If that site "www.samknows.com" adsl measuring feature is accurate I am really suprised at the short range adsl really is. According to that I would get a maximum of 6 mb on adsl 2. I checked where the building was and considered this was just a 5-10 minute walk from my house! When people kept mentioning the distance ADSL reaches I really never expected it to be this short.
I would side with the discussion that says "some people have great connection, some have bad connection with Virgin Media so opinions would vary allot on this subject. Also I have never had ADSL in this area so cannot have an opinion on that side. I do admit the upside and downside to cable is that it reaches ALOT further than adsl so has has alot more consumers and maybe too many consumers for the companies own good