Sirus XM Radio

Got XM with my car too but never listened to it once.
Oh well, seems I survived.

i disagree that the content is lacking--the deep tracks, canadian and garage stations in particular are always intersting. however i fully concur that the sound quality is terrible, to the point of near-unlistenability.

dgarretson

XM satellite to car is compressed and boomy-- almost unlistenable.

As with so many things in audio: It depends. XM in my car does indeed sound poor, with that  compressed, swishy sound that XM is known for. But the XM radio in my wife's car is much, much better. It's still not as hi-fi as a fine FM station (not that there are many of them around these days), but it's listenable for the car, imo.

My last car came with a 90 day free trial and I get Sirius XM through my Dish Network subscription.  The sound quality of both was not very good.  A good FM broadcast sounded better, and there are spots near my house where the Sirius broadcast would drop out. 

I'm running the signal from Dish through my Marantz AV7705 and the sound quality is not very good.  That could be a limitation of the Dish box, but I've watched live concert recordings and other music that came through the satellite box that sounds better. 

I like classic rock and there is a decent selection of music.  There are "DJ's" on the stations that I find annoying.  Even though I get it for "free" with my Dish subscription I almost never listen to it. 

I think a person's money would be better spent getting a streamer and a subscription to Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, etc.  Unless there's specific content that you want on Sirius or are a casual music listener (sound quality doesn't matter much), I don't think it's worth the price of entry.

XM satellite to car is compressed and boomy-- almost unlistenable.  There is lots of content, but boring repetitiveness of playlists on the dedicated channels like Grateful Dead, Petty, Pearl Jam, etc.  I'm getting much better SQ and choices with a 512GB USB stick of CD rips into a BMW Harman Kardon system.  We've come a long way from 8-track tapes...     

If you want to listen to XM at home, streaming the signal will give you much higher fidelity than what you can get from the satellite. It may not be "high end" sound, but it will walk all over the fidelity from OTA - it will be immediately obvious to you.

XM subs now include the stream at no extra charge, so it’s really not a bad value.

IME, Sirius Xm is better suited for cars and boats.  For a home based system, there are better and less expensive streaming options.  The only caveat I would mentioned is that if you listen to a lot of talk type "shows", then Sirius is an excellent option