Whats your choice and why?
I just activated my 3 months free and the quality of the sound from xm sounds worse then just plan old FM. Xm sounds flat or muffled or something. Not very full sounding?

 

I prefer downloading the music I want to listen to and burning it to an MP3 CD. Cheaper and I always have the music I want to listen to.

 

Here in the Dallas metroplex Xm sounds fantastic, way better than FM and as good as most CDs. Try the different CSE settings and see if that helps. Even out on the interstate away from cities it crushes FM sound.

 

My XM sounds just as good as cds do.

 

New to XM, just installed last week. I don't really listen to FM any more. Am very happy with XM, and OEM sterio was ready for it, so that is why I got XM. Have had no experience with Sirius.

 

I don't hear it, Ipod sounds good, dvd's sound great, fm radio sounds great , xm sounds......not as good? to me. I would hate to have to fiddle with the sound controls every time to get it to sound right just for xm. I am suprised no one has spoken up for sirius, seems like when everyone found out the rs 3.0 came with xm for 3 months they were dissapointed and wanted sirius.

 

In my experience XM (provided it's not FM Modulated) sounds better than Sirius. I would compare XM to an MP3 file at about 128Kbps and Sirius sounds to me to be similar to an MP3 file at 96Kbps. For the most part XM sounds good, it's only at very high frequencies and really dynamic music that you can hear the compression. If you're a hardcore audiophile you'll be a bit disappointed but if you just like lots of music when and where you want you can't go wrong. Mark

 

i have sirius, i love the content although the quality is ____ty, the fm modulator isnt all that and we all know that xbs fm reception isnt all that either... sirius claims that they broadcast in stereo but listening to most of the channels i dont think they do, and howard stern's tech team said that his show isnt in stereo... like mfenske said if you want your music to sound right take advantage of the mp3 functionality of our head units... unless you get the satalite interface for the xb head unit...

idunno if yous are stern fans but his shows on sirius have been pretty funny, the music stations are good aswell... so in the end i give my sirius a thumbs up...

 

i to have been dissapointed with xm...today i was listening to and then changed back to fm and the same song was playing and it was just words better. Im about 70miles north of philly and 70miles south of NYC so i dont think signal would really big a problem

 

What about it were you disappointed with? If you are going to say bass response it is likely attributed to the boosted bass levels that some radio stations broadcast, whereas XM would be more true to the actual recording. Mark

 

I have Sirius on my other car and I loves it! I don't ever wanted to get back to FM again. The only gripe I have with Sirius is that it cut off and on with some bridge underpass, but everything else was perfect. I listen to Sirius from San Antonio all the way to South Padre, love it!!!!

Kelly

 

I LOVE XM! I couldn't live without it. Sirius is great too but their radios cost more usually and their punk rock station sux. I use xm because I love fungus 53. I have an Audiovox express totally hardwired and have no sound quality issues. I didn't really on a modulator either.

 

Sirius!.....can't go witthout Howard Stern......

 

sirius is around 64bit stream - 96 is over rating the product. Ive been around so many types of streams for the past 6 years and notice the sound quality is low. I honestly was expecting a bit higher.

I hear that sirius puts out a better selection of station but i dont know because I didnt look into it.

Also - XM puts out (i think) a 128bit stream online which is great! Last I looked - sirius has an online stream of 64k which sounds more like a mono sounding clip

 

I bought a Sirius visor style unit and hated it. It had the old Internet streaming "in a tin can" sound so I returned it.

I have a Pioneer head unit so I bought the Terk XM receiver and the Pioneer adapter. It sounds great now!

I don't know how the factory XM is integrated. If it is just a drop in using the FM modulator, that may be the reason for the poor sound.

 

the FM modulator is a big part of the bad/low quality but the sirius does have that tin can sound but does offer many stations that im gradually starting to like more and more

 

XM and loving it. If your reception isn't much, much better than FM, and provided you aren't using a FM modulator, there is something wrong. XM sounds as good as a CD to me, and FM isn't worth listening to.

For reception, the satellites are something like 22,000 miles away, so I don't think reception is going to vary within the US, but I an not sure on that one.

 

Thats the only reason I even considered Sirius. I hate Howard Stern but I like George Bush about as much as he does so I am one of those idiots who "wants to hear what he is gonna say next".

 

Oh, well although XM has a killer punk station I do think Sirius has better rock stations though. The modulator for me was not a problem at all. Just a pain in the butt changing radio frequncies all the time. I just went and bought a head unit with a AUX. input hardwired it and the power. I will take pix of my install and post them. Mine just proves it is better to buy the plug and play models rather than the versions like a Scion dealer carries because I can still take mine in the house or to a friends with a home kit.

 

I have Sirius in my box...........I got it for Howard Stern..also Bubba the LoveSponge is pretty funny as well......As for the sounds.....I think it sounds just fine to me...