I have the BMW built-in Sirius. My wife got it for me for Christmas. She just called the dealer and they ordered it and then installed it last week. Works like a charm!

 

NC530i, it sounds like you may not have seen the latest information regarding the 2004 cars with Nav...

 

I agree with the above post that claim it's better than FM but not quite CD quality. Selection is great and far exceeds commercial radio.

One thing that bugs me is the reception. I think Sirius or maybe its BMW has some issues. I had XM radio on one of my cars and had better reception. I seem to lose reception if I get near any cover. With my XM I only lost it in full cover or traveling South East with minimal cover.

Anyone else have this issue?

 

I've had pretty good reception. I was driving around today in a pretty wooded area (big trees on both sides of the road and overhaning in many places) and only lost the signal a couple of times. I thought that the entire section of road (about 2 miles) would not have a signal.

 

The overall sound quality is not anywhere near CD. But I love the content.

The music channels are great but i'm a sport nut and nothing comes close to Sirius. If you are a baseball freak then XM is the answer for you. But if you are an NFL, NHL or NBA fan, Sirius is the only way to go.

Teriyaki

 

I've had the same issues with reception. Seems random also -- sometimes nothing overhead to block signal. A little disappointing but still love the format. Now, if we could only get these classic rock jocks to stop playing Peter Frampton. That was junk in the 80's and has not improved with age!

 

welcome aboard, bru swain !

 

I can't say (yet) much about the reception of the integrated Sirius but from what I understand, Sirius and XM use two different setups to blanket the country with signal. I'm not a rocket scientist but here's my understanding of the two systems:

Sirius has something like three satellites orbiting in an elliptical orbit. The way they are setup, there is supposed to be at least one (or maybe two) "birds" visible to your car no matter where you are. I remember reading that the orbits criss-cross in kind of a figure eight pattern across the country.

XM, on the other hand, uses two geostationary satellites that are always "hovering" above the same point (like television and photo imaging satellites) on the earth. Because XM signals can be blocked more easily in urban areas because of tall buildings, etc., they use ground based (terrestrial) repeaters in larger cities that re-broadcast the signal like more traditional radio stations.

When the systems were first turned up, XM had the poorer overall coverage because they hadn't installed repeaters everywhere. Sirius had better coverage from the outset.

Now, I imagine XM has caught up with the repeater installations but what I find interesting is that Sirius now has repeaters in some areas.

I guess your reception will vary based on your location, terrain, and proximity to a repeater.

Can anyone else offer corrections or shed some additional light on the subject?

 

Welcome aboard, Bru Swain !

 

welcome Bru Swain