Hello,
Do you have a subscription to SiriusXM Satellite Radio for your car? Do you have one inside your home? If so, then you probably know that the audio quality of the SATELITE BROADCAST (not the online streaming) is terrible!
And I think the reason behind that, is that the satellite up in space has to broadcast 100s of channels simultaneously; which means each channel gets only a small amount of the broadband signal, thus degrading its quality. It's like listening to music on cheap plastic speakers - muffled, weirdly sibilant, and distorted.
So why am I here talking about crappy sounding audio? Well, just recently, I set up a neat little stereo outside on my newly-constructed (I did all the work myself, pats shoulder on the back) pergola. It consists of a modded-to-sound-lightyears-better LEPAI 2020A+ Tripath amp, a cute little bluetooth streaming DAC, and a pair of Yamaha outdoor speakers. The speakers create this fantastically huge soundstage that covers the whole area beneath the pergola. I use my phone's SXM streaming APP in conjunction with bluetooth. I was shocked at how great it sounded. Yacht Rock never sounded so good. I installed a shade sail just above attached to the pergola itself. I feel like I'm sailing on the high seas! Cheeseburgers in paradise!
A question started forming inside my brain: Why does this SXM radio's audio sound better than what I've heard elsewhere?
And of course the answer is pretty obvious: The audio quality of SXM Radio's streaming service is far, far better than its satellite radio broadcasts. Think about it. I mean, the highspeed broadband capabilities of the Internet nowadays are amazing - steaming Netflix at 4K? Yeah.
Just think of SXM music streaming as just another music streaming service like Spotify and the difference between it and the SXM satellite broadcasts becomes clear, in a way. They are two totally different technologies.
So the next thing I did was set up the SiriusXM streaming service on my reference system: PC>>>Nice external DAC>>>Preamp>>>Amp>>>Speakers
Then I clicked on SXM channel 67 - REAL JAZZ. BOOM! Now I cannot stop listening!
Jazz recorded live. We hi-fi enthusiasts know what that sounds like. The sense of space, the sense that the quartet (or whoever) is playing inside an enclosed space. The reverb, the distance between the musicians, the depth, all that comes through, and comes through quite well.
It comes through quite well on lowly old SXM streaming channel 67 - REAL JAZZ!
The music is good, the DJs are very knowledgeable, just what you'd expect from SXM, if you're a fan like me
Could someone here with a DAC that displays the bit depth and resolution of streaming music please run SXM Internet radio through their system to discover what the audio quality truly is?
You'd have to set the streaming quality to MAX. That's what I use of course.
Do you have a subscription to SiriusXM Satellite Radio for your car? Do you have one inside your home? If so, then you probably know that the audio quality of the SATELITE BROADCAST (not the online streaming) is terrible!
And I think the reason behind that, is that the satellite up in space has to broadcast 100s of channels simultaneously; which means each channel gets only a small amount of the broadband signal, thus degrading its quality. It's like listening to music on cheap plastic speakers - muffled, weirdly sibilant, and distorted.
So why am I here talking about crappy sounding audio? Well, just recently, I set up a neat little stereo outside on my newly-constructed (I did all the work myself, pats shoulder on the back) pergola. It consists of a modded-to-sound-lightyears-better LEPAI 2020A+ Tripath amp, a cute little bluetooth streaming DAC, and a pair of Yamaha outdoor speakers. The speakers create this fantastically huge soundstage that covers the whole area beneath the pergola. I use my phone's SXM streaming APP in conjunction with bluetooth. I was shocked at how great it sounded. Yacht Rock never sounded so good. I installed a shade sail just above attached to the pergola itself. I feel like I'm sailing on the high seas! Cheeseburgers in paradise!
A question started forming inside my brain: Why does this SXM radio's audio sound better than what I've heard elsewhere?
And of course the answer is pretty obvious: The audio quality of SXM Radio's streaming service is far, far better than its satellite radio broadcasts. Think about it. I mean, the highspeed broadband capabilities of the Internet nowadays are amazing - steaming Netflix at 4K? Yeah.
Just think of SXM music streaming as just another music streaming service like Spotify and the difference between it and the SXM satellite broadcasts becomes clear, in a way. They are two totally different technologies.
So the next thing I did was set up the SiriusXM streaming service on my reference system: PC>>>Nice external DAC>>>Preamp>>>Amp>>>Speakers
Then I clicked on SXM channel 67 - REAL JAZZ. BOOM! Now I cannot stop listening!
Jazz recorded live. We hi-fi enthusiasts know what that sounds like. The sense of space, the sense that the quartet (or whoever) is playing inside an enclosed space. The reverb, the distance between the musicians, the depth, all that comes through, and comes through quite well.
It comes through quite well on lowly old SXM streaming channel 67 - REAL JAZZ!
The music is good, the DJs are very knowledgeable, just what you'd expect from SXM, if you're a fan like me
Could someone here with a DAC that displays the bit depth and resolution of streaming music please run SXM Internet radio through their system to discover what the audio quality truly is?
You'd have to set the streaming quality to MAX. That's what I use of course.
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