I had Sirius in my '04 Murano and loved it. As well as missing a few channels that Sirius had that XM doesn't, I seriously miss the better sound quality that Sirius provided.

To say I'm disappointed with the sound quality of XM channels would be a serious understatement.

My 3 month free trial expired 2 days ago and I'm not sure what to do. It reminded me that I had actually forgotten to call Sirius and cancel my subscription with them for my Murano...so whoever bought that is still enjoying it courtesy of me! I probably can't switch that subscription to my EX yet, I doubt their systems will be that integrated for some time. However, my Sirius account has 2 units on it (the second one for half price annual fee) which a friend uses. If I cancel my Murano one then my friends will surely go to full price, and I'll also have to pay full price for XM in the EX.

Does anybody know why XM sounds worse than Sirius, and even sounds worse than FM? I had the upgraded Bose in my Murano, and all the Sirius channels sounded great. The EX has a better Bose system, but XM sounds worse in it. It really bugs me to have an expensive car, with a great sound system, but for the main source of what I listen to (satellite radio) to be so terrible.

I assume you have Navigation on your EX, if you didn't, I believe you could purchase a Sirius tuner, and remove the XM tuner, if you DO have Navigation, then your tuner is integrated into the Audio Control Unit, and cannot be changed. I love XM, so I would say stick with that, but that is just my opinion.

It definitely sounds worse than Sirius did in my Murano. It definitely sounds worse than a lot of the FM stations around Philadelphia. It sounds worse than any CD I play. It sounds worse than any music I've copied to the music box. I rent a lot of cars from Hertz, most of the ones I get come with Sirius, and I can tell a difference. XM sounds more hollow, less vibrant, quieter and just not as clear.

Ever listened to the traffic and weather channels on XM? They must have compressed the signal, reduced the sound quality or whatever they do to get as many channels as possible, because just listen to those traffic reports, they're hideous- they sound worse than an AM broadcast. My thoughts are, have they done that to the rest of the channels but to a lesser degree, to squeeze as many in as they can.

I do have navigation, so had no option to get Sirius installed instead.

FM, CD, etc all sound great. It's a big disappointment.

most channels broadcast at 4-64kbps....sports channels and the like will naturally be on the lower end of that scale.

turn to XM Pops or XM Fine Tuning and tell me if you still think the quality is bad.

Sirius probably DOES sound better due to the fact that they still use the higher quality PAC codec. XM switched away from that a long time ago so they could squeeze more channels in. it remains to be seen if the merged company will go all PAC or aacplus. But I do know that the HD Surround on XM Fine Tuning or XM Pops sounds really good. If they did that on just their popular channels I think it would be a good compromise.

My dealer is contacting his XM rep to see what is going on. I'll report back when I hear this week.

I just let my XM trial run out. my music collection on CF card is much more compelling and consistent than what I can find on XM. If XM had a feature where it could switch to a channel when my favorite artist was playing I'd dig that.