XM sounds better ?

[RMinNJ]

So I have the 2012 LT sedan with the non-mylink stereo; has XM, MP3/USB/AUX jack AM/FM, CD. Standard front speakers and rear speakers.

I'm getting Sirius XM for free for some odd reason this week. Anyway I noticed it has better bass and sounds better than even my CDs with various tone settings. Why is this this?..does the XM has some amp or something in the stereo head unit? I just wish the other music sources had bass like the XM..

 

[Breezybro]

Better quality

 

[Natesriv]

Wonder if XM is sending a different type of digital sound compared to a CD...

MP3 is a digitial compression system which removes noises you can't hear from a soundtrack, while a CD isn't usually in MP3 format...so it may be the bass is clearer since it's not muddled by a traditional digital format....

MP3 is cleaner, but to some, less true in sound...

It has to do with Fourier transforms and stuff like that which is way above my head!

 

[69 Z-28]

I heard on XM today that all old receivers have been turned on for the next couple of weeks or so. Can't remember the exact date when they will be deactivated again.

 

[Brad Ferrell]

I believe XM is 24bit. CD's are only 16bit.

 

[rodslinger]

I believe XM is 24bit. CD's are only 16bit.

A bit of term confusion. CD's are 16 bit. XM is playing on average 24k.

Generally, CD's are encoded at 44,100 samples a sec per channel with 16 bits per channel. Approx 1.4 million bits per second data rate.

In contrast, XM takes that original 1.4 mil data stream, converts it, compresses it and essentially downgrades it to somewhere between 8k and 64k per second data rate. This depends on the channel. Nowhere near the quality of an actual CD.

CD = 1.4 million bits/sec
XM = <5% of that and it sounds like it.

 

[rodslinger]

...I'm getting Sirius XM for free for some odd reason this week. Anyway I noticed it has better bass and sounds better than even my CDs with various tone settings. Why is this this?....

Probably because the bass is all that is left after they compress and degrade the signal to fit 140+ channels in 20 channels of bandwidth.

 

[cheddarlump]

XM sounds like a screaming robot with venereal disease.. If you can't hear the low bitrate artifacts while listening to XM or Sirius, you probably thought cassette tapes that were copies of copies sounded ok, and had all your VHS tapes on ultra long play mode. I'd happily pay for satellite radio if it didn't sound like crap.
No, it's not my radio, it's all of them.

 

[Stew]

On the MyLink radios the EQ settings are kept separately for each input, are your settings different for XM vs CD? I don't know if the non MyLink radio is that way too but if so that may be what's going on.

Edit: I re-read the first post and it sounds like the OP had already played around with EQ settings.