I understand what you are saying, and I agree. FM sounds great when there's nothing to impede it, but some of that time you are dealing with static, crosstalk, whatever.

Sirius/XM is either in or out, but I can definitely say that it has gotten worse here lately. Maybe becuase they're broke and had to merge, dunno. I find it interesting that Chrysler vehicles seem to be mentioned as having good reception because the Mitsubishi Raiders (reskinned Dodge Dakotas) had a great reception when I first started listeinig to them back when they were the first Mitsus to have Sirius in 2006.

But yeah, listening to Sirius in my car is like lisitneing to a MP3 with a low sampling rate. No static or noise, just muffled and muddy.

 

That's exactly how my XM reception was when I had it in my car. I even brought the receiver in my house and hooked it up to my amp to compare it to the XM channels I recieve via DirecTV, and there was no comparison...the DirecTV channels killed the XM Receiver...

 

Guys, as has been stated before, Sirius and XM compress music. Badly. That's why the quality sucks. "Sounds like crappy mp3 files" is exactly the correct description, because that's what you're hearing--low bitrate compression.

I can only stand satellite radio if it's not music--i.e. talk. Too many ABX tests with different compressors has ruined my tolerance for highly- and badly- compressed music.

My Sirius trial is almost over on my X MR, and I won't miss it in the least.

--michael

 

I found that to be the case as well, I have custom stereo and it helps, but cd and some mp3's if burned from my cd collection sounds much better. Sirius lacks dimension, but not too bad still better than FM, or at least in my area.