Satellite Radio: XM vs. SIRIUS

[Led Zeppelin]

I'm a newbie when it comes to satellite radio, so if you have any experience with SR, what are the differences between the two, besides the fact ClearChannel owns 30% of XM, which for that fact alone, would steer me toward Sirius. Looking to purchase in the very near future. If you get satellite radio, are you still able to listen to broadcast stations as well?

 

[TubStain]

Do a search!

Yes you can still listen to terrestrial radio, though your regular AM/FM button. I have Sirius, it's great, no problems.

Edit: This is what I wrote to LordJezo in a PM recently:

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. They also have weekend House Music programs.
3) Better and cheaper equipment and setup costs. I have an AudioVox PNP2 with a car kit and home kit for $150, which came with everything.
4) The Sirius display is MUCH better than the Delphi one, and doesnt get washed out in direct sunlight. It also allows you to remember 20 songs that it will let you know 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/artist/channel information without it being truncated.
5) Several of Sirius's stream jockeys have a very active presence in the online Community and message boards. 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) Sirius webstreams their music streams for free to subscribers, so you can listen online without extra hardware (XM requires extra hardware)

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". )

If you sign up for the annual contract, you get 3 months free, bringing the price per month to the same as XM.

Sound quality on both are pretty much the same, make sure any article or review you read online is current, as Sirius has updated their codecs multiple times. Note also that since this is digital technology, there is no fading like regular FM, either you get a signal or you dont. I've driven all along the east cost and midwest with my unit and didnt have any signal loss.

p.s. Eric Clapton will be guest DJ live on Sirius on March 19th at 6pm. If you dont get a unit by then, check it out online in the 20 min free sample clip.

 

[Nightfall]

I have XM and I love it. I don't listen to AM/FM radio anymore!

Take a look at the program lineup and make a decision from there. I know Sirius has live sports broadcasts and NPR. XM carries a slightly different lineup for a little cheaper price. I have a friend who has Sirius and I think the NHL broadcasts are pretty awesome. I might be tempted to give Sirius a shot if I already didn't have the equipment installed in my car.

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally posted by: TubStain Do a search!

I'm at work, can't really search, so I figured I'd ask you peeps. Any suggested sites?

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally posted by: Nightfall
I have XM and I love it. I don't listen to AM/FM radio anymore!

Take a look at the program lineup and make a decision from there. I know Sirius has live sports broadcasts and NPR. XM carries a slightly different lineup for a little cheaper price. I have a friend who has Sirius and I think the NHL broadcasts are pretty awesome. I might be tempted to give Sirius a shot if I already didn't have the equipment installed in my car.

Do the providers lock you into a contract like cell phone providers, or are you free to switch anytime? I assume the equipment is interchangable between the two.

 

[TubStain]

Originally posted by: BostonRedSox

Originally posted by: Nightfall
I have XM and I love it. I don't listen to AM/FM radio anymore!

Take a look at the program lineup and make a decision from there. I know Sirius has live sports broadcasts and NPR. XM carries a slightly different lineup for a little cheaper price. I have a friend who has Sirius and I think the NHL broadcasts are pretty awesome. I might be tempted to give Sirius a shot if I already didn't have the equipment installed in my car.

Do the providers lock you into a contract like cell phone providers, or are you free to switch anytime? I assume the equipment is interchangable between the two.

Equipment is not interchangeable yet, though FCC has given a time limit to both companies by when they have to manufacture dual units, but that wont be for some time (years) more.

Read my edit above.

 

[MoobyTheGoldenCalf]

I have XM and love it. I never listen to FM anymore. XM is cheaper especially if you pay in advance. You can get to cost down to around $7.50/mo if you preypay for 5 years. Plus you can still cancel anytime and they will refund the prorated portion. See here: XM Prices

Also for more XM info check out: XM411

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally posted by: TubStain
Do a search!

Yes you can still listen to terrestrial radio, though your regular AM/FM button. I have Sirius, it's great, no problems.

Edit: This is what I wrote to LordJezo in a PM recently:

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. They also have weekend House Music programs.
3) Better and cheaper equipment and setup costs. I have an AudioVox PNP2 with a car kit and home kit for $150, which came with everything.
4) The Sirius display is MUCH better than the Delphi one, and doesnt get washed out in direct sunlight. It also allows you to remember 20 songs that it will let you know 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/artist/channel information without it being truncated.
5) Several of Sirius's stream jockeys have a very active presence in the online Community and message boards. 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) Sirius webstreams their music streams for free to subscribers, so you can listen online without extra hardware (XM requires extra hardware)

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". )

If you sign up for the annual contract, you get 3 months free, bringing the price per month to the same as XM.

Sound quality on both are pretty much the same, make sure any article or review you read online is current, as Sirius has updated their codecs multiple times. Note also that since this is digital technology, there is no fading like regular FM, either you get a signal or you dont. I've driven all along the east cost and midwest with my unit and didnt have any signal loss.

p.s. Eric Clapton will be guest DJ live on Sirius on March 19th at 6pm. If you dont get a unit by then, check it out online in the 20 min free sample clip.

Thanks Tub, good info.

 

[Saulbadguy]

I'd say XM...they seem in better shape financially. I also see XM having a lot more live acts.