Quote Originally Posted by nightflier
I am guessing that a little dash-board player is just not going to have the sound one gets from a well engineered component. For those of us used to 25lb. boxes with quality capacitors and power reserves, a little computer-chip-based plastic box the size of an iPod is just not going to cut it. Interestingly, there is a huge market for products that take as much of the processing out of the iPod: external speakers, remotes, better headphones, etc. This tells me that small & portable is only of interest to on-the-go folks and that they are still looking for any way to improve the sound of these mediocre devices. I am actually surprised that the market for XM & Sirius accessories is still so much smaller than the iPod accessories craze.
Like it or not, the iPod is the gravitational center of the audio industry right now. Consider that iPod sales are more than double the combined total of the entire home audio component industry. Take the sales total for every home speaker, amplifer, receiver, CD player, turntable, preamp, and home theater processor, and then double it, and you still haven't reached the sales total of the iPod.

The market for iPod accessories does not really exist to improve the sound quality of the iPod -- it exists to augment the iPod's functionality. I heard Apple's iPod Hi-Fi speaker dock yesterday, and it's no better than a middle-of-the-pack mini-system yet it sells for around $400. Why? Because a mini-system built around the iPod that can draw from your entire music collection at the same time is more appealing than a traditional mini-system that limits you to 1 or 3 or 5 CDs at a time. A lot of the other external accessories I've seen basically turn the iPod into a boom box.

I think that the iPod has created an expectation on the part of listeners that they can have the bulk of their music collection with them at all times. Compared to the old days of having to lug around cassette cases or CD binders, this is revolutionary and the rest of the industry now has to adapt or be left behind. All you have to do is look at how many receiver and car audio manufacturers have begun offering iPod connectivity.

As far as audio quality goes, I think the culprit is more likely the highly compressed formats and the less-than-stellar earbuds that most listeners use. No question that the common 128k resolution MP3 resolution produces audible signal loss, and the earbuds that come with the iPod purportedly leave much to be desired. However, a market for higher quality earbuds has emerged (some of the ones I've seen from Shure and Sennheiser cost more than the iPod itself), and the iPod does include the option for using lossless audio formats. Wilson Audio actually used an iPod running lossless audio files to demonstrate its top-of-the-line system at last year's CES.

Quote Originally Posted by nightflier
With satellite radio, the best I've heard is the Polk XRt12 receiver (I don't know if there's a comparably well designed unit on the Sirius side). We compared it to the Roady and it was strikingly better - not quite CD quality, but definitly better than 128Kb mp3's. We also had it plugged into a very good DAC to try and off-load as much of the processing to better components. Ironically this was the first time that I had something else beside a disk player plugged into my DAC, so there may yet be a future for these components too - one can only hope.
I believe that unit uses Burr-Brown DACs, and if Polk paid any attention to the analog signal path, it's not surprising that it audibly outperforms the portable tuners. I'm not sure though whether XM's actual broadcast bandwidth is that much greater than 128k MP3. Both XM and Sirius keep that information tightly guarded (I have a feeling because they use lower bitrates for certain channels). The sound quality of 128k MP3 can vary a lot depending on the encoding software that you use.

Quote Originally Posted by nightflier
But before HD radio grows up to hi-fi, I agree that it first has to be initiated in the on-the-road market. In cars, the commercial-free simulcasts is probably the most appealing feature. I hardly listen to commercial radio anymore because of the constant interruptions. Public radio stations like KUCI & KPFK here in LA are obvious exceptions, but they have no funds to go digital. Have any of the major car-manufacturers said anything about HD radio?
I thought that many of the NPR affiliates were the first on the air with HD Radio broadcasts. According to Ibiquity's website, the L.A. flagship NPR affiliate, KCRW, is already broadcasting in HD Radio. But, it doesn't look like they have started multicasting yet, although KCRW would be a natural fit for multicasting because they already stream multiple feeds on their website. However, it looks like 13 other stations in L.A. are already multicasting.

http://www.hdradio.com/hd_digital_ra...+Angeles%2C+CA

As far as car manufacturers go, Ibiquity's website shows HD Radio already offered by BMW and their list of OEM manufacturers covers many of the major players in that market (Fujitsu-Ten, Panasonic, Pioneer, Delphi, etc.).

http://www.ibiquity.com/automotive