Paul and I rented a Lincoln Navigator (relax, we were upgraded) with Sirius. This was our first time renting a car with Sirius, so we were looking forward to listening to the new Howard channel, and other offerings.
Try as we could, the sound fidelity was consistently muddy on both the music and talk channels. We tried every tone control in this luxury beast, and it never sounded good, much less CD quality. When we flipped over to FM, stations sounded great. WARW blew every Sirius music channel away.
At a time when the public’s attention is increasingly focused on satellite radio, this focus group of one was happy Hertz didn’t charge for this service.
President & Founder at Jacobs Media
Fred Jacobs founded Jacobs Media in 1983, and quickly became known for the creation of the Classic Rock radio format.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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I would try using other Sirius products before making such a judgement. I have a stock Sirius radio in my Mercedes and can tell you the sound quality is very good. Definately as good as FM at the least, so to say that FM sounded better would lead me to believe that it was not hooked up properly or that you just have a personal grudge with Sirius and trying to fool us by appearing “nuetral”.
This was certainly a focus group of two. I was in the car with Fred and I’ve got to tell you, the sound quality was terrible. We don’t have an agenda against Sirius. Rather, if their goal is to market their product via exposure in rental cars, this experience would chase customers away. It’s like going to a restaurant that everyone’s talking about and having a bad meal. It’s a first impression that’s not good. We didn’t even mention the channel guide that Hertz gave us was dated and useless. We know that satellite radio has grown through a lot of buzz, and some of it is deserved. But buzz works both ways, and in this case, the experience was severely lacking
I have recently signed-up for a 3 month Sirius account based on the fact that I was expecting to receive better sound quality than I currently receive on my car radio. Sirius marketing advertises “better overall sound quality and superior sound resolution”. However, my experience has been that the sound quality of Sirius is far worse than my CD player, my MP3 player, and even my FM radio tuner. The sound quality is recognizably different (poorer) than all other medias I currently use for listening to music. I would compare the sound quality to a low bandwidth streaming radio station on the internet (less than 20K/sec). I’ve done some research, and I’ve found multiple articles discussing the poor sound quality of Sirius. Supposedly XM has slightly better sound, but I’m planning to to stick with my mp3 player.