zand02max

iTrader: (22)

What all do I need? Looking at a mobile unit that I can play in both cars and at home.

Thoughts? Whats the best/cheapest place to buy it? Sirrus or XM? Pros/ Cons, thanks!

Kaitain

iTrader: (3)

XM:

Pros -
Sounds a little better than Sirius.
Has better equipment.
Opie & Anthony, Howard Stern ripoffs but still funny.

Cons -
Its music and DJs are a little lame. It's really no different than the cr4ppy radio that has destroyed old timey radio.
Is partly owned by Clear Channel Communications (aka The Devil). Regardless of what has been said about CCC selling it's shares, they just put it in a holding company because CCC has such a negative image they had to hide the fact that they are part owners.

Sirius:

Pros-
Howard Stern, Howard Stern, oh, and Howard Stern.
Has some of the best DJs in the industry.
Has much, much better (read broader and less cookie cutter) playlists and DJs.

Cons -
Sound isn't quite as good as XM's but you probably won't notice it because neither of them have really good sound. If you're an audiophile you won't be happy with the quality of the music sound.
Is at least a generation behind in its hardware and it really shows but they are quickly catching up.

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I own a few Sirius radios and the primary reason I went with Sirius is Howard Stern. Now that I have it I can't live without it; I about went mental when I had it out of my car for a day when I was doing some software development for the unit.

pingrr

I would recomend XM. Who wants to get serious ans Listen to Howard boo hoo Stern. I used to be a stern fan but now all he does is complain about how everybody is trying to screw him. XM has about 3 to 4 times the subcriber base. There is probably a reason for this.

+1 for XM tell um Fred

Nazar

iTrader: (18)

We used to sell a lot of Xm and now the ratio is turning, I am seeing a lot of customers canceling XM and getting Sirius. We still carry both. But Sirius is more popular lately.

Sirius has a new piece that just came out you should check out. Sirius S50 It is the Hootest thing out right now.

desiZ

iTrader: (2)

came pre-installed in my girl's car, and i like it a lot , never need mp3 cd's when i drive her car.. reception is good even in an underground garage believe it or not...
there are 8 or so stations per music type... good music & only a handful of yapping DJ's

KTaylor

iTrader: (17)

+1 the music on Sirius is alot better the XM music sux.

Lemans350

I am debating this too, we just got Satelite radio in Canada basically this week. You can sign up for a free online trial (3days) for each service and listen to all the channels online to guage the content.

My XM trial is almost up and i will start with Sirius after that. It really depends what you want to listen to. For me, i want Trance/House/Electronic music, XM only has 2 channels, Sirius has 4. I couldnt care less about anything else really, but since i cant get the content i want on my local FM stations, i am forced to consider paying for it with satellite.

md1400cs

I added XM in my car along with the system upgrade. XM sounds good but very weak programing.
I have Sirius at home. It came along with Dish Network. Sirius is soooo much better, I plan on pulling XM out of my car and adding Sirius.
MJD

Nazar

iTrader: (18)

My favorite Sirius Channel is 36 The Beat. They don't just play the song they mix into the song with various different beats and music.

hondagal

OOhhh....The Beat...excellent channel! I like Chill too, esp for the stressful ride home.

I had XM for a year or so. I went with it initially cuz it was cheaper than Sirius. After listening to the free trial of Sirius I switched and am sooooo glad I did. More channels playing lots of different music. I like Rock...hard, soft, head banging...and I can find whatever music I'm in the mood for. XM doesn't have much of a rock selection for my tastes and I found myself only listening to 3 or 4 channels. Sirius, on the other hand, has alot of rock channels. I don't listen to Sirius for Howard...I could care less about him. I listen because of the diverse music and talk channel selections. Oh yeah, and of course the NFL broadcasts are great especially because I don't root for my local teams.

Try out the Sirius online free trial. It's not canned music, it's the same as what's being broadcast. You're the only one who can make your decision for what's best for you. Everyone has their own preferences which may not be the same as yours. If you have friends maybe they'll let you listen to their sat radio.

Kaitain

iTrader: (3)

It cracks me up when I hear people say this. Yeah, going from 600,000 subscribers to 3,000,000 in one year is a really a horrible business practice.

Well, you have to listen to what you like. I actually like the current show MUCH more and find it way more interesting. I was never really a listener till he started bashing that a-hole Bush and that's when I found him really, really entertaining. Hearing about lesbians never did much for me, I didn't find it offensive just boring, but now that I understand Stern's humor better I enjoy it.

