I have the factory-installed Sirius tuner on my 2009 S40, and I'm on the 6-month trial subscription. So far I'm not that impressed with the sound quality. Many of the Sirius stations sound like compressed Internet audio, and on the traffic station I listen to (BOS-PHL) it sounds almost like I get "static" or what sounds like a loose speaker, although the sound quality is fine when I use other audio sources (radio, iPod)

Is this a problem with the car or with the service? Is there anything I can do to make it better?

 

Personally I've never used Sirius or any satellite radio. If it's that big of deal for you, you could probably bring it to the dealer and have them listen to it. It's a new car so the dealer should pretty much do whatever you tell them too. If the sound quality from CD/ regular radio is OK, I would say the problem should lie with the Sirius.

 

Had it checked out at the dealer on my last service visit...guess all checks out OK and the problem's with the service itself.

Good thing is that, with the leaves falling, I'll have fewer dropouts...I think...

 

I had the same problem, but with an external unit that the dealer mounted in the car.

My reception was never good in the city or areas with radio antennas. The dealer said it is the Sirrus service and interference from trees. It is not the service or trees. I found the external unit had another satellite antenna that caused the static noise. When I covered the wire with my hand, the noise went away. I replaced the transmitter with another model and it fixed the problem. I wonder if you have another "wire type" antenna that's causing the problem.

 

Only antenna I have that I know of is the shark fin type one on the roof...it's the factory sound system that comes standard with the 2009 model.