Considering Sirius purchase

[Peter Parker]

I know that his has probably been covered a million times but I thought that i would throw this out.

I am considering the purcahse of a Sirius Sportster (or possibly Starmate) for my car. I am a DISH sub so familiar with the music offerings. My tastes are eclectic but include

Blues
Jazz
Classical
60-80s music
Sports

Baseball
NHL
College hockey
Hockey of any kind
NFL Football
NBA basketball

As far as talk goes rebroadcasts of Car Talk might be nice . My politics are moderate to liberal (they would be judged as liberal by folks in the political forums) but I am not into any of the daily political talk shows. As for Stern and O&A I never cared for either.

I realize that I will miss out on MLB but is there anything that anyone thinks I am missing in my analysis that Sirius might be a better pick for me.

FWIW my 21 year old son has Sirius I am not sure about piggybacking on his account.

 

[minorthr]

I know that his has probably been covered a million times but I thought that i would throw this out.

I am considering the purcahse of a Sirius Sportster (or possibly Starmate) for my car. I am a DISH sub so familiar with the music offerings. My tastes are eclectic but include

Blues
Jazz
Classical
60-80s music
Sports

Baseball
NHL
College hockey
Hockey
NFL Football
NBA basketball

As far as talk goes rebroadcasts of Car Talk might be nice . My politics are moderate to liberal (they would be judged as liberal by folks in the political forums) but I am not into any of the daily political talk shows. As for Stern and O&A I never cared for either.

I realize that I will miss out on MLB but is there anything that anyone thinks I am missing in my analysis that Sirius might be a better pick for me.

FWIW my 21 year old son has Sirius I am not sure about piggybacking on his account.

Starting with the 2007-08 season NHL will be on XM exclusively. Not sure if thats a deal breaker for you but thought I'd let you know. Also you could piggyback on your son's account.

 

[charper1]

I never use sports as my dealbreaker for radio either; so I would go with the Sirius and the piggybacked $6.99 add-ons.

 

[Peter Parker]

Starting with the 2007-08 season NHL will be on XM exclusively. Not sure if thats a deal breaker for you but thought I'd let you know. Also you could piggyback on your son's account.

Thanks . Losing both sports is something to think about.

 

[datwell]

Careful!! Sirius has been like crack-cocaine (just 1or 2 shots and you are hooked!)

The NFL channel is just super and I like the 50s, 60s, Classic Rock & Rolling Stones channels too. I'm hooked on Sirius - big time!

--Doug

 

[minorthr]

Thanks . Losing both sports is something to think about.

Yeah it can be. If your a big MLB and NHL fan and you plan on listening to tons of games then Sirius isnt going to get it done.

I have Sirius and XM so I have the best of both worlds. In my opinon football isnt a radio sport yeah the NFL channel is nice, but for me since I have eagles season tickets it doesnt matter kind of like Sunday ticket on D* doesnt matter.

 

[justinndover]

Sirius is like crack. Now with Stern online to I never stop listening to Sirius at all during the day. My wife is now hooked also, she had a rental car a few weeks back and she complained for the 2 days she didn't have the radio.

 

[Peter Parker]

Like I said Stern's appeal is lost on me. I hope that he rest of you enjoyhim but it is not my cup of tea.

 

[Sirius_Rich]

Like I said Stern's appeal is lost on me. I hope that he rest of you enjoyhim but it is not my cup of tea.

This page on Sirius' website may help you see what is available only on Sirius:

Only On Sirius

 

[Peter Parker]

Believe it or not i finally went with ab XM Sky Fi 2. Why? well an installation special for one but also I decided that if my two favorire sports are on XM----why not? I will miss a few things but many of them like car talk are available elsewhere.

 

[Peter Parker]

This page on Sirius' website may help you see what is available only on Sirius:

Only On Sirius

But some of what they list is NOT exclusive to them. BBC World Service for instance. Is it going to become exclusive or was it exclusive before? In fact a post in another forum indicated that it soon may be off Sirius altogether----but still on XM.

