Rep Power: 812

well i wanted to try it out so went and bought the alpine ai-net tuner and antenna. mounted the box in the console below the ebrake and put the antenna on the roof. Overall i'd say the quality is just like XM--sucky. It sounds like a bad mp3 with too much distorted bass and treble. I had to adjust accordingly and now it sounds okay but not nearly as good as fm radio. anyway, since i spent all the install time, i figure i'll just keep it for now. there are some good stations and i'm looking forward to howard. its just too bad the quality of music is so terrible. I got the equipment for $90 after rebate and paid $30 for activation and first month. I don't see myself using it for more than a year. even now i'm constantly switching channels.

here is the install. I routed the antenna cable under the side molding. Very easy and just requires pulling it up with a key or something to stuff the cable underneath. antenna is magnetic which is nice, and I had to make a hole in the trunk where the molding goes around and put silicon to seal it. otherwise the wire would get bent putting the molding back. then i put the unit in the console.

 
Rep Power: 312

I'm not really surprised, thats why i havnt gotten it yet, pics of the install?

 
Rep Power: 812

maybe tomorrow. the box is just under the center console where that pocket is. and the antenna is clean above the rear windshield. i just wish the quality is better. when i switch from sirius to cd, its like going from a pocket radio to a movie theater.

 
Rep Power: 312

wow, it's that bad? i didn't think it would be like listening to a clock radio, is it worse than fm?

 
Rep Power: 0

Ive had no prob with sound quality, but ive heard alot of complaints, Mines hard wired into the back of my kenwood deck, I know the FM mod sucks and I will NEVER use one of those for anything. I use my Sportster replay in the house too and even have the boombox, qualitys great for me but the boombox speakers suck and could be better, but again I love the service and the sound i get.

 
Rep Power: 0

I have Xm in my civic. I have also experienced that bad quaility you described. I tried everything also. Then one day I saw that the volume output on the unit itself was at maximum level. This is what was causing the interference and bad quality.

Turn the volume on the unit itself down and the volume on the radio up, thats what I did and mine sounds like a CD now. This could be your problem. Granted, there are some spots that it gets fuzzy and it has its bad days, but overall its awesome.

Picture sucks I know! I hate winter, look at those floor mats!

 
Rep Power: 0

I also routed the antenna from under the dash, through the door molding, under the back seat and into the trunk. I have it mounted in the middle, lining up with the H emblem. Its mounted where the glass touches the trunk.

Take a close look in this picture, its on the trunk, lil black speck. This is the easiest way to mount it, and it looks nice. I wasnt up to pulling up my weather stripping to roof mount it.

 
Rep Power: 812

yes it is worse than fm and no its not a gain issue. my receiver has no controls on it, all i do is adjust from the hu. Don't get me wrong its not terrible but the alpine also has a great fm tuner on it. I think I just have a good ear or something. the sound is just really blah like you have earplugs on. I'll post pics of the roof mount. it was very easy just run it under the weather strips that you don't even pull out. all i had to do was cut a small hole in the metal so it doesn't get bent going under the rubber piece. oh btw nice interior pic up there.

 
Rep Power: 312

yea, i figure i'll prolly hear the difference too, but i can hear the diffference between bitrates from 192 to 256 too......sometimes it's a bad thing to be a sound engineer

 
Rep Power: 812

okay i just played a 192kbps mp3 and to me that sounds like cd quality. then i encoded the same song at 64kbps and it still sounded pretty good to me. So I went lower and I think sirius and xm sound similar to a 48kbps mp3.

 
Rep Power: 312

good god, i would literally go insane listening to something like that....

 
Rep Power: 812

ya it hurts my ears to turn it up even tho when a good song comes on i sometimes have to. i had to turn down the treble to -4 because it was literally piercing my ears. and i left the bass at 0 otherwise it gets really boomy and you have the ear problem again. so where it is now is pretty good you just can't turn it up and it doesn't sound crisp like a cd does.

 
Rep Power: 312

so basically you force it to sound good, then you put a cd on and it's so over-eq'd you want to shoot yourself....yea, never getting sirius

 
Rep Power: 812

the best part is my alpine has two saved bass/treble adjustments so when i switch to cd it already has the saved +4 bass and -4 treble. unfortunately the fm/sirius both use the same setting so if i wanna listen to better quality fm i need to adjust it again. the difference is amazing when i'm listening to sirius and then i press the cd button i'm like omg is this the same stereo system? i can't believe other people i talked to say there is no difference. you gotta be deaf not to hear it.

