[Donald Lagasse]

Now that Sirius is available (I know it's early) can anybody tell me any differences between the 2. I know Sirius is a little more per month.... $13 vs. $10 but what other differences are there?

Thanks

[Jeremy Little]

Sirius is 100% commercial free.

XM is commercial free on most stations. There are a few that have commercials but it is like a 30 second to 1 minute blurb and then right back into the music. NO BIGGIE.

In my store we have both hooked up. There aren't any home kits for Sirius yet, I don't think. XM does have both home and car kits. I have noticed that Sirius has noticeably more compression on some frequencies, especially the higher ones. Cymbal crashes, etc. sound like MP3's do. XM has some compression, but I think it is much less obvious.


If you are just wanting it for the house, buy the Sony Plug and Play model with the tape adapter. Normally you'd want to also purchase the "Home Kit". You won't need an additional base and antenna if used only indoors. So here's what you do instead. At my store we sell a miniplug to RCA left and right cable. You'll need to buy one of those. Also on the portable cd player aisle you can pick up the home power cord you need. It is Sony brand and has the same tip you'll need on it. It sells for $29.99.

The kit plus everything for your home- <$350

[Donald Lagasse]

Jeremy,

That sounds like a good idea but let me clarify or make sure I understand. XM sells a home unit for which you can buy an auto kit such that you can use the unit in both locations. They also sell an auto unit and a home kit so you can adapt the auto unit for home. Are you saying, buy the unit for auto use which comes with the antenna, the remote, the base, the tape adapter, and the power cord.... then buy a power adapter and a mini to RCA cord and use the auto unit in home? This gives me the advantage of using the deck in both locations.... right?

[Michael St. Clair]

I'm far more interested in Sirius for my car...no commercials, and I like the list of channels better. I also can't stand typical Clear Channel stations, and I've heard a bunch of XM stations are just Clear Channel. If I want to hear Clear Channel, I'll listen to the dozen or so stations they have in my city.

[Joshua Clinard]

That's true Micheal, I've heard the same thing about many XM stations having Clear-Channel type playlists. Also, Sirius has recently upgraded their sound scheme, and it sounds much less compressed than XM as of now, according to some people who have both. They also just recently introduced two new portable units that look pretty sweet.

[Brett DiMichele]

What XM has that Sirius does not.. Is Delphi (GM) Backing.

The Delphi Sky-Fi is a fantastic product that lets you go
from the house, to the car, to the beach (Boombox). There is
no product like this for Sirius. Plus GM as a backer for XM
makes it a sure bet that they have plenty of capital.

There are 35 commercial free channels out of the current 107
on XM. Sirius is completely commercial free (will they stay
that way?). Sirius has a higher monthly fee and they do not
have as large of a market share or as big of backers as XM
does. Sirius's largest backers as of right now would be
Kenwood and Chrysler (in few vehicles). XM Has Sony, GM and
GM's underlying Delphi electronics division. GM is offering
factory XM in numerous new vehicles and plans to expand it
to even more for the 05 MY.

Sound Quality.. Not sure how clear Sirius comes through, I
never even gave Sirius a look over because for me the Delphi
Sky-Fi was the major selling point. The SQ of XM is fantastic.

I run my XM through a few thousand dollars of home audio
equipment and to me it sounds great.. There is some compression
that is noticeable on some old songs, on other songs it's
impossible to tell at all.

Either way I think they both have much to offer and I hope
Sirius sticks around and gains more ground.. Hopefuly the
more competition XM has, the more reason they will have to
listen to the consumers.. I don't want this ending up like
cable TV..

[Joshua Clinard]

Your wrong about a couple of things. For one, Sirius has just as much backers as XM. Sirius has all of the Ford Owned Brands exclusively. XM will be optional on 70 models this year, Sirius will be optional on 65. Not that big of a difference. What I'm saying is that Sirius will be some serious competition to XM! Second, Sirius is a year behind XM, and they have doubled their subscriber base to 68,000 in the first quarter of this year. I belive they will triple that number this summer when the Here2Anywhere hits the market. A lot of people really like it, even if you do not. I think it's awesome personally.

Also, Sirius has also cleared all of thier debt. XM is still several hundred thousand dollars in debt.

XM has ads on half its 70 music channels and most of its 31 news, talk and information channels. Sirius has NONE on any of it's music streams. That ALONE is worth the 10 cents a day.

[Brett DiMichele]

Josh,

Ok I didn't realize that Sirius had Ford backing it as well
that's good they need it. Thier stock is currently trading
at what vs. XM? I haven't bothered to check.

I choose XM for the SkyFi. I looked into the Sirius offerings
and to me they just don't stack up. I have a Kenwood Sirius
deck in one of my vehicles and it will never see use as a
Sirius Reciever. I am quite happy with XM.. But....... If
XM starts to slam commercials down our throats you can bet
I will either jump ship or just cancel and not even bother
again.. We have grown to need some sort of pay TV be it DSS
or Cable.. But pay radio I don't "need" not when there are
CD's and MP3's.

I love it but it if gets to be like Cable TV I will drop it.

I just hope Sirius will force XM to keep listening to thier
customer base.

[Jed M]

XM has better sports stations. The reason I didn't consider sirius was because they don't have fox sports or sporting news radio.

Quote:

XM has ads on half its 70 music channels and most of its 31 news, talk and information channels. Sirius has NONE on any of it's music streams. That ALONE is worth the 10 cents a day.

Sirius must be in trouble because this is the only ammo they have against xm. Let me ask you, just how many commercials does each station have an hour? 30 seconds? a minute? You make it sound like its the return of AM radio. I would think the overly compressed sound of sirius would be more of an issue, but I guess not.

[BrianAe]

Sirius has NPR, XM does not, at least I think XM doesn't.