Which is the better satellite radio and why?

 

XM is cheaper but has commercials. My friend Brian has that and says that its not that good and often is annoyed that he cannot find anything on that strikes his fancy. On the other hand, Sirius is a little more money but doesn't have advertisments, and has a better selection. If money isn't a huge issue, i'd go with Sirius.

 

I was reading somewhere that many local radio stations will start broadcasting digital radio signals in the near future. They will not have any improved range, but the sound quality will be much better. I think all you will need is either a reciever that is capable of decoding the signal or a seperate D/A converter. Should pretty much put the final nail in the coffin for both XM and sirius.

 

digital FM wont touch XM at all. People choose XM for the content, not the quality. I love XM for the alternative, electronic, world and reggae genre's. You gonna hear Minor Threat at 3pm any where on your FM dial (digital or not)? Nope... Gonna hear Bob Marley's last, unreleased concert on FM? Not likely.

Digital FM will simply release some of the bandwidth for FCC to take back for other uses, just like dTV. Just like digital did for the cellular bands, it requires 1/6 of the bandwith as analog.. and freeing up the airwaves for other services (and more money for the FCC).

As for Sirius VS XM, the XM commericials are no more than 2-6 mins per hour, thats 400% less than the 15-24 min average on some FM.

XM and Sirius are constantly tweaking their codecs. Compression is a tricky thing to the human ear.. what I dont mind, you may think sounds like crap. I will pick out artifacts that you wont and vise versa. From a technical stand point, they both take turns having better or worse sound quality.

I suggest clubxm.com (has sirius forums too - good start) and XMfan.com (XM only)

When I have had any complaints about programming, the XM program directors usually repond personally and right away. Once you have XM or Sirius, you'll laugh when people compare to any FM in ANY market. It's like saying "whats so good about HBO shows, I get ABC for free?"

You also wont buy into that stuff them going anywhere soon. Thats also like saying "PBS has documentaries for free, so HBO cant possibily stay in business." Everyone agrees, even if they burn their cash in q3 2003, they file, they would come back stronger and better. thats what many investors are waiting for on both XM and siruis. The service isnt in question, only the financing/debt they picked up in the late 1999's to launch.


Truthfully, I chose XM for the equipment choices.. I have the pioneer 903 and the Delphi Skifi with home and car kits (2 accounts).

 

Yeah, and my Kenwood HU is Sirius compatible.

 

I'm sure you can tell which one I subscribe to(nick), but lemme get the facts straight. Digital radio, which will start rolling out next year will have better sound quality, and you will need to buy a new radio. But, it will be the same repetitive content and commercials.

On the other hand, Sirius and XM's content FAR surpases any FM radio station. Sirius is 100% unedited commercial free and XM has @20 commercial free channels. What people dont realize is that as XM gets more popular, their commercials will increase. More advertisers will want to use their service as their subscribers grow. Trust me, this is a FACT.

Sadly, right now you have to choose Sirius or XM based on which hardware brand you like. Sirius works with Kenwood, Clarion, Panasonic, Audiovox, and Jensen....and XM with Pioneer, Alpine, and Sony. In the future most brands will be compatible with both.

30 years ago everyone said nobody will pay for cable TV, look at it now....

You also can adapt ANY radio to receive satellite or buy a whole new HU.

 

yeah, I hate the fact that XM has Clear Channel as an investor. So far the commercials havent been intrusive. If they get anywhere near FM, I'll dump them in a second. As I think ALOT of subs would. We'll see.

I think there's room for both services, I hope they both thrive. Sirius really needs a SkyFi type unit.

 

Yes, there is plenty room for both services...@110 million commuters out there! I believe they will both succeed exponentially as next year rolls around. Sirius' SkyFi type unit(also called plug-n-play) will be out around Jan/Feb next year.

 

Sirrus has the better sat system cuz they have a triangulating system of 3 over XM's 2. I think XM is worse cuz of so much talking, but the rock stations are much better. XM does a thing on one rap station where they play a new cd on tuesdays. Sirrius to me as a little more veritiy per channel.

 

Sirius is commercial free but you pay a little more than XM

 

the only stations where you will hear alot of talking is the pop/mtv/top 20/kiss channels, and I think that is to be expected on those. Past that, there is VERY little talking compared to FM for the other genres.

 

To me the channels that I was listining to at the time all had a rather large amount of talking compared to Sirrius, far far better than normal radio though.

 

I've went through two different headunits that had both XM and Sirrius. I personally like the Sirrius much better because there are basically no commercials. But you do pay $3 more a month for this though. Also I think I get better reception with Sirrius They must have more repeaters in my area..

 

I went with XM in my work vehicle. I like the station called "Deeptracks" as it plays lots of old Rock n Roll and not the stuff you hear on classic radio stations. Did you ever hear the Jefferson Airplane version of "Wooden Ships"? Wow, I didn't even know it existed. I live in RFN (Radio Free Nevada) and regardless of what stations go digital, I need the XM.