XM vs. MusicChoice: Quality hit?

[ken_kimg]

Being a music fan of what DirecTV has had to offer over the years, but having no experience with but hearing great things about XM radio, was greatly anticipating its intro on DirecTV.

To be honest, first impressions were a little underwhelming. As mentioned elsewhere in this forum, the listings are screwed up. Also the exact year of the tune isn't given, as was the case in Music Choice. More important, (listening mostly to the 'decades' stations), the sound seemed mighty compressed, at least compared to Music Choice. In other words, lack of dynamic range and some 'pumping' noted. Worst of all, the bitrates of the streams must be REALLY low, because the treble / highs seemed to warble on quite a few of the songs (in my experience, caused by digitizing at too-low a bitrate). In fact, some of them sounded like they were recorded off some local FM channel with marginal reception and repiped thru XM. Really have to say, my local FM channels by and large sound ALOT BETTER.

Has anybody else noticed this, or are my ears or equipment out of tune?

 

[JosephB]

DirecTV is obviously receiving XM simply through some XM receivers, meaning its getting compressed to go out over XM. I notice this with XM in the car, although through my car stereo it doesn't sound worse than FM (actually better since I get spotty FM reception) but for broadcast over DirecTV they should have sent DirecTV a stream via fiber/private network/whatever that wasn't through the satellite so that DirecTV got it pre-compression, because I'm sure that's how Music Choice had to be delievered (uncompressed before it got to DirecTV). Heck, they probably just have a bunch of PCs running XMPCRs to feed the audio and song data to the encoders.

 

[theslag]

I like it, saves my money from buying a home kit..but then again, I just order a MYFI from buy.com for 49 bucks after rebate so I guess ill have a home kit. As long as O and A are on, im happy. Music choice was good...its all about the same...its just music...the big question is, when is Rupert going to by XM???

 

[Proc]

I actually thought the XM sounded better than the Music Choice stations.

I'm kind of excited to have XM available.

 

[ken_kimg]

It may depend on which channel you're listening to. DirecTV plays that game with their video channels as well--more bits (i.e., more quality) on certain channels than others. All i know is some music on the Decades (namely '60's, '70's, and '80's) sounds downright awful on headphones at least... far worse than MusicChoice.

 

[joedekock]

I actually thought the XM sounded better than the Music Choice stations.

I'm kind of excited to have XM available.

Same here.... I have the digital sound into my audio reciever on the optical cable, and the XM Channels sounded a little more crisp to me. I love XM and am excited to have it. I am already an XM subscriber, and was thinking of spending $700.00 on a new Yamaha 7.1 surround reciever to replace my Sony 5.1. I really wanted sony, but Yamaha had the built in XM, so now I can get the sony 7.1 like I really want.

 

[lou_do]

XM radio sounds good here on my Pioneer surround system. Actually on certain channels it sounds better, than MC did. But we need to give them a few days to get it 100% set up. Also, I am sure that once the new satellites are up there, there will be more available bandwidth, to make adjustments to compression, and they will sound even better.

 

[ken_kimg]

XM radio sounds good here on my Pioneer surround system. Actually on certain channels it sounds better, than MC did. But we need to give them a few days to get it 100% set up. Also, I am sure that once the new satellites are up there, there will be more available bandwidth, to make adjustments to compression, and they will sound even better.

i sure hope so...

 

[theslag]

Dont get me wrong, im happier than s*** that XM is now on direct..Sirus on dish didnt sit will with my, i was wondering when direct was going to get XM. I think its cool to listen to O and A on any TV in the house. Just waiting for UPS to deliver the MYFI today....

 

[slacker9876]

I actually thought the XM sounded better than the Music Choice stations.

I'm kind of excited to have XM available.

Ditto! I know that MusicChoice offers better vareity but with as little as I do listen I think the 6 hours loops will be OK

 

[srjewettlaw]

Xm sounds much bettre than MC. Also sounds a lot better than my SkyFi 1 does through the receiver.

 

[S_rangeBrew]

Being a music fan of what DirecTV has had to offer over the years, but having no experience with but hearing great things about XM radio, was greatly anticipating its intro on DirecTV.
To be honest, first impressions were a little underwhelming.
Has anybody else noticed this, or are my ears or equipment out of tune?

Your not the only one. I have a very accurate stereo hooked up to my reciever, and was always blown away by the CD-like quality of the MusicChoice channels. This is not the case with XM so far.


Opieant posts:

Heh, I guess this thread is a testament to how awful XM's sound quality really is.

Overnight, DirecTV dropped the bitrate of most of their music channels from 256kbps (MP2, which sounds similar to 192kbps MP3s) to 192kbps (MP2, so now it sounds like 128kbps MP3s). Not surprisingly, there was a drastic drop in audio quality when everyone woke up to the XM channels.

For any "audiophile"-types interested in hearing the difference, I have a recording of the Radiohead song "Idioteque" on channel 817 this morning at 4:48AM EST. After about 50 seconds parts of the song become tinny and distored, and this is precisely where the bitrate was changed (use EncSpot or a similar program to see this).

I was hoping to find others upset about the drastic drop in quality on DirecTV so that we could encourage them to boost it back up, but it looks like I might be on my own.

Believe me, those XM channels can sound even better if DirecTV just gets their act together .

Greg

:shocked

PS: There were some links in there, but I can't put URLs in yet, since I'm a newbie.. anyway, I got this info off of xmfan.com forums.

 

[ken_kimg]

Thanks for this feedback and info, rangeBrew, very interesting... Having no experience with XM thru a dedicated receiver, was wondering if DirecTV was responsible for the quality drop. You just confirmed it. (But it seems like a lot of people didn't even notice the change...the woes of having a discriminating ear).
One other thing...besides the distortion due to lower bitrate, have you noticed some of the music comes across 'compressed', i.e., some pumping of the bass and minimal dynamic range? Not sure if that 'processing' has anything to do with saving bits, or if it's like that on the pure XM feeds... just wondering.

In any event, i'll vent my dissatisfaction to the DirecTV customer retention number, and tell them i'm exploring other services due to this turn of events (the number, btw, in case anybody's interested in doing the same, is... 800-824-9081. You get to talk to a live person instead of wading thru a maze of menus).

Actually this isn't surprising...D's hurting for bits at the moment, maxed out on its legacy satellites from what i hear. They stole some bits out of the XM stations to squeeze in another home shopping station i'm sure...

 

[Madtown HD Junkie]

Have XM in one vehicle and was anxious to have it replace MC....Still happy it is here but the volume seems to vary dramatically from song to song. Clarity seems ok. Also need to add more info to the song....i get more on my car's receiver than i do on tv.