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

Anyone have experience with the Delphi XM SKYFi2? I would mostly want XM at home, as I'm only in the car too and from work. This radio model supposedly works well with stereo system and in car.

You'd have to buy the optional home kit for that radio. Another optino is one of the XM2Go models which come with both a home and a car kit, and can digitally store up to 5 hours of programming for you to listen back through. I got one of these for my Wife this Xmas. As I said earlier, it works OK, but it's nothing I'd want to count on to actually sit down an listen to music. For walking around, and music in the car, or news, comedy, talk shows, it's just fine. It also can be listened to like a walkman, but in that respect it does not work well - there it depends on its internal antenna and it will cut in and out depending on where you are. In a car the you can either use it with the line-output, or using the FM modulator, or it also comes with one of those cassete tape substitutes to play it through the cassette. The Delphi you mention looks allot better, IMO, uses an FM modulator and external antenna. They were all on heavy sale around Xmas...may still be. Can't really comment on the Delphi reception except to say that it seemed to have very good reviews when I researched it. The advantages of the XM2Go, were the much longer recording time (handy if you can't be there for your Dylan show - though I'm sure that quality goes down even further), and that the kit had everything you need in it for what came to less money. Also it seemed easier (bulkier) to manipulate all the controls.

Marco