XM Radio upgrading their sound quality
08-09-2007, 10:56 PM
#1
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XM Radio upgrading their sound quality
As of August 5th, XM Satellite Radio will be upgrading their sound quality using an upgraded audio processor. This comes directly as a result of our partnership with Neural Audio.
http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=83156
Long overdue , I say
Anyone with ears that listens to XM knows just how bad the audio can sound. The bitrate for their music has been going down for years. Some of their channels sound like they are broadcast from a tunnel!
We in the Home theater forum have been having discussions about this for years. I'm glad XM is trying to help .
Our last three cars all had XM, including the HHR. I let it run out and never renewed because the sound is so inconsistent and my world is full of so many dead spots. It is still playing in out Oddity, but we'll let it go when the trial is up, but wait, maybe it will sound better....
Nope, they still have a lot of their spoken word stations sounding like tunnel Cylons
Just like the Cable and satellite TV providers, these radio providers only have so much bandwidth and they cram more stations into the pipeline and have to allocate their resources.
Too many stations and a lot of compromises being made. At least they are trying to make some of the music channels more listenable.
One of the XM Fan forum people says this about the new sound enhancement device:
"N-CLAS is essentially an advanced limiter and is responsible for wrecking the audio before. It's not so much that XM was trying to compress dynamic range, it's that they were trying to avoid artifacts, but failed, and introduced new artifacts.
Neural Codec Load AnalySis... That's what N-CLAS stands for. Above a certain amplitude, artifacts are more likely to occur, so the audio as a result "under load" gets limited. In the case of aacPlus, the system must work differently. And it will. "
So it is not just the cramming of the bandwidth that has taken its toll on the XM sound, it is the use of faulty limiters not compressing the music correctly but actually adding artifacts to the music.
http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=83156
Long overdue , I say
Anyone with ears that listens to XM knows just how bad the audio can sound. The bitrate for their music has been going down for years. Some of their channels sound like they are broadcast from a tunnel!
We in the Home theater forum have been having discussions about this for years. I'm glad XM is trying to help .
Our last three cars all had XM, including the HHR. I let it run out and never renewed because the sound is so inconsistent and my world is full of so many dead spots. It is still playing in out Oddity, but we'll let it go when the trial is up, but wait, maybe it will sound better....
Nope, they still have a lot of their spoken word stations sounding like tunnel Cylons
Just like the Cable and satellite TV providers, these radio providers only have so much bandwidth and they cram more stations into the pipeline and have to allocate their resources.
Too many stations and a lot of compromises being made. At least they are trying to make some of the music channels more listenable.
One of the XM Fan forum people says this about the new sound enhancement device:
"N-CLAS is essentially an advanced limiter and is responsible for wrecking the audio before. It's not so much that XM was trying to compress dynamic range, it's that they were trying to avoid artifacts, but failed, and introduced new artifacts.
Neural Codec Load AnalySis... That's what N-CLAS stands for. Above a certain amplitude, artifacts are more likely to occur, so the audio as a result "under load" gets limited. In the case of aacPlus, the system must work differently. And it will. "
So it is not just the cramming of the bandwidth that has taken its toll on the XM sound, it is the use of faulty limiters not compressing the music correctly but actually adding artifacts to the music.
08-10-2007, 12:11 AM
#3
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Our last three cars all had XM, including the HHR. I let it run out and never renewed because the sound is so inconsistent and my world is full of so many dead spots. It is still playing in out Oddity, but we'll let it go when the trial is up, but wait, maybe it will sound better....
Nope, they still have a lot of their spoken word stations sounding like tunnel Cylons
Nope, they still have a lot of their spoken word stations sounding like tunnel Cylons
08-10-2007, 12:14 AM
#4
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XM does give us a lot of variety and making that sound better is not a bad thing at all!
The high ambient ( Background ) sounds in our automobiles actually hide a lot of the distortions and other shortcomings of much of the modern music delivery systems.
So when stopped sometime, try listening to a CD of a well recorded song and the XM broadcast of that same song. There will be a huge quality loss with the XM. But maybe not so much after the fix.
