Sirius Satellite Receivers in Home Systems

[babydoc]

I have gotten hooked on subscription satellite radio broadcasting with units in both cars and now a portable hand-held IPOD-like receiver that I can listen to while running or relaxing anywhere.
I noticed that there is a smattering of apparent "higher end" Sirius receivers that are being sold by Kenwood, Audiovox, ADA and others that are designed to go with home audio systems.
Does anyonw have any experience with these units and how they sound being run as either analog or digital output (through DAC)?

 

[discocarp]

I can't comment regarding the sirius receivers, but IIRC sirius is not very good quality through the satellite connection. Sirius does offer higher bitrate streams through the internet though. From what I've read, these are a huge quality improvement. You might want to research something to play through the internet on your home system, and keep the satellite receivers to the car/portable realm. My guess (and its just an educated guess from reading) is that this would make a much bigger improvement in quality than any sirius receiver getting the signal from the satellite.

 

[Steve]

Second the comment about the satelite signal. I have a portable Sirius unit that we use in the car and as background music at home. If it was anything but background, I would be unhappy with the quality. It does not have a digital out, so I'm not sure how much improvement I'd get from an external DAC, but I doubt I'd get much. I believe the limiting factor is the satelite signal.

As previously mentioned, Sirius does offer a 128k stream online. Once I move (before the end of this month!), I will setup Sirius through my recently purchased Sonos. That will be fed through an external DAC into my main home system. I'm hoping for much better results with that config.

 

[TomDac]

There is a plug-in for the Squeezebox that will allow you to stream Sirius thru your Squeezebox. I haven't tried it yet...

 

[discocarp]

I second the squeezebox. Of course, I always endorse the squeezebox.

 

[Charliemike]

My buddy has a Polk receiver for XM and it sounds pretty darned good.

 

[tonyc]

I use a Sirius sportster in my system and I don't think it sounds that bad. Of course it does not sound as good as my record player or my CD player. I am also thinking about getting the audiovox which has a coaxial digital out which I can run to my Sonic Frontiers DAC.

 

[David Matz]

The signal is mp3 quality at best

I did some research on this, and the problem is that the sattelite signal itself is pretty weak - mp3 quality at best, with the audiophile richness diluted. So if you get the best electronics behind the signal, the sound will improve. But will the difference be worth the expense or give you the value you are looking for?