XM or Sirius, help me out Ron! - Page 2

TheLongshot · 02-22-2004, 09:36 PM

Quote:

No one has mentioned the best radio channel on any radio ever:

No, it killed the best radio channel ever.

Long live Special X.

Jason

kevitra · 02-23-2004, 12:10 PM

Boy, I am glad I like the Police song "Message In A Bottle" because Sirius plays it every few hours.

I already know which service is being cancelled, and it is not XM.

Ronald Epstein · 02-23-2004, 01:44 PM

You noticed eh?

Out of curiosity, what stream?

Dave Scarpa · 02-23-2004, 03:45 PM

I'm lovin' the variety of XM, from an Alison Krauss version of Robert Plant's "Big Log" (Which I never would've heard on OTA Radio) to a rather bad dance club version of the Door's "The End" (are you kidding me) XM plays it all !

Sean*O · 03-16-2004, 04:06 AM

I hope that XM gets Stern. From what I have been reading, Sirius sounds like your typical program director policed marketing tool.

I like the idea of commercial free with a ton of variety. Hearing the same songs over and over makes me crazy.

So let me get this straight.. you have to pay for Sirius and then you also have to hear commercials??

Ronald Epstein · 03-16-2004, 05:42 AM

There are no commercials on any of the music
channels. This is the case for both XM
and Sirius.

The commercials appear on the talk and news channels.

Quote:

I hope that XM gets Stern.

A possibility.

It looks almost absolutely definite that Sirius
is bringing aboard Opie & Anthony this Summer.

Stern would probably opt Sirius over XM just
because Sirius is based in his home town of NYC.
On the other hand, Stern and O&A are not friendly
with each other and may wish to compete.

Quote:

Hearing the same songs over and over makes me crazy.

Stay away from Sirius then.

Sirius has an FM radio mentality when it comes
to their music programming.

The members of SIRIUS BACKSTAGE started a huge
campaign against repetition and tight playlists
months ago. To this day, there are still complaints
regarding the same issues.

Sirius thinks they are FM radio.

Sean*O · 03-18-2004, 03:31 AM

Thanks for the response, Ron. I appreciate the advice.

What a dilemma. Good sound quality with monotonous repetition, or a variety of music presented with mediocre quality.

uhhh..

Why can't they have quality and variety on the same network. Maybe someday.

Thanks again, Ron.

TheLongshot · 03-18-2004, 02:23 PM

Quote:

or a variety of music presented with mediocre quality.

I'd hardly say that XM's quality is "mediocre". That would be the quality of Sirius's talk stations.

Jason

Ziggy Szymczyk · 03-18-2004, 02:32 PM

Sean, you should try XM with the Optical Digital out. It makes XM sound EXTREMELY close to CD. Ron's got one of these, so he can tell you about it.

Ronald Epstein · 03-18-2004, 05:41 PM

Sean,

First of all, the sound quality difference
between XM and SIRIUS is very close. I think
much of what I was hearing had more to do with
the differences in head units than the actual
codec -- though that is something very difficult
to measure when you can't get both services on
the same receiver.

Since getting rid of Sirius, I am plugging my
XM SkyFi through the AUX IN of my Kenwood unit
and I am very happy with the audio quality. It
sounds a lot better than the XM-READY Alpine unit
I used to own.

As Ziggy stated, if you are that concerned about
audio quality, you should consider a unit with
optical out capability. There is a noticeable
improvement in audio.

I would steer anyone away from Sirius who is
concerned about repetitious music and limited
playlists. We were fighting an uphill battle
with Sirius management via SIRIUSBACKTSTAGE.COM
for months. Some substantial improvements were made,
but after all this time there is a new crop of threads
being posted on that forum once again complaining
about repetition and limited playlists.

Just so you guys don't think I am making this all
up, here is the link....

http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum...2f55fbd10ec83f

Members are upset over there. I can't blame them.
We fought for months to try to improve things there.
I even visited the station, met with management, but
ultimately walked away with the feeling that they
wanted to run Sirius like an FM radio station. They
made it clear that limited playlists would be the
wave of the future on satellite radio.

Perhaps Sirius has a motive. Perhaps they want
to be different than XM and offer subscribers the
chance to hear only familiar music as often as
possible. I would suppose there are people out
there that want to have the FM radio mentality
brought over to satellite radio. If that is the
case, Sirius is certainly for you.

XM radio on the other hand stays constantly
fresh. I listen to '70s Decades daily and
am amazed by hundreds of songs that are played on
that channel that Sirius Totally '70s would
never play. That Sirius stream refuses to touch
hundreds of songs that they deem are too unfamiliar
or obscure for their listeners.

Don't worry about the difference in sound quality,
Sean. It's not as big a difference as you think.
You need to pick a service that will provide you
with the best variety of music according to your
tastes. I would pick variety over sound quality
any day. Sirius bored me. XM excites me.

....and you get the best for $3 less per month!*

*based on the month by month payment plan

TheLongshot · 03-19-2004, 12:32 PM

Quote:

They made it clear that limited playlists would be the wave of the future on satellite radio.

Well, if that is going to be true, then satellite radio won't be in my future.

While XM has faults, Sirius has some more serious (no pun intended) ones.

Jason