Pandora Quality

Finally upgraded from Treo to Pre on Palm and see the Pandora app. Others suggested that it's a good source of music programing and I would agree. However, the quality seems to be lacking. If you're just looking for entertainment I think its's awesome. If you are a critical listener, well, you need to decide. Any other users?

It's not great for sure but not horrible either. If you are just chilling and listening to tunes at a low to moderate level its just fine but when you wanna crank it up grab the iPod. Supposedly Slacker radio is better quality than is pandora. Duane, the real problem is probably with the quality of your speakers! JK man.

That's funny Hate. I have'nt even hooked it up to my boat yet, only the truck. It has a Premier PRS 80, Morel Elate 3 way, Zapco DSP6, and a pair of Alumapro MX subs...well powered (all Zapco) If it doesn't sound well here then it doesn't sound well.
I would agree with Grant's recent statment that big systems amplify weaknesses. Not to say that my truck is a big system but it is a critical set up and I often use it as a reference.
Haven't worked with Slacker, will check it out, thanks for the input.

If you stream the music you should be getting it at a bitrate of 128kbps but if its cached then its likely closer to 40kbps. Using a Windows based media player will also allow it's full value where as anything else again can cause it to fall into that 40kbps range.

I used my new pre all last weekend. Sounded great and I was data roaming as well so I wasn't even getting EVDO. I am only have a couple of KMT6's on the tower powered by a Kx450.2. A 10" L7 powered by a KX600.1 and 4 interior polks powered by some kenwoood amp (don't know the model number). The signal goes through a clarion equalizer. So not the biggest system but average. I didn't notice anything that bad and the music selection sure was awesome. Drained that battery quick though.

J.B,
I think I'd agree with Hate's first comment about good for "just chilling" or anything other then critical listening. At least this isn't distortion, it's just low density programing. For the battery issue I've just connected the 12V car charger at the same time and no worries.

Been using Pandora on my iphone for 4-5 months. The quality varies all over the place, sometimes it's good, sometimes not so good. It also depends on the signal strength somewhat. It's fine in my truck with it's mbquart/mtx system but I don't use it in the boat because the signal is too weak on the lake and the delta. When the phone switches from 3g to edge it makes the annoying cell phone interference. Lately I have to ask everyone to turn their phones off so they don't interfere with the tunes.

mikeski, so is that what i'm hearing? sounds like alien jibberish? tried briefly to chase it down, but gave up after a couple minutes. didn't think about other cell phones, but did have 3 in the glove box by the HU.

does turning off other cell phones make it stop?

don't get it with my ipod, just my iphone with is75 adapter. i get it though on 3G when it's dl'ing artist data. guessing no way around that?

(Message edited by brucemac on September 29, 2009)

My iphone is not too bad when its on a solid 3g network, it's horrible when its on the Edge. Put it in airplane mode but you won't be able to use pandora in airplane mode.

Tell everybody that your boat is like a plane, it may crash at any second if you leave your cell phone active LOL

I use pandora on my blackberry and it sounds pretty good. Not great, but good enough for me. I can tell a big difference between the ipod and the blackberry.

By biggest issue is that when I plug the 12V charger in I get noise coming into the system from the car's electrical system. That sucks because the blackberry's batteries are crap.

I've had a little more time now with Pandora on my Palm Pre and am liking it more and more. Again, the quality isn't the best but adequate for non critical listening.
The carrier is liekly to make a difference as well as the location. My Pre is on the Sprint 3G net and the only difference I see is that when in EVDO it streams/loads faster. The actual quality difference is minimal.
For the power/noise issue, try using a seperate battery, like a power pack....or just fix the cause of the noise issue.

OT: Duane, how do you like that Palm Pre?

I've always thought it sounded pretty dang good considering it's streamed...

Hate,
I actually really like the Pre. I came from the Treo and chose that over the Blackberry at the time mostly due to the touch screen. All the apps at the time seem to work well on both.
On the Pre however, the apps are still small in number but growing. You could say that Palm released it a bit early for some folks as some bugs have been discovered that shouldn't have been there. Most of them fixed now with more apps coming.
Bottom line, I'm not saying it's the best for you but I like it.

Hate, I am digging the Pre too. It's getting better all the time. WebOS 1.2 just came out monday and it added a bunch of nice little improvements. Like Duane said it's getting better and the guys over at precentral.net have done amazing things with it as far as creating a bunch of tweaks and what the call "homebrew" apps.

My favorite would be the Wifi tethering. Was in the airport last week and me another guy were both surfing on of my phone as a wifi router with decent speed too.

Thanks guys, I've never been much of a Palm guy mostly because I didn't wanna learn a new OS and I've heard they are glitchy. This phone looks cool and came out to a lot of fan fare so of course it peeked my interest. May have to give it a look.