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Sirrus sounds horrible

2K views 20 replies 15 participants last post by  Stealth.Pilot 
#1 ·
BMW should be ashamed of themselves with these audio packages I have the "premium sound, the best they offered in2012, the bass is inadequate to say the least or the most and the sirrus sounds like its in a bottle, never had it before always had xm. So I called sirrus, had them do checks then I took car to the dealer and tech said he never noticed it until I switched from fm or iPod. We went to a vehicle to compare and the only one we could fine had the regular system and it sounded worst. What gives?
 
#3 ·
Satellite radio always sounds worse than anything no matter the audio system. Hd radio and cd is much better especially cd obviously. In my jag I had a bower and wilkins system and it still sounded not so great, in the x5 I have the dirac live and it's the same.
 
#4 ·
Try adjusting the equalizer

You might turn off the "surround" mode to minimize that "sounds out of a bottle".
Then, fade just a tad towards the front (rather than equally balanced).
Now adjust the equalizer bands to your taste.
Lot's of equalizer adjustment settings from other poster on this forum but I find that boosting the mid and higher range clears up things quite a bit with BMW "premium radio. The big thing about the premium radio is the integrated subwoofer and the corresponding wattage.
Not ghetto loud and deep but pretty good for the price BMW charged (compared to aftermarket) IMHO.
 
#5 ·
I've noticed this as well. Sirius is fine for talk radio but doesn't cut it for music. It may be the result of extreme compression of the digital stream. Too much information is simply being lost in transmission. Just a guess. If this is the cause, then the problem would be common to all Sirius radios, not just those in our cars. I don't know if this is the case but a quality sound system is more revealing of deficiencies in the source material and I do think the Premium system in our 5 Series cars is pretty good.
 
#6 ·
I, too, have noticed that the satellite channels are very poor in quality. There are a lot of compression artifacts which are very noticeable in the higher frequencies. Cymbals, pianos and chorale works show it up and they sound terrible.

To confirm Giants84 experience, I found the same problem in the B & W system on Jag with satellite quality. I had XM and Sirius at home for a while and it did not sound as bad in the early stages but it got worse over time, however I did find that the quality varied from channel to channel. I listen to Watercolors and some of the classical channels and they consistently sound worse than some of the more popular channels. I did hear, but this might have been hearsay, that the less popular the channel is, the more restricted the bandwidth and the more compression is therefore applied.

Bottom line is that it seems to be better to stick with your iPod/iPhone or CD if you want decent music quality. In my area the HD radio signal is a problem and the radio switches from HD to standard analogue FM and back constantly. Because there is a lag between the two signals, the effect is an echo effect which is very irritating. I turned HD off in the Jag to stop this, but have yet to discover how to do this in the BMW. BTW the HD quality is not as good as the FM signal for the radio station I listen to (in Austin, radio is appalling and I only listen to the NPR station, KUT).
 
#7 ·
In general, satellite radio sucks.

I think the only advantage is you can get a variety of music while driving from Boston to San Francisco. It ends there.

The sound quality is horrible (it's not isolated to BMW).

They tout it's commercial free but it's not.

Sirius loves to auto-renew everything and take your money.
 
#8 ·
My experience with it seems to fit into them packing too many new channels in. When xm and sirrius first came out the sound was pretty good. I had xm for years and friends had the sirrius. But over time the sound quality took a nose dive. I guess I was lucky by having some of the original radios so I was able to see the changes and not wonder if it was a new stereo causing it.

I even have some of the fm transmitting ones that they want burried :) When I run that thing every car within 1 mile can listen to my sat radio signal on their car stereos. Very popular with other drivers when your running in a caravan with people.

New ones your lucky if it works 20 feet away.
 
#9 · (Edited)
I still pay for Sirius in my 330 but didn't even bother with it for the 535 I ordered. It is great for all the news/sports stations and there is excellent variety in the amount of music offerings, it's just that the music quality has always sucked in the 10+ years I've been a customer. I also had XM in my Chevy Tahoe and it was obviously no different, quality wise.

I honestly think Pandora/etc and dedicated phone apps (for news/sports) will replace Sat radio within a few years.
 
#10 ·
I honestly think Pandora/etc and dedicated phone apps (for news/sports) will replace Sat radio within a few years.
Agreed, especially given the fact that satellite cannot even "learn" one's music preferences. Sucky sound quality + old school interface = major loser.
 
#15 ·
I bought an XM receiver the first weekend it was available in the Southern California area. It was never CD quality, but originally the quality was better than FM but worse than CD. XM even pioneered a 5.1 channel and "HD" music channels. But then things took a sirius turn for the worse when the merger happened. Inspired programming was replaced with a computer randomly picking from a given artist (e.g. Elvis, the Grateful Dead, Tom Petty). Audio quality went from bad to terrible.

What I do now is use streamripper to record my favorite internet radio stations at 128 kbps AAC. I create 100 MB files, usually 10 of them at a time. Each will play for about 100 minutes. Copy them to a usb flash drive then import into the BMW music collection. Audio quality and programming goes way up. RadioParadise.com and TSF Jazz (Paris) are two great choices. Oh, and, this is all free too. John
 
#16 ·
Great replies people, thanks. So it's sirrus not Bmw's problem? My Lexus with the mark Levenson rocked I added xm and I've been an xm customer since 2001 in many vehicles. I've never had sirrus and never have heard anything as bad as this. Real jazz and watercolors are the pits! Guess I will be saving some money soon. Oh yeah if u had an xm family plan it won't work with sirrus
 
#17 ·
Don't let Sirrus auto renew!

Like several posters already commented...Its not the radio, its Sirrus.
You'll most likely experience better sound from CD. iPods, even HD FM.
But, as BMW packages some new cars with a satellite app with a 1 year "free trial" subscription, I plan to use it but not renew when the year's up. I was sure NOT to sign up for auto renew when I activated Sirrus.
As my previous post mentioned....the premium radio is worth it (relative to the added cost) just for the integrated subwoofer and more power.
I've listened to the upgraded Lexus ML and Audi BO systems and just couldn't get my ears around the extra $2-4K+ up charge for what I was hearing....Again, maybe is Sirrus?!
 
#19 ·
forced automatic renewal?

Sorry for the Sirius misspell.
I was told by the Sirius agent that I would be prompted for a renew at the end of the trial period. Hmm...something not right here. Can you enlighten?
I certainly don't want to renew...maybe I'll just mark my iPhone calendar to call and cancel at the end of the year just to be safe.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Sorry for the Sirius misspell.
I was told by the Sirius agent that I would be prompted for a renew at the end of the trial period. Hmm...something not right here. Can you enlighten?
I certainly don't want to renew...maybe I'll just mark my iPhone calendar to call and cancel at the end of the year just to be safe.
At the end of the trial period normally they still don't have your credit card so, yes - they will ask you to renew. Once they get ahold of your credit card is all automatic renewal at the highest possible price they can charge you UNLESS you call them ahead of time to cancel. :thumbdwn:

For cancelations call: 866-523-7474 (a different number from the regular Sirius number). Use your trial period by all means, after all you paid for it when you bought the car and it wasn't free as they like to call it.
 
#21 ·
Sirius has lower bit rate than XM historically. My guess is the lowest common denominator won.

I'm listening to MP3 lossless now.
 
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