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XM Sound Quality Enhancement

post #1 of 15
8/12/07 at 10:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:


On Saturday, August 4th and Sunday, August 5th, XM implemented a significant enhancement to the sound quality of its commercial-free music channels and kids' channels. Depending on individual listening preferences, some XM subscribers may wish to make changes to their bass and treble settings to adjust for the improved audio performance.


Anybody notice a difference? I haven't paid attention, plus I haven't listened to XM in my HT in a while (where it sounded the worst), mostly listen to it in the car or with headphones on the Inno. I am going to listen this afternoon. I wonder if Cinemagic is part of the enhancement lineup?
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post #2 of 15
8/13/07 at 10:37am
I have noticed that most channels seem brighter whereas before they were a little bit dull IMO.

A little harder to say whether I hear much difference in the Bass or not.
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post #3 of 15
8/20/07 at 8:23pm
Thread Starter 
Well over the past week I've noticed a dramatic difference when listening to the Inno with my HT components. I switched back and fourth between some live XM broadcasts and some of my recorded material on the Inno. The sound is much fuller and brighter and the bass seems a lot tighter and less boomy. The older recorded material sounds dull in comparision. I am very happy with this improved sound quality, now I have to start recording my favorites over and deleting the older recordings.
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post #4 of 15
8/22/07 at 5:44pm
I thought it was my new pre-pro. I have been bragging to friends on the improvement.
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post #5 of 15
8/22/07 at 6:26pm
Any chance sirius channels will get this improvement if the merger goes thru? As much as I like the content of sat radio, the sound quality isn't that great.
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post #6 of 15
8/24/07 at 10:57pm
I cant find the quote about the signal being improved where does it say that on the website
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post #7 of 15
8/25/07 at 12:33pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by risk235 View Post

I cant find the quote about the signal being improved where does it say that on the website


I got the quote off of the XM Signal, the weekly XM email I get that highlights the events for the week. I am sure its on their site somewhere.
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post #8 of 15
8/25/07 at 7:35pm
I got the email back on the 6th about the processing upgrade which I let the members know of.My wife asked did I do anything with the stereo in the truck for it sounds great with the richer Bass & Higher Treble levels

The sound is much much better IMO on the Roady and TAO.

Here's the LINK
to that thread.

http://www.xmfan.com/files/upgrades_108.gif
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post #9 of 15
8/29/07 at 7:25pm
Here I though that the wax had drained from my ears. XM does sound brighter in the high tone area's.
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post #10 of 15
9/3/07 at 7:02pm
I love full range sound and I have an 07 Pilot that came with a 3 month trial subscription of XM. It appears that I may be in the minority but I have found the sound to be a little over the top in the upper midrange (appx 5KHz). Makes the cymbals kind of brash and the upper register of female singing kind of edgy. My FM doesn't sound that way.

Although on some music, it brings out a liveliness that may not have otherwise been there. I was wondering it they had actually programmed in an upper midrange EQ spike, instead of an overall true sonic improvement.

Is anyone else perceiving it this way?

Thanks, Larry
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post #11 of 15
9/14/07 at 8:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larbo View Post

I love full range sound and I have an 07 Pilot that came with a 3 month trial subscription of XM. It appears that I may be in the minority but I have found the sound to be a little over the top in the upper midrange (appx 5KHz). Makes the cymbals kind of brash and the upper register of female singing kind of edgy. My FM doesn't sound that way.

Although on some music, it brings out a liveliness that may not have otherwise been there. I was wondering it they had actually programmed in an upper midrange EQ spike, instead of an overall true sonic improvement.

Is anyone else perceiving it this way?

Thanks, Larry

I agree with much of what you say. It sounds more like a Japanee's Import, from the old 33 1/3 days! I can remember some of the Japanee's Beatle's albums sounding like that, after listing to the North American albums.
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post #12 of 15
9/23/07 at 6:41am
Larbo

The "liveness" that you are hearing is probably an artifact caused by the SBR (Spectral Band Replication) part of the coding process. On most of the music channels, the regular part of the AAC coding stops at 5.5 kHz. Following a small deadband transition region, the SBR cuts in at 6 kHz. The liveness that you are hearing is a small clump of energy that is persistent right around 6.1-6.2 kHz. If you own a parametric equalizer, you can dip this area down 3-5 dB and remove the liveness.
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post #13 of 15
9/25/07 at 9:35am
Hi fastl, thanks for the tech info. I not only understand the issue now, but also learned a lot about how XM works. Too bad that it would take yet another piece of equip to deal with it. However, I do have a weakness for EQ's! Thanks.
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post #14 of 15
9/27/07 at 5:07pm
The "liveliness" I hear really affects the following sounds: soft CH, X's, SH, and S's especially. I've tried lowering the treble but that doesn't correct the problem. Is there a chance XM will actually fix this?
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post #15 of 15
9/30/07 at 6:06am
Skypilot..

Treble (shelving) equalization generally is not very effective in dealing with sibilance. What works best is a de-esser, which is a specialized type of dynamic equalizer.

With respect to XM in dealing with this kind of problem - considering that we had to endure the old Neural processing for over four years, suggests that they are not overly motivated in solving audio related problems in a timely manner!
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