Polk XRt12 thru DAC

[steveinaz]

Got bored last night and decided to try the Polk XM tuner thru my Benchmark DAC, via coaxial cable.

It's not a worthwhile thing----why? Well, although the music did sound better in alot of ways, flaws of the XM compressed signal were also highlighted; sort of a "double-edged" sword scenario. I also noticed the "Error" led flickering every now & then on the DAC w/the XM signal.

The built-in DAC/analog section of the Polk tuner helps to hide the flaws of the XM tansmitted signal---a good thing in this case...

Just an FYI.

[Serendipity]

Great post. I am currently using the analog connection and I agree that it seems to hide the flaws of the original XM signal. Most of the issues appear to be from the bitrate used, and not necessarily the music itself. In fact, I would say that most of the music on XM appears to be quite dynamic and the upper channels (Symphony Hall / XM Pops) are really "fine" channels. Despite the bandwidth restrictions, the music itself is still of good quality, and that's what matters the most.

I wonder if this still holds true with the other tuner Polk makes - the Sirius SR-H1000.