Xm Or Sirius

[Shawn95GT]

My XM sounds great. How does your system come through your radio?

My unit is a Sirius Sportster Replay.

I've had it connected via line-in and via the FM modulator. The line input just managed to make it slightly louder. Quality was only marginally better than the modulator.

When I moved the unit to my new car, I retained the factory head unit and I'm now using the FM modulator.

I haven't tried an XM stand alone unit but I have listened to XM off of D* and it seemed to have the same quality issues. I'll have to get my hands on a XM unit to play with.

Shawn

 

[Bytor00]

I have been trying to decide which service to go with for a while. I have friends that have XM and others that have SIRIUS and now I have XM on my Direct TV so I have been able to sample both. In the end I think SIRIUS fits my music tastes better. I mostly listen to Classic Rock and there seems to be more available on SIRIUS. On XM Top Tracks is to much like regular radio and Deep Tracks is too obscure, The SIRIUS cannels seem to fall somewhere in-between.
It would be nice to have the Baseball but I have the Baseball Package on TV anyway.

Go Pats!

 

[uhlesses]

Went with XM because of Major League Baseball. If you are a Baseball fan XM will be your choice.

 

[Mark_AR]

I voted Sirius, but I haven't turned mine on in 3 months. I hate the Audiovox PNP2. Its big, clunky, HOT and am thinking about getting a Sportster instead.

 

[vinnyv07]

I have listened to music on both and prefer Sirius over XM. I have no idea about the talk radio but the music on Sirius is great.

 

[BillD]

I've selected Sirius for the NPR & BBC feeds.
However, I also want to listen to commercial free music with LOTS of variety.
Margaritaville is all Jimmy Buffet & James Taylor
The Bridge is all Springsteen
The Coffee House can't keep a mood -- Sheryl Crow -> Harry Connick -> Indigo Girls.
Reggae is really hip-hop/rap Reggae
And the Globe (supposedly World Music), is all Rolling Stones.

I have XM on my DirecTV at home.
XM Cafe and World are decent, but the Joint (Reggae) is also too heavy on the rap type.

I can't say that I like either one. It certainly doesn't seem to be worth the month for just a few 'decent' channels.

There's a world of music out there. I am impatiently waiting for one of these pioneering technologies to take the pioneering path in their programming content.

 

[dont24]

I'd say they're pretty much equal. The reason I chose XM is because it's standard in my wife's new Honda Pilot. Get it free for 3 months.

 

[jeslevine]

I was with Sirius but went with XM. XM has far superior receivers at much more reasonible prices, but the two big issues that caused me to leave Sirius is when then stopped broadcast Air America Radio and Fox.

Also for me the reception is far better with XM than it every was with Sirius

They have thrown all their eggs in one basket, and that is howard stern, and for me it is real easy to get tired of stern very quickly, and they have given him two streams.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I voted Sirius, but I haven't turned mine on in 3 months. I hate the Audiovox PNP2. Its big, clunky, HOT and am thinking about getting a Sportster instead.

FWIW, my Sporstser Replay gets pretty toasty too. In my last car I'd periodicly run the defroster with cool ir to cool it. On my current car it gets incidental blast from one of the A/C ducts.

This time of year it isn't too big of a factor but in the summer time the display would get hot enough that it was un-readable. I don't expect to have the problem with my current install.

Shawn

 

[dturturro]

From the comments I've read here it seems XMs biggest problem is the music programming. That's a fairly easy fix if XM get's the point that we aren't happy with nothing but B-sides.

Sirius' problems tend to be hardware based and that can be a time consuming fix. Sounds like the people that bought Sirius stock after the Stern deal are gonna be waiting a long time to see any solid returns.

 

[raydio]

I get a mental picture of my convertable going down the road with a BUD coming out of the trunk - lol.

Shawn

That reminds me of a very old episode of Southpark in which Cartman farts a very large satellite dish out his ass. I've had XM ever since they went on the air.

 

[BobMurdoch]

I couldn't disagree more. XM's strength IS its music diversity. If you are one of those who ONLY wants to hear songs that you have heard on commercial radio then go with Sirius. XM has a much deeper catalog which I consider a strength and not a weakness.

XM periodically runs "It". This is not the EBay IT you see in the ads, but a linear playing of every Billboard hit from the Depression to the Millenium. It takes them about a month. I'm in my glory when they get to the 80's and I hear ALL of the music I listened to in college.

As for the B Sides slam, that is mostly on channels dedicated to B sides like Fred (Alternative) and Deep Tracks (Classic Rock). Deep Tracks recently played "Sorrow" by Pink Floyd, a great track from A Momentary Lapse of Reason which came out in 1987 and was my second favorite album after The Wall (Yes, even better to me than Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here). I hadn't heard it in years and went home and added the album from my CD collection to my MP3 player and computer drive after hearing it again.....

 

[dturturro]

I have XM and I would occasionally like to hear a song that I've actually heard of before. I've tried the boneyard and all of the other rock stations (including top tracks) and I still can't find a consistently good channel. One good song, then 3 songs I've never heard of from artists I have heard of. I understand they're trying to distinguish themselves from terrestrial radio but with all those stations can we have one that plays current rock hits?

Yes, I got XM for O&A (and R&F), but it'd be nice to have a consistent music choice to compliment the superior talk/sports selections that XM brings to the table.

 

[directech06]

I have XM and I like it better than Sirius. I've heard both. The only thing I like about Sirius over XM is the NFL & SEC sports. I can do w/o the NFL but I would sure LOVE the SEC on XM. If XM got the SEC, Sirius could disappear and I would never know it. I'm also not fond of anything that supports an animal like Howard Stern. I know that he has the freedom to exist, that's what our troops are fighting for dispite the efforts of Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, ect.. but I have the right also to choose not to be a part of it and not support it. Thats why I'm with XM.

 

[dturturro]

Please keep the politics to yourself. Especially the intelligence-free politics.

 

[Chris Walker]

Sirius has much better music IMO, XM gets a little too obscure with what they play. I'd rarely hear a song I knew with XM.

 

[BobMurdoch]

That seems to boil the argument down right there. If you are one of those guys who loves the obscure stuff (as I do), go with XM as there are less repeats on most stations and there are boatloads of buried treasures to explore.

If you prefer singing along to songs you know, then stick with Sirius. It doesn't make one better or worse than the other, it's just a matter of preference. You can hear XM's music selection on AOL or D*. You can hear Sirius's on E*. Maybe you can talk a friend into letting you logon on their email address to evaluate for yourself via the PC based music players.

Either way, grab either one of them. You'll wonder why you stuck with ad jammed commercial radio as long as you did.

 

[dturturro]

You'll wonder why you stuck with ad jammed commercial radio as long as you did.

That really is the key. If you're one of those people saying "I'm not paying for radio", remember what you said about your dad when he said the same thing about cable

 

[biged007]

I thought I wrote your message myself.
I got both XM and Sirius for now! I love having NFL and SEC football too! I am a trucker and to be able to hear the hometown announcers on the road is fantastic. I havent heard the Alabama announcers in 20 years seems like a dream.
If it wasnt for the football and Kim Komando I would dump Sirius. Also I want to hear the Beer radio show on saturday, but is it always preempted by sports as well as the replay show on sunday morn. Either dont offer this stuff or put it on another channel!
The XM is a headunit and the Sirius is a FM mod........there is tremendous difference in sound quality. The XM antenna with the home unit will pickup inside the house just sitting the antenna on the tv table. I hear the Sirius antenna has to be outside, thats why I told my wife to forget buying me the Sirius boombox for Christmas.