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Comment- "CD" Quality of DirectTV&DishN.

(THIS POSTED UNDER AUDIO ADVICE/ BUT I AM REPOSTING HERE AS THIS FORUM MAY BE MORE APPROPRIATE-- SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE POST) I have the "CD Quality" package with my satellite service (Dish Network), which is a bunch of "audio-only" "CD Quality" channels (no commercials and channels are separated by music type). This is a great idea, but I have found the sound quality to be horrible. Anyone else agree or disagree? What about Direct TV's audio only channels? In fact, I think that the audio accompanys the video on movie stations is better than the audio only channels, do you agree? Here is the setup, I have the digital optical output of the dish satellite box connected to a digital jitter filter, which is connected via coax to a separate D/A converter, which is connected vai balanced XLR into a high quality stereo (sonic frontiers/ Vandersteen). I thought I'd have some cool sound, but the popular stations sound thin, veiled and are virtually unlistenable. What does everyone else think?
billykid346817
hrcapers
65 posts
 
I agree 100%. I have Direct TV with a coaxial output going to an upsampler before an outboard DAC. The sound is veiled, compressed, etc. compared to CD or even FM. The dolby surround for movies is much better.
panzercat
41 posts
 
I agree - the "CD Quality" is just marketing. It tends to get slapped on any digital audio format - CD is digital, this is digital, therefore, it must be CD quality. Since the video is MPEG-2, I suppose the music stations are MP2 or MP3 format - lossy compression so you can't expect it to be much good, unless you've downgraded your standards to Napster quality.
jaguar
84 posts
 
I agree. The 'cd quality' they refer to sounds like it comes from a $125 mid-fi special from Circuit City. I only listen to my Dish Network music for background purposes only. Maybe if we consider the build quality of the satellite receiver as compared to the rest of our gear, the answer (or at least a part of the answer) could be found there. Also...of what quality is the original source reproducing the music? I posed this same question in an e-mail to Dish Network. Never received a response. I guess this we will just have to use this source of music to hear the 'new stuff' and go out and buy the cd if we like it.
marcy
34 posts
 
If you guys think the sound is bad try using the analog outs. You must take advantage of the DAC's provided in the unit. Not realizing that my dss had an optical out I initially hooked it up this way. Using an external DAC is a big improvement but still not enough to tolerate the sound.
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