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Recording XM/Sirius Live broadcasts

I was lucky enough to catch the start of Ann Hampton Callaway at Dizzy's last night on XM/Sirius. I get the feed through my Direct TV connection. I missed the start but recorded the bulk of the concert on my Crown CX844. This was not a live recording but a broadcast of a taped concert. My recording was really good as the signal is processed through my dac. The sound quality was better than the best cd's and vinyl.

The concert is being rebroadcast on Sunday and there is a Live at Lincoln Center concert tonight that I will tape. I use quantegy GP9 which works great on my RTR's.

Seems like Sirius on Direct TV upgraded their signal since the capital infusion took place. For a while there the sound quality suffered but now I think I will start recording these concerts. Live music is the best and when captured on a good RTR there's nothing better.
wavetrader
mumbles
83 posts
 
Thanks for the heads up I'll check it out tonight. jazz station?

Now that you mention it, Ive been really disappointed with the xm channels on DTV, and so hardly ever surf that direction. The XM channels sounded like crap compared to my cheap Yamaha T-33 tuner with no antenna.
But your right, this morning xm does sound better. Is it XM or are we just more relaxed and more ready to listen on the weekend mornings?
wavetrader OP
260 posts
 
Mumbles,

On the DTV its channel 850,on XM it's 70 I beleive. My dac upsamples the signal now which it did not do for a period of time. Last nights broadcast was super, really glad to see Sirius/XM team up with the owner of DTV. Now only if they can have the same stations as Dish.Geesh you would think now that DTV owns Sirius that someone would wake up!

My system to listen to the sattelite consists of a Hughes HD reciever and I use a Nordost optical cable and a quality video cable from the coax connection all fed to my dac. On everyday listening most stations produce a close to CD quality if not as good. The live broadcasts are a step up,just fun to listen to.
mumbles
83 posts
 
My recording was really good as the signal is processed through my dac. The sound quality was better than the best cd's and vinyl.

Thanks for an excuse to have a lazy Saturday morning testing this theory.
I've got 3 cd spinners, a tuner and XM channels on dtv-hd dvr gear all running at the same time to a ConradJohnson Met1 6 channel preamp. With a flick of the cj remote I switch between sources..
and Im gonna have to agree the line is getting blurry they all sound amazing.
The hd-dvr recordings look and sound really good, XM now waaay better, but my tuner is richer and the spinners, Primaluna8, Pioneer Bluray fd-05, Denon 5900 sacd all seem to have more depth. Not real good at describing what I hear, but I know what I like and DTV thru my CJs ARM into 5.1 is now a contender.
finthen
12 posts
 
Agreed!
Dish Network subscriber here which has carried Sirius for years, at some low rate bit rate, which never passed my listening tests. Treble was tiring, and just a mess overall...

However, on a whim I recently decided to give it a whirl again, optical I/C, upsampled from 20/48 to 24/384 thru my CambridgeAudio - 740c thru the Meier Corda Opera headamp AKG-701s, Beyerdynamics DT-990('05e)'s, and/or Denons AH-D2000s and I was shocked to find, indeed this signal is as good and betters some of my CDs. Shocked I tell ya, although very pleasntly so, as you might imagine readers, or know by experience (OP)!

I mention my assortment of referance headphones,as being most suceptible to a nasty signal; But even the 990s with their very extended treble sing very nicely indeed on cymbal brushes thru to articulate lower octives too, etc.

Just wanted to confirm your findings for the readership, 'cause their skeptical first readings now need to be tested before typing that with which I too agreed with from previous experience.

Quite unbelievable, but it's true. Sirius/XM upsampled is very good listening now!

Enjoy the tunes ~
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