So I got my Rubi a week or so ago and had ordered it with Sirius. Driving home from the dealership I only had Sat. radio and thought the stereo in this thing was junk. Once I put in a DVD of 192 VRB mp3's I was *super* relieved that the sound system was kick'n, but then it came crashing down on me that Sirius is so compressed that I cannot stand to listen to it. It sounds like between 64 and 92K mp3's, if not worse. FM radio puts it to shame. I've run it by everyone that sits in my car and they agree that I should turn it off immediately.

Listening to any Sirius channel is a complete disappointment. I hear compression artifacts left and right, yet somehow without any real distinction between the left and right channels. I've googled the topic and consensus is not on par with my disappointment, so what I'd like to know is this: Is it me, Is it Sirius or is it just Sirius in my JK? I refuse to listen to it and wish I'd not purchased the option at this point.

-Jordan

 

It is you. Sirius is CD quality sound, where normal radio is far below that.

After not listening to my sirius for a few months, and going back to listening to it, I was amazed how nicely it sounded. MUCH better then normal radio.


-Brandon

 

I'm going to agree with Astro on this one. My Sirius quality is excellent and far better than than the Xm I installed on my Tj a few years back. If I was you I would have the dealership check it out. Maybe go sit in another Jeep with sirius at the dealership and compare it to yours. Goodluck and Congrats on the new Rubicon.

 

Actually, Sirius is not CD-quality sound. They use proprietary algorithms to compress their channels. Music is compressed less than talk radio, but it is compressed. I've heard other reports in the past of folks who get an exceptional quality FM signal that rivals the audio from satellite, so that's not far fetched either.

I've been a Sirius subscriber for around 5 years now. For me the sound quality is fine. I CAN tell the difference if I put a CD in by an artist I also hear on Sirius, but the sound quality of both is fine for my needs.

hjordanh-- I recommend you go to a car audio shop and hear their satellite radio setups, and see if the quality of Sirius' audio is the same. It may be that there is some sort of problem with your radio-- you should be able to hear a difference between the satellite quality & cd/dvd quality, but it shouldn't be intolerable.

 

I have had Sirius for 4 years, and can't STAND normal radio for more than 20 seconds... the static, the fading in/out all the damn time...

ohh yea... AND THE COMMERICALS that are SO LAME not even the DJ's like them... they all sound stoned..

It's gotta be the radio, Sirius isn't "true" CD quality, but it is above FM for me!

its also above a 128kbps MP3..

I play my Sirius with a

Kenwood KDC-X959 head unit

Polk 4 channel main amp

Polk 2 channel bridge for the subs

 

Interesting... well, I have to say that I also found the stereo sounding noticeably better when I popped in a CD of MP3s. I had even commented to my kids that the system sounded much better using MP3s in the DVD player as compared to Sirius. I still like Sirius, although I could do without the pauses going under bridges, etc. btw, where is the antenna for the sat system? Just wondering if it is a hardtop issue or not.

 

my Rubi came with the Sirius radio. I have been an XM subsriber for almost 4 years. the only way that the Roady2 I have beats the CD is by using an AUX input or tape adapter.

I'm not too impressed with the Sirius. In the two days I have had my kids in there, I have to change chanels... too late due to profanity... at least XM labels the station title with "XL" for extreme language. since i'm new to sirius, i have yet to learn the ones to keep off when the kids are with me.

 

You'll appreciate this list of "business-safe" Sirius stations: http://www.amtc.com/sirius/business%...0channels.html

The (U) stands for Unhosted station, meaning there isn't a DJ. I've heard that OCCASIONALLY there might be a swear word uttered by a DJ on these stations, but it's VERY few & far between when it happens.

# 02(U) - STARLITE (LITE POP)
# 03(U) - SIRIUS LOVE (LOVE SONGS)
# 04(U) - MOVIN' EASY (EASY LISTENING)
# 05 - SIRIUS GOLD (THE 50'S)
# 06 - '60S VIBRATIONS (THE 60'S)
# 07 - TOTALLY '70S (THE 70'S)
# 08 - BIG '80S (THE 80'S)
# 09 - THE PULSE (THE '90S & NOW)
# 10(U) - BRIDGE (MELLOW ROCK)
# 12 - SUPER SHUFFLE (SIRIUS SUPER MIX)
# 30 - THE COFFEE HOUSE (ACOUSTIC COFFEE HOUSE MUSIC)
# 35(U) - CHILL (SMOOTH ELECTRONIC)
# 60 - NEW COUNTRY (TODAY'S COUNTRY HITS)
# 61 - PRIME COUNTRY ('80S & '90S COUNTRY HITS)
# 62 - THE ROADHOUSE (CLASSICAL COUNTRY)
# 65 - BLUEGRASS (BLUEGRASS)
# 70 - PLANET JAZZ (CONTEMPORARY JAZZ)
# 71 - JAZZ CAFE (SMOOTH JAZZ)
# 72 - PURE JAZZ (CLASSIC JAZZ)
# 73(U) - SPA 73 (NEW AGE)
# 75 - STANDARD TIME (STANDARDS)
# 77 - BROADWAYS BEST (BROADWAY SHOW MUSIC)
# 80 - SYMPHONY HALL (SYMPHONY & CHAMBER MUSIC)
# 85 - CLASSICAL VOICES (CLASSICAL VOICES)
# 86 - SIRIUS POPS (CLASSICAL POPS)

 

I don't think it's you -- when I had the same reaction, I was researching this at one point, and I read that Sirius has a total of less than 5 Mbps worth of bandwidth to squeeze in all of their channels. Clearly they wind up being highly compressed, even though to my ear their "proprietary" algorithms do a damn good job under the circumstances. It is not CD quality by any means, and if you look carefully at their advertising, they will never say as much (usually they use a term like "digital quality" which is obviously meaningless).

I think it comes down to personal preference as to whether you can tolerate the artifacts -- I'm pretty sensitive to it, but I've had Sirius now for several years and I've gotten over it.

On signal quality alone, the debate between Sirius and FM for me is whether you're more willing to put up with analog degradation (i.e. static, fade) or digital degradation (i.e. artifacts and cutting out). This winds up being a toss up in my book.

Content is another story, and for me Sirius wins hands down. That's another whole topic though, and probably one we don't want to discuss in a technical forum

 

I agree...my sirius sux too.....i get this wishy sound like tape hiss or fm hiss on quiet sections of music ! Really noticable with the added freq. response of the added tweeters!
Loss of signal even when i moved the antenna to the hood( original is ontop of rollbar under padding.I put padding on my hardtop and lost the signal,thats why I had to put another antenna)/
Interesting tho...my top cver over the radio has a scratch on it...my guess someone complained about there sirius noise and dealer changed his radio with mine before I bought it and scratch my cover .

hey ,did anyone's come with the sirius already turned on ,or did you have to call and activate it? When I test drove my jeep I don't think the sat. worked <we listened to fm. When i bought it the sat. was already on !!! Do they all come "activated"?
on my list for the dealer....