# Sirius radio sounds seriously bad



## MrScuba (Jun 17, 2015)

I have had at least four different Sirius radios in different vehicles. The one in my 2016 M235i is the first one that has been a factory installed radio. The rest have been plugged into an Aux receptacle and even an FM transmitter model.

The Sirius radio in the BMW has no fidelity. It sounds awful. In fact, the local NPR station sounds much better on FM. The speakers are not the best by any means (HK), but other sources sound better. My iPhone is not bad.

Has anyone else had a different experience or had any luck getting the dealer to change out the Sirius module?


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## tim330i (Dec 18, 2001)

Seems to be a common problem -

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=659911
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=914494
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=833470

Not much you can do about it from what I read.


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## MrScuba (Jun 17, 2015)

I appreciate the links. Particularly the first one.

Very interesting and depressing.

I may try putting my aftermarket Sirius receiver in the BMW as an experiment.

I am up for renewal of the radio in October.

Thanks


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## thunder550 (Aug 26, 2015)

I've had Sirius/XM in several vehicles, and the quality hasn't been good in any of them. I have noticed it more in vehicles with higher-end stereos. It's so bad that I won't listen to it anymore...streaming Amazon/Pandora through the BMW app sounds significantly better. Sirius serves up compressed music, variable bitrate but around the equivalent of a 96k MP3 file, which is basically terrible. It'll never sound anywhere near as good as a CD. I don't listen to the radio much (can't stand the ads), but HD Radio seems to have much better sound quality than Sirius does.


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## mcleod52 (Jan 29, 2015)

Poor performance of this is why I never renewed my subscription after the free 6 month offer. With a USB port and a 128 GB stick with music, I don't need any sub-par radio. My $0.02 worth


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## xx (Jun 2, 2013)

Channel 51/BPM sounds clear. That Radio Disney is ok too. The Z100/NY and KIIS/LA signal qualities are good too. There are indeed some stations that are awful quality/bitrate. They took my Utopia away and replaced it with Garth lol.


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## RJPoli (Dec 28, 2016)

Agree! Sirius sound is very compressed and not consistent, sound quality varies due to satellite reception. But with thousands of songs on a few thumb drives and HD radio that sounds great I will not be renewing my Sirius subscription.


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## maxdriver (Nov 22, 2011)

I agree - horrible. I don't listen to it even when it's free. I love music and just cannot handle the incredibly bad sound quality. Someone must be listening though, given how many channels are offered....:dunno:


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