Audio: XM Satellite Radio reception in Model S

[rbmartin]

I agree, XM quality is pretty lousy. Not just in the Tesla but in other cars also. It's fine if you just want to have some music on in the background or listen to news. If I really want to listen to music I stream from my phone.

I'm also becoming a fan of Slacker in the car. Much better audio quality than XM.

[Cottonwood]

I know, but I'm not sure that Sarasota qualifies as a "major city"

I was around town today and coverage seemed ok, but I lost signal a couple of times on the barrier islands.

When out of range of the urban repeaters, the SirusXM signal is essentially line of sight to the satellite. The satellites are in geosynchronous orbit over the equator. I don't have the calculations nearby, but in Florida, the elevation angle above the horizon should be about 50˚ or so, so you would have to be under an overpass or behind a tree or tall bush the south of you. This time of year (low sun angle), if you are in the sun mid-day, you have a very good chance of getting the SirusXM signal. In Seattle, the elevation angle is about 30˚ and at Eureka, Nunavut, Canada, the elevation angle is only a couple of degrees above the horizon. Of course the SirusXM satellite antenna beam pattern doesn't cover Eureka and you can't drive to Eureka...

[NigelM]

....in Florida, the elevation angle above the horizon should be about 50˚ or so, so you would have to be under an overpass or behind a tree or tall bush the south of you.

Ahem, that's exactly why it's a problem around town and Florida does have a few palm trees dotted around.. Over my first 6 days now I've hit several areas where the signal drops. Note that Sirius and XM use different broadcast satellites.

[Cottonwood]

Ahem, that's exactly why it's a problem around town and Florida does have a few palm trees dotted around.. Over my first 6 days now I've hit several areas where the signal drops. Note that Sirius and XM use different broadcast satellites.

Sirius and XM use different satellites, but both are geosynchronous satellites over the equator. They just have different locations in longitude some degrees apart east-west.

[NigelM]

Sirius and XM use different satellites, but both are geosynchronous satellites over the equator. They just have different locations in longitude some degrees apart east-west.

Sirius satellites are geosynchronous but XM satellites are geostationary. Take a look here: Satellite-Radio-in-Florida

[michiganmodels]

I activated Sirius/XM in my Model S (I have the Pano roof). The reception is great. I have not dropped the signal after one week of use. However, my Sirus/XM does not pull album art (it does pull album art for FM, Slacker, Bluetooth iPhone, etc.). Does anyone else have this problem?

[spatterso911]

I activated Sirius/XM in my Model S (I have the Pano roof). The reception is great. I have not dropped the signal after one week of use. However, my Sirus/XM does not pull album art (it does pull album art for FM, Slacker, Bluetooth iPhone, etc.). Does anyone else have this problem?

Are there any sirius/XM radios that display album art? I wonder if that data is even transmitted...I have no idea.

[AnOutsider]

The artist and title of the track is sent, but so many stations send over jibberish with it like the hosts twitter handle and such

[cinergi]

Are there any sirius/XM radios that display album art? I wonder if that data is even transmitted...I have no idea.

The Model S gets the album artwork by looking up the album/track text that is sent with the audio and fetching it via its own 3G connection (important to understand AnOutsider's comment above).

[spatterso911]

The Model S gets the album artwork by looking up the album/track text that is sent with the audio and fetching it via its own 3G connection (important to understand AnOutsider's comment above).

Awesome feature. I suppose it is possible then, provided there is enough metadata sent to distinguish song/artist of similar name.