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Goodbye XM Radio (1 Viewer)

Mark Bendiksen

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Wow...keep the discussion going folks. I'm about to purchase my first satellite radio system this week. For the past several months I've been dead-set on XM Radio. Now I'm reconsidering. Personally, I could probably stomach an annoying Onstar commercial every fifteen minutes. My concern, however, is that the advertising content will continue to increase. Of course, there's no guarantee that Sirius will never start running commercials, either. I'm also concerned with picking the content provider that's going to survive. Does anyone know what the current subscriber base is for XM Radio vs. Sirius?

I'm eagerly looking forward to your report, Ron. Thanks for your continued frankness about your "adventures". It's beneficial to all of us!
 

Joshua Clinard

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XM has over a million subscribers. Sirius has close to 200,000. The main reason for that is GM has factory installed XM in most of the vehichles they are selling. Ford and all of it's partners have not started that program yet, because their radios are not compatible with the gen2 chipsets. All of the 2005 vehicles will have compatible radios, so by August of next year, all of the Ford brands, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, And Mercedes will be factory prewiered for Sirius. Also, keep in mind that at retail, Sirius is outselling XM 3 to 2. Sirius is also fully funded until 2005, at which time they are sure to have enough subs to hit breakeven. XM also has about 8 times the debt load of Sirius. They will both survive.
 

Steve_AS

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First, I noticed that the sound quality is a
small step up from XM Radio. The audio has more
bass to it, and vocals no longer take a backseat
to the instrumentals. This may not be a fair
assesment of the two services due to the fact
that I changed the head unit in my car. I now
have a Kenwood 869 (instead of an Alpine 7894).
This might only mean that Sirius adds more compression (the audio kind, not the data kind) to its signal. Whihc is not necessarily a good thing.
 

Ronald Epstein

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This might only mean that Sirius adds more compression (the audio kind, not the data kind) to its signal. Which is not necessarily a good thing.
Steve,

I know what compression is, but not sure why adding
more compression would produce better quality audio
(which is how you have responded). Wouldn't more
compression result in worse audio quality?


Sirius radio isn't the Nirvana I was looking for.
There are some serious issues I am having over the
programming. It seems I went from one problem over
to another. I am awaiting to hear a response from
Sirius over the concerns of the Sirius Backstage
community.

Will post something for all of you to read by
Wednesday the latest.
 

David Broome

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Joshua, I'm curious as to the source of the financial/sells numbers you quote a couple posts above this one? I hadn't seen any of that...
 

Ronald Epstein

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For its third quarter ended Sept. 30, Sirius posted a loss of $107 million.

If you want the link to this information I can provide
it. Of course, there are other variables to consider
when figuring which station is going to do better than
the other in the long run.
 

David-S

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For its third quarter ended Sept. 30, Sirius posted a loss of $107 million.
... and XM lost $14x million (that's 140-something)

(just wanted to point that out in case someone was "worried about sirius disappearing cuz it was losing money")
 

Steve_AS

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I know what compression is, but not sure why adding
more compression would produce better quality audio
(which is how you have responded). Wouldn't more
compression result in worse audio quality?
Objectively, yes, but why do you think compression is used at all on radio broadcasts (and it has been, for years)? It's because it makes stuff sound *subjectively* better to a lot of listeners listening in a noisy environment (a car).
 

Gary.H

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I love Christian Rock. Does Sirius Radio have any stations that play it? That would be a factor.
 

Ronald Epstein

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XM offers Torch (Christian Rock)
and Fish Christian Pop[/i].

Sirius offers one combined Christian Hits
channel called Spirit.
 

SteveK

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Ron- After reading your posts on XMFan.com I'm not surprised that you ended up switching to Sirius to avoid the commercials on XM. I'll readily admit I don't care for the repetitive commercials on some of the XM channels, and the OnStar commercials are the worst offenders. But I enjoy the CONTENT so much that I'm willing to endure a limited commercial load. Many of the channels I listen to have no commercials, while others have VERY few commercials (perhaps 2 minutes per hour). But none of the channels even begin to compare with the local FM stations. I was listening to one the other day, and they had eight (count 'em -- 8) consecutive commercials, including at least two obnoxious commercials from car dealers. I'll take XM anytime.

But just as I'm not surprised to read that you switched to Sirius, I'm also not surprised that you're not as happy with Sirius as you had hoped to be. I can't claim to be familiar with Sirius programming, but most reviews that I've read about it state that it is not as diverse as XM programming, and the playlists on each stream are not as deep as on XM. I also understand that the DJ's are much more bland compared to the DJ's on XM. Essentially, I've read that Sirius is FM without the commercials. After enjoying the variety of XM programming for months, and enjoying their DJ's and soundbites, it's understandable that you find Sirius disappointing.

