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XM / Sirius for Model S - Discussion

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My other car (Infiniti) receives XM great, ever in parking garages. NoVA. I think they have repeaters? The Roadster with Sirius browns out often. Maybe they have the wire down inside too deep, there was another thread on that. I go for XM and also I am not so afraid of antennas (shark fin) on the outside of the car since that is where the signal is!

I've got Sirius with the antenna factory-mounted to the roof of my Infiniti G35, and there are quite a few spots I drive through every day where the signal drops. It's quite frustrating, really. Repeaters seem to be few and far between for Sirius, at least around the Bay Area in my six years of experience with it. I've heard that XM is better in this department.
 
With the compression that both XM and Sirius now use to shove a zillion channels on each service the actual sound quality of both services is pretty bad. I actually find it grating on my ears to listen to music on XM in my Lexus. The quality is no better on Sirius in my Roadster. I'd rather load high quality music on the hard drive in the car (or use an iPod) than listen to satellite radio. When XM first came out they advertised "near CD quality" but that quickly went away. They should now say "almost AM quality" and they'd be more accurate.
 
That's still the case, Evan. It's only that you wouldn't need to get the pano roof as well any more.
Figured, thanks. Guess I'll have to do some spousal arm twisting to justify that upgrade.

Yes, XM worked well for me (on my now-ex Acura TL) for a good 7+ years in the Bay Area. Might be a little iffy in SF proper though...
Guess that's an advantage of my presbycusis, while I can detect some of the "flattness" you guys mention, I find it far from difficult to listen to and certainly is adequate in a car considering all the other various road noise and such. Now, I am just in a Prius right now, so perhaps a Lexus is a different story with all the sound proofing, but honestly I don't expect, and never have expected, a car to sound like a sound studio. I have my iPod, FM, Pandora, whatever for music, I really like the flexibility of satellite for choosing sports and news as well as music whenever and wherever I happen to be.
 
Really? Since when? It must be a new policy - lifetime hasn't been on the web site for a while, but you can get different pricing structures if you call. Then again, my experience isn't recent.

I got a quote for one less than a year ago, for the tuner in a whole-house audio system. Cars are less expensive, so I used an annual subscription for the home tuner.

I guess I'll have to call and ask!

/Mitch.

I might be wrong. They are not on the web site and they are not offered when you call - but I did not try asking for it.
 
With the compression that both XM and Sirius now use to shove a zillion channels on each service the actual sound quality of both services is pretty bad. I actually find it grating on my ears to listen to music on XM in my Lexus. The quality is no better on Sirius in my Roadster. I'd rather load high quality music on the hard drive in the car (or use an iPod) than listen to satellite radio. When XM first came out they advertised "near CD quality" but that quickly went away. They should now say "almost AM quality" and they'd be more accurate.

I also agree with this, for anyone who's reading this and considering going with satellite radio. I mostly listen to Howard Stern so the quality doesn't bother me much, but I would say that Sirius is a noticeable step down in audio quality from FM (and a couple steps down from CD).

I'm with Mycroft -- if I'm able to get a Model S in my garage, I'll probably listen almost exclusively to Pandora via 3G/4G. I've only recently gotten into it (just the free version so far), but I absolutely love it.
 
Guess that's an advantage of my presbycusis, while I can detect some of the "flattness" you guys mention, I find it far from difficult to listen to and certainly is adequate in a car considering all the other various road noise and such. Now, I am just in a Prius right now, so perhaps a Lexus is a different story with all the sound proofing, but honestly I don't expect, and never have expected, a car to sound like a sound studio.

Although that format never really took off, my 2004 Acura TL came with the ability to play "DVD Audio" discs on the multichannel speaker system in there. Apart from Acura's demo DVD-A disc, I only ever found and bought two other discs - Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction and Eagles' Hotel California. The audio quality and channel separation were just superb even in a car! I'll miss that in the Model S and playing from iPods and such in general.
 
Found this thread while looking for something else... For anyone who's interested, the key difference between XM and Sirius is the way the satellites orbit. XM uses geo-stationary birds that are located over the equator. That means you need a low view of the horizon to get a signal - more so the further north you travel.

Sirius uses an different orbiting configuration that essentially has them flying in a long polar orbit. When combined with the rotation of the earth, the result is sort of a figure 8 pattern above you, meaning you will typically maintain reception in the sky-scraper canyons of a city, as well as out in the mountains.

XM uses repeaters in urban areas to combat the man-made canyon problem. Sirius typically doesn't need them.

Having Sirius for years and being exposed to XM in rental cars, I know that I'd never pay for an XM system. At least not here in Canada where the horizon to the geostationary satellites is so low. I agree that the fidelity is pretty lousy these days too... I'm at the point where I think I'll let my Sirius subscription lapse - I'm better off playing MP3's from my phone! Too bad, because I like the variety of programming.