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  3. 1101100917

Polk Audio XM Radio Reciever A Winner

I just received the new Polk XM radio receiver. I planned a series of a/b listening tests with my old XM radio. It only took about 10 seconds of listening to realize how much the sound quality improved. Highly recommended. It is not quite cd quality but far better than the standard fare. FYI my system is Rotel preamp, Adcom mono blocks and Magnepan 1.6s.
mcmanus

Showing 2 responses by mcmanus

mcmanus OP
82 posts
 
I see the most improtant attribute of this receiver as the digital out which allows you to use an outboard dac, like Custodian uses. It is much improved over the Delphi models but the big bump will be using a high-end dac. I will be adding an Opus 21 to my system later this week and will post the results running the XM through that dac.
mcmanus OP
82 posts
 
I recently ran a signal from the Polk receiver's digital out to the DAC in my new Resolution Audio Opus CDP and the improvement was dramatic. It sounded as good as a cd, that is a cd in my old cd player. Then I compared it to a cd played through the Opus and it came up short, by a lot. Great for casual listening but it is not a high-end piece, at least compared to my new CDP. I will be adding a Monarchy DIP and will see if that improves it. I would not be without an XM radio. It is a huge blessing for the variety of music it offers and there are no commercials which is a big bonus for me.
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