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  1. SSF is offline
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    Joined: Dec 2008 Location: New Jersey Posts: 47
    01-20-2009, 12:49 AM #1

    Thumbs up Sirius Premium Internet Radio - Sound Quality Superior to Satellite Radio

    For those of you who haven't tried out the Premium Internet Radio service from Sirius, you have really been missing out. You're guaranteed to hear your music channels at a CD quality of 128k. With good headphones you will notice a difference right away when tuned to your favorite music channels. It's especially great if you run it through a home Sirius XM ready A/V receiver with the 8-pin DIN connection like the SIRIUS Connect Home Kit SCHDOC1 for all Stiletto and PNP receivers. It also allows you to navigate your radio directly from your television screen.

    Overall, Sirius subscribers who are true audiophiles will no doubt want to at least SAMPLE the service. At $2.99 for one month you really can't lose in my opinion. I've been enjoying Sirius Premium Internet Radio for over a year now and plan to continue to as long as they offer it at a reasonable price.

  2. HottWeelz is offline
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    01-21-2009, 11:12 AM #2

    So I'm "Googleing around" and came across this post

    Just want to clarify, so the public is not misled, that "yes" Sirius Internet Radio is GREAT and Superior to many others, I'm a subscriber myself.

    However, 128k is NOT CD -Quality... not is it close to CD Quality.

    For technical sakes, 320k is CD Quality. 128k is more like FM Quality.

    Sorry that this is my first post, but just felt the need to keep information consistent and accurate.

    (for the sake of ALL of us shareholders)

  3. SiriusBuzz is offline
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    01-21-2009, 11:23 AM #3
    I agree with Weelz, although to the untrained ear most people would never notice. That being said, I cant tell you whether a cd has been burned at 128k or it is full quality. There is just that little something missing from the full range of sound.
    Charles LaRocca
    SiriusBuzz Founder

  4. HottWeelz is offline
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    01-21-2009, 12:17 PM #4
    Thanks,

    The untrained ear would be lucky because if you listened to the 320k difference vs 128k with a really good pair of Bose earphones, you would forever be able to hear the differences, even on cheap $1.99 head phones.

    It's like you're ruined forever LOL. But now we are digressing to a different subject and I've yet to introduce myself!

  5. SSF is offline
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    01-22-2009, 10:58 AM #5
    Fair enough. I was quoting what they state on the SIrius website as far as "CD-Quality". What I can say is that I upgraded to Premium Internet over a year ago and will never go back. Because as some of you can hear the difference between 128k and 320k - I have to believe most anyone can hear the difference between 32k (standard Internet Radio) and 128k.

  6. HottWeelz is offline
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    01-22-2009, 11:56 AM #6
    Yes, I'd agree that anyone should see a signifigance when differing 32k from 128k

  7. SSF is offline
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    01-22-2009, 01:08 PM #7
    We were discussing this on another forum and I thought I would share this response I received.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jgatie View Post
    It all depends on the compression algorithm used. You can't compare two bitrates, one encoded via PCM and the other encoded via (???), and definitively state one is better than the other. With dedicated decoding hardware (which every radio has) it is very possible to have a 128k stream that is accousically transparent to PCM. I find it unlikely that this is the case, but it is certainly closer to CD quality than the false 300:128 ratio claimed on that other forum.

    In other words, since the high bitrate internet feed is most certainly better than 42% of CD quality, the comparison is moot.

  8. HottWeelz is offline
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    01-22-2009, 02:01 PM #8
    Quote Originally Posted by SSF View Post
    We were discussing this on another forum and I thought I would share this response I received.
    They are correct, HOWEVER, let's really delve into technical detail:

    (I'm in the online radio biz myself so we'll consider this a professional statement)

    The Sirius Web Player is a combination Java/Flash Player designed by (we'll leave the brand name out) third party provider.

    Flash is NOT capable of specific plugin codecs such as mp3Pro or PCM (for example). Not only does Flash limit you to do the legacy codecs, but also the compression, plain old standard 128/44100 or 64/22050 (can't do 24000 in flash) so unfortunately, you can't even try to push a 64kbps MP3 encode at 24khz to get that extra little umph of spectrum.

    So bottom line "Sirius offers 32k for free" (which is definately "getting what you pay for") or 128/44100 "basic mp3 encoded stream" for $2.99 per month.

    I do NOT want to spam/self-promote my online radio, but if asked privately, I'll send some direct links for you to compare how the same encoded mp3 file sounds over flash, in comparison to an agent such as Winamp with a plugin activated.

  9. imromo24 is offline
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    01-22-2009, 03:57 PM #9
    Could that explain why I think Startplayr sounds better than the sirius sites player?

  10. SSF is offline
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    01-23-2009, 12:12 PM #10
    That's very interesting stuff and I appreciate you sharing the technical details with us!

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