Help me decide - XM or Sirius

[Juaru]

All right, I know this has nothing to do with rockets, but this is the Coffee House. So..... I'm getting a satellite radio if it kills me. I'm leaning toward XM due to the fact that they have Bruce Williams and Coast to Coast. Plus - they are a little cheaper per month. Also, XM has MLB so I could listen to the Reds 162 times per year. Sirius has NFL, but I can get my team (the Colts) over regular radiol.

Anyone have a good reason to choose Sirius over XM?

John (not Jon) Arthur

www.JonRocket.com

 

[lalligood]

I just got the Sirius Sportster as an early Christmas present just last weekend (the wife was tired of hearing me complain about the lame broadcast radio here! hehe)

I gotta tell ya, Sirius ROCKS. I know a few people with XM & they are equally passionate about it too.

The necessary equipment is the same price. It comes down to which programming you want. Music-wise, they're both pretty much a dead heat. 60+ channels of music, all broken down into genre & sub-genre. Both services display artist & song name as it is playing. Both are commercial free music too. Neither are regulated by the FCC so they can say whatever the <beep> they want That leaves the talk, entertainment, & sports programming.

Some XM benefits:
* NASCAR
* MLB
* Several major college conferences
* Coast to Coast (another hot CH thread topic)
* Less expensive than Sirius if you go month to month payment

Some XM drawbacks:
* Clear Channel owns a significant stake in company (& supplies or at the very least has influence in the content)
* There are premium channels that cost extra $ per mth

Sirius benefits:
* NFL (including seeing what teams are playing with score & what quarter in real time on the display!)
* NHL (or is that a drawback???)
* NBA (with scores)
* Several major college conferences (but different ones than XM)
* No premium channels--you get all channels with subscription
* Howard Stern is coming in January 2006 (OK, might be a drawback to some! but not me )
* For $500, you can buy a LIFETIME (read: no expiration) service contract.

Sirius drawbacks:
* None that I can think of...

Both also offer attractive programs if you pay quarterly, bi-annual, annual, & multiyear agreements. Discounts are available if you have multiple tuners too (like one in your car & one in the wife's).

HTH!

 

[Fishhead]

I'm an XM guy, but only because they made the type of products that attracted me initially. I like the idea of listening to baseball all next summer, but the football would be cool to have also. I haven't heard Sirius yet, but my brother in law is getting a setup for Christmas, so I'll get to sample it. I might wind up with XM in my van and on my boombox, and Sirius in my wife's car. I mainly listen to Deep Tracks, which is kind of the classic rock you never hear anymore, but they shoot down more of my requests than they actually play. I get a little irritated with that, mostly because they play a lot of garbage that every classic rock station in America plays on a daily basis. I'd like to hear something different, not the same old crap. I know Sirius has two stations like this, so I'll check them out before I buy my wife a new stereo.

 

[lalligood]

I almost forgot... Another benefit of Sirius over XM is that if you want to listen to streaming audio over the internet, it comes included with the Sirius subscription. XM charges (I believe) an extra $2.99/mth for the service.

That's nice if you're out of town (particularly on business) but not with your satellite radio

 

[Juaru]

Quick update..........

I ended up choosing the XM, and I love it. Bruce Williams and MLB won out over free internet streams. The 24hr all baseball channel debuted last week so I'm loving life.

Bonus: They played the entire 2112 today on the "progressive" station. I think that's the first time I've heard it all the way through on the radio!

John (not Jon) Arthur

www.JonRocket.com

 

[lalligood]

Originally posted by Juaru
Quick update..........

I ended up choosing the XM, and I love it. Bruce Williams and MLB won out over free internet streams. The 24hr all baseball channel debuted last week so I'm loving life.

Bonus: They played the entire 2112 today on the "progressive" station. I think that's the first time I've heard it all the way through on the radio!

