SXM CH 69 Escape

[Turkeytop]

When the Escape channel first started I had hopes that it would recreate the Beautiful Music format that was common on FM back in the 60s and 70s. I was soon disappointed. It was just unknown orchestras playing bland arrangements of what, otherwise, should have been good music.. All in low fidelity. It was reminiscent of Muzak. I gave up on it.

Recently I've turned it on a few times. It appears to have changed slightly. They are throwing some higher quality music into the mix. Even a few vocals.

On a scale of 1 to 10, two years ago I would have ranked it as a one. Today, I might give it a five. Still lots of room for improvement.

[Art Van Damme]

I gave up on SXM Escape. Too many plastic productions, synthesized recordings. Maybe it has changed.

May I suggest Music Choice Easy Listening? They have an app, so you can be mobile and still listen. The selections are better quality and more “lush”. I am constantly surprised at the great versions they dig up from both the US and UK orchestras.

I also highly recommend seeburg1000.com Someone acquired the rights to all the Seeburg background music. This site has that classic “beautiful music” vibe.

[Turkeytop]

I gave up on SXM Escape. Too many plastic productions, synthesized recordings. Maybe it has changed.

May I suggest Music Choice Easy Listening? They have an app, so you can be mobile and still listen. The selections are better quality and more “lush”. I am constantly surprised at the great versions they dig up from both the US and UK orchestras.

I also highly recommend seeburg1000.com Someone acquired the rights to all the Seeburg background music. This site has that classic “beautiful music” vibe.

I'd like to follow your advice, but I don't know what any of that stuff means or how to do it.

[Turkeytop]

Definitely an improvement. I've had it on for the past hour and a half or so, while I'm working here in the basement. Still a lot of no name performers, but since I've had it on they've also played Percy Faith, Bert Kaempfert, George Shearing, James Last and Henry Mancini.

They now call it "Escape. Home of Beautiful Music."

Still issues with audio quality.

[WOHO]

Two things Turkeytop; SXM is out of bandwidth, so CH69 (Escape) and CH5 (50's on 5) got "downgraded" /changed to a new Codec so that the old "first generation" radios (Sony, Delphi SkyFi, etc) now receive only low-grade MONO audio; HOWEVER, IF you have a new 2.0 grade SXM tuner you get parametric stereo out of that lower bitrate codec, so they screw those of us with old radios at home, but the new 3rd generation SXM adapter I added to my car Kenwood HD radio has the parametric stereo signal and sounds pretty decent- yes, doesn't sound very analog, but a half-way decent digital signal. That might be issue #1.

Issue #2: Programming: From the original "Sunny 24" on XM, then "Escape 78", it was programmed by master of programming, Mr. Marlin Taylor, Godfather of Beautiful Music on the East Coast. At age 75 or so, SXM sent him packing, and now Escape 69 is programmed by a someone, who quite possibly is younger than us, not realizing what the original Beautiful Music stations on FM even sounded like, and saved FM from total oblivion for two decades. So, programming on Escape seems somewhat haphazard, despite a 4000 song library that Marlin Taylor left them.

If you want proper Beautiful Music, there is "JIB on the Web" you can receive on an internet radio, the Music Choice Easy Listening Beautiful music station is all instrumentals but you need a cable system for that in most cases (or other options). The Seeburg 1000 is low quality original audio from the 16" disks or 1-7/8 ips reel to reel tapes (or even half that speed), so lo-fi for sure. Another internet source I use on the Internet radio besides "JIB on the web" (like the old WJIB Boston) is "Crystal Radio" in Canada, but they're getting off track lately with too current; there is also a Catholic station in Texas that emulates the old beautiful music format called "Good Company" KLUX 89.5 Corpus Christi whose hourly 'calendar' includes some old pure instrumentals with just a few EZ vocals now thrown-in with dozens of PSA's and no commercials and a one-minute news update.

[Turkeytop]

My vehicle is a 2016 GM. Is that too old?

Indoors, I use a two year old Onyx receiver.

[WOHO]

If your SXM radio can receive Channel 301, then it's new enough for the 'Xtra channels' and the new codec.
GM should be the XM network so if you can get the Xtra channels it's as good as it gets, while Chrysler as recent as 2013 still had the crappy Sirius audio- which is stereo, but horrible bitrate and swirly artifacts.

Too bad that they never merged the two bandwidths (one from XM, one from Sirius) into one new system with the new XM-based codecs, but the FCC said that they had to duplicate everything in order to merge, so there is a channel 5, 6, 7, etc on the XM bandwidth and on the Sirius bandwidth, although the migration route it to eventually use the superior XM audio encoding, but they've got to quit putting Sirius radios in cars and go with all SXM (XM) that can receive the entire bandwidth of both services.

I know that the "ONYX plus" model gets the 'Xtra' channels (301, etc) but I don't know if the plain Onyx does. Can you punch in channels in the lower 300's on the Onyx?

[Turkeytop]

Can you punch in channels in the lower 300's on the Onyx?

Just tried it and I can't. But here in Canada those channels may be part of an enhanced package that costs extra.

They should hire you and me as consultants for their music library.