Thinking about buying XM radio today, any input on it before I purchase it?

If you like CD quality sound.... Then you wont like it

Its about the same as FM or less. when i had it, it sounded like Internet Radio.

Yeah...wait.

XM and Sirrius are merging. When that will happen is still up in the air, but the question I have is this: if they merge, will that make all the receivers that are out there obsolete?

I have the Roady XT, and I really like it despite the fact it only scrolls once maybe twice. The FM modulator, though not great, is worlds better than my old Audiovox receiver.

Edit: Bandit, did you use FM modulation or was it pipelined into the headunit? There is a great deal of difference between the two when it comes to sound quality. My XM, when pipelined, sounded impressive. FM Modulation....well, it will sound like FM.

i have a direct-link set up on my sirius ready eclipse 8445, and teh sound quality certainly is lacking.. its nothing amazing, one step above FM, but no where near

honestly... at this point i much prefer Sirius over XM programming, except for the opie and anthony / howard stern selection.


and whether or not sirius and XM merger will actually happen and when is still far in the future...

I have XM. I have it strickly for content not sound quality. I'm just sick of listen to 2 songs and 1000 commercials every hour on regular FM.

Sirrius outsells XM 2 to 1 here in Canada mostly because of Stern and Nascaar so when you decide to buy make sure you get the content you are looking for. As far as performance goes both are good but as Ryan says sound quality does lack compared to CD but signal quality is excellent (at least it is here in Canada).

I dont know where you guys who nay XM are coming from, maybe the old "Roady Series" were bad or something with having to use FM modulators or cassete adapters to connect to an existing system?, But, my built in XM is crystal clear and plays amost everywhere without any distortion at high sound levels with twin 350 watts of Alpine power. Content? Personally I could care less about radio personalities and such, I dont want to hear chatter, I dont want to visually imagine some aged **** star showing her **** on Stern, Sports suck if You cant see whats happening, ... I want to Rock. As far as music goes they are same/same. Both offer enough genres to choke a horse. No commercials, tons of choices. I love it. The merger isnt likely to happen for along time if ever. Agreements with the FCC that put their respective stations in the sky prohibits them from doing so. Press sells units. If a merger ever came about, the FCC would certainly make them simulcast for some time to come.

Mel Carmazon and Gary Parsons, who will be the President and Chairman, respectively, of the new merged company, have both promised that the old units will continue to receive all content that they received originally. They are currently working out how to produce new co-operational units. They're not sure if new units will use both frequencies, or if they will simply duplicte the opposing channels on both frequencies.
Keep in mind that the FCC has already stated that they will not accept any elimination of content after the merger, and that the merger has to be approved by the FCC, especially because the law currently specifically forbids it.
So, go ahead and get a unit, from either service. The merger won't effect you. In fact, if it does happen, you'll end up getting MORE content, not less.

BTW, if your radio has an auxiliary input jack, thats the best way to connect. Modulator will give you a signal that certainly isn't CD quality, but is still better than conventional radio. Best yet, get a HU with a built-in tuner, or HU with SAT-readt on the front, which will give you the ability to use a tuner that can give you real CD-quality sound.
If you want to listen at work, get a Sky-Fi3.

When I traded My LaCrosse for the GXP, I took my Sky Fi out and bought the XM Boom box for it. I Love It. I take it everywhere and it'* only $60 a year on the "Family Plan" since I already pay for the GXP built in one.

I think I'm going to get the XM. I do have an aftermarket head unit from my last car that will take XM but I'm not going to put the head unit in the Bonne. I think it would look stupid (the aftermarkets stick out too much and the abs plastic is ugly when it'* installed).
I'd deffinatly get it hard-wired in. As to XM or Sirius, I'm just concerned with music, not talk at all and the unit I'm getting is portable and on sale so there is no choice as to XM or Sirius because no Sirius unit prices can beat the deal on the XM one.