The quality is sketchy at best but I'm more concerned with the reception. Everyone mentions it cutting out under overpasses but what about heavily wooded areas. I live in the Northeast and the leaves haven't come in and I'm getting a lot of cutting out in densly wooded areas. Any thoughts? Better antennas available or better head units?

 

I was pretty disappointed in how compressed the electronic music channels sounded, in particular. A few times I changed the channel because I couldn't stand to listen to how badly the highs were compressed. They play some good stuff, but the quality is fair at best. I had XM in the past and don't remember it ever sounding this bad.

I also get Sirius through my Dish Network TV subscription, where the channels all sound perfect. I suppose it's not surprising that Dish gets a high quality feed, where there's more bandwidth. I was certainly disappointed the reception in the car sounded nothing like it did through Dish.

The Rockford system I think is decent. As far as factory installs go, it's pretty far up the list. It's not perfect, but it's good enough that I have no interest in upgrading it. It can't save Sirius, though.

 

I had XM in my last car. Music was much better but sirius has better sports. I found out they just merged. Maybe this will increase quality.