Sirius or XM (1 Viewer)

I did a search with no avail. I am a sales rep and travel via auto quite a bit. Have an IPOD(yes I get tired of my home cd colllection) but looking at sat radio. Mostly Mon-Fri drive but I do make the 10 hr drive to Chicago fairly often. Only sports radio I listen to is Rome so XM seems to have an edge, other than that any observations?
Thanks in advance!

either one is good, alot depends on what you like to listen to, but you pay for either one.

They aren't for sports talk radio. XM has them handily beat with Sporting News Radio and Fox Sports Radio. Also, in case you didn't know, Jim Rome is not carried on either Sirius or XM since his show is syndicated.

Dan - As Ron Epstein indicated, you should definitely consider XM if you enjoy a wide variety of music. I've had XM for nearly 18 months now, and even though I've listened to almost nothing but the music channels, I still enjoy them as much as I did on the first day and have never grown tired or bored of them. Sirius offers many similar channels, but their playlists are much more focused than XM's playlists. I enjoy hearing familiar hits, but I also enjoy hearing songs and artists I've never heard before. You're much less likely to hear unfamiliar songs on Sirius than on XM. Of course, some people prefer a more hits-based playlist, but I enjoy more variety.

I can't comment on the talk stations, as I've almost never listened to XM's talk channels and have never heard the talk channels on Sirius.

Good luck with your decision, and I'm sure you'll enjoy either service. Hopefully your long drives will seem much shorter once you subscribe to satellite radio. Enjoy.

Steve K.

I went with Sirius, with a focus on sports and talk. I almost never listen to the music stations, so I can't comment. When I do, I'm pleasently happy as they play pretty exclusively "hits" which means when I turn over, it's a song I know and can bounce away from it later. I know this drives some who listen to music only nuts, works for me.

As to the news mix, SIRIUS has a very effective news format, with 2 stations oriented toward conservative viewpoint, two liberal viewpoint, and several "other" (FoxNews, ABCNews, so on).

SIRIUS kept me because of sports. Their exclusive deals with universities make them the only access point for about 44 major colleges (like OU, LSU, USC, KU, Duke, and so on) This is a perk. SIRIUS also nailed down the NFL, and broadcasts every game, from both sides. So this weekend when the Chiefs play the Panthers, I can hear it as it is called by Carolina's home announcers or I can hear it as it's called by the Chief's home announcers, one of the greatest benefits I've ever found anywhere. When a player is injured I can flick over to the home team's call and get better information then I can get anywhere else.

Hands down, if you are after college sports or NFL, SIRIUS is the only choice.

For news, I strongly prefer them as well, primarily because you've got a better variety of outlets of news ans views.

As I said, for me, the music is there when I want it, and it plays songs that I know and want to hear commercial free. Their retro alternative is a favorite of my wife's, and she thinks they do a good job. This fall, two new stations come on board (Maxim, and Eminem's new Rap channel) which will be interesting.

Satellite Radio all depends on what you are looking for to determine what you get.

I understand XM has a deeper playlist, and maybe I'm "not cool" but pretty much, if a song never made it onto any top40 chart (alternative, hip-hop, pop, country) I really don't care to hear it, don't know what it is, don't remember it, just don't care. Play me the hits, that's what I want, with no commercials, and offer me the most access to news For me, SIRIUS fits the bill

I picked sirius after hearing both. XM does have cool looking units though.

I just bought the sportster for college and NFL. it has cool sports talk too. people say XM doesnt have that bad of commercials but any commercials are too much for me, this was a big reason I went with sirius. plus its pretty cool to put my fav home team NFL logo as a splash startup screen. very cool!!!

to me Rome is boring and well..... I wont get into it. I don't like him.


as for sonmgs and playlists on sirius. I will admit some stations are repetitive but the songs I hear are not ones I get sick of and are not ones I would normally hear on FM radio. as for heavy metal or rock channels there are alot of songs I have not heard in a long time and songs FM would never play so I don't think I would get bored or fed up with the sirius programming. if the customers don't like it they will be heard by sirius and from what I have seen when the customer complains sirius has made changes. I think sirius in a year will beat out XM. my opinion. to me sirius has alot more going for it than XM. I took a day checking them both out at different stores all day long and sirius was my choice and this was after listening to everyone on here choose XM instead and say how great it is but I just didnt see it. for me and what I was looking for sirius was more of a fit for me and I am very happy with it.

from what I hear sirius will also have the NBA too.

