XM vs. Sirius

[showtime]

Being on the road over 2 hours a day, I'm getting sick of flipping through channels when commercials come one. I've always wanted satelite radio and finally decided to get one. I just don't know which one is better. My CD player is Sirius ready so all I have to do is buy the antenae. I have to buy the whole reciever + antenae for XM.....about $200 more. My brother has Sirius and I can get on his plan for only $7 a month. Financially, Sirius is much cheaper but I haven't listened to either. Any opinions?

[Shiny Lil Detlr]

I think it really depends on what you want to listen to. I have and prefer XM, because it has more content aimed toward my musical tastes; I find it has alot more variety of different genres. Sirius is semingly aimed at a younger demographic, and features different sports channels, etc.

I would go to both xmradio.com and sirius.com and sign up for the free trial of their "streaming radio" webcast. Peek around the channels and see what you like, what you don't, etc.

[Superior Shine]

I have XM and don't like it too much. I listen mostly to classic Cuban to modern salsa and latin jazz. For every good song I get 20 really bad ones.


I have better luck with www.shoutcast.com for live streaming music that I record and listen to in the car.


Having said all that I still have it and leave it on the latin jazz for decent back ground music.

Like what was posted already, it depends what type of music you listen to.

[Mosca]

I have XM and love it.

But if your radio is Sirius ready and you can piggyback on his plan, do it and don't look back. I don't think in the end that there's that much difference, that you should go buy a new receiver and pay more per month.

The only reason I picked XM was that I was anticipating satellite radio and XM hit Pennsylvania 6 months before Sirius did.

[scrub]

Do you prefer any particular pro sports?

XM has all the Major League Baseball games.
Sirius has the NFL.

Do you have a favorite college team?

XM has Pac-10, Big 10, ACC
Sirius has SEC and not sure of the others.

That's one major difference between the two services.

If you listen to Stern, he's moving to Sirius in Jan 06.

I listen mostly to Fox and ESPN. Sirius and XM carry both. There are quite a few overlapping stations for the two services. I prefer XM for music and Sirius for the sports (NFL and USC Gamecocks).

Another item to consider is the style of equipment that has to be installed. Sirius makes a nice looking flush mounted control station. This will give a better finished look. Not sure about what XM has for flush installs

You mentioned your H/U is Sirius ready. My truck has XM from the manufacturer (no FM modulator needed). I added Sirius with the Starbase (FM modulator required). I can tell a huge difference in sound quality. XM is crystal clear. Sirius is not quite as good of sound. My point... I'd stick with the service designed for your CD player/receiver. You should get a better sound. If that's important.

It's pretty cool not having to tune in the new local stations while driving through different states.

Good luck.

[Shiny Lil Detlr]

Originally posted by scrub
My truck has XM from the manufacturer (no FM modulator needed). I added Sirius with the Starbase (FM modulator required). I can tell a huge difference in sound quality. XM is crystal clear. Sirius is not quite as good of sound. My point... I'd stick with the service designed for your CD player/receiver. You should get a better sound. If that's important.

I assume you're driving a 2003+ GM truck? Well just so you are aware, there is an "aux input" adapter for the Class-2 Data Bus radios with RDS, and they may be able to give you a direct input for sirius, which will improve your sound quality. I believe the manufacturer is "PAC" -- run a google on it and you'll see what I mean.

[Rick]

I have Sirius and like it. My parents cars have XM and for me I like the content on Sirius much more (Modern Rock, Alternative, Punk). There is one channel on XM I like and about 4 on Sirius I like. My only gripe with either service is the sound quality. It is better than FM, but I don't even really consider it "near CD quality" and on some channels, mainly the talk ones, there is much less bandwidth devoted to them so it's highly compressed. For the most part it's ok, but compared to even a high quality MP3 some songs are just ruined over the Satellite Radio.

[scrub]

Originally posted by Shiny Lil Detlr
I assume you're driving a 2003+ GM truck? Well just so you are aware, there is an "aux input" adapter for the Class-2 Data Bus radios with RDS, and they may be able to give you a direct input for sirius, which will improve your sound quality. I believe the manufacturer is "PAC" -- run a google on it and you'll see what I mean.

Yep 04 Avalanche. My local shop mentioned that I believe. I think they also said the radio wouldn't support both services. I'll do some checking.

Thanks for the info. That would be great if I could control both services through the factory H/U. Plus the better sound.

[Shiny Lil Detlr]

Originally posted by scrub
Yep 04 Avalanche. My local shop mentioned that I believe. I think they also said the radio wouldn't support both services. I'll do some checking.

Thanks for the info. That would be great if I could control both services through the factory H/U. Plus the better sound.

I don't think you can "control" both services, but it gives you the input to plug the "line out" from your sirius reciever into the H/U for sound quality. You'll still have to keep your separate sirius box.

I drive a 2002 GMC Envoy, (before XM was available from the factory) and I had to set mine up like that, too. It is wired (using RCA cables and the aux adapter) into the H/U but I also have to keep my SkyFi2 box mounted to the dash.

[LiquidBlack]

I think they are both good services.

But here's my favorite:

IPod + ITrip + Clear FM station (no static) = Joy