XM vs HD Radio quality

[doubled_tx]

Maybe the audiophiles on here can provide guidance on this question. I've got the 17-speaker Lexicon, and it seems to me like the audio from XM is very flat and low-quality.. certainly compared to HD FM, but even to the standard FM broadcasts. I've tried tweaking the EQ settings, etc, but I can't generate any comparable richness in the sound on XM. I think the main problem is I've never had a car stereo good enough to tell the difference. Any comments on XM broadcast quality?.. is it a low quality mp3-level audio feed that is limiting things here?

 

[cliffbig]

Maybe the audiophiles on here can provide guidance on this question. I've got the 17-speaker Lexicon, and it seems to me like the audio from XM is very flat and low-quality.. certainly compared to HD FM, but even to the standard FM broadcasts. I've tried tweaking the EQ settings, etc, but I can't generate any comparable richness in the sound on XM. I think the main problem is I've never had a car stereo good enough to tell the difference. Any comments on XM broadcast quality?.. is it a low quality mp3-level audio feed that is limiting things here?

XM quality has gone from very good to good to poor over the past few years as they've compressed their signal further to squeeze in extra stations. However, I will say that the Lexicon system extracts much better sound from XM than either of my Acuras or my Toyota ever did. I have adjusted both bass and treble up a great deal, since XM's broadcast equalization tends to emphasize midrange more than anything else.

 

[musher51]

double_tx -- cliffbig alluded to it, but for the record, please be aware that each AV source (Disc, FM/AM & XM) have their own tone control settings, so it may be that your treble/midrange/bass settings for XM need tweaking. Beyond that, though, I agree that the sonic quality of the XM stations isn't as good as the other audio sources.

 

[enjoyingsilence]

If you're tech savvy... read these articles Sorry I can't elaborate much on it.. I'm actually compiling a nice write up on iPod things for another article here.

HD Radio Bandwidth, Frequency, & Signal Details

XM Technology (look down 6-7 lines to the codecs, and frequency used.

Also, XM does broadcast in surround sound on "some" channels (some, being like one or two, lol)

...

If you're familiar with spectrum. Especially with satellite based transmissions, it's understandable why there's more bandwidth on land based, than satellite based.

 

[santosonly]

I can't seem to have my stereo pick up the HD stations. Is there anything I have to do to activate the system to automatically find the stations? They are available in my area so I know that is not the issue.

 

[enjoyingsilence]

If you have navigation... scroll down to settings on FM Radio... and make sure HD radio is enabled. It can be manually turned off.

 

[santosonly]

Thanks much. I realized this right after I left the post. Checking the box deselects HD activation. I initially thought it was the other way around.

 

[JPatZ]

XM quality has gone from very good to good to poor over the past few years as they've compressed their signal further to squeeze in extra stations. However, I will say that the Lexicon system extracts much better sound from XM than either of my Acuras or my Toyota ever did. I have adjusted both bass and treble up a great deal, since XM's broadcast equalization tends to emphasize midrange more than anything else.

Cliffbig - many thanks for the tip on XM compression...I loaded some CD's and connected my iPod and ran some high quality source material through the Lexicon and it blew me away even more...my XM Sat settings are pumped up to accomodate the audio compression but with quality source material, they are trimmed way back and the sound just explodes. Thanks for this post!

 

[scottdk]

I have the same system in my car........

Bottom line is in my opinion XM or Sattelite radio quality is garbage. Very flat sounding compared to MP3, CD, Or FM radio.

I have listened to XM radio in other cars not just the Genesis, and it all sounds terrible no matter the car.

XM sucks.

I will be downloading all of my music from my laptop and saving it to my flash drive and than I will stick it in the USB port and download it to the Multi media system.

Problem solved.

 

[gerryb]

The MUSIC on XM sucks... but I really enjoy the other non-music channels especially the Comedy stations. If you want to listen to acoustic-quality music, ANYTHING is better than most channels on XM - they just sound flat and dead..

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[genesis@genesisworld.com]

The MUSIC on XM sucks... but I really enjoy the other non-music channels especially the Comedy stations. If you want to listen to acoustic-quality music, ANYTHING is better than most channels on XM - they just sound flat and dead..

As a REMINDER to all, there is a reason that XM music is 'flat' sounding. It has nothing to do with the Lexicon. It has everything to do with XM and Sirius and satellites. You'll find a great technical explanation as to why it is that way here on the forum and via a Google search (sorry I don't have the time right now to put the link here). The quick answer is that to fit in ALL of the channels they have in a given bandwidth that they are permitted, they have to flatten things and limit the level of encoding of the audio signal. You'll notice that voice only channels, like comedy & news, sound a little more 'digital'. The reason is that it takes far less bits this far less bandwidth to send voice than it does music (OK tech guys, I know that's not always the case). They keep it lower to allow more bandwidth to handle the music. But, there is a total limit for all of the channels. As an explaination, if they had ALL talk channels, they might be able to grow their total channels by 30-40%. If they had all music channels, their channel count would shrink by over 50%.

Anyway... One additional thing to think about is the psychological aspect here. IF you didn't have HD radio and DVD-A on a spectacular audio system to compare it against, the XM music audio would actually sound better . Part of the brain's comparison process.

Bottom line... I agree that XM music ain't all that great. Like many on the forum, I rarely listen to it with SO many other fantastic music options in the car.

 

[BigOil]

Having had Sirius and XM...yes the fidelity sucks pretty much. Consumers will settle for cassette quality (nay 8-Track even..shows my age). Focus is on programming choices to sell. It can sound good, but does not alas. Some satellite music channels (obviously talk channels) are tuned bit-rate to be a little bit better than others I think. While I don’t have a Genesis...yet. My business car has HD aftermarket in it and HD Radio has better than satellite fidelity in general. As long as stations only have one or two HD streams (not 3 --- the bits get too stretched)... Analog FM can sound fantastic, but in the wars stations wage to be the loudest on the dial fidelity suffers. HD gives some of the fidelity back, and adds only a little digital grunge in exchange that is pretty well masked in the car. I bet the Lexcion does make the difference clear tho' ?

 

[genesis@genesisworld.com]

Having had Sirius and XM...yes the fidelity sucks pretty much. Consumers will settle for cassette quality (nay 8-Track even..shows my age). Focus is on programming choices to sell. It can sound good, but does not alas. Some satellite music channels (obviously talk channels) are tuned bit-rate to be a little bit better than others I think. While I don’t have a Genesis...yet. My business car has HD aftermarket in it and HD Radio has better than satellite fidelity in general. As long as stations only have one or two HD streams (not 3 --- the bits get too stretched)... Analog FM can sound fantastic, but in the wars stations wage to be the loudest on the dial fidelity suffers. HD gives some of the fidelity back, and adds only a little digital grunge in exchange that is pretty well masked in the car. I bet the Lexcion does make the difference clear tho' ?

WELL said BigOil! So right. MANY of the XM receivers are aftermarket devices that retransmit/translate the received signal into standard FM and inject that into the in-dash receiver. Layer upon layers of distortion and bit-skewing. We with Genesis + Lexicon are by far the rare ones. HDFM is astounding to me. The local station (BLAZE) is Urban Contemporary with a lot of punch. When the HD kicks in... WOWSER!