Sound quality of XM radio Direct TV vs standalone

We have an XM subscription. I don't have a Polk tuner though so can't give
you a fair asessment of the sound. What I can point out is that, for me, most
of my radio listening is in the car, or on the move, and not sitting and
listening in the sweet spot. One of the advantages of a direct subscription is
that you can buy one of those XM2Go units and use it in your car (via FM
modulator or cassete gizmo), connected to your system via line-out RCA's
(yep, sound is just OK...nothing to write home about), or record up to five
hours of digital programming and play it back whenever/wherever you like
like a walkman/iPod. Don't count on it to work like an iPod radio as it does
not work that way - better to use the digital recording feature and listen later.
My wife and I like the Comedy channels, especially 150, so the high-end
sound doesn't really matter that much. It's great in the car when you are
travelling in East Jesus, Nowhere. You can also run it via the FM modulator
through the tuner in your system (as long as it's digital). Again, sound is fine
for walking around, making dinner, cutting up 2X4's, etc. I'll leave it to
someone else to give you a rundown in the Polk XM tuner, but if you go that
route you are stuck to service through only that radio (unless you spring for
the extra $6.99/month for an additional radio on the family plan). Can't
imagine that the digital stream from a sattelite is much better than an MP3 is
it?

Just looked it up:

XM Frequency 12.5 MHz of S-Band: 2332.5 to 2345.0 MHz

....now can someone translate that into english?

Marco

Bmatth:

I subscribe to Sirius (Howard Stern ... nuff said) and am using the Tivoli Satellite Radio both as a standalone radio and as a tuner connected through my stereo system. The Tivoli is a more than respectable tuner. The satellite radio sound is OK, but just OK even when played through the stereo. From my initial reading about Sirius technology, I took away that Sirius was playing with the sound just like FM broadcasters are. Also, depending on where you live, satellite strength can be problematic (big cities, like NYC) and relies on additional boosting. My guess is that the XM folks are doing the same as the ultimate technology is the same for everyone.

Regards, Rich

Thanks Marco and Rich--You've helped a lot. The more I research XM's sound quality (even afer posting a day or so ago), I hear a lot of folks say it's just OK. My interest in XM is for home use, as a substitute for buying so many CDs. So it looks like I would be disappointed. I don't listen to music much in my car, not even my 6-CD player, and have never given a lot of thought to XM for my car even though I know that's it's biggest market and probably its greatest appeal. But my tastes and interest can change, of course. Heck, I get so frustrated with the incessant commercials on FM radio in my car that I usually listen for a few minutes then press the off button for the rest of the trip. Thanks again.