Sirius satellite radio sounds horrible

ryon527

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I finally got to installing my sirius starbase yesterday. I am VERY dissapointed, the sound qualty is horrible. It sounds worse than FM. The sound is tinny sounding and everything sounds like a echo. I'm using my aux input on my panasonic headunit. I have no idea what to do, I thinking of taking it out. Absolutely ridiculous. If anyone has either XM or Sirius please give me your opinion on the sound quality, thank you.
 

Sketch o5

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ive never heard sirius, my mom has XM, i think it sounds alright, hers goes thru the tape tho. my uncle has sirius, but i dont htink i ever heard him say anything bad about it, except it doesnt have some of the channels that XM has....and thats why he has both, haha.
 

ryan s

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i dont trust aux inputs at all. i tried to hook up my ipod using an rca-to-2.5mm connector, and the sound was horrible. i could only use the ipod wheel to adjust the volume, and my amp was on but there was no bass at all. i took it out about a minute after i installed it. as far as advice goes, i would check to make sure all connections are in the proper order, and also that the polarity of the aux cable is right. i dont have any experience with panasonic, but there might be some kind of setting to enable the aux input. also, there might be interference from another electronic source. where do you have the sirius receiver grounded? what are you using for your power source for it? thats where id start. dont know if any will help you, but its worth a shot. electronic gremlins are the hardest to chase down, but electronics are still fun.
 

ryon527

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ryan s said:
i dont trust aux inputs at all. i tried to hook up my ipod using an rca-to-2.5mm connector, and the sound was horrible. i could only use the ipod wheel to adjust the volume, and my amp was on but there was no bass at all. i took it out about a minute after i installed it. as far as advice goes, i would check to make sure all connections are in the proper order, and also that the polarity of the aux cable is right. i dont have any experience with panasonic, but there might be some kind of setting to enable the aux input. also, there might be interference from another electronic source. where do you have the sirius receiver grounded? what are you using for your power source for it? thats where id start. dont know if any will help you, but its worth a shot. electronic gremlins are the hardest to chase down, but electronics are still fun.

all the power wiring and ground is tied into my headunit wiring harness. I'll have to check all my connections again. Thanks for the help.
 

ryan s

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oh yeah, one more thing i forgot. when youre trying to find whats making the weird sound, try to connect the power and ground to different places. for example, ground the unit to the body behind the head unit where there is nothing already grounded. if this doesnt solve anything, hook up the power to the headlight or rear defrost fuse or whatever and see what happens, just for fun:p a huge part of troubleshooting sound problems is isolating what is making the sound. also, you need to determine if the unit itself is faulty somehow, not the connections. is the sound constantly bad, even with the engine off? does it increase with engine speed or the use of other power systems (like heating, windows, brakes, etc?) where are the wires from the receiver to the head unit routed? i really want to know whats going on with this! ive never heard a story about satellite radio like this. i hope you can get it figured out and dont give up!
 

blacknight

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I have sirrius and I like it.
I don't have it going through my Aux inputs though cause that's what my DVD player goes through. I'm using the FM statiom 88.3. Check to make sure the radio and unit are tuned to the same station.
One time The unit was tuned to 88.5 and my radio was 88.3. the reception ws ok but faded a lot and weird echo sounds. I check the tuning of both, corrected them and everything has been fine for months.
I also have an FM modulator to make the signal ever clearer
Hope this helps
 

Sketch o5

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ryan s......what kind of headunit did you try hookin up your ipod thru? cuz ive never had a problem with mine, and thru my set up, there like 4 different ways i can adjust the volume on my AUX input.
 

ryon527

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I tried putting the antenna on the roof, same problem. I'm thinking its a bad ground. I'll solder the wires and see if thats the problem, hopefully it is. Thanks for the suggestions.
 

ryan s

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Sketch o5 said:
ryan s......what kind of headunit did you try hookin up your ipod thru? cuz ive never had a problem with mine, and thru my set up, there like 4 different ways i can adjust the volume on my AUX input.
ive got a pioneer deh-p460mp. to turn on the aux input, i have to turn off the power, and then hold down the function button to enable the input. this head unit was bought just before the ipod revolution in summer 04. it plays mp3s so its not a huge deal to me. i want to upgrade to the new 770, but ive got to find a buyer for my current unit. also, i want to sell my ipod cause i dont use it that much, and i just bought a new digital camera. if anyones interested, let me know.
 

whitey2kaccord

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ryan s said:
i want to sell my ipod cause i dont use it that much, and i just bought a new digital camera. if anyones interested, let me know.

What size and generation, and how much are you wanting to get for it?
 
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