Which Sat Radio?

[black roadster]

Which do you prefer and why?

[Treibenschnell]

As in head unit or service... 'cause I thought both of the previous services merged into one.

[Titus]

Which do you prefer and why?

I have been thinking about it too. I love the Sirius that I get at home via Dish Network, but XM has MLB so I'll probably get XM if I get it.

[Titus]

As in head unit or service... 'cause I thought both of the previous services merged into one.

IIRC, your good friends the FCC nixed the deal.

[black roadster]

As in head unit or service... 'cause I thought both of the previous services merged into one.

Thinking of adding it to my Sony HU. It's XM ready but I think they have units to make it work with Sirius too. I threw HD in there as it is another available option although it would require me to get a new HU.

BTW, can you run multiple devices off one account? Say if I had Sat Radio on my HU and a portable model?

[Titus]

BTW, can you run multiple devices off one account? Say if I had Sat Radio on my HU and a portable model?

Both XM and Sirius is $12.95/month for the first headunit and $6.99 for each one after that. HD is free.

[Treibenschnell]

IIRC, your good friends the FCC nixed the deal.

I didn't know that...

Nothin' wrong with a little competition for each provider!

[Magma]

I like Sirius for Stern, NFL, Nascar, and I personally think that the music channels are better. Just my

[Radio-Active]

I have XM and think it has more varieties of music from the lists I listen to, but I like the fact that Sirius offers the lifetime service, if you can afford it. Some of the newer Sony head units are able to use the Sony HD radio tuner. I really like the ability to listen to the same radio channels in the middle of nowhere.


I have heard the HD radio on a home unit and the stations are more numerous, but the unit I had did not tune in the HD channels very well. The signal was a little week in Allen and HD frequencies do not travel near as far as analogue.

As far as sports and talk radio, Sirius is by far the way to go, but who needs a stereo to listen to that??? Why not get a short wave radio and listen to all the free sports and talk you want.

[Radio-Active]

On another note, Sirius offers the backseat TV for the kids entertainment.

I think that the XM Navtraffic is a neat option, but have not wanted to spend the money.

I am about a month and a half away from deciding which service, if any, I will switch to. I got Screwed by an XM screwup and have not been happy with their billing department. I purchased a 5 year agreement before they upped the price and they somehow used my money to pay for two years of service without my knowledge and said they used it to pay down the other four recievers. I got them to give me a free year of service, but I am still short by two years.

[trickyrix]

I got Sirius because of NFL and Stern. Music-wise, I think it's a wash. I love having it on long trips - the iPod gets a little boring sometimes. IIRC, I had a choice when I got my Alpine (it just says "Sat Radio Ready" on the unit), but I never could locate an XM box for it.

Last I heard, the merger was still pending...

BTW, Earmark installed the Sirus for me... nothing shows and the reception is perfect.

[XM_Rocks]

XM has more ground repeaters... so you may be able to get service in your office building or home.

My last office had good XM reception and I was in the middle of the building.

[trickyrix]

XM has more ground repeaters... so you may be able to get service in your office building or home.

My last office had good XM reception and I was in the middle of the building.

And both services let you listen online if you have a subscription...

[icepenguin66]

Sirius all the way! Better stations, better programming. Especially if you like EDM! Sirius gets all the big name DJ's for shows and live broadcast.

btw, XM sucks! :P

[XM_Rocks]

On another note, Sirius offers the backseat TV for the kids entertainment.

Is that out yet? Clayton was pumping that at the 2004 CES conference.

And both services let you listen online if you have a subscription...

The IT folks cracked down on that here where I work.

Sirius all the way! Better stations, better programming. Especially if you like EDM! Sirius gets all the big name DJ's for shows and live broadcast.

btw, XM sucks! :P

They both have good points and bad points.

Your posts above makes me think you havent spent much time with XM.

XM has deeper playlists and more bandwith so they dont have to compress their streams.

XM has Artist Confidential and Bob Dylan's show which is great.

My wife is also a huge Howard Stern fan but after listening to Sirius on the web she chose to stay with XM because of the music. Then we subscribed to Howard TV for her fix.

XM also has a commited DFW Traffic Channel... Sirius shares Houston and DFW the last time I checked.

I agree that Sirius has more mainstream music.

It will be great if the FCC approves the merger! Then maybe both companies can survive.

I personally have been an XM subscriber since 11/2001 (one of the first 5,000)... I also held lots of shares in XM and a few in Sirius between 2003 and 2006.

At one point I dialed in to every quarterly conference call.

A word to the wise... dont prepay for over a years subscriptions. Also dont feel bad about negotiating a monthly rate. Both companies are hurting for subs.

[MadMonkey]

I had Sirius for a few months when I bought the Integra (mooching off my brother's account ) and I really enjoyed it. I previously had XM, and personally, I like Sirius much better. Doubt I'll pay money every month to listen to the radio when I have an Mp3 capable head unit, though...

[Radio-Active]

They both have good points and bad points.

...XM has deeper play lists and more bandwidth so they don't have to compress their streams...

...I agree that Sirius has more mainstream music...

To these points...

Personally, the whole reason I chose satellite radio in the first place was because I really hate DJ chatter. I want to listen to music and not some stupid idiot on the radio wasting time cutting up about his stupid shenanigans.

I don't care for talk radio and my music interests include much more than what is offered on the FM broadcast band.

I have had XM since before Sirius was offered in the Dallas area.

One of the new advantages that XM has that will keep me with them is the new mini-tuner card that alows you to take a Gameboy sized cartridge and place it in several different radios to where you can have a single subscription on multiple radios.


As far as HD radio:
HD radio tuners still have some work to do to buffer the music so that it is'nt cutting out all of the time.

[XM_Rocks]

HD Radio... good sounding commercials.

XM bought a company that was supposed to allow for HD Sat Service... it was going to increase their bandwith by 3X.

It didnt pass muster with the feds and was canned.

It would be nice to have HD quality with no commercials.

[MiataMike]

I have XM in my car but I only got it because it was free via a buddy hookup. (Full Demo version) Otherwise I'd of gotten Sirius. I have 3 other friends that have Sirius and 2 others that have XM. I have listened to both for a couple of years now; and I perfer Sirius. Sirius programming is far better than XM with less talking. They also offer more uncensored music and comedy than XM does.

My last poing is, it really doesn't matter what you get because Siruis will own XM soon enough. :-D

[trickyrix]

HD Radio... good sounding commercials.

Exactly...

I could give a rat's ass about HD Radio since I mainly listen to the Ticket anyhow - so Hi-Fi ain't a huge concern there. There's not a whole lot of good (new) music on the radio here in town (The Edge? puh-leeze...).