ferrari,
i agree that the state of present commercial fm radio is pretty dismal. but all it takes, (for me anyways), is one or two decent public radio stations that broadcast a quality signal & play music i like, to make it all worthwhile for me. most of my "sweet-spot" listening is actually done w/fm playing.
re: xm, i have found it to be completely unlistenable, even for 30 seconds, in the "sweet-spot". it is barely tolerable, even as background music. its shrill, compressed, etched signal invariably gives me a headache after a while. i convinced a good friend who has it to try a tubed buffer stage between his xm receiver & his preamp. this does help a little, making it slightly less irritable as background music. but it is still completely unlistenable as a serious music source. so, i don't care *how* good the programming is. if i can't listen to it, it's completely worthless to me.
ymmv,
doug s.
i agree that the state of present commercial fm radio is pretty dismal. but all it takes, (for me anyways), is one or two decent public radio stations that broadcast a quality signal & play music i like, to make it all worthwhile for me. most of my "sweet-spot" listening is actually done w/fm playing.
re: xm, i have found it to be completely unlistenable, even for 30 seconds, in the "sweet-spot". it is barely tolerable, even as background music. its shrill, compressed, etched signal invariably gives me a headache after a while. i convinced a good friend who has it to try a tubed buffer stage between his xm receiver & his preamp. this does help a little, making it slightly less irritable as background music. but it is still completely unlistenable as a serious music source. so, i don't care *how* good the programming is. if i can't listen to it, it's completely worthless to me.
ymmv,
doug s.