XM Distortion / talk radio / play by play

Hello everyone

In the last few days, I've noticed a consistant distortion while listening to XM radio - any speech has a familier RING overtone/harmonic to it. It happens on ESPN, all the NHL play by play channels and CNN. Obviously it may be there for the music stations, but I'm not hearing it on those channels.

I can only imagine the XM head unit (behind the back seat - factory RTL install) may have a level-out adjustment and it is too high? It sounds like a semi-conductor amp being slightly over-driven but I would expect that to be present in music as well.

I don't have any spoken word audio handy, but I will get some to listen to on CD. Which, by the way, is MUCH louder than any other source on the stereo - I usually listen at 10 or so, but CD's get played around 5 or 6, they are much much louder.

Anyone have ideas? Is there a level control on the XM box?

I have not noticed the distortion, but I can tell you there are no adjustments on the XM module in the Ridgeline. Sorry.

-Joe

Question: How has the weather been in your area since you started hearing this distortion?
I have noticed that on heavy cloudy days, my satellite radio reception is not as good as on clear days:confused: . I guess it could interfere with the antenna reception(?). Just like on satellite TV.

What you are hearing is the effects of higher digital compression in the XM signal on the non-music stations. XM has limited bandwidth with which to transmit all of it's content, so they compress the talk channels down more to allow more room for better sound quality for the music channels. There's nothing you can do with your radio to "fix" it. There is plenty of talk on this and all other satellite radio issues on http://www.xmfan.com

What you are hearing is the effects of higher digital compression in the XM signal on the non-music stations. XM has limited bandwidth with which to transmit all of it's content, so they compress the talk channels down more to allow more room for better sound quality for the music channels. There's nothing you can do with your radio to "fix" it. There is plenty of talk on this and all other satellite radio issues on http://www.xmfan.com

Ahhhhhhh.... thanks for that answer, Blue Leader, thats very interesting! I wish there was an EQ to compensate for this - turning down the trebble of course helps a little, but, with snow tires, there is alot of bass noise from the truck itself now. (plus the pitter-skitter of steel studs.)

I will resume my sadness at XM then. One of the only reasons for me to keep it is to listen to the NHL games I miss when I'm on the road and if its going to sound like every game is happening at the other end of a sewer pipe, I'm going to be sad.

You know, thinking about it, it doesn't happen on thier ads - they must dynamicly allocate bandwidth so thier adds sound better than the regular programming.

I have the same issue using the Roady XT - Thanks for the info ! I was on edge about it. :D

XM (and Sirius) are not really high fidelity systems. They compress the signal - much like MP3. And their compression is considered aggressive. You may already know MP3 sound quality varies widely depending on the bit rate.

What XM does is the same as DirectTV - some channels get less bandwidth than others. Only so many bits per second available.....

I was dissappointed by the compression artifacts and ringing. The least they could do is 96kb and have decent quality. Not even good as FM radio.