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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
wavetrader OP
260 posts
 
Finthen,

It's always nice to hear that others share the same opinion. I hope Sirius/XM continue to improve the service.

Cheers,
Wave
mumbles
83 posts
 
Well I tuned into the Ann Hampton Callaway at Dizzy's Saturday night, XM dtv channel 850.
It was an enjoyable live performance, had that small club feel, but left me wondering what someone like Eva Cassidy would have done with Stevie Nick's Landslide song.
Overall I liked it, thanks for the tip.

I also learned that I cannot record any XM stations with my dtv hd receiver.
And it bothered me that XM was sounding close to as good as my rig,especially considering I am not upsampling.
So I swapped out my powerchord on the PrimaLuna8 with a silver CrystalClearCable one and it made a huge difference in sound quality. Then I balanced the cdplayer on Dali speakers spikes and it improved dynamics even more.
So I guess my other equipment can be optimised more to widen the gap. Wonder if the dtv hd receiver can be modded.
But no doubt XM is sounding better than it used to.
wavetrader OP
260 posts
 
Mumbles,

Glad you liked it. I looked at my Hughes receiver and felt that it would not be worth it to upgrade.

I use my tube dac and the sound is very good.

As far as I can tell XM will start to produce "live" concerts towards the end of May.

I was thinking of subscribing to Sirius directly for the opera broadcasts but I haven't heard of any feedback on the quality.

I do like the Wynton Marsalis broadcasts very much.

recording these is way cool as they seem to sound even better. Now if the price of tape would drop and quantegy got back in business that would be great indeed.

Any RTR users out there that are recording these broadcasts? Just wondering.
mumbles
83 posts
 
Im so sorry for hijacking your thread Wavetrader, completely missed the RTR context, thought you were talking about dvr recording.
Man, that's quite a system you have there, no less than 4 real to reals?
I had a Teac many,,many years ago, yours look like professional studio recorders. Imagine demand for tape is low so price is high.
I can understand how upsampling an XM broadcast thru a DAC could help sound, but how does RTR playback improve on sound?
wavetrader OP
260 posts
 
"I can understand how upsampling an XM broadcast thru a DAC could help sound, but how does RTR playback improve on sound?"

Good question...some say the larger bandwith that tape provides. I just like the subtle coloration that my RTR's impart on the recording. The Crowns are closer to neutral than my Ampex and of course the tube Ampexs are known for that phatt tube sound.

This new Crown I have has been recapped so it will be interesting when recording the XM live brodcasts in May,to see how it performs. Anyway with those big meters and reels going,who cares...lol.
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