[theclay]

Thinking of getting Sirius installed when I get back home in a week. Just wanted some feedback from members who have it. I am familiar with XM, how does it compare?

[Frank_NJ]

I have both and I feel that Sirius is better.

[hodaddy]

I have both & like them both. The Sirius sound quality is not that good in the e90 though - FM sounds better. I don't use it much because of that. I usually listen to my ipod.

[ward]

I disagree than FM is better sounding

the content of sirius I find to be superior to XM

I can't drive anywhere without sirius, my buddy never even brings his XM with him.

My friend had XM since it came out, the content was not good enough to justify purchasing it myself. I did buy sirius for stern, but the content blows me away (and stern's not even there yet)

[theclay]

I just found out that it will cost about $900 bucks to get it installed. I called several dealers in L.A. and they all charge about $350 for the labor. I'm going to have to think about this.

[AW330i]

I had XM in the last car and Sirius in the Bimmer, I really feel that it is almost a toss up... If you like comedy I liked the XM's comedy more but everything else I find to be pretty equal... BTW sound quality on the sirius is definatley not inferior to FM I dont know what the above poster is talking about!

[Los22]

I love my Sirius. Yes, I've learned the pricing varies throughout the different markets, as mine was $600 installed. DIY is always another option and just have them activate it at the dealer. As for content, I'm VERY pleased with it and love the NFL coverage, as I'm usually on long drives on Sundays so I listen to the games. RawDog comedy is one of my presets and I'm waiting for Howard to come online.
I give it a thumbs up.

[kal-el]

how much money are we talking about for monthly fee ?

[nostrum09]

Originally Posted by kal-el

how much money are we talking about for monthly fee ?

Monthly fee is I think $12.95 for the first unit. If you get it installed at the dealer (as opposed to at the factory) I don't believe the first year of service is included in the cost.

I like the selection of music and very small amount of commercials or annoying "hosting," but I do agree that the sound quality is a little lacking. Certainly nowhere near CD/MP3 quality, and FM does sound better to me. Sirius is a little too "tinny," almost as if they encoded the music at some low rate. Still, it's decent, and I'd rather hear a variety of music in so-so quality than the same songs in FM quality.

Hopefully the lack of quality in Sirius sound is due to encoding and not some limitation of the hardware... I'd like to think they could just allocate more bandwidth for each channel.

[driverseven]

I may be wrong but I believe you get the first year free if BMW pre-installs but generally you pay if it's done at the dealer. In m case, the dealer installed but they were still able to get me the first year free.

Sirius is definitely better sound than FM but I think there are times when you can be mislead by the source. If the Sirius disk jockey is playing a flat-sounding recording, it's going to sound flat.

When I compare the NYC PBS stations' sound quality on talk to Sirius, I think the FM actually sounds a bit better -- I assume Sirius is losing something pre-transmission.

I would say that I probably listen to Sirius about half the time -- there are some cool features like being able to listen to CNBC broadcasts (like Jim Cramer's Mad Money on my commute home) and, if you have iDrive, getting the onscreen display for the DOW and Nasdaq.

I wish they would have more variety, though. Too many stations devoted to the same pop crap you can get on FM. Only 1 pure jazz station (2 "lite" jazz ones) and only 2 devoted to classical. What I think is funny is if you hear people talk about it they say "you get hundreds of channels" -- well, its actually 120 and about a dozen are traffic reports in cities you're not in, and 2 dozen is the top 20.

Also, Sirius doesn't really have that great of a news selection. Their PBS shows do not include the news broadcasts like "All Things Considered"They have some of the good PBS shows (Car Talk, Fresh Air) but some are weak (diane rehms show???)

However, when you put xm and sirius side-by-side, they are actually almost identical in the basic choices. Only real differences: Sirius has NFL; XM has MLB.... and Sirius has Howard Stern.

[theclay]

Well it looks like I'm getting Sirius after all. My girlfriend surprised me with an early Christmas gift. I have an appointment at Santa Monica BMW on Monday. I'll let you know how it goes.

[LEDZEP]

I have it in both cars, and can't live without it!

[StewtheBassman]

Since I got XM two weeks ago my life has changed . You're going to love it Clay!!!!!!

[hodaddy]

Originally Posted by AW330i

I had XM in the last car and Sirius in the Bimmer, I really feel that it is almost a toss up... If you like comedy I liked the XM's comedy more but everything else I find to be pretty equal... BTW sound quality on the sirius is definatley not inferior to FM I dont know what the above poster is talking about!

I have the Logic 7 system with Sirius. Sirius sounds like it's playing through a cell phone ringer speaker. Maybe I can tweak the EQ, but in general, it sounds like crap.........which sucks, because the system kicks ass otherwise. I'm not the only one to report this.......it was suggested in another thread that it is a bandwidth issue & that the more popular channels sound better than the lesser channels due to allocation. Nonetheless, I'll be listening when Stern gets there.

[theclay]

Well, I just got my car back with Sirius and the software updates. Sirius is great, the sound could be better but it's better than FM. BTW, the software updates were free and I didn't even have to ask for them. I think I will continue to go to Santa Monica BMW for my service needs.

[StewtheBassman]

Congrats the clay, you are going to love it!

[theclay]

This may be a dumb question but here goes. Is it normal for the reception to drop out for a second or two from time to time? Just noticed this tonight while driving by UCLA. Thanks in advance.

-Clay

[lxapilot118]

I have both Sirius and XM (different cars, obviously). I think Sirius is better if you want a variety channel, and XM is better if you want to listen to a SPECIFIC type of music. For example, XM's 80's channel plays stuff whether it was a hit or not....kinda like what played on the radio in the actual 80's. Sirius plays the hits. XM has separate channels for 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s and 90s, instead of just oldies. As far as reception goes, last I checked, two of the largest satellites put in space are XM satellites. Sirius only has one "normal" size satellite (whatever that means). I'd say for most people (considering families, friends and the sort like different music), Sirius would be a good choice.

[theclay]

Originally Posted by lxapilot118

As far as reception goes, last I checked, two of the largest satellites put in space are XM satellites. Sirius only has one "normal" size satellite (whatever that means).

Yes, but are the drop outs normal?