Satellite radio reception in my 2006 E Class is bad, Took to dealer and they
"RESET THE RADIO" whatever that means and no better reception.Anyone else with this problem?

 

I have a MB CLS and my Sat radio reception is weak and drops out way to much! We have factory XM in out other cars and with a strong signal with no drop outs. And i hate the antenna on the middle of the trunk.

 

Based on my experience with a 2006 C55 we got in April, I skipped the Sirius in an S65 I got last week. The sound quality is very disappointing, the classical music programming (important to me) is banal and the constant dropouts in urban areas is very annoying. A larger buffer would have helped immensely. There is no excuse for losing the stream because you go under an overpass at 30 MPH.

 

Sirius is in the process of launching another satellite. This new one will be in stationary orbit similar to the technology that XM uses except that it will be aimed at the center of the U.S. This should help improve reception unless you live in the North East or North West.

If you have Sirius installed in a car with the HK Logic7 system you can do a few things to improve the sound a little bit. Try switching "Logic7" mode to "Standard" mode and slightly increasing bass and treble settings. This helps a little because the system will not try to over process the already highly compressed satellite signal.

 

My complaint with the Sirius sound quality is distortion. I expected a "digital" level of fidelity, but often get what sounds like phase distortion on an analog FM signal. I guess the compression techniques are fairly lossy, especially when the signal encounters interference. These distortions are very annoying, and tinkering with audio settings don't affect them in the least. I'll reevaluate when the new bird is launched, but it sounds like the improvement may be marginal here in Northern California.

I am in the process of ripping lots of CDs and burning a few DVDs full of MP3s. The sound is way better and 4+ gig on a disk will keep me in music for quite a while. Five or ten DVDs and I should be set. It was a pleasant surprise to confirm that the COMAND DVD drive will function as a giant CD-MP3.

 

You are correct the problem is signal compression, the streams are sent at low bit-rate with a few tricks to help recover as much audio detail as possible. There is only so much bandwidth available and the marketing case
so far has been to increase the number of streams (the compromise is audio quality) so that the service "casts a bigger net" to potential customers.

I guess the sound is actually a little too "digital" for your tastes! ;=)

 

It probably won't surprise you that I have lots of vinyl and tubes at home. That doesn't make for great in-car technology, though.

We took my wife's car to the opera last night (50 miles each way to San Francisco). I had forgotten that the Sirius dynamic range compression is so extreme as well. It's another reason that the the system works fine for her (she's addicted to Howard Stern and Martha Stewart's daughter) but is pretty poor for music. And yes, I made sure her car (a birthday present) had Sirius only because of Howard, so the marketing guys know how to spend their bandwidth.

 

Admittedly off topic, but from what I've read, there is still no substitute for a vinyl source, a moving-coil cartridge, and tube-driven electronics. May I please ask what your home system is? I have 1st generation FET McIntosh now (C28 and MC2105) with a TD-160 Thorens table (stock arm).

When financial circumstances permit, I'd like to own a MC275 power amp, and an undecided, but high quality, cartridge/turntable, and I'll have to replace my speakers undoubtedly (Polk SRS now).

I also listen to a lot of classical music, and I don't have satellite reception in my E320, but I think NPR talk or music is acceptable from my stock Bose.

Thanks in advance,
M

 

My stuff's really old. Conrad-Johnson preamp, Acoustat electrostatic speakers with integrated tube amps. Very clean and musical, but somewhat limited in bass, dynamics and imaging. I've been thinking of upgrading, but new audiophile stuff is crazy expensive. I got an S65 instead.

By the way, good local FM sound is vastly superior to Sirius sound.