Quality of Sirius XM


I recently started streaming Sirius XM in my barroom. I’ve noticed sound quality differences between my Roon DB, Pandora, Sirius XM and a few other sources. The sound quality varies quite a bit. I just assume that Sirius XM is streaming at a compressed rate. Don’t know that to be true, though. Not sure if the satellite feed sound quality is different than what is streaming over the internet. 

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks in advance. 

pgaulke60

Sirius/XM uses lossy compression and it will sound that way no matter how you listen. However, it's possible to get better sound from the stream than the satellites. I use an iPad to stream at home and use its digital out into a Bryston BDA-3.

If you stream, check your app's settings for XM. On the iPad, there are three levels of quality. Obviously guys like us want the highest quality.