I have the Alpine system in my truck (REN radio). CDs and mp3s sound great. When listening to sat radio, the highs aren't there (not as crisp), but there's more bass. I keep the 3 band eq set as follows: bass and midrange +3, treble -1.

For what it's worth, I had what Ford called the "premium" radio in my '99 F-150 (higher watts/channel, speed compensated volume, and 6-disc changer). I think it sounded as good if not better than this Alpine system, and it only had 4 speakers.

 

I had the Infinity speakers in my old 97 Ram and I was real happy with the sound of them. I am not yet ready to give up on the Alpines just yet. They sound pretty good except for the satellite reception which probably isnt the speakers but the antenna or the receiver it self.

 

Sound quality has nothing to do with a 'crummy antenna'. It's a digital signal. Either you have it or you don't.
Sound quality in satellite has everything to do with bandwidth and bitrate. you can only cram so many channels into the bandwidth that they are allowed to use. So, you can have a few very high quality, high bitrate channels, or you can have a ton of lower quality channels. People generally choose satellite for programming content and not sound quality, so that's why they sacrifice quality for programming options. It's not that satellite is not capable of cd quality sound, they just choose not to broadcast that way.
Bitrates change constantly depending on programming load, and programming type. Talk channels get much lower bitrates than music does, sports get less than talk; traffic and weather get the least. For example, on heavy sports days (like college football saturdays), all that extra bandwidth has to come from somewhere. So, other channels will take a quality hit, or turned off completely.
Since the merger, you have best of xm packages on sirius and vice versa, which is a whole lot more bandwidth that needs to be pulled from other programming so it would make sense that sound quality has gone down since the merger.

Regarding xm vs. sirius reception, the two use different satellite types. xm uses geosynchronous satellites (always in the same spot) low on the horizon. So it is more likely to be blocked by a mountain or big building to the south, but the low angle allows it to shoot under bridges, gas pump roofs, garages, etc. Sirius uses 'moving' satellites in a higher orbit which beam from more of a straight down angle, but that angle changes throughout the day. That high angle is less likely to be blocked by buildings, mountains, etc, but will almost always be blocked by bridges, roofs, etc. Poor reception (cutting in and out) can be a result of antenna design, but i've not found mine to cut out anywhere except where I expect it to because of the nature of the sirius satellites. I had xm for many years, and found the low angle synchronous reception to be much more reliable.

 

Yeah you are right about the digital antenna/signal. With digital signals you either have it or you don't.

The facts are this: 1. The hardwire Sirius satellite radio in this truck frequently has poor quality. 2. Other vehicles with Sirius satellite hardwired in don't have the same problem.

Where did you hear, read, or learn that the merger has reduced the quality? When the services were integrated I never heard a reduction in quality in either of the services.

The purpose of this this thread is to see if there are any fixes to this sound quality issue.

As a strong supporter and shareholder of satellite radio, the quality of the sound in this vehicle is disheartening. If there is not a fix I simply won't pay for the service when my one year is up.

 

I'm with you on that one. I don't play sat radio much anyway, but there's no way I'm going to subscribe for another year if the sound can't be improved.

 

I've never had satellite radio before, but I agree, mine sounds crappy compared to even fm radio. Moreover, the crappiness is exactly the same crappiness that I hear on low quality mp3 files, where they've been compressed far beyond the format's ability to keep decent quality. It's that "tinny" sound you get on some the mid-high notes. I usually listen to channel 7 or 8, though I also listen to some other channels that have classic rock. If what someone else said about them being 192 kbps then our receiver must be truncating the signals after reception, as what I'm hearing is nowhere near as good as 192.

 

I can't tell you exactly when and where, just that I remember hearing that type of report from several people. Myself, I wouldn't know as I only ever listen to talk and sports. Just offering a possible explanation for something I've heard others take note of.

 

Wow! This is all sounding strange to me. I had just traded in my '06 Ram 2500, with a complete Alpine System in it. Cost me around $2K. Sounded awesome. Dynamat'd the cab, Dual subwoofer under the rear seat etc. However in the '09 I was thinking I would just leave it alone. It sounds really good to me. I have the stock single cd radio, stock speakers and the bass in Sat mode rumbles the cabin. I don't get the comments on tinny sounding? However I can't leave anything alone, and am planning the Nav radio change. I like having the uconnect which I don't have in this truck. Hands free is going to be the law in NH soon, and I want to be ready. I do have the cutting out of the radio in Sirrus, with all the trees and mountains where I live. I never had as much cutting out when I had the XM radio. So there is truth to the satallite placement. If I resubscribe, I wonder if they could just have one hover over my truck from then on.

 

Satellite radio is not broadcasted in stereo.

 

who told you that?