When I got the call to compare the sound quality between the two satellite radio services, Sirius and XM, the first thing that came to mind was what my customers and the general readership of the magazine who aren't subscribing to satellite radio would say: "Pay to listen to radio? That's silly. Why should I pay for something that's free?" A fine question, and it begs the answer: cable TV. When cable was first introduced people howled, "Cable television? You want me to pay to watch TV! HA! That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, TV is free!" Do you know anybody that does not have cable now? Those people are few and far between.
I was very skeptical of cable when it first came out. It was the same when this guy I know asked me to loan him 10 grand for this startup computer company he had in his garage. He called it Micro-Hard or something or another. Yeah, old Bill was really out there (AGHH!!!). I guess, what I'm really trying to say about satellite radio is that you shouldn't get hung up on the idea of paying for radio, because you get so much from these services that I think you will find satellite radio will become as indispensable as cable TV.
Background
As it stands right now, there are two satellite radio providers, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Both companies are traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange (XMSR and SIRI are their ticker symbols respectively). Both companies transmit their own nationwide, digital quality radio channels. XM claims that it is a better value because it is only $9.99 per month while Sirius charges $12.99 a month. Sirius claims that it is the better value because all 60 of its music channels are 100 percent commercial free and only 35 of XM's 70 music channels are commercial free. You gotta love 100 percent commercial free music for sure!
XM has two Boeing 702 satellites operating in geostationary orbit, called "Rock" and "Roll." A geostationary orbit means that "Rock" and "Roll" are traveling at 17,500 miles per hour and at 22,500 miles above the equator. At that speed and distance, the two satellites are "parked" over the same spot of the earth 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Sirius takes a different approach to getting its signal to earth. Sirius has three satellites in high-angle elliptical orbits over the United States. The shape of this type of orbit ensures the highest possible angle of elevation for the satellites while they are over the United States. By having an extremely high angle of elevation, the Sirius satellites are directly over the United States, looking down at us. The XM satellites are much lower in the horizon, as they are over the equator and have to be aimed north in order for their "foot print" to cover the USA.
The Sirius satellite orbits are radically tilted and they travel at the same 17,500 miles per hour that the XM satellites do, but their paths take them as close as 15,700 miles over the backside of the earth to as much as 28,000 miles high when the satellites are over the USA. This type of orbit is a 24-hour orbit that keeps two satellites over the U.S. at all times. It's the same type of orbit once used by Russian satellites to spy on the U.S. I am told that it allowed their spy satellites to "park" over other countries for over 16 hours a day. Awesome technology is in play here with these babies.
Satellite Radio in a Box
The XM and Sirius tuner boxes are just that, boxes. They are completely non-descript hide-away boxes that have antenna and controller hook-ups. These tuners are designed to plug into many aftermarket radios and operate as if the satellite tuners were built into them. Both of these tuners are also offered in universal hook-up modes with FM modulators that allow the satellite audio to be pumped into any FM radio. To do this test, I arranged to get the Kenwood KCA-R70FM Controller/FM Modulator with a KTC-SR901 Sirius Satellite Radio Tuner (MSRP $229.99), and Alpine's CRA-1667RF Controller/FM Modulator with a TUA-T020XM XM Satellite Radio Tuner (MSRP $249.00).
To integrate these tuners into my stereo system for the best possible sound quality, I wanted to be able to hook-up the tuners via a low level RCA input. The Alpine XM controller has built-in low-level outputs as well as the FM modulator output. The Kenwood does not have low-level outputs. Todd Goodnight (I swear that's really his name), Director of Retail Brands for Sirius, took care of that problem by making sure Kenwood provided us with an adapter cable, the CA-P70, which allowed us to use a low-level RCA signal and by-pass the FM modulator, which is a good thing (or so it seemed at the time).
I had my guys at Speaker Works create a portable test stand for the two satellite receivers that I could set into my vehicle and power via the cigarette lighter plug. We built a low-level switcher that would allow me to seamlessly swap between XM and Sirius. The switcher's output was then to be routed to one of the auxiliary inputs on my Alpine IVA-C801 head unit. Once we had the test stand set up, I started the activation process on each of the tuners.
