XM or Sirius

make your decision on content and gear; not sound quality.....they both suck from the audiophile perspective. the signal is very compressed, the bass is 'one-note and it lacks depth. the better the gear the worse it will sound. i don't think you would like what a good DAC would tell you about the sound......sometimes it's better not to know.

all that said; satelite radio is a great thing for many situations. about 40% of the cars at the dealership i manage have XM and so most of my demo's have it. when i drive long distances out in the boonies it is great. near home at this latitude i do get lots of 'shadows' from the mountains and hills here in Western Washington State.

I bought Sirius at the end of last year before Howard Stern jumped to satellite. From personal experience and what I've read I agree with what Mikelavigne has said. The sound quality is poor and the signal is finicky. I hear equal complaints from both sides. I can even sometimes hear a "tinny-ness" to the sound through my headphones. The decision really comes down to programming, the features of the unit for your application and subscription packages.

Mikes experience mirrors mine, I chose Sirius for content and I do like the lifetime membership.