I have read a bunch of threads regarding the quality of the stock Sirius satellite receiver in the Mini Connected. I just picked my new car up this past Friday and have noticed the quality is very poor. I have an XM receiver unit in my other MC and the quality is fine.

Has anyone had any success going to the dealer/service to improve the quality? None of the other threads mention the result of having it serviced. The reception itself has been fine but the actual audio quality is borderline unlistenable. The streaming audio from Pandora and the Web Radio service sounds better than the Sirius stream.

On a related note...does any one know how the Sirius receiver is wired to the antenna to receive the signal? Is it a separate antenna or is is sharing the FM/AM antenna?

 

That's weird. I've found that my sirius sounds better than FM/AM/HD Radio, Pandora, or Web Radio. I listen to Howard most of the time but I also listen to Ch 2 quite a bit and it sounds pretty good to me. I have the H/K audio, I wonder if something with that makes a difference in the Sat radio quality.

I'm not an audiophile by any means but my boss has been a professional production sound mixer for 14 years and thinks my H/K stereo sounds better than his Bang & Olufsen stereo in his Audi.

 

I just have the plain, stock audio set up and Sirius sounds fine in mine. Hope you can get it repaired!

 

Agreed Sirius quality is way below par

Listen to HD radio or a connected iPod then listen to Sirius, it's terrible, I avoid listening to it which stinks because I enjoy it.

I think it's because Sirius compresses their music too much, it wasn't always so bad.

We also have the HK system.

 

All streaming services compress, with varying degrees of noticeable loss of quality. I don't know if Sirius adjusts the compression based on signal strength (Pandora does), but if so that would explain the differences among different users.

 

I've had my car almost two weeks at this point, and I can hear what I'd call 'possible quality issues' with my SiriusXM and from what I hear it sounds to be related to compression. If I had to say what it sounds like, it's almost like there's a little warble to it. From what I can tell my wife can't hear it, so I've chosen to just ignore it. We took at trip from NY to DC over the weekend and it was great not having to change the channel. (I was even able to listen to the Chelsea FC match on Saturday morning!)

At first I was worried that it was the actual car's sound system (we didn't get the HK upgrade) but from listening to MP3s on a USB stick they sound better (obviously dependent on the compression used for the particular MP3 in question). To be honest, I still haven't listened to any uncompressed music (i.e. on a CD) in the car yet. I should probably dig up a CD to make sure the CD drive works!

 

Is it a bad thing that I am hopeful that someone has had better results than me so that I can (possibly) bring it in to have it looked at? The audio seems to be fine on talk channels but really bad on music channels, particularly rock stations. My guess is having to do with the audio frequency range which is typical of any added compression. This just seems especially bad.

Sirius gave me the typical answer..."It's the dealer's fault. Equipment issue or connection." I am almost sure the dealer with say it's Sirius' bandwidth. In the end I bet I will have to continue using my reliable XM receiver which sucks considering the Sirius sub is free for a year and integrated into the MINI Connnected.

 

My sirius sounds fine. Really clear and clean, I just have the plain Boost system. I really never listen to Fm so I have nothing to compare it to.

 

Correct. And it has nothing to do with the mini, I noticed it in my MKVI GTI too. Sounded like 48kbps audio. Funny thing is some stations sound better then other on Sirius.

 

So you think it would be a waste of time to even bring to MINI service? It's under warranty so it won't cost anything but time. In speaking again with Sirius yesterday (after filling out a customer service survey) when they called me we had a long discussion about possible problems and they still believe it can be a receiver issue.

 

Mine is great, but I have the H/K. I listen to a lot of music and have a pretty good ear for quality.

 

its possible. everyone has different perceptions on what sounds good/bad. so its possible there might be something wrong. i dont think there is something wrong with mine, but it definitely sounds good to good (quality wise) then again i have crappy stock speakers in my jcw too

 

Well I do have a decent idea of what it should sound like. I had another Sirius receiver and another XM receiver to compare it to. In addition, I work in the network radio business and our product is actually on SiriusXM. The audio coming through sounds bad in comparison to the two other receivers. In fact the SiriusXM audio that I stream over my iPhone app sounds better than what I hear through the MINI Connected Sirius receiver!

I just hope I don't have to do the back and forth to the dealer over and over again.