I've just hooked up my xm radio set to home stereo rig. Other digital sources and analogue sound better. How to improve XM radio audio quality - any suggestions?
If money is not an issue, get a high quality DAC such as McIntosh MDA1000. Although very expensive (around $8000), I've heard people swear that this makes any digital component sound like DVD-A.
8oclock- If you want better sound quality listen to FM (sorry, I couldn't resist that). Both satellite radio services transmit highly compressed PCM data which, when uncompressed, is inferior to CD quality (or FM) sound. If your XM tuner has a digital output you could try an outboard DAC, otherwise youre stuck with what you have (garbage in garbage out).
FM CAN be better than sattelite radio. Unfortunately, here in Houston, it is not. Leaving aside the programming issues (XM is FAR superior), the one classical station here (NPR) must use a compressor/expander because that is what I hear, not to mention the background noise that seems to be inherit in FM. I've tried the yagi/rotator/high-end tuner route. Sorry, no cigars.
The best way to improove XM's sound is to scrap half of the useless channels, and wait they are adding more! great right???? WRONG the more channels the more the signal loss, and untill they change some technology, the more they add may seem good on the surface, but those 75 channels you never listen too and never will, suck the life blood out of all channels
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