I have the sportster and both the car and home kits and the sound is great! the unit has FM wireless Modulator in it so you can tune in without any adapters. althought the quality is only as good as FM transmision it was not terrible but I would use the aux output as the quality is better. plug and play from my house to my car is sweet and I love my sirius unit.


all I have to say is sports, sports, sports, and whoever said XM beats sirius in sports programming is on crack cause XM does not play any NFL games and the talk shows on sirius rock!

my Sirius Sportster is plug and play right out of the box and also has wireless FM modulation and no installation! good stuff.

Thanks for the imput all, I do listen to quite a bit of sports radio but mostly music. Looks like XM is getting the lean. Thanks again.

Just to clarify, XM has been commercial free for some time now.

I'm not sure if you are referring to me, but you nailed it, I am a serious crack head. I stand by my comment of XM having better sports talk stations than Sirius. In no way did I say it had better sports programming. Its good to see you are so delighted with your purchase.

"I am a serious crack head"


lol


I do not see it but NFL games alone are a reason to pick sirius over XM. weddings, get togethers...etc are no more a reason to miss a game. but we all have our opinions.


when did XM go commercial free ? first I heard.

I love music and I (along with many other music lovers) tried both XM and Sirius and choose Sirius. It all depends on what you are looking for and what music you listen to. I feel that Ron greatly exaggerates by comparing Sirius to FM.

Yes, Sirius does do repeats more than XM and does have a narrower playing list on a given channel. Ron described it pretty well in a previous post. What they do is have a large cycle (between 200-1000) unique songs that they will play in a semi-random order for about a month before shuffling things up some. If you listen to enough different channels and don't mind the occasional repeat then you might not mind or even like the amount of repeats on Sirius. Or it might bother you a lot like it does for Ron. Still, its nothing like FM. Sirius still offers lots of variety and depth in the songs they play.

For me, I found the variety of Rock channels offered by Sirius and the fact that they have a channel dedicated to jam music (grateful Dead, Alman Brothers, Leftover Salmon etc) to be the deciding factor. That and the fact that they offered free streaming over the internet (XM is adding something soon though).

Well, that's pretty much what Ron means. The channels are programed "FM" style, tight playlists and repetition is the norm. Nothing particularly wrong with this, if that's what you are into. Unfortunatly, it bored me after a while.

I also have to say that what kind of stations are being offered also has to go into the decision. Sirius is better for Classic Rock and Jam Bands. XM is better for alternative rock and Progressive Rock. Also, as mentioned, there is what is offered as talk and sports. XM has NPR and Opie and Anthony, while Sirius is big on sporting events.

Personally, I think both services are flawed. Even XM frustrates me sometimes...

Jason

to think Opie and Anthony as a draw to XM. don't see it and never liked those guys. copy cats and trendy.

My point is that on a scale of 1-10 for playlist depth and repition where FM is a 1 for both and XM is a 10 for both. Sirius is probably a 7 for repetition and 8 for playlist depth. So its way closer to XM than FM.

I think some people expect too much from satellite radio. No service is ever going to play the perfect mix of songs you know and love, songs you don't hear enough, and songs you've never heard but love. You will always hear songs you don't like that much. Thats just how it goes.

I'm sticking with Sirius. I've had it for over a year and I listen for about 1-2 hours (mostly music stations and I flip between 3 or 4 of my favorites). I recently had the opportunity to listen to XM while working at a friends house and had a difficult time finding one station for music that I liked. XM seems to be a little more "urban" on decades channels and finally settled on a station called Fred for tolerable music. I know my XM experience is limited but at this point I'm glad I chose Sirius. I do have gripes about Sirius, but song repitition is not one of my gripes since I don't listen long enough on any given day to hear songs repeat.

Ron,

No worries, I really just want people to be informed about what is going on too.

Here is a link to a study someone did a while back (and Sirius is a little more diverse now) about the rock stations on Sirius. The numbers speak for themselves.

Between 347-1289 unique songs per week. Average replays per song per week ranges from around 1 on the best 3 channels to around 5 on the worst.

http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum...c026d7cb750bd5

My guess is FM is way less deep than even the average Sirius rock station and definitly doesn't even compare to the best.

One thing this study definitly shows though is that mileage varies greatly from channel to channel.

It does and it doesn't. Where it does is that the stations I listened to (Classic Vinyl, Classic Rewind, Buzzsaw, Hair Nation) have pretty limited playlists. I still think it was a mistake to split up The Rock into two channels. Also, I was disappointed that Buzzsaw isn't more of the 70s rock channel it was supposed to be when it was announced.

Also, while The Spectrum plays a lot of songs, there is a subset of those songs that get repeated endlessly. Look, I don't mind playing some of the same artists, but mix up the songs every once in a while.

Jason