16thgreen

Is there a difference in sound quality between a Porsche OE Bose and one with aftermarket satellite radio added? My ‘09CTTS doesn’t have OE, but the previous owner had it added very professionally. When I bought the car his subscription remained intact for a few weeks but I was never all that impressed with the sound quality so I let it expire.

I have other cars with factory satellite and they don’t impress all that much either when compared to FM or CD. But I'm wondering, does anybody know if there is a quality drop-off on aftermarket installations, maybe due to having to tune to a neutral channel… do you get signal interference or cross-over from using another radio channel?

16thgreen

This is probably asking for it… but I really figured with all the insightful opinionated Porsche owning snobs on this forum (of which I’m one); someone here would have encountered this comparison? Granted Cayenne OE systems are not mind blowing sound reproducing engines in the base case, but surely there must be an audiophile here that could enlighten this poor snob.

JAGMAN1

Satellite radio is a low bandwidth signal. It's worse than regular fm in most cases. Most folks don't listen with level of detail. I've found that the better the audio system home or auto, the worse satellite radio sounds. I think the nicer audio systems reveal the low sampling rate.

If you can't tell, I've never liked it for music, but I do see its utility on long distance driving and for talk radio that is not impacted by mediocre sound quality.

mudman2

i think mine sounds good. Mind you I might be biased because I refuse to listen to any channel with adds so I don't even know what FM woulds like anymore

mx22

Had satellite radio on my Audi and it sounded much worse then either FM or CDs/mp3s.

touareg

Back when sirius and XM where separate and new, they had few channels and allocated higher bit rates (more bandwidth) and had better quality.

In order to be more competitive and get more channels they had to decrease the bit rate.

I only listen to EDM mostly, some alternative. The do give a little more bandwidth to some stations, like the dance stations like BPM, I think, otherwise all the bass is stripped.

If I remember the SiriusXM bit rate is variable from 4 to 64 Kbps, compared to MP3 which typically is 128-192kbps, with audio speech usually being 64kbps.

256Kbps or higher is best for dance and jazz or other music that is full range.

A CD is 1,411Kbps, so blows everything else away, I do remember Madonna once stating MP3s will not be a threat to her industry as who would want to listen to low bit rate music if they are serious about it

So to answer your question, it is really SirusXM, instead of having quality programing they take the stance of, It is quantity over quality, not the system.

I have found turning down the treble and turning up the bass masks the over compressed tiny sound you get....

I only had it for 6 months and couldn't stand the quality. Personally, even at the discount rates of 9 or so bux a month, I don't think it would be worth it to me till it was $2.99 or less.

endless_corners

Here is the thing. Let's pretend we have a 4500x3000 pixel image that is uncompressed. It may be like 40mb as an uncompressed tiff. Save it as a jpg at 90% quality (which is high) and it's 4mb. So thats a 90% reduction in size. If you zoom in you will find it near impossible to spot artifacting from the JPEG compression at that quality level. 256-320kbps mp3 audio is like that. It is nearly indistinguishable from Raw cd quality. But once you dip below that level artifacting starts to creep in.

Also madonna is silly because cd audio still clips some of the signal out.

touareg

Agreed!

I was just techno rambling and trying to slam SiriusXM at the same time, they really provide nothing over FM radio for my use and cost money to boot I did want them at first for BPM, but even that had bad programming.

And the comment about Madonna is how people can sometimes completely miss a trend and how the music industry decides what we like en mass!

mudman2

So long as I can listen to Howard I don't mind

touareg

I didn't have that tier, totally getting off topic, but yes, unique programing I think will be their future.

I was never clear what their strategy was, at first it was digital clear sound, but they have butchered that, also no ads, but that is not true.

Also the fact that I am only in my car 2 hours a day, would be nice if I could go online and switch between units or something would make it a better product (listen outside the car, etc)

Suppose a portable unit would suffice!

mudman2

I have a it on my computers / iPad and a portable in the office on wifi hooked up to my office system.

touareg

Did you have to pay extra for the ipad/office connection?

mudman2

just the internet add-on, 1 device at a time

16thgreen

I do appreciate your help gentleman… this confirms what I suspected; bit-rate thru SiriusXM service is significantly less than FM and CD. Another great idea compromised for mass market consumption… a shame. I live in the Bay Area; radio reception here is commensurate with the fabulous topography – up and down.

mudman2

its not horrible tho