CDs are far from perfect, but XM is not what it claims to be in its ads. They know they lie to us whan they state things like "Perfect digital clarity" and some other such slogans. Perhaps that was their original goal, but commerce made them aware they served a different master.
This is why they are taking steps to make their sound and their image better. Word was leaking out that the emperor indeed was wearing no clothing
The high ambient ( Background ) sounds in our automobiles actually hide a lot of the distortions and other shortcomings of much of the modern music delivery systems.
So when stopped sometime, try listening to a CD of a well recorded song and the XM broadcast of that same song. There will be a huge quality loss with the XM. But maybe not so much after the fix.
CDs are far from perfect, but XM is not what it claims to be in its ads. They know they lie to us whan they state things like "Perfect digital clarity" and some other such slogans. Perhaps that was their original goal, but commerce made them aware they served a different master.
This is why they are taking steps to make their sound and their image better. Word was leaking out that the emperor indeed was wearing no clothing
08-10-2007, 12:24 AM
#5
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But one can dream.
I know talk shows don't need as much bandwidth as music and it would be silly to advocate that, but the powers that be do push things to the limit a little to often in my opinion.
For example:
I love to listen to ancient radio shows from the forties and older. Many of them have survived in reasonable condition, but are allocated such miserable bitrates as to be unlistenable at times.
I know those old shows can be degraded a bit and still sound presentable, but sometimes they push things way to far and the voices come from within an echo chamber.Besides, some of these show did have music and is just does not truncate as well as the voice.
I own some of the same shows and likely got them from the same source as XM, but their delivery sometimes does them a great injustice.
08-10-2007, 12:29 AM
#6
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I've noticed a difference in sound quality in the car with the factory unit, as well as with my SkyFi2 hooked up to my surround receiver. But that is only on the music channels I listen to. The voice channels are still horrid.
08-10-2007, 12:35 AM
#7
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I've noticed the XM sounding a bit better through the computer with the voice channels. Likely due to the home noise level being so much lower.
Like I mentioned, we still have XM for the three month trial in our Ody , so we listen at home through the computer at times. I think the motherbaord sound card is the weak link in this line, since the music sound pretty bad.
Like I mentioned, we still have XM for the three month trial in our Ody , so we listen at home through the computer at times. I think the motherbaord sound card is the weak link in this line, since the music sound pretty bad.
08-10-2007, 12:45 AM
#8
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The sound quality with XMRO will be bad no matter what they do (unless they increase the bitrate).
Even the music has that chirpy tin can sound to it due to the bitrate they currently use for the streaming audio.
Even the music has that chirpy tin can sound to it due to the bitrate they currently use for the streaming audio.
08-10-2007, 12:57 AM
#9
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In our modern world, convenience always seems to trump quality.
Funny, I just went the other way with our stereo system. SACD/DVD audio Pioneer Elite player. Even thinking of going with a highend turntable someday to be able to play our records
Jeff Beck never sounded so fine until I got the 5.1 SACD mix of Blow By Blow
08-13-2007, 08:23 AM
#10
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Join Date: 07-29-2007
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my hubby bought a 07 vette, and his XM has poor sound quality as well! first we thought it was the sound system and/or speakers, but when we turned the fm radio on or played a cd, it sounded good.......we both have sirius in our other vehicles and never had this problem!! hope the two hook up and get the quality that sirius has!
speaking of all this, my hhr did not come with XM and I'm wondering if it's possible to have the dealer exchange my whole dash unit for one that does have satellite already built in? anyone know?? I'd rather have sirius, but I hate all the extra gadgets hanging out, even thought of a navigation system too....any suggestions?
thanks all......................
speaking of all this, my hhr did not come with XM and I'm wondering if it's possible to have the dealer exchange my whole dash unit for one that does have satellite already built in? anyone know?? I'd rather have sirius, but I hate all the extra gadgets hanging out, even thought of a navigation system too....any suggestions?
thanks all......................