I'm not trying to knock Sirius here, but clearly they have a different idea of what radio should be than XM does. It seems I remember reading that programming directors hired by XM are told that they would be fired the moment their channels start to sound like FM. Hopefully you'll grow more accustomed to the Sirius programming and won't regret your decision to switch, especially you obviously had to invest in new hardware.

In response to the question about XM's classical music, channel 110 primarily plays whole works with a few excerpts thrown in, but channel 113 (XM Pops) primarily plays better known excerpts and only rarely plays complete works, unless the works are relatively short. It's more of a "Classical's Greatest Moments" kind of channel, much like many of the multi-disc compilations of classical music. You'll hear the more recognizable and familiar portions of symphonies, concertos, etc but won't usually hear the complete work on Channel 113, unlike channel 110. I like both channels, but I do prefer hearing the complete composition.

Steve K.
 

Ronald Epstein

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Steve,

I'll tell you this now.

I am sorry I switched over to Sirius.

They do have a totally different concept of how
their music is played. It's basically AM radio all
over again.

The problem I have is this....

The Kenwood 869 looks and sounds better
than the Alpine 7894 I previously had.

The Kenwood has a 2-tier color display that puts
both SONG and ARTIST on the same page. On all
Alpine models the SONG and ARTIST are on different
screens and you have to toggle through menus to
get to it.

Have you seen the Alpine remotes? They stink.
No way to directly access a station as there is
no numbers on the keypad.

If KENWOOD supported XM Radio this would be
an easy choice to make.
 

SteveK

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Ron- I don't know how it works, but you might be able to use your Kenwood HU with XM. XM now has something called XM Direct which somehow adapts a Sirius-ready head unit so that it can be used with XM. You might want to check XM's website, or perhaps XMFan.com for more details. It may have limited applicability, such as only certain radios or certain cars, etc, but it might be worth checking into. Again, I'm not familiar with the details or the limititations, so I don't know if XMDirect would do you any good or not.

I've also read that beginning in January, they will have a product (not named yet) that will convert ANY HU with an RCA jack into an XM-ready HU. I haven't seen any details on this at all, but more information should be coming soon.

So ultimately you may be able to use your Kenwood unit with XM, if you wish.

Steve K.
 

Michael Cucka

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They do have a totally different concept of how
their music is played. It's basically AM radio all
over again.
OUCH!!!! :frowning:

Since I've never had XM, I can't compare the two - but can certainly understand that in a service such as this, people have individual preferences. Heck, why do some people choose DirecTV and others Dish...:laugh:

I certainly wouldn't put Sirius in the same category as AM radio, Ron - but I'm eager see how this plays out for you!
 

Ronald Epstein

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Michael,

It's the mentality of playing nothing but hits.

It's the same songs over and over again.

It's the playing butchered versions of popular songs.

All of that was done on AM radio 3 decades ago.
 

Dennis_H

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So Ron,

Does this mean the SkiFi is not for sale anymore... Guess dad will have to buy a new one.

Dennis_H
 

Mark Bendiksen

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It's the playing butchered versions of popular songs.
That's criminal. If I want to hear the repulsive three-minute version of "American Pie" I'll listen to traditional FM radio.

As I mentioned previously, I've been on the fence. However, I'm probably taking the plunge tomorrow. From everything I'm reading, I'm leaning towards the XMRadio camp.

Link Removed
 

Ronald Epstein

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Mark,

They didn't butcher American Pie, but they
have a lot of other songs.

Most all the complaints I have heard about repetitive
playing of songs is amongst the decade channels.

I do hear that the Classic Rock channels fare
better as far as playing ablum cuts, but I don't
have first-hand knowledge of this.

XM Radio would be my choice only if you are
prepared to deal with the commercials.

 

Mark Bendiksen

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They didn't butcher "American Pie", but they have a lot of other songs.
Yeah, I threw that example out because that's one of the most offensive "radio edits" of all time. I detest butchered songs with a passion. Every time I turn on the local pre-programmed top-40 station and hear sliced and diced versions of songs like Don Henley's "Heart of the Matter" or Steve Winwood's "Finer Things" (just two examples that immediately come to mind) I literally go ballistic. I don't like commercials, either, but I'll probably have to go with the lesser of two evils. Better to waste my time in between the songs than waste my songs! :)

I'm also very concerned about your comment regarding the repeats. There's way too much great music out there for the music to get repetitive, even if a particular channel confines itself to hit songs from a particular decade. If you're noticing that many repeats in the short time that you've had Sirius, then I consider that a major drawback.
 

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