lawguy

I ordered the satellite radio on my incoming 550i.

I seem to recall that BMW has a deal with Sirrus.

Forgive me for asking, as I'm not much of an audiophile, but my question is whether I can get a subscription to XM with the radio instead of Sirrus....

Anyone?

Rudy

Sirius only if you're using the integrated factory setup.

In my opinion, it's the only way to go...

300TTto545

Just to add my $.02. Sirius was my most regretted option. The cutouts from trees and overpasses was intolerable. BMW said everything checked out and I didn't renew after the free year. The audio quality is not great - mp3s sound noticably better on the Logic 7 system. Sometimes I think FM sounded better. Anyway - you said that you weren't an audiophile - so you probably won't care.

I agree the above poster - XM no way.

swajames

On most channels, Sirius does sound pretty good. Some of the talk only shows are a little compressed (but then again many of these shows are otherwise broadcast only in AM) but with most music channels satellite radio in general is fine. We have Sirius now and I had XM on a previous car.

jasonrhcastle

I really like the sirius integration in my 530i. I have no issues with cut outs (only twice in four months and that was with a tunnel in my area). I think audio quality is pretty darn good. Depends on the channel too. I think it is worth it as the programming is much better than stadard radio.

J

stanatl

I had XM on my now gone LS 430 and Sirius on my 550i. The Sirius has had no reception isssues in locations where the XM recption was spotty or non-existent. I find very little difference in the sound quality.

lawguy

I was under the impression from some colleagues that XM has more "music" channels, while Sirrus has more sports and talk.

That was my main curiosity, whether I could change if I didnt like the programming on Sirrus.

Thanks for all your thoughts....

- Pete

chris.y

I had XM on my old car and now Sirius on my e60. I think if you look at the actual channel listings, I think you'll see that XM has more music channels (and more channels overall I believe) than Sirius. However, for most people, at a certain point, having more music channels doesn't matter - both services offer pretty complete coverage of various music types.

Here are some specific differences I noticed:
- There are more traffic channels on XM - for example, there's a traffic channel dedicated to SF. On Sirius, SF and Seattle traffic are lumped together, which is ridiculous. I never use the traffic channel as a result.
- The XM comedy channels, especially the raw, no-holds barred channel, is way better than anything I've seen on Sirius
- The XM kids channels are better too (only my kids care)
- Sirius carries NFL games (and has other solid sports programming) - that's pretty nice if you're driving around on a Sunday or if you listen online (I listened to a Bears game last week online)
- Sirius has Howard (if you care)

If the option had existed, I would have stuck with XM in my e60, but I'm not disappointed by Sirius and think that it sounds pretty good on the L7 system. If you're really into having XM, there are a bunch of aftermarket options that can work.

Rudy

Funny how I agree with some of chris.y's points and disagree with some other ones...

I agree that there's a point where you have "enough" music channels and I think that both XM and Sirius have enough of those. I really don't rely on satellite radio for traffic reports so it doesn't bother me that Sirius doubles up on cities like they do. As far as the comedy channels, I've always found Sirius' Raw Dog to be funnier than the one XM has (but I spend more time in my Sirus car than I do in my wife's XM car.) As far as the kid's channels go, maybe it's a function of the ages of your kids because my kids prefer Sirius' kids channel over XM's. Sirius also has the Playboy channel if you care -- it's free but you have to activate it.

I do think that Sirius has a much better commitment to "content" than XM though. Yes, Sirius sort of bet the farm on Howard Stern and the NFL but they've since been quietly adding other things like NASCAR, Martha Stewart (not that I give a crap), etc. Early on, XM had the most subsribers but I think that recent trends show that Sirius' market share is growing while XM's is not.

As far as sound quality, there are times when I feel that XM has a slight edge but overall, they're pretty comparable. (It's funny how Sirius throws a ton of bandwidth at Howard's two channels but compresses some of the music channels -- I can only hope that they'll figure out a way to increase the fidelity across the board someday...)

stanatl

I already commented on the reception where based on my experience in my area I think that Sirius has somewhat better reception.

I think that Sirius offers lots of music options but I personally happened to like the choices on XM more. I'm not particularly interested in Howard so that doesn't matter to me. XM had all the baseball and Sirius has the NFL - overall sports are pretty much a wash. The news channels (CNN, FOX, etc.) are pretty much the same. There is probably more "content" programming on Sirius, but nothing that I particularly listen to. XM has Sirius beat for weather and traffic since it was Atlanta specific but it is not as much an issue to me since I now have real time traffic updates on the 550i NAV system.

Basically, there are only 12 pre-sets anyway so I pick my 12 favorite stations and that's pretty much all I listen to. I find scrolling through the "all channels" window a pain while I'm driving.

I liked XM when I had it and now I like Sirius. They're pretty much a wash overall as far as I'm concerned. Basically only one will survive. The question is which one.