 
Rep Power: 312

also gotta consider that we dont have your average systems, if you have crappy speakers, deck, and wiring (like we dont) then it's hard to decifier crap from crap.

 
Rep Power: 812

look at my setup tho some cheapo infinity speakers, a tiny 25wx4 amp, and alpine deck. true its better than stock by a long shot, but i remember when everything was stock it still sounded acceptable (not good but okay to listen to). its such false advertising for them to say near cd quality sound.

 
Rep Power: 312

that's why i'm just gonna build my pc in my car, so much easier, no monthly fee and sounds better than a cd lol

 
Rep Power: 0

i had sirius for about 3 months well that is how long the receiver lasted, it just stopped working and a few times a day it wouldnt pick up any stations. and i did sit there and go back and forth between channels nothing really good on there. i would rather just download the music i want to hear than pay for a bunch of crap i wont listen too.

 
Rep Power: 0

Trust me the remote is always in my hand on my XM. I have my presets 1-9. Favorite channel is top 20 and BPM club music.

But I really am surprised that your quality is that bad. It beats me.

Maybe tomorrow Ill post a video of teh car with it playing. Im sure its not my ears tellin me its ok, but it really sounds good to me. Ill let you decipher and the ppl on the board.

Maybe then we could tell if you have like bionic ears or smthng, lol.

 
Rep Power: 812

when i had my pioneer deck, the xm receiver only lasted 2 weeks! i was pissed. i hope this one lasts longer.

 
Rep Power: 317

I have been using Sirius for 6 months, and just like XM, the quality does suck. Its average bitrate for music is in the 48-64kbps range, in other words, pathetic. But thats what you get with 100+ stations, quantity over quality. I mainly listen to the 2 comedy stations, and a few of the music stations (the 80's, Top 40, Hip-Hop Nation), and I guess I'll try and listen to Howard Stern also. I used it the most during a long trip I took to Canada this summer, during that time, it was a life saver.
I think XM/Sirius sucks the most when you have GOOD gear, practically anything more than stock. The better your stuff, the worse this programming sounds. I still can't believe its starting to make way into home audio receivers costing $1000+ dollars, some even $2000+. I can't imagine listening to Sirius on my $2000 B&W speakers, I wouldn't be surprised if they broke because of the horrid sound, lol.
All you have to realize that its not the quality of the sound, but the quality of the programming that makes satelite radio what it is. If you like the stations (or do they call them channels?) and can get past the crap sound, satelite radio is for you.

 
Rep Power: 0

i'm getting scared cause i just bought a clarion sirius tuner.. maybe the quality has something to do with were you live?

 
Rep Power: 812

i don't even like the stations much i constantly change the channel trying to find something. and no doesn't matter where you are because there are satellites in space broadcasting the signal (unless you live under a bridge).

 
Rep Power: 0

I have it and its not that bad for me. I have a kenwood x679 and that sirius box that plugs into the cd changer port. It is lacking a bit in the highs(compared to cd's) but it still is great and like slick said its all the channels you could want. Plus you can go any where road trip style and the channels are right there with you never have to find and program crap from another town again. Btw I have a seperate unit for the house with an external antenna mounted to my directtv mast and it helped a bunch.

 
Rep Power: 319

i know i had xm in my elantra, but for some reason it would whine when at idol and get louder as I accelerate. Best buy kept sayin it was a bad ground so i went to another shop and they said its a bad box so i just gave up

 
Rep Power: 812

bump for pics

 
Rep Power: 0

^^if you want i can post some!

 
Rep Power: 0

I had xm for one week & sold it. I got tired of the bad sound quality, price, and crappy content (seems like different DJs on the same channel had HUGE taste differences)

 
Rep Power: 812

ugh the electronica channel is horrible after listening to di.fm for so long. i feel like i'm already tired of it and when does howard start cause i've never heard him yet. all they play on hitz is eminem and rap. and most of the other channels suck. i thought it would be music i've heard of before at least but so far i found a few old songs that i could easily burn to a cd from my comp. this is frustrating at least play popular songs.

 
Rep Power: 0

Well the whole point of sat radio is to play all kinds of music, different things, **** youy havent heard of in 10 years. Its not supposed to be mainstream like regualr radio stations such as z100 n stuff.

Use a top 20 or 40 channel If you want the hits tho, thats what I do sometimes...