 

[minorthr]

Believe it or not i finally went with ab XM Sky Fi 2. Why? well an installation special for one but also I decided that if my two favorire sports are on XM----why not? I will miss a few things but many of them like car talk are available elsewhere.

Congrats on the purchase. You wont be disappointed with XM .

 

[dfergie]

I have been very happy with XM , but I was happy with Sirius... when you live in a radio wasteland choice is good

 

[wallypa]

Been with xm for about 2 years now and I love it. I listen mostly to the oldies music (40's 50s, 60s, etc). Especially on long trips, it is just what the doctor ordered. Plus I can listen to the SF Giants games anywhere. I'm pretty sure you'll like it too.

 

[kevlard1]

You can also compare the 2 at this website:
http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=Page&cid=1065475754125
Or for XM's version:
http://xmradio.com/learn/programming.jsp

 

[Peter Parker]

So far so good. There wasa glitch in activation but I got past that. On the weekend of the 320th i will takea long trip with my son (a Sirius sub) I am sure I will hear all the pluses and minuses.

 

[emtownsend]

Anyone know how long MLB will be on XM? Is it contracted to them I guess??
Thanks!

 

[Peter Parker]

The deal was signed in 2004. i see it reported as good for 10 or 11 years. So fora long time.

 

[TheForce]

I have been using XM internet connect on my PDA phone with miniXM portal and we have found it to be terriffic quality. However, on long trips, sometimes the internet connection is spotty and the XM gets spotty. I have the cell phone PDA connected to my great high end sound system in my Van, a Kenwood Excelon. OK, because of this brand system I decided to research the options for XM and found the system I have actually had an accessory box, a Sirius tuner that integrated with the system. After some searching for the discontinued tuner on ebay I actually discovered one available from the Kenwood dealer I originally had the system installed by back in 2002. He had an old tuner that was already activated with the lifetime and said he would sell it to me and I wouldn't need to activate it as he already had it done. The price was right so I went for it.
Now for the complaints. Keep in mind my introduction to sat radio was with the internet version of XM which really isn't sat radio.
1. Programming Sirius vs, XM- too close to call for music, IMHO.
Sirius plusses- I have the news and talk which is OK but preferred the music channels. Sirius has traffic and weather which is nice.
2. Quality- I must say that the sound of the XM was noticeably better than what I'm getting with Sirius. It seems that most of the Sirius channels only has mono music while my XM internet has excellent stereo separation except for some classic channels with older music. The dynamic range of the XM 64kbps on the internet vs. the Sirius satellite dynamic range is noticeably better with XM. The quality of similar music channels such as the rock channels sounds like AM rock channels while XM has mp3 like bass and highs. Voice on Stern's two channels is quite good but on XM the few talk channels, like the comedy I get is less quality on XM. Just the opposite for music. On most of the music Sirius channels there seems to be very little deep bass.

So my disappointment with the Sirius Satellite Radio has to do with mostly the appearance of very little stereo and lack of music sound quality. Can someone help me? Maybe there is something I'm doing wrong with my setup. Is it a fair comparison because I can A-B internet version of XM with Satellite version of Sirius? BTW- I also tested the online Sirius for a short while and felt the same way with it but thought that maybe the 34kbps Sirius uses for internet and maybe mono was just their internet version. I now believe that the satellite radio version is the same as the internet version. When my free test trials were over, I subscribed to the monthly XM internet service mainly due to the perception of it's obvious higher quality. If I had a choice of an XM tuner for my Kenwood system, I would have gone with that. I'm still looking foir an XM satellite tuner solution for my Kenwood, but the experts all say it was never done for my model, the KVT911.

 

[Sirius_Rich]

Don,

I have the Kenwood KVT 915 with Sirius and a Roady XT hard wired into the auxiliary port of the 915. I have an JL amped system with twin JL 10" subs and amped Alpine component door speakers. I find the XM sound tinny on talk and music "swirly" (my technical word). I suppose SQ is in the ear of the beholder and is somewhat subjective. I have spent a lot time fine tuning the 915 to give me the sound that I like. I do constantly adjust the bass with a rheostat controller. I listen to everything from Rap to Classical to talk and find the adjustable bass very handy.