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Stock XM Audio Quality and Level

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by zenkick, Jun 28, 2007.

  1. zenkick

    zenkick New Member

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    I had the factory XM installed shortly after I took deliver, and have noticed that the audio quality pretty much blows.

    I can plug in my ipod and get some decent response (aside from the tiring tweeters which I'm replacing) in both the AUX and DVD mode-- tune into a local FM station and get nice response, and load an audio or mp3 CD and get a decent sounding balance.

    XM, however, just sounds very "tinny", in addition to a very low volume. Anybody else noticing this?

    I don't suspect it was an install issue since what I read there is only one connection to the head unit-- so that couldn't really be that messed up. Or could it?

    Anyone else find a crappy aural response from XM?

    (Oh yah, I modified the audio setting in XM mode.)
     
    #1 zenkick, Jun 28, 2007
  2. Dan-Wolfe

    Dan-Wolfe Member

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    I am not convinced that it's the radio connection that's at fault here. I have the factory XM and compared to the audio quality of the DICE HD Radio unit, XM is far inferior. And I mean FAR. And the DICE shares the same physical connections as the XM, so it's not the connection.

    In my opinion, XM's audio quality started to suffer when they began to expand as competition with Sirius heated up. When XM was running 100 channels, the audio quality was far superior to it is now that they are running some 170 channels.

    Bandwidth is a finite resource. While XM's compression algorithms are pretty clever, nothing's free.

    Dan
     
    #2 Dan-Wolfe, Jun 28, 2007
  3. Vagabond

    Vagabond Active Member

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    Sounds like a busted XM tuner. The quality should be better than FM, but not by much.
    It pretty much goes AM -FM - SAT - HD with Mp3's fitting in there depending on the quality of the file.
     
    #3 Vagabond, Jun 29, 2007
  4. zenkick

    zenkick New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dan-Wolfe @ Jun 28 2007, 11:44 PM) [snapback]469827[/snapback]</div>
    Good point. When using the Lockpick's "DVD" input, my audio sounds fantastic. So it is certainly not the connection.

    I'm actually leaning towards it being a faulty (or just crappy) XM tuner. XM in my other vehicles sound infinitely better than the stock XM in the Prius.

    I think I'll take my roadie out of the subaru and temporarily hook it up via the Lockpick's aux to do A-B comparison-- then I'll do the same thing at the dealer when I complain.
     
    #4 zenkick, Jun 29, 2007
  5. zenkick

    zenkick New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenkick @ Jun 29 2007, 08:01 AM) [snapback]469934[/snapback]</div>
    A/B comparison complete. Both sound equally crappy-- stock and Roady XT with line-in.

    I have the car torn apart and will be checking if there is a gain control on the stock unit. The Roady was already set to the highest.
     
    #5 zenkick, Jun 29, 2007
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