Anyone use Sirius XM?

Couldn't stand the quality. If you hold out, they'll come back offering you a full year for like $50. I guess it's great if you drive long distances -- you get the same stations no matter where you go. Also drove me nuts that it wasn't buffered. Go under a bridge and it'd drop out momentarily.

I prefer Rdio in HQ mode streamed my phone. Or content from my music library. Or podcasts. Really in to podcasts these days.
 
I just use my iPod classic... too bad they discontinued them, I could really use an even larger one ;-)
 
FractalAudio said:
My kind of car. What kind of weapon is this?
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2011 Mustang 5.0 6m w VMP TVS kit best so far 10.9 @ 130.00 . 606 RWHP 540 RWTQ.
I did put some race mufflers on recently so I can kinda hear the cd player . mosty dont listen to anything when Im driving it though.
 
Had XM at home on my good multi component stereo (XM receiver by Polk Audio) for several years before it was bought out and subsequently destroyed by Sirius. After the takeover there was no longer any reason to suffer with it any more so it's history in my house.
 
I hate it, it sounds like they are passing a low quality MP3 back through another low quality MP3 conversion a couple of times before they actually send it over the air. But my wife got something like a year for $20, so whatever, I still pull out my iPhone and jam to what I want to hear rather than channel surfing. I would add though, that all of the local stations have turned top 40, so it's the only REAL radio you can actually get in the Houston area.
 
My friend many years ago got a Sirius radio in his car (connected through an aux jack) and it sounded like a million bucks... compared to the older stereo that was in it...

I bought a new car 3-4 months ago... w/Sirius XM...
It sounds great... better than radio and mp3 quality to me... and lightyears ahead of Pandora/streaming...

My navigation in the car is awful garbage that i can't stand to look at (and I have a separate Garmin) but the S/XM radio sounds great

it's above radio and cd quality-

and the hd radio in modern cars- blows away regular radio.

All the cars mentioned above are Toyota's - I'm a fan
 
Maybe it's just the stations I'm listening to. I imagine that bandwidth is dependent on popularity and the metal and hard rock stations are compressed more because there is absolutely no way that it's close to as good as even a 128kb MP3. It's just got this ridiculous swooshy, swirly, pumping thing going on. However they compress it the vocals are pretty good, but the rest of the music is just blurred or smeared sounding. Of course if I had a commute over 6 miles to work I may get more value from it, but I can't get over how bad it is.

And even after listening for a few times in short passes I've already heard repeated songs....and they weren't exactly "good" songs either.
 
iaresee said:
Couldn't stand the quality. If you hold out, they'll come back offering you a full year for like $50.
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Funny you mention that-
I had two subscriptions (with Sirius) ever since Howard Stern went on board. I enjoyed some of the other channels but you might as well put them on a loop (boring!) driving long distances I liked it allot.
And it could be me but I find the quality has gone way done hill. Anyway let the subscription run out for the home unit a little over a year ago. They did make some offers for me to come back, never took advantage of them. So my car subscription ran out 3 months ago, no offers as of yet.

But I don’t think I will coming back. Like I said there are things I like about it but just feel the quality has slipped. Allot of the channels might as be put on a loop, they use to be more adventurous. The merge with Sirius & XM was probably the worst thing for both companies.

John
 
I have it, and have kept it simply for the options of listening. The sound isn't the best, but the variety of music and other programming is a welcome break from AM/FM and whatever music I happen to have handy. Especially nice when traveling. I have a Honda Pilot Touring model, and the sound system is premium for them but isn't really a premium level system IMO. It's passable, though, and I enjoy the options. Considering some of the things I blow money on, this is probably one of the more justifiable! It gets a lot of use.
 
I think, maybe, I'm a little spoiled by FM in The Bay Area. I find the trio of KFOG/KSAN/KOIT to be pretty good. Minus KFOG's need to play Talking Heads every hour of course. Don't get me wrong; love me some David Byrne. But there's only so much Psycho Killer one can listen to.
 
I have it and it sounds better than HD FM or MP3 on my stock 2014 Volvo S60.

When it comes time to renew, let it lapse. The third or fourth re-subscribe offer will be a steep discount.

My commute is fairly short, 30 mins, but I really dig having a focused genre to listen to.

Hair Nation is what I listen to mostly unless my 3yr old gets too agitated then I switch to something like the Bridge or other softer rock.
 
BBN said:
Um....is that even possible? Isn't there starting point a CD? How could it be 'better'?
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For me, it sounds better in my car than the other sources. So on my system it is "better".

That doesn't mean technically Sirius isn't more or less lossy than other codecs / transmission types. It just means my particular radio sounds better on Sirius than other sources.
 
I switched to podcasts over Bluetooth 100%. My commute isn't that long, so just a handful of podcasts fill my daily quota of radio. Right now I'm halfway through a podcast about WW1. Fascinating stuff. Millions dead over basically complete bullshit that could have been resolved peacefully had the leadership not been so shitty at the time.
 
FractalAudio said:
and DJ's who insist on talking over the beginning and end of songs
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There's still a few on there that don't know how to STFU. There's one named Madison in particular that's like nails on a chalkboard. I change the channel as soon as I hear her voice because she says the most inane useless shit, many times right until the vocals kick in and I hate hate HATE it. Unfortunately they have her tape for a half dozen different channels so it's whack-a-mole sometimes.
 
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