XM or Sirius, help me out Ron! (1 Viewer)

[Ziggy Szymczyk]

Ron, you definately have to sample the audio through the optical out using the DAC in your high end home stereo. I assume you used the skyfi before?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have used the Delphi SkyFi. That is
what I own now. I am going to send the
unit in for modification over the next
few days. I'm looking forward to hearing
how XM sounds with a direct optical
connection.

Once I receive the modified Delphi unit
I will be dumping my Sirius subscription.
It was a great experience meeting the folks
at that company, but in the end, the depth
of music on their '70s stream is pretty poor
compared to XM.

 

[kevitra]

I heard a great line from one of the DJs on Sirius today that seems like it sums up their playlist.

"I know he have played this song to death lately, but here it is again!"

 

[Ronald Epstein]

That's very funny, and sort of odd that
such a comment like that made it through.

I'm led to believe that the shows are reviewed
by programming staff after a DJ puts it together.

What stream was that remark made on?

There definitely is (what I feel to be) a
repetition problem over at Sirius these days
which I believe is ultimately tied into their
programming philosophy.

Look, the way I see it, Sirius has given a very
unique option to those looking to invest in
satellite radio, and perhaps this is a good
thing. If you want limited playlists with lots
of familiar songs, then Sirius is the perfect
choice. If you want familiar songs mixed with
obscure hits you may not have heard in a while,
then XM radio is the perfect choice.

 

[kevitra]

It was either on BuzzSaw or Octane. I don't recall which channel I was listening to at that time.

Sirus' playlists might work well for people with 1/2 hour commutes and only use the service for 1-2 hours a day.

For someone like myself that is 'into' music and listens to it 8 hours a day, I need and WANT to hear new tracks I have not heard before. I guess that is why XM is working better for me.

 

[Chris]

I guess it depends on what we desire as well

I thought about this on my last weekend trip; I make a 6 hour drive once a week (Sundays) and find myself 90% listening to NPR/ESPN, but when I do flip over to Hip-Hop / Jamz, I pretty much want to hear what is current, and popular. *shrug*

In reality, I listen to the music stations very rarely, and outside of Chief's season, I don't have a single FM station programmed into my radio.. I'm just not that kind of listener.. I admit, though, I'll probably tune into SIRIUS for the NFL Draft and listen to a lot of the NFL channel starting in a month or so

I find myself flipping off SIRIUS most often to listen to local sports talk (810AM here in the KC Market) and I guess when I want music, the kind of music I care to listen to isn't on either XM or SIRIUS.

 

[TheLongshot]

Does Buzzsaw actually have DJs now? I know when it started up, it didn't...

Jason

 

[Henry Colonna]

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

FUNGUS on XMRADIO totally DJ FREE commercial free real punk rock (not that Good Charlotte leather wearing pop crap that people think is punk)

HELP I have fungus in my ears!!

LOL they are now listing Good Charlotte on the banner, oh well.....Most of it is real punk and not fake pretender pop junk.

 

[Shea]

I've had Sirius about a month now, and the repitition is UNREAL. When it comes to music I listen to mostly Octane and Alt Nation..and the playlist and bands played are EXTREMELY limited. I made a trip yesterday that was a 3.5 hour drive each way. I heard several songs 3-4 times, and I probably listened to talk radio over half the trip. So that's probably an average of the same songs repeated hourly. I'd heard that the playlist was more limited than XM but if I'd known it was this bad I would have gone XM. Actually I would have if I'd gotten everything before it was announced XM was going commercial free, but I got the hardware for Christmas, but instead of the PNP2 car kit, they got me the home kit, and apparently almost everywhere in America was out of the car kits for about a month so didn't get it until almost Feb. Guess I should have just returned everything originally and gone XM.

 

[Ziggy Szymczyk]

FYI, Lou Brutus will be the DJ on Fungus soon. (formerly from Special X)

 

[TheLongshot]

No, it killed the best radio channel ever.

Long live Special X.

Jason

 

[kevitra]

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]

You noticed eh?

Out of curiosity, what stream?

 

[Dave Scarpa]

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]

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]

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.



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]

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]

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

Jason

 

[Ziggy Szymczyk]

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]

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