of people who subscribe to Sirius or XM complain about sound quality, you are going to get what you get.

 

[jonnythan]

My thinking is this. If I can get Dolby Digital 5.1 on my other channels should I not at least be able to get Dolby Digital 2.0 for music or at least something that dosent sound like a crappy MP3? They don't even have to worry with high video bandwith needs as it has a very limited display showing title, artist info, etc.

Do you want to mount an 18" dish on the roof of your car and have to align it precisely at a fixed point in the sky?

If your answer is yes, then welcome to 100 channels of CD-quality music.

If your answer is no, welcome to XM.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

If you are searching for quality audio, I wouldn't head for the radio to find it. People that listen to the radio don't listen to it for the inherent quality. You need to remember that people on this forum are the super-minority. We care about quality sound. The vast majority do not. Until millions of people who subscribe to Sirius or XM complain about sound quality, you are going to get what you get.

That's what I thought. Three guys at work have Sirius, and all have complained about the poor audio quality compared to local FM stations. These are construction guys in pick up trucks (mind you brand new F150's).

It makes you wonder if the RIAA has their interest in satellite radio. There's an article on the front page of Audioholics about how the RIAA is trying to install red flags with the upcoming HD Radio.

 

[MacManNM]

Interesting math, there. 120kHz of bandwidth = CD quality audio on each of 100 stations.

The satellites and receivers only support a limited bitrate on the digital signals. Blanketing a continent with CD-quality uncompressed on 100 stations with a satellite is.. uh... optimistic?

You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. CD Data rates are only 176 kbites per second, this can easily be transmitted in an analog bandwith of 120 kHz. If you know anything about digital, we used to get 57KB/s out of crapy phone lines that didn't even meet C2 conditioning standards.

 

[jonnythan]

You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. CD Data rates are only 176 kbites per second, this can easily be transmitted in an analog bandwith of 120 kHz. If you know anything about digital, we used to get 57KB/s out of crapy phone lines that didn't even meet C2 conditioning standards.

Now get that amount of data from a satellite in geosynchronous orbit to each of a million antennas about 1" square.

 

[MacManNM]

Now get that amount of data from a satellite in geosynchronous orbit to each of a million antennas about 1" square.

Actually that is the easy part. They run ~2.4 GHz, so actually a 1" antenna is about right.

Here is some good reading that you can learn a little RF.

http://wireless.ictp.trieste.it/school_2004/lectures/marco/RF_Basics.pdf

 

[WndrBr3d]

I completely agree that the quality of Sattelite radio is not as great as they make it out to be.

Honestly, it sounds like a 128kbps (or even 96kbps) internet audio stream. Very 'soft' sounding music, no clear quality.

 

[Sheep]

And this is why I don't listen to radio. Period.

SheepStar

 

[ironlung]

What's the problem?

To me it sounds like a transistor radio playing inside a tin can from across the room. 128 bitrate MP3 is being generous.

 

[gene]

To me it sounds like a transistor radio playing inside a tin can from across the room. 128 bitrate MP3 is being generous.

Agreed. I had XM in my Acura TL for 3 months and let the subscription run out b/c I couldn't handle the compression. The voices all sounded like Megatron from the Transformers. I heard that many of these channels are limited to 60kbps depending on particular channel, content being played and time of day.

I plan on doing an article on the "Dumbing Down of Audio" one of these days. Between satellite radio, MP3, IPOD, Cube speakers, our expectations on audio quality seem to keep getting lower as technologies get better. Hmm

 

[racquetman]

The voices all sounded like Megatron from the Transformers.

Gene, you've watched Transformers? You're cooler than I thought .

Now if the voices sounded like Soundwave I'd subscribe in a heartbeat (Laserbeak, eject, operation espionage ).

 

[AudioArcher]

Sat

Man I love my Sat radio. I didn't buy it for sound quality but for convenience. There is tons of stuff to listen to including the music I like, sports, news and talk. I don't have to carry a bunch of CD's along every where I go(but sometimes I do) and can listen to the same stuff where ever I go. The quality is sufficient for the environment, a modded car running down the highway at 70 mph. And I don't have to buy hundreds or thousands of dollars of car audio gear to attain the quality of my home system(s) to overcome that environment. It's just to hard to do critcal listening in a vehicle. That would be ludicrous. As the technology improves so will the gear, as all audio gear has over the years. For me it is well worth the money. Besides I really HATE the over commersialization of standard radio. These days its about 70% commersials and 30% music on FM. It's downright nauseating.

 

[Sheep]

Agreed. I had XM in my Acura TL for 3 months and let the subscription run out b/c I couldn't handle the compression. The voices all sounded like Megatron from the Transformers. I heard that many of these channels are limited to 60kbps depending on particular channel, content being played and time of day.

I plan on doing an article on the "Dumbing Down of Audio" one of these days. Between satellite radio, MP3, IPOD, Cube speakers, our expectations on audio quality seem to keep getting lower as technologies get better. Hmm

[1]Did you know that optimus prime is Jewish? Yeah, now you know!

[1] Family Guy

SheepStar

 

[gene]

Gene, you've watched Transformers?

Watched, are you kiddin? I still have practically every original toy in the original boxes. I had a tear in my eye the day Omega Supremes motor stopped working in his tank module though

 

[Matt34]

Watched, are you kiddin? I still have practically every original toy in the original boxes. I had a tear in my eye the day Omega Supremes motor stopped working in his tank module though

I take it you guys know about this then??

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/



Back on subject, I do agree sat. radio isn't ideal for critical listening but when you live out in the middle of nowhere like myself it's very convenient to have. I think there are 3-4 radio stations I can pick up in my car otherwise and half of those are coming from Mexico.