Well after doing tons of research I plunged in for Sirius. All I can say is it is mind blowingly amazing. If any of you like trance, you have to check out stream 64...The Vortex it's dedicated non-stop Trance (you can listen to free 20 minute clips at Sirius.
Hardware:
I have the Audiovox SIRPNP1 and the car and home kit (I get a $70 rebate as a shareholder instead of the $50 in store). I hooked it up to my logitech Z560's (used a $5 splitter from Radioshack for the 4 channels). I haven't connected the car kit yet, since it's too cold out there to work on the car. The unit itself is a but chunky, but feels sturdy and well built. There is a nice jog dial for flipping thorugh the streams..much better than buttons.
Sound Quality:
I can't believe this is "radio". Using the home kit, I sound quality is about 95% that of a CD, and that 5% may be off just because I havent balanced the bass and treble (I'm used to the winamp equalizer, which this is not running through). I have the antenna sitting in my room near the window and am getting full signal. I thought I would have to place this in a "direct" view to the sky...hell no... I even placed it in my room and while the signal indicator was weak, it was still playing perfectly. I am very impressed with the highs and the lows... my floor is shaking and I'm loving it.
I havent listened to all the streams yet, just flipped over to the hip hop to check the bass and it was nice and thumping. The news and commentary streams have a noticeable drop in quality and sound like FM radio. Sirius provides more bandwidth to the music streams and lesser to the news, talk and comedy streams, which makes sense. I read at the siriusbackstage forums that they recently upgraded some component and it greatly improved sound quality. I dont know what it sounded like before, but is really clear now.
Well, thats it....some of the reasons I chose Sirius:
- Commercial Free
- Exclusive NPR
- A true trance stream (My "genre")
- Not partly owned by clear channel
- Cheaper hardware
- Quality of content is better than XM, from the reviews I've read.
For anyone considering satellite radio, make sure you do thorough research into the content and quality of Xm and Sirius, ultimately no matter which one you get...you will be happy.
Hardware:
I have the Audiovox SIRPNP1 and the car and home kit (I get a $70 rebate as a shareholder instead of the $50 in store). I hooked it up to my logitech Z560's (used a $5 splitter from Radioshack for the 4 channels). I haven't connected the car kit yet, since it's too cold out there to work on the car. The unit itself is a but chunky, but feels sturdy and well built. There is a nice jog dial for flipping thorugh the streams..much better than buttons.
Sound Quality:
I can't believe this is "radio". Using the home kit, I sound quality is about 95% that of a CD, and that 5% may be off just because I havent balanced the bass and treble (I'm used to the winamp equalizer, which this is not running through). I have the antenna sitting in my room near the window and am getting full signal. I thought I would have to place this in a "direct" view to the sky...hell no... I even placed it in my room and while the signal indicator was weak, it was still playing perfectly. I am very impressed with the highs and the lows... my floor is shaking and I'm loving it.
I havent listened to all the streams yet, just flipped over to the hip hop to check the bass and it was nice and thumping. The news and commentary streams have a noticeable drop in quality and sound like FM radio. Sirius provides more bandwidth to the music streams and lesser to the news, talk and comedy streams, which makes sense. I read at the siriusbackstage forums that they recently upgraded some component and it greatly improved sound quality. I dont know what it sounded like before, but is really clear now.
Well, thats it....some of the reasons I chose Sirius:
- Commercial Free
- Exclusive NPR
- A true trance stream (My "genre")
- Not partly owned by clear channel
- Cheaper hardware
- Quality of content is better than XM, from the reviews I've read.
For anyone considering satellite radio, make sure you do thorough research into the content and quality of Xm and Sirius, ultimately no matter which one you get...you will be happy.
