Hi, I just got this '08 Impala with XM. I have to say, I am quite surprised at how good the audio is on channels like Watercolors(smooth jazz), High Standards(Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sara Vaughn, etc.), Cinemagic(soundtracks), Real Jazz, etc.

I also just got a Yamaha receiver that is XM ready. Can anybody tell me if the XM on a receiver is as good quality as in a car? The incredible amount of content is very appealing to have in the house as well.

Thanks much for any input.

my pioneer 84 sounds just fine---i think you will find the sound compatiable

my pioneer 84 sounds just fine---i think you will find the sound compatiable

Thanks for the reply. After reading the entire "XM and Sirius audio quality" thread, and the numerous complaints about dreadful compression and sound quality with XM as well as Sirius, I am a bit hesitant to invest in the equipment and monthly charge to add XM to my home reciever.

Thanks for the reply. After reading the entire "XM and Sirius audio quality" thread, and the numerous complaints about dreadful compression and sound quality with XM as well as Sirius, I am a bit hesitant to invest in the equipment and monthly charge to add XM to my home reciever.

The content is great for background party music but not so good for real listening at home. Why don't you just connect your PC to your receiver and stream XM off of their website? It's free with the subscription, you can do it for the cost of a digital or analog cable set.

The content is great for background party music but not so good for real listening at home. Why don't you just connect your PC to your receiver and stream XM off of their website? It's free with the subscription, you can do it for the cost of a digital or analog cable set.

Hey, thanks for that tip.

I guess I could use my HP Presario R3000 laptop, which sits fairly close to the reciever. How would I connect to my Sony DA4ES receiver? I see it has a RS232C connector, but looking at the owner's manual, I don't see anything about recieving audio via that route.

Other than that, would run a cable from the headphone output of the laptop?

Thanks much.

Hey, thanks for that tip.

I guess I could use my HP Presario R3000 laptop, which sits fairly close to the reciever. How would I connect to my Sony DA4ES receiver? I see it has a RS232C connector, but looking at the owner's manual, I don't see anything about recieving audio via that route.

Other than that, would run a cable from the headphone output of the laptop?

Thanks much.

For a laptop, headphone out to RCA jacks into your receiver AUX inputs is the easiest way to go. The bottleneck is the low bit rate stream so going any fancier with an off-board sound card will not buy you anything.

This looks interesting:

http://www.jrrshop.com/maudio-transit-portable-soundcard-p-1037.html?osCsid=83007d5acf911cd67eae476cd796bc25

I may be able to run an optical digital cable to the receiver for decoding.

Link is not working for me....

Link is not working for me....

Not working for me either, right now. It worked earlier this evening, though. Hmm...maybe it will work later on. Looks like the whole site may be down.

Here is the text description of the gizmo from the website:

M-Audio Transit Portable Soundcard
[transit] $79.00USD



Click to enlarge
Hi-Resolution Mobile Audio Upgrade

Small enough to fit in your pocket, Transit brings hi-resolution 24-bit/96kHz recording and playback to any USB-compatible computer. Digital I/O lets you transfer pristine audio between your computer and other devices such as MiniDisc and DAT. The digital output can deliver AC3 and DTS from your computer to an external decoder such as a surround receiver. And the bus-powered design allows you play and record virtually anywhere your laptop can go. Transit is your ticket to ride.

mobile 24-bit/96kHz USB audio upgrade
1/8” stereo analog/optical digital input
1/8” stereo line/headphone output
TOSlink optical digital output allows AC3 and DTS pass-through
line/optical input accommodates self-powered stereo microphones
includes 3.5mm (male) to TOSlink (female) adapter

Link works now, thanks!

Well, I got this Soundblaster Live 24bit external sound card for Christmas:

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=206&product=10702

I installed it and connected an optical cable to my Sony receiver.

Now streaming XM on the web and the Sony is decoding the signal.

Strangely, the Sony display is indicating:
STREAM=PCM 24BITS (48kHz) BITRATE=2304kbps FS=48kHz

How can this be? Surely XM doesn't stream at that rate?

On the down side, the music is constantly cutting out intermittently every few seconds, then comes back. I noticed this the other day listening on the computer, before I got the Soundblaster, so it doesn't have anything to do with the card.

Well, I got this Soundblaster Live 24bit external sound card for Christmas:

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=206&product=10702

I installed it and connected an optical cable to my Sony receiver.

Now streaming XM on the web and the Sony is decoding the signal.

Strangely, the Sony display is indicating:
STREAM=PCM 24BITS (48kHz) BITRATE=2304kbps FS=48kHz

How can this be? Surely XM doesn't stream at that rate?

On the down side, the music is constantly cutting out intermittently every few seconds, then comes back. I noticed this the other day listening on the computer, before I got the Soundblaster, so it doesn't have anything to do with the card.

Another note with respect to the cutting out of the audio, I have 10mbps internet service through Suddenlink cable. So, I don't see how I should have a bandwidth problem. I have run several different internet speed tests and confirmed the speed at 7mbps on this computer.

Now streaming XM on the web and the Sony is decoding the signal.
Strangely, the Sony display is indicating:
STREAM=PCM 24BITS (48kHz) BITRATE=2304kbps FS=48kHz

XM is streaming a highly compressed lossy stream (originally 16-bit 44.1KHz) which is being decoded by your CPU. Then, this gets put through a software mixer and gets upconverted to 24-bit 48Khz. Finally, it gets output from your (deceptively marketed) sound card. The stream is ptu into an uncompressed form before it reaches the audio mixer/hardware driver.

XM is streaming a highly compressed lossy stream (originally 16-bit 44.1KHz) which is being decoded by your CPU. Then, this gets put through a software mixer and gets upconverted to 24-bit 48Khz. Finally, it gets output from your (deceptively marketed) sound card. The stream is ptu into an uncompressed form before it reaches the audio mixer/hardware driver.

Thanks for the info.

BTW, I also put a CD in the laptop, and listened to it via the Soundblaster connection(optical cable) to receiver. Sounds pretty good to me, as good as it does with my Oppo universal player connected via coaxial digital cable.

Well, I got this Soundblaster Live 24bit external sound card for Christmas:

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=206&product=10702

I installed it and connected an optical cable to my Sony receiver.

Now streaming XM on the web and the Sony is decoding the signal.

Strangely, the Sony display is indicating:
STREAM=PCM 24BITS (48kHz) BITRATE=2304kbps FS=48kHz

How can this be? Surely XM doesn't stream at that rate?

On the down side, the music is constantly cutting out intermittently every few seconds, then comes back. I noticed this the other day listening on the computer, before I got the Soundblaster, so it doesn't have anything to do with the card.

A couple of points of follow-up. This is now working out pretty well with the Soundblaster external sound card.

First, the intermittent cutouts I was experiencing with streaming XM went away after a couple days and I have not noticed them any more.

Second, somebody tipped me off to AOL Radio and I have been also listening to that as well. AOL has around 200 channels, including some of the XM channels. Sounds about the same quality as XM to me.