John (not Jon) Arthur

www.JonRocket.com

John,

Glad to hear that you're enjoying your XM. I'm as equally happy with my Sirius receiver. I have my unit notify me whenever they play the entire 20+ minute opus of "2112" too! I about drove off the road the first time I heard it when the 3rd section of the song began. I thought they'd only play the first 2 parts (Overture & Temples of Syrinx). Heck, I drove around for a few extra minutes so I could enjoy every last note. Too cool

 

[UncMikesRktShk]

Originally posted by Juaru
Quick update..........

I ended up choosing the XM, and I love it. Bruce Williams and MLB won out over free internet streams. The 24hr all baseball channel debuted last week so I'm loving life.

Bonus: They played the entire 2112 today on the "progressive" station. I think that's the first time I've heard it all the way through on the radio!

John (not Jon) Arthur

www.JonRocket.com

You get the colts on regular radio, I was curious did they happen to score more than 3 points on that station ROFL.

Sorry Jon as a diehard Lions fan, I adopted the Patriots several years ago so I could live my Lions fans super bowl dream through them

 

[lalligood]

Originally posted by UncMikesRktShk
You get the colts on regular radio, I was curious did they happen to score more than 3 points on that station ROFL.

Sorry Jon as a diehard Lions fan, I adopted the Patriots several years ago so I could live my Lions fans super bowl dream through them

The NFL is only available on Sirius

BTW, what's cool about the NFL on Sirius is that every game is on 2 channels--so that you can listen to either's team announcers. Very cool I tell ya!

 

[Juaru]

Originally posted by lalligood
Heck, I drove around for a few extra minutes so I could enjoy every last note. Too cool

Yeah, I got to the grocery store with about 5 minutes left and sat in the parking lot to listen to the end. Apparently, my "air drumming" needs some work, as I got some strange looks!!!

John (not Jon) Arthur

www.JonRocket.com

 

[Juaru]

Originally posted by UncMikesRktShk


Sorry Jon as a diehard Lions fan, I adopted the Patriots several years ago so I could live my Lions fans super bowl dream through them

You're not allowed to "rub it in" when "your team" is not local.

I'm pretty sure the moderators will back me up on this one.

John (not Jon) Arthur

www.JonRocket.com

 

[brianc]

Originally posted by lalligood
Some XM benefits:
* NASCAR

Saw a Google news item earlier today -- NASCAR has signed a deal with Sirius
(dumping XM)...

https://www.nascar.com/2005/news/headlines/official/02/22/sirius_2007/

From the NASCAR press release
Beginning in 2007, Sirius will broadcast all Nextel Cup Series, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series races live on a specially created, 24/7 NASCAR channel, and Sirius will be the only place on satellite radio to listen to NASCAR.

 

[lalligood]

Originally posted by brianc
Saw a Google news item earlier today -- NASCAR has signed a deal with Sirius
(dumping XM)...

https://www.nascar.com/2005/news/headlines/official/02/22/sirius_2007/

WOOHOO! The lack of NASCAR was the only thing keeping me from declaring Sirius from being unequivocally better service of the two satellite radio companies... That leaves XM with only MLB (I couldn't be any less of a baseball fan though) & about half of the major colleges out there. But then even Sirius got exclusive broadcast rights to March Madness.

But if all you want is the music, they are both virtually identical in their content...

 

[shreadvector]

Sirius will have Howard Stern.

Sirius has Mel Karmazin (did I spell that correctly?) who knows how to manage radio that people want to listen to.

XM has a cool name and cool satellite names, but a chunk of it is owned by Clear Channel and they are EVIL.

I plan to trade in my car at the end of this year or early next year and get a new car with Sirius.

There are also cool portable devices that will record your satellite radio programs onto a hard drive and you can play them back later (TIVO for satallite radio). They are portable and can be plugged into other sound systems, computers, headphones...

Originally posted by lalligood
WOOHOO! The lack of NASCAR was the only thing keeping me from declaring Sirius from being unequivocally better service of the two satellite radio companies... That leaves XM with only MLB (I couldn't be any less of a baseball fan though) & about half of the major colleges out there. But then even Sirius got exclusive broadcast rights to March Madness.

But if all you want is the music, they are both virtually identical in their content...