Anyone run satellite radio in your vehicle? worth it?

[compuwiz1]

I heard an ad today, saying 10's of thousands of people are cancelling the service. This ad might have been biased, as it came from an fm radio station. So, what's the truth about it? Is it expensive? Does it sound good, etc?

 

[notfred]

Why would I need satellite radio? Sacramento and San Francisco have perfectly decent radio stations that play not only the generic national stuff, but plenty of local norcal music that I wouldn't hear on satellite.

 

[compuwiz1]

Originally posted by: notfred
Why would I need satellite radio? Sacramento and San Francisco have perfectly decent radio stations that play not only the generic national stuff, but plenty of local norcal music that I wouldn't hear on satellite.

Kinda what me thinks too, notfred. I was just checking in to make sure I'm not missing anything. I don't really see the bennies.

 

[Spoooon]

From past threads on the subject, the consensus seems to be that, if you do a lot of lengthy driving, it might be worth it. Otherwise, no. Unless you have plenty of disposable income.

 

[Colt45]

pay for radio? nevar!

 

[minendo]

I have Sirius installed in the Stealth. Had it put in before one of my several drives from IN to TX. Equipment was free and the montlhly service was only $13. I listened to the same station for 17.5 hours straight and never once heard a repeat.

It is extremely nice in that there are no ads, hundreds of stations, little replay, and saves me from having to search for new stations as I lose the old ones.

 

[StageLeft]

I would never consider it unless i did a lot of cross country driving.

 

[AvesPKS]

The main draw for me is the comedy stations. Personally, stand-up comedy makes a trip go by so fast it's not funny.

 

[Aves]

Since I spend 1.25 hours in the car each way to work I'm really considering XM. I like the idea of the units that can go from your car to in your home.

 

[JustinGoodie]

Originally posted by: AvesPKS
The main draw for me is the comedy stations. Personally, stand-up comedy makes a trip go by so fast it's not funny.

hell yeah... XM Comedy is the greatest... not only is standup a good thing to listen to while out on the road, but you also hear all of the really good comedians that you wouldn't otherwise...
the music channels are great too, as of the beginning of February, XM went commercial-free on all music channels (huge bonus)

 

[Jzero]

Aside from exposure to "new" material, I don't see any benefit over a CD changer or MP3 jukebox, so I'm sticking to what I've got.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: minendo
I have Sirius installed in the Stealth. Had it put in before one of my several drives from IN to TX. Equipment was free and the montlhly service was only $13. I listened to the same station for 17.5 hours straight and never once heard a repeat.

It is extremely nice in that there are no ads, hundreds of stations, little replay, and saves me from having to search for new stations as I lose the old ones.

If this really catches on, give it about 5 years, and watch what happens to the quality of the service... Remember the promise of cable tv? Better programming, fewer commercials...

 

[sohcrates]

i love my xm

i hate regular radio

does anyone listen to stern? he talks all the time about how once regular radio kicks him off he is gonna go straight to satellite radio and make it huge. kinda funny

 

[Saulbadguy]

Its worth every penny. I don't listen to crappy FM anymore. I love it when all the FM stations have commercials on at all the same time. And their freaking commercial breaks last forever. Screw that. XM=better quality, no commercials, 100 some stations.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Originally posted by: Jzero
Aside from exposure to "new" material, I don't see any benefit over a CD changer or MP3 jukebox, so I'm sticking to what I've got.

comedy, talk, news, sports talk , etc etc etc.

 

[Muadib]

My new TL will have XM in it, so for 3 months I'll have it. I'm pretty sure it will be gone after that though.

 

[RossMAN]

My longest trip is 30 minutes, so it's not really worth it.

 

[boomdart]

It's worth it to me; I hate commercials, and there are pure techno stations, which is the majority of what I listen to.

 

[aircooled]

I have XM. I will never 'not' have satellite radio from this point forward. Money well spent!

 

[boomdart]

Originally posted by: Colt45
pay for radio? nevar!

Muahahha

I've been laughing for days at your reply with "nevar!"

hahahahha

which really helps because I think I'm going to shoot myself in the face from depression ~_~

 

[Dowfen]

Best thing I ever did. I drive about 1 - 1.5 hours a day and it has made the commute at least 100% better. I was so tired of commercials. Now I don't listen to a single commercial in the car. I've got Sirrius because at the time XM still had commercials on their music stations, so I can't give an opinion on which is better. There's always something new to listen to.

 

[rh71]

What's satellite radio ? Are the ruskies broadcasting some good stuff from the space station or sumpin' ? ¬

 

[bmacd]

maybe i should get this...The only time i EVER listen to FM is when i'm changing CDs. I can't stand commercials or talk radio.

-=bmacd=-

 

[compuwiz1]

Ok, well my questions have been answered. I felt that it might offer some earth shattering, CD quality sound, but radio is just radio, sans the commercials, I guess. I suppose I could see the benefits over long range travel, but CD's are still my friend.

 

[TubStain]

I post this in all the satellite radio threads:

Let me start out that, no matter which service you choose, you will be happy.

When I purchased Sirius in Nov 2003, I went with Sirius for the following reasons:

1) 100% commerical free right from the beginning. They seemed to be more about the music and dedicated to it. (XM just went commercial free this month)
2) They support trance music more tham XM and had a Trance channel, which sadly they axed, but they moved it to daily trance shows and one long weekend show on another Dance channel
3) Better and cheaper equipment and setup costs. I have an AudioVox PNP2 with a car kit and home kit.
4) The Sirius display is MUCH better than the Delphi one, and doesnt get washed out in direct sunlight like the Delphi Unit. It also allows you to remember 20 songs that it will let you knwo are playing on any stream. I have 20 of my favorites there and when its playing I get a beep and have the option of listening to it and switching channels. It also displays more characters than the 16 that XM is limited to, so I get a lot more song and artist information without it being cut off.
5) Several of Sirius's stream jockeys have a very active presence in the "Community" and listen to their listened. Case in point DJ Victor Dinaire who programs some Kickass Trance music and posts on the Sirius Backstage forums. I would definitely recommend you go there and read as much as you can and you will learn a lot. Do not freak out about any problems people are having. As with any technology there are some glitches here and there, but overall it's a great experience.
6) They Have NPR, XM doesnt
7) If you are into sports, this year is going to be great for Sirius. They have NFL, NHL, NBA and ESPN. If you tune into a stream, the display will show you the score! of the current game XM only has NASCAR and ESPN. You will be able to listen to your home games should you ever have to move.
8) In the Future, Sirius is promoting data and video as well with Tiered pricing, and should be available in a year or so. They plan on 3-4 streams of video, mostly cartoons and MTV stuff to keep kids busy on long trips. They are also going to be promoting their data streams to allow you to select stocks and get the quotes live etc. Pretty nice, and definitely something I could have used on my long trip.
9) Web streaming of the radio channels so you can listen at work if you want (I do).

I did my research and chose Sirius. I would strongly recommend you go to www.sirius.com and click on listen and select a stream. You will get to listen for 20 minutes and it will reset the 20 minutes if you change streams, so you can listen to it nonstop and really review the product and this is LIVE, so what you hear is what all subscribers are hearing. It is not a soundbyte. Also, the quality of the online streams arent the best, so dont assume that it actually sounds like that. I reviewed the streams for a while before going with it. Also the talk and news streams are not online due to legal reasons (they can only put online stuff that is done "in-house". )


Let me know if you want more details. Again, I strongly recommend you go to Siriusbackstage and read up. Also check out the photographs of CES.