I've only had it installed for 12 hours but my initial impressions are not favorable. I can't believe they expect (presumably) audiophiles to pay a subscription to such mediocre sound quality. I listened to 20 different music channels and didn't hear one that sounded as good as clear FM, let alone CD quality. I have Logic 7 premium sound and I might as well have the old crappy business radio from my old E46.

The selection is awesome, and the first year is free, but unless this is something that has to grow on you, I wouldn't pay for the installation again.

 

Yeah, it's not great sound but it's good to have on trips (speaking from my old XM usage patterns).

I rarely use it on my E60, but I think that will change on Jan 1...

 

I wonder if you have a reception problem. Mine sounds very good.

 

Yes, it doesn't suck. The quality is somewhere between FM and CD. I like the quality just fine, it's the damn dropouts that bug me. Bridges, trees, tall buildings, you name it and Sirius will stutter. I expected some of this, but not as much as I am getting lately.

 

I don't get any dropouts, except when I drive in my garage or under covered parking. The sound is just compressed. The highs are tinny. It sounds worse than FM, no question about it. It sounds like a bad MP3. Mind you most people would probably listen and think it's fine, but when you spend $2k on upgraded L7 and another $700 on the satellite receiver, and you end up with very mediocre sound quality....frankly i expected more.

 

I've had "hifi's" since the 50's, and my SIRIUS/Logic 7 sounds quite good, but, yes, not as good as CDs. I assume you have adjusted your equalizer to suit your tastes. How do you CDS sound? Maybe you have a system. not a SIRIUS, problem. Oh, and I only get dropouts when under cover--like you.

 

Don't know which stations you are listening too, but mine sounds great on music only channels. The news channels all sound very compressed, however, but all in all I have been very pleased with Sirius. Agree with comments between CD and FM. Only time mine cuts in and out is in underground parking lot at work and in airport parking decks, other than that, I have driven all over CA and AZ with very little drop off.

 

Hmmmm. My experience has been just the opposite with SAT. I think it sounds fantastic, better than FM and nearly as good as CD. I wonder if you have a bad unit Rodney.

One gripe I have about the "Entertainment" function is that in FM mode I cannot see the radio display stuff such as the name of the artist and the song title. :thumbsdown:

Gripe #2 is that AM sounds as bad as I've ever heard it in a car radio. Especially with talk radio it tends to clip out and the speakers crackle. I can't tone down the Treb enough to stop it from happening. :thumbsdown:

Gripe #3 is that you should be able to save the Tone set-up by station. That is, you should be able to save a treb/bass setting that works well for AM talk radio, for example, and a different tone setting for FM classic rock. :thumbsdown:

Gripe #4 is about the Logic7 choice of settings. What, only two choices? :thumbsdown:

Overall, though, the premium sound is great. Just give me Classic Vinyl Rock on SAT in the L7 Concert mode and crank it to 90dbs and I'm a happy dude.

 

I've said it before so if you've read my opinions, please tune out.


I owned XM for nearly 3 years before I got Sirius in this car. I feel that XM's compression is biased towards sacrificing the highs and keeping the rest of the audible band good. This manifested in tinny cymbals and slightly buzzy brass and woodwind instruments. For many kinds of music, this shortcoming was pretty unnoticeable. For things like jazz, it really stuck out.

I find the degradation of quality in Sirius to be more even handed in that it seems to degrade all portions of the audible band.

Drop-outs should be far fewer on Sirius since their birds are at a higher position in the sky than XM. I've been pretty happy with that aspect of the Sirius experience so far.

 

[/quote]I've had "hifi's" since the 50's, and my SIRIUS/Logic 7 sounds quite good, but, yes, not as good as CDs. I assume you have adjusted your equalizer to suit your tastes. How do you CDS sound? Maybe you have a system. not a SIRIUS, problem.
[/quote]


CDs sound awesome. L7 in my car sounds superb, it's just when playing sirius that I feel it's not great. Maybe I just need to get used to it.