abwc

Does anyone else find that the sound quality of SIRIUS Satellite Radio is, contrary to advertising, nothing close to CD-Quality ?

On the contrary, I find that it sounds more like a bad (64K) mp3, and nowhere near as smooth as FM.

I have badgered the folks at SIRIUS about this, and they are all clueless.

Is it my (factory) deck, or is this The Emporer's New Satellite Radio ?

Fluffhead

When I rented a Mustang with Sirius it sounded a lot better then in my S4 and RS4.

Reggie

XM is suppose to have better techical specs.

abwc

...but by the time my order slot was picked up by Audi, XM was not longer being offered as an option, only SIRIUS...

I originally placed the order with SIRIUS, because I heard that "some people" think the sound quality is better.

Then I later heard that SIRIUS was going to be deleted and only XM was going to be available.

So I called the dealer and switched my order to XM, to avoid potential order approval delays in having the wrong choice on the order.

Then when the car came a couple weeks ago, it had SIRIUS, and the dealer said that XM was the one being deleted afterall...

abwc

...and if the stand-alone receiver actually supports this "CD-Quality" claim, then I suppose I'm quite sure we'll have to create a stir with Audi and get them to justify the $1000 option !

SIRIUS TSB debacle, anyone ?

Parikh1234

I dont care what they say. They dont have enough bandwidth to stream uncompressed audio.

abwc

...but after listening to this radio service for 20 minutes or so, and then turning off the radio and listening to the quiet, my ears ring as if I had bad tinitus (I don't).

At this point, I'd prefer to listen to FM.

That would be OK, if I hadn't dropped $1000 on the "Premium Sound" system, expressly for the promise of [near]-CD-Quality Satellite Radio...

Parikh1234

Also whats your definition of "near?" I mean its better than a 32 kbps mp3.

larryV

for some reason, the sound processing of the stock bose system does a miserable job with the compression of Sirius sat radio. Despite the compression, Sirius sounds remarkably well in my E60 M5's stock H-K logic7 system while it sounds like absolute crap in the RS4. Once I mess around with the sound and DSP settings on the bimmer, the Sirius gets pretty close to CD sound to my non-audiophile ears. In the Audi, it sounds like **** no matter what I do. Oh well, at least the music from the under the hood makes up for it.

sparkhill

The H-K in BMW and Range Rover are far superior to the Bose. Still not a reason to trade in my RS4 though.