Sirius Area 33 - better and better

[kstuart]

Back when Dish first added Sirius, I checked out most of the channels in musical genres of interest to me, and the Dance ones were okay, but not particularly good (lots of repetition, like most Sirius channels at that time).

From time to time, I've checked back, and some months back, there was evidently a complete overhaul of their "Trance and Progressive House" channel, now "Area 33", channel 6033 on Dish Network.

For those unawares, this genre is the "happening" sub-genre of Dance Music for the past 5-10 years. And Area 33 has gone from a lot of canned hits to being mostly recently recorded live weekly shows by the top DJ's - people by Paul Van Dyk and Paul Oakenfold, as well as Judge Jules, Peter Tong, Darude and many other world-famous artists.

I just wanted to point this out as a worthwhile choice for anyone into Dance Music, they've done an excellent job in re-building this channel. More info at:

SIRIUS Satellite Radio - Techno Trance Music and More

 

[KE4EST]

I hadn't noticed until I read your thread.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Its a good station.

I REALLY like Boombox Breakbeats/Old Skool

 

[FitzAusTex]

i've always liked this channel, but i agree, it has gotten way good.

 

[Carroll A]

Area 33 has improved a lot over the last six months... The Beat OTOH has fallen way down on the caliber of music they play... Just read a lot of the post over at SBS and you will see just how bad this channel has gotten... CC

 

[stck4evr]

I also noticed that they seemed to improve the quality of that channel on the sirius radio - I think they gave it more bandwidth - I always liked the music but did not listen to it since it sounded too flat - like a AM radio station. Now this station sound better than any other Sirius station...

 

[Carroll A]

Area 33 does sound good on Sirius... Another station that seems to get a little more bandwidth is Lithium... I don't know what bit rate Sirius uses for their music channels, some sound like 64Kbps and a few sound like 96Kbps, but there are those that sound like they are running a nice 32Kbps... CC

 

[kstuart]

Area 33 has improved a lot over the last six months... The Beat OTOH has fallen way down on the caliber of music they play... Just read a lot of the post over at SBS and you will see just how bad this channel has gotten... CC

Where is "SBS" ??

 

[stck4evr]

I read somewhere that they are using around 40Kbps on average, but because they use a priopriatary compression it sound better. Hmm. I was always thinking people saying that CD is a step down from old vinyl analog LPs are a little crazy. But now, 20 years later, I'm putting myself in a category of saying - what happend to CD quality sound? People just are okay with more and more compressed sound. Ugh...

 

[Carroll A]

Where is "SBS" ??

SIRIUS Backstage

 

[jegrant]

The only supposedly proprietary compression I have heard of Sirius using is something they hype up as "S>PLEX" which is what we in the TV DBS world know as "statistical multiplexing." This just means that Sirius somehow decides which stations are higher priority (Classical Music, Met Opera, etc.) and which are lower priority (Traffic, Weather) and then programs their encoders to constantly adjust to give a little more bandwidth to the stations that need it, when they need it. Of course the priority table determines who gets available bandwidth first.

I much prefer XM BPM as my satellite dance channel. That, or BBC Radio 1. I think adding BBC R1 was one of the best moves Sirius has ever made. The Beat seems too narrowly targeted, and I don't count myself among that target. I don't hold anything against Area 33, but I'm just not familiar enough with its music to get into it.