For what it's worth, I love Sirius. Sure, the sound quality isn't CD-like but many music channels are as good as or better than FM. The news channels -- especially the ones that are feeds from TV (like Fox News, CNN, etc.) are comparable to AM but it's still better than not having them at all. What's amazing to me is that they seem to be giving all available bandwidth to Howard. His two channels have great sound quality! If only they could crank some of that bandwidth up on the others, it would be even better!

Not that it matters much to this discussion, I also have XM in another car and I think they have a bit better sound quality on the music channels but not by too much. Content-wise, Sirius wins hands down in my book. As far as internet streams, the free XM stream blows away the free Sirus stream but Sirius has a higher quality subscription stream that probably is better although I don't plan on paying them for it.

I listen to the XM stream at the office pretty much every day, all day because it sounds that much better (they have a low and high bandwidth setting) and the interface is also way better (while listening, you can see what's playing on other channels.)

 

I did not renew my Sirius plan because IMHO the audio quality was terrible. The audio compared to AM in my car. I heard SAT radio on a Toyota and the sound was comparable to a CD. It's unforunate that we dont have the audio quality in our ultimate driving machines. Is this something on BMW's end or Sirius' end?

 

Although Sirius is slightly below HD Radio in quality, which is in turn somewhat below CD quality music, I find the sound quality to be more than acceptable and better than analog FM broadcast. I listened to Sirius for most of my recent road trip although my iPod was available. I love its content, programming and no-commercial format. It's a keeper in my book.

One interesting note. When I activated SAT in my car, I was told that I had a lifetime subscription (which was confirmed online in my Sirius account). I don't know if BMW is doing that for all who select the SAT option, or if I just got lucky.

Lou

 

I think you got lucky...