Yes, there is an activation process for both companies. Both tuners have "electronic serial numbers" embedded into them. These ESNs are used to identify each and every receiver so XM and Sirius can control them (are we talking big brother here?). So once you have purchased and installed your receiver, you need to activate it. Both services offer activation via the Internet or over the telephone. Once you have given them your life history and credit card numbers, Sirius will actually activate your radio right then, while you are on the phone or the Internet. It should also be noted though that the company offers a Preview Channel (CH184) that is free and available as soon as you power up. It confirms everything is connected properly so that when you call to activate Sirius knows you're in position to receive the activation signal. Once you confirm that the tuner is fully functional, the activation call can end and you get to enjoy satellite radio!
XM does not require that you turn on the satellite tuner at the time that you are calling or doing the paperwork. XM also has a preview channel. All XM tuners, once they are powered up, will receive a "preview" channel and up to 10 of its regular channels on a rotating basis. This gives you a large sample of the programming that you can listen to while you are waiting for the unit to be fully activated. Once you have gone through the activation process, XM transmits the turn-on signal for up to 60 hours. You will need to keep the receiver on for up to a half hour for the radio to receive the signal and turn on.
I found both activation processes fairly painless, easy to do and quick to get done. At this point I headed out to my ultra-high-gloss black Ford F-350 Super-Duty Diesel truck to start the test!
Listening
The rest of my reference system consists of a pair of USD Audio B-62 WaveGuide separates and four USD Audio Millennium Y-210 10" subwoofers in a gorgeous, hand crafted, all-fiberglass enclosure behind the rear seat. The WaveGuides are powered by a Zapco Competition C2K-6.0X amplifier at 350 watts per channel with the built-in high-pass crossover filter on to block the bass. This amp is fed via Zapco's Symbilink, balanced line driver SLB-U. The subwoofers are powered with a hand selected, matched pair of Crossfire VR-1000d amplifiers at 1000 watts each. There are no other signal processors in the signal path.
Now, the true difficulty in doing a comparison test like this one comes out to bite me in the hind-side. In a normal comparison, I am able to compare the sound between given devices by listening to the same music and switching between them to draw a comparison. Well, since I'm not the programming manager I can't pick the musical tracks or the timing between the two radio services, so I have to generalize about what I am hearing a bit. I was fortunate that I was able to compare both systems to a CD that I had and I did find the same song on both systems at the same time, once!
My initial impression was that both services are fantastic. Sound quality is better than regular FM stereo. Program selection is wonderful! There is so much great music and information to pick from. Local radio does not stand a chance in comparison. Heck, even CD sales are going to suffer! You don't need CDs or a CD changer if you have one of these services. I can find something that I want to listen to at any time by scanning a few stations; that's really fantastic.
As I listened more and more, I found that the two services have different personalities. In my opinion, Sirius' programming is aimed at a younger age demographic while XM seems to be aiming for a more mature audience. Sirius is edgier on the music selection. It appears to have more stations that focus on newer music, while with XM, I never had trouble finding a lot of music from the '70s and '80s.
But how do the two services sound when compared to one another? Well, as I stated above, I love both of these systems. I would be very happy with either. Both systems come very close to achieving CD-quality sound. I did find that XM seems to preserve the integrity of the original recording better than Sirius, however. On XM, crappy recordings sound like crappy recordings, and well-recorded material sounds like it should -- great! Sirius seems to improve the older and poorly recorded software, giving it a larger dynamic range and improved frequency response. But, on high quality recordings, I found it sounded over-processed.
In my opinion, the job of a playback service or a stereo system is to accurately reproduce the original recording. That means if the recording is poor, the playback should reproduce it just as badly as it was recorded. It should not sweeten or smooth the sound to improve it. Any changes to the original should be considered distortion. So I give XM the edge in this category.
Once familiar with both services' station mixes, I kept scanning in an effort to find the same song on both services. I also looked to find a song that was on one of the CDs that I had in my changer so that I could do a direct comparison to CD quality.
