Did I Go Deaf???

crazeecarroll

Member
Oct 18, 2008
67
4
8
Hey guys just a quick question... Lastnight while coming home me and my wife were listening to Hair Nation since that is her favorite Sirius station... Anyway the SQ seemed much better than normal, but tonight coming home from work HN sounded worse than most 64K internet streams!!! Did my ears get that bad that quick or did Sirius make some major changes today with their processing or is my ole' trusty Starmate 4 getting ready to bite the dust? A lot of the other channels also sounded like they were on a low bit dialup stream as well... Anybody else notice the same thing or is it just me? CC
 

hornet130

New Member
Nov 8, 2008
17
1
3
Sports Bandwidth

I have experienced what you are referring to and I can tell you it has to do with sports games airing on the "Best of XM" channels. Whenever channels 211-220 air sporting events, the bandwidth is squeezed out of select music channels as additional, unique bandwidth is required for these streams. Whenever there are no games airing they just duplicate the SIRIUS sports schedule from 194 which allows the bandwidth to be allocated back to the music channels, thus higher quality sound.

So to answer your question, your ears are fine. Some of the channels that "flex" for these games are:

21 Alt Nation
19 Buzzsaw
23 Hair Nation
26 Left of Center
18 The Spectrum
 

snakester

Member
Oct 29, 2008
478
8
18
36
Lovely Seacost NH
I have experienced what you are referring to and I can tell you it has to do with sports games airing on the "Best of XM" channels. Whenever channels 211-220 air sporting events, the bandwidth is squeezed out of select music channels as additional, unique bandwidth is required for these streams. Whenever there are no games airing they just duplicate the SIRIUS sports schedule from 194 which allows the bandwidth to be allocated back to the music channels, thus higher quality sound.

So to answer your question, your ears are fine. Some of the channels that "flex" for these games are:

21 Alt Nation
19 Buzzsaw
23 Hair Nation
26 Left of Center
18 The Spectrum

I noticed it a couple of nights ago. I thought something was wrong with either my ears or my car stereo. I was wondering where they were pulling the BofXM sports bandwidth from.
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
9,434
149
63
Louisiana
There is little doubt when they have a lot of sports on that this does indeed eat into the bandwidth that is shared by the music channels.

This is what happens when you have too much content and not enough bandwidth to totally support it at the full bitrates that it should be specifically on the music side. I personally don't think the music side should be pulled from for sports, but we all know that is just wishful thinking on my part.
 
Nov 9, 2008
179
2
18
nj
not crazy

Sound quality has taken a nose dive since they added the XM channels,I bet they are going to try and stretch that bandwidth even further.So No you're not crazy .And I listen to a factory radio and I noticed....today its so so but not anywheres where it was.