Kan-O-Z

We just got the factory XM radio installed as I mentioned in the other post. The volume seems to be lower than when listening to CD or radio. When we listen to XM, we have to crank up the volume a bit. This is a bit annoying. Is this normal or is there some setting on the XM reciever to increase the output volume?

Kan-O-Z

salimshah

I even notice a difference between volume levels among CD and radio. If the XM is lower than the radio, then tell the dealer before you take it for dash repair. Hopefully they can address it at the same time.

Salim

JorgeGVB

Actually the problem is CDs are mastered much louder today than many years ago. Put an old CD in from the 80s and then put in a recent CD, you will notice a big difference in volume.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Kan-O-Z

So are you guys saying that this is normal behavior? There is not a huge difference in volume between CD and XM, just enought to have to adjust it each time you switch between the two. Do others with XM experience this as well?

A better question may be, is there a way to adjust XM output volume? If not then perhaps this is normal.

Kan-O-Z

JorgeGVB

Is your volume about the same switching from AM or FM to XM? Because of CD mastering issues, you can't really compare it to CDs though. Newer CDs will sound much louder and we can't do anything about that except change the volume to compensate.

I will give you an example. I can listen to most older properly mastered CDs with the volume set to 28. However, put in a new CD like Jet - Shine On and I have to immediately back it down to about 18 because it is way too loud. If you switched from XM to the Jet CD, it would seem really loud.

JorgeGVB

Interesting article on CDs being too loud:

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/stor...992465,00.html