This is kind of an odd problem: I installed a Pioneer/Premiere DEH-P8MP tuner in my C5. Radio sounds great. iPod? Awesome. CD's are beautiful...but XM? Kind of muddy. I listen to the decade channels mostly (60's, 70's, 80's) and Jazz, some Techno. I notice this problem more with the decade channels, but they could all sound much crisper.
EQ is EQ, and since there are no separate EQ settings for each source, I can only assume it isn't the head unit.
Is this a function of the antenna or the way XM itself trasmits. I've already consulted the owners manual with no success.
I think its the compression they use on some stations. I notice the same thing on my xm tuner in my truck goinf to my AVIC Z1 as well as my wifes factory xm in her cadillac.
Ya XM quality is variable. On some stations the music sounds pretty good, others not so good.
I listen to rock/metal, so I listen to 42 or 48 most often, and those channels sound awful. I think music like that, with a lot of loudness and so forth tends to get a lot more compressed than the lighter music that is less "noisy."
If it were your system, CDs would sound equally as bad, but I'm assuming it's just the XM.
I went on a tour of the studio and they have stations that rip cd's to some compressed format for storage, so who knows what kind of quality control they have.
Yes. My iPod is GREAT to listen to, so I didn't think it was the head unit. The Jazz station sounds pretty good too.
I'm not bitching too loudly tho...I get XM for free
I like 71 (watercolors) for the pure enjoyment of listening to the entire frequency range of my system. I find the music robust enough for setting up time delay and crossover slope settings.
I work out of my company car and the only thing I have found my XM to be good for is sport talk radio and the comedy channels, the music channels just stink.
Corvette Store
Muddy Sound from XM?
I like 71 (watercolors) for the pure enjoyment of listening to the entire frequency range of my system. I find the music robust enough for setting up time delay and crossover slope settings.