I've heard a few people call in to the show and complain about the complaining and they always seem to have missed the point. Some of the funniest stuff is when Tom comes in and tries to justify his insane BS, it's just funny to hear this corporate guy getting cornered and busted for being such an a-hole.

But hey, to each his own. I actually like both Howard and O&A, I download the O&A shows off the torrent sites on occasion but don't listen to them as much simply because it's less convenient. One of my favorite O&A skits is the Buttplug one... lmfao...

JRinTXrog

My wife has Sirrus in her Xterra, It is the bomb. 008 is the best. Maxim Radio. My wife says it is locker room radio. but it is entertaining. We have the Sporster Replay. it has a large display and light controlls on it and mkes it nice to use. It has everything you need to hook it up in the car. They sell the home adapter kits for $50.00 or you can buy a boom box for around $100.00. Its worth the buy if you listen to the radio alot. We just took a 1000 mile road trip during Thanksgiving and it was great. Never had a problem haveing to find a station everytime we traveled thru a different city.

Travisf@i-a-v.c

XM. I've made friends with it over the past 3 years. I don't need TWO satellite radio companies. If I actually liked talk radio, I'd just listen to AM.

Forrest80

go with Sirius.

Howardstern will bring Sirius to the top, they are going to make more money and able to give you better programming.

You dont even have to like him or listen to him but hes going to be the work horse that pulls the carrage. He will generate Sirius money. He already is and he isnt even on the air there YET, its only going to get better.

Eventualy i see Sirius destroying XM, xm will end up selling to Sirius and eventualy it becomes a universal medium combined and the price lowers even more.

But up to you.

Sisko99

Usually when one company destroys it's only opponent, prices don't go down, Forrest80. When you don't have competition, you can charge whatever you want because there is no alternative. Now granted there is a point at which some people will say screw it and just cancel the service...but if one or the other goes under, don't expect prices to drop.

That being said, I've had XM for about 3 years now. I love it. I spend a lot of time 47, 48 and 54. All of those are alternative/hard rock channels. I've never had any complaints with the service...or what's being broadcast. In truth, I've heard a lot of stuff on XM that I would never have heard on regular radio.

Also, take into account that XM has the rights to MLB. While Sirius has the NFL...I suppose it really comes down to what you care about.

Now I know this was true when I was researching all this before I got it, but I know that XM and Sirius had fundamentally different distribution architectures. Maybe this has changed...but somehow I think that would be kinda difficult. As I remember it, Sirius fed Ground Based Repeater Stations from the satelite and from those GBPS's the signal went out to the customer where as XM fed the customer straight from the satelite and then boosted the signal in urban and other problem areas with GBRS's. As I said, I don't know if this is true anymore....

Anyway, as soon as I get my new headunit, I'll be moving my XM service over to my Z. I can't wait to be done with the talking heads and commercials on regular radio. BTW...why on Earth would you buy either service based upon DJs? For me the entire point of getting the thing was so I didn't have to listen to people yammer at me.

Forrest80

You are right normaly compitition makes prices lower and with out compitition if one owned the other obviously they could sky rocket prices up. But you have to understand the real compitition is "free radio" They want to compete with free radio, only way to do that is lower prices. I figure once they are one company with that many subscribers they can lower the price, but maybe im wrong.

And who buys raidios for DJ's from what i understand XM was leading but now, Sirius by christmas will be the leader, why? becuase of one single DJ.

But you are right its what ever you care about, but my predictions i still feel will come true.

netminder32

.


I had an interesting encounter with my dealership today, I went
in to ask about taking them up on their offer of having Sirius or
XM added to my 35th Anniv Z, at dealer cost. Anyway, when they
looked in their handy dandy computer, it said the sat. antenna, for
either sat. provider, was no longer available.

Are they kidding?? This does not sound right.

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?






.

MIAPLAYA

iTrader: (3)

I have XM in my Z and my Titan. Honestly if my older Alpine deck supported Sirius tuners I would have gone Sirius in my Z. I agree that XM while it has a freaking billion channels doesn't have enough of what the mainstream of people want to hear. One oldschool channel, one unedited hip hop channel that plays a LOT of random crap that either sucks or is so underground no ones heard of it, and one hits channel for hip hop that is edited. I actually listened to XM online radio the other day and the Online only hip hop channel was WAY better then the channels they have in the car. Ditto for rock and punk. I listen to the comedy channel more then anything else I think.