Sirius gave me the first chance to compare its sound to a CD. (By the way, Sirius calls its channels "Streams.") One of my favorite "streams" was "US-1," where I found Eminem's, "Without Me," from his The Eminem Show album. I got the CD and the satellite radio synced up as best as possible and switched between them. I found that the bass line was very CD-like, with great punch and detail. The midrange and lower vocals were excellent and sounded very much like on the CD, very true to the recording. The high frequencies were a little brittle and a little "screamy' when compared to the CD, but much better than the FM signal that I listen to regularly.
The following morning, the Columbia space shuttle disaster happened and I spent most of that day listening to the different news channels on XM and Sirius. Here was my opportunity to do an actual, direct comparison of the human voice and the sound quality of these two services. Both services offer many of the same news programs (Fox News, CNN and CNBC to name a few). I have to give XM the edge in this category. I found XM contained a smoother voice quality and that Sirius had an accentuated sibilance problem ("sibilance" is spitty or over emphasized "s" and "z" sounds in words). XM was easier to listen to on my system. I began to theorize that the Kenwood KCA-R70 might have an internal equalization circuit designed into it to help improve the sound quality of the FM modular scenario. I asked Todd Goodnight about this possibility. He did not feel that there was any equalization done to compensate for the FM modulator, but I was not convinced. (For the record, Todd points out that the FM modulator isn't the only means for listening to their signal. There are direct-connect products from all of the affiliated manufacturers.)
The following day, I finally found a song on both Sirius and XM at the same time! It was a 3 Doors Down tune, and the first thing that struck me was that the Sirius signal was louder than the XM signal on rock 'n' roll music. The second thing that I keyed into was that the Sirius system delivered an axe-handle-like bass line impact. The XM bass line was really good, but Sirius just had more kick to it. However, the XM sounded better in the upper voice and high frequencies. The XM was smoother and the Sirius was a bit sibilant, which brought me back to my question of whether Kenwood has changed the frequency response of its controller.
I arranged to listen to the Kenwood controller through a factory BMW system via its FM modulator and I am glad that I did. I found that the Kenwood KCA-R70FM, when used through its FM modulator, produced a sound quality much more comparable to a CD. The FM mod and the factory speakers helped filter out the excess high frequency boost that I was hearing through my system.
I kept channel surfing, looking for a song that was on both XM and Sirius at the same time, or for a song that I would have on one of my CDs. I had found one earlier to test Sirius with and finally I got an Eminem cut that was on XM. I quickly spooled up my CD changer with Eminem's "Superman" track. The bass reproduction was very similar between XM and the CD, but the vocals and highs on the CD were slightly better in detail. Not a lot, but enough to be stated that the CD was better in clarity and definition. In my opinion, XM is closer to CD quality than Sirius.
The other source that I was able to compare is unique to XM. That is, one of its channels is KIIS FM Los Angeles, a local radio station here in sunny Southern California. I was able to switch between XM KIIS and on-air signal from KIIS FM. There is about a 10 second delay on the XM signal, but it's better than the over-air signal. The regular FM signal is EQ'd like crazy! There's way too much bass boost whereas XM has gone with a straight broadcast.
Conclusion
I love XM and Sirius. I could very easily have either one and be extremely happy. As I stated earlier, Sirius aims for a young, edgier customer with a more modern music taste and XM is aiming at a more mature audience through older music genres. Sirius puts up a great incentive with all of its music being delivered to you with no commercials. The question for the consumer to decide is if it's worth paying the extra three dollars
Both companies are very proud of their programming and have made pledges to their customers to keep improving the content to meet their demands. During my test period, both XM and Sirius had major reshuffling of their station layouts and programming to improve the content experience for the listener. Whatever you decide, XM or Sirius, you'll be glad you have satellite radio once you have access to all the great content. If you don't have it, then I have to ask, what are you waiting for? An engraved invitation? Well, here it is (maybe not engraved): Go get it! Satellite radio in 2003 is to car audio what the CD was to car audio in 1987. You can have just about every CD ever made in your car via satellite; so if you think of it that way, satellite radio is much cheaper than buying every CD ever made. That may be the biggest incentive of all for getting a subscription: the money you save.