RedWings

When I first started listening to Sirius I was kind of dissapointed in the sound quality. Seemed sort of muffled. I adjusted the bass/treble, but still not that great. Then I played some music from a USB drive I had and man did it sounds awesome.

What is up with Sirius? I know because of transmitting via satellite they have bandwidth issues so compression obviously comes into play. But I don't remember my XM sounding this bad. Are they using different technology?

Am I the only one noticing this?

To add I have the Electronics Package.

Freshmeat

I get incredible sound from mine. I play a lot of the '40s and jazz, though, so maybe it's different.

Flagstang

my sirius in my past 6 cars has sounded amazing. I would take it into the dealer and have them check it. Sirius should be full digital quality.

infact I am listening to sirius net radio right now.

Driver72

I've had Sirius for 6+ years and I've only had sound issues when I've put an aftermarket receiver into a car that didn't have it standard. But when I had it hardwired in it improved greatly. As long as it's not hitching a ride off of an FM channel, your sound quality should be like you are playing a CD, top quality. Should sound much better than FM (FM sucks overall anyway).

I can't listen to FM anymore, Sirius just rocks. I even prefer it to my Ipod music as I don't have to constantly update to get the newer songs and don't get tired of listening to the same songs.
I have 54000 songs on my Itunes hard drive but really only listen to about 3000 of them.
So it gets old having to skip songs so often.

With Sirius you get so many channels and so many different song choices and brand new songs are played right away, no downloading, no updating iphone/ipod, etc.

Have yours checked out, something's up.

R3troGT

I have a Lincoln MKS, DD, with the THX system in it and all music sources sounds incredible. Best stereo I have had in any car or at home. In my 2009 Challenger R/T I had the Navigation Radio and Sound Group II. Again all sound sources sounded great. In my 10 Shelby with the Shaker 500 I notice that the sounds is muffled. A bit better sound from the iPod but not by much. I think upgrading the speakers will make a big dofference. It is on my list of things to do, after lowering springs

IT_Guru

I've noticed its quieter and doesn't seem that high of a quality. Now with a USB drive it sounds great. Sounds like the same issue you are having. Shaker 500 no elect. package.

fritzOSU03

I have Sirius in my '08 Mustang with the Shaker 500 and I also had it in my '07 Fusion with the Audiophile system. IMO, it sounds/sounded compressed and muffled in both of my cars.

Freshmeat

I'm with Driver72- I can't stand putting up with FM any more. It sucks because I'm in a Kenworth 60% of my work day and think entirely too much about how to next modify the Mustang instead of jamming to staticky music.

db2797

Yes...I've noticed this as well. The signal from Sirius is probably highly compressed. It just isn't going to compare to HD Radio. I think what most people might be confusing with a "clearer" signal is actually a compression of the stream. It will sound clearer, but it will lose its richness compared to FM radio. Unless somebody can point to evidence refuting it, I don't believe FM radio stations would have lower quality sound. It actually is most likely superior. I think we have a placebo effect happening to people due to that compression filtering out the "noise" that actually makes music sound rich and full.

2K3 Mach

The kbps of Sirius is pretty low. From what I've read, it averages 30-50 kbps, some broadcasts as high as 60 Kbps

Considering CD quality is 192 kbps, the Sat radio just doesn't have the bandwidth to have CD quality. Supposedly HD radio is CD quality...

bpmurr

Sirius sounds very compressed on some channels. My Zune HD via USB blows it out of the water. It sounds like a different sound system.

crescent_wrench

Sirius sounds like crap to me. Compression kills the music....no dynamic range whatsoever. Even with the garbage stock speakers, CD's sound so much better. Been a subscriber for years and have had this opinion with three different cars and in the home. BTW....Pandora must be doing something right with their signal....sounds incredible.

wolfy63

+1...mine sounds like crap 2

CG205

Sirius sounds much inferior to a good FM station, or a good CD on my Shaker 500 system. It was the same way with the XM on my previous car.

montreal ponies

I've had Sirius for 2 years now in my Escape and i have no complaint about muffle sound or anything. Maybe cuz i'm no hi-fi stereo gearhead, but i really enjoy the sound. Same goes for the Mustang.

Bigjohns97

satilite can't hold a candle to hd radio, in fact some hd radio stations sound better than some mp3's i have.

Double-EDad

In addition to the sound being sub-par, my complaint is it cuts out randomly, usually right in the middle of me rockin' out to the 1st good song I was able to find in the last 10 minutes out of the 200 channels they have. Inconsiderate Sirius Bastards! (oops wrong thread!)

Flagstang

oyu guys should take your cars to the dealer ecause something is wrong with them.

crescent_wrench

It's the compression. Pop in a well recorded CD and things get instantly better. Sirius sucks in my house as well.....this is fed through a 5K + sound system....not Best Buy junk.

GottaHaveIt

mine was stock in car sounded Great better than any local stations, now with a Pioneer Unit I have a Pioneer Sirius wired in car sounds great to , untill your too close to lots power lines rocks etc, I wish they could record like the portable ones do ! I like it !