[Playdrv4me]

As many of you know, I am a big fan of talk radio since I began listening to it on my long road trips throughout the country...so I recently subscribed to The O'Reilly Factor online and Coast to Coast AM's Streamlink service and while Im very entertained by both... I realized that between the two, I would be paying 11.00 a month and that XM or Sirius satellite radio services are only 13.00 a month.

My problem is determining which one is more worth it. XM seems to have a better roster of Talk programming, including a more extended conservative lineup and a great general and more liberal lineup as well as even the OPEN ROAD trucker radio network which I get a big kick out of... while Sirius is almost completely left-oriented and doesnt have the "Ask" type programming like XM does (it has Coast to Coast AM and a few other neat question and answer shows).... HOWEVER, Sirius has the edge in my opinion as far as music is concerned... or at least MY kind of music, which right now is alternative and underground indie rock. Between the channels "Alt Nation" and "Left of Center" on Sirius, I have everything I need music-wise. Sirius also has some great shock talk like Howard Stern and a few others.

To FURTHER complicate the situation, both XM AND Sirius currently WONT STREAM all but a few of their Talk radio feeds to online users, BUT I have heard they promise to in the future.... When? I dont know... and therein lies the quandry.... I am unusual in that I plan to use the service MORE as a streaming service on my computer, than I do as a portable radio or car radio service. I just havent found anything reliable enough on free internet radio thast combines what I desire in music and talk in one easy to use location.

Worse case scenario I will have to drop the 6.95 Coast to Coast subscription and keep my O'Reilly Factor subscription along with my Satellite Radio choice.

 

[Jesda]

Its all the same to me, as long as I have Fox News, 90s, and Comedy. I prefer XM's hardware.

 

[Playdrv4me]

Yea I was thinking about comparing hardware but that will just make it all the more confusing. So Im staying away from that part of it.

 

[Blackout]

Sirius for me. I will be getting it within the month. Free radio sucks anymore. Its all commercials or the same 3 songs played over and over again. Sirius is > the XM due to one man. Howard Stern. And then on to pof it XM only has one sports station and thats for the MLB I think while Sirius has NFL, NBA, NHL, etc.

 

[Night Wolf]

Well, not a question for me....

I have XM, have had it for well over a year now...

*and I hate it*

I didn't want XM though... but my father said if I buy XM equipment he'll add me to his family plan (since I was set on Sirius) so I did.... then stuff happens and I end up paying for it myself.

So now I pay like $13/month for something I don't use.

Really, back in NY, I would get tired of XM and throw in some of my MP3 CD's....

the whole 1,400 mile trip from NY-FL I listened to XM maybe a total of 2 hours? I just kept poping CD's in and had my 256mb flash MP3 player loaded with songs.

Since I have been in FL... forget it... I havn't listened to XM more then an hour... I try, espeically the 90's mix on Friday and Saturday night, but even that is lacking....

Tampa Bay has such amazing FM radio stations... top 40, country, late 60's-80's rock etc... the selection and playlists are amazing... this is the most I have ever listened to FM...

Delphi, guys that make XM gear, was always better then Sirius, I'll give them that, that was another thing, "at the time" Siruis didn't have a receiver that I liked at all, it HAD to have blue back lights... so, yeah...

Plus think back to MP3... XM compresses their music at about 160kbbs while Sirius is 192kbbs (don't remember the exacts, may be a bit higher for both) so Sirius does sound better.

Of course if you like MLB/Nascar, you are stuck with XM.... NFL,NBA,NHL have Sirius... personaly I couldn't care less about any of that.

Anyway, I was saying about Sirius.... I was flipping thru a Crutchfield and saw something that blew me away... then I did more research on it and played with it a bit at Best Buy....

All I gotta say is, the only thing keeping me from switching isn't the $130 it'll cost for the Sirius unit... but moreso the fact that I'll have to tear out the interior of my car (again) because of how I routed the cable for the XM antenna... on the same note, I could just leave it there but not use it (hide the wires) you know, for future use.... but I would still have to install the Siruis antenna that way... I could really bang it out in a couple hours, but I don't know if I want to...

but then again, I am tired of XM, I am serisouly considering to cancel it, I listen to FM all the time right now, its sad.

I may be a new Sirius subscriber soon....

Here it is, the Starmate that I really like:

It is so nice... I can foresee myself switching in the next month or so, I'll give XM a little bit more time, then out it goes.

It sucks, because with my Roady, I have the car kit, the home kit, a spare nice antenna, the XM cigerette lighter thing that is power *and* FM modulator thingy, all that... if I could sell it all for $50 (works/looks great) then I would do it ASAP... but you can buy the Roady2 new for like $50... so even then, I would have to give the thing away...

Here is my Roady, I am very happy with the location, and how it looks. I have the backlight set to Night Blue, and at night, it is all a nice deep blue, it matches the Alpine's blue... I am happy with that aspect of it. When I put it in the Olds or '79 DeVille, I just threw it on the seat, works .

 

[SpeedyArizona]

I suggest doing a search on google for XM vs Sirius, I'm sure you'll find a site that'll help you in your decision. My personal opinion is to go with XM, I enjoy their lineup and has much better "Talk" stations than Sirius. If you want satellite radio for pure music, get Sirius; if you want it for mostly Talk and Entertainment, go XM.

The one thing I truly enjoy is XM's Traffic stations, I always know when there is a backup on the 101 so I can take alternate routes.

 

[Elvis]

Usually looking at the number of subscribers will answer this debate for you.

I'm looking forward to the combination AM/FM/XM/mp3/Palm/wireless internet/Cell phone.

It will plug into the dash of your vehicle, stores 40GB, including up to 10GB of XM broadcasts on up to five channels simultaneously.

Ten years from now cars probably won't even have radios as we know them.

 

[slk230mb]

I've had Sirius for just about a year now and I love the programming. I hate the unit that my sister got for me though. The best place I've found to have it is leaving it in the cup holder, which I'd rather not do. And lately I've been getting static through the FM transmitter, so I'm looking for other viable connection options. The streaming Sirius is great, I use that at school because my home kit is at home. (my window at school doesn't get good exposure)

 

[Swine]

I have both- no difference... Both are out of this world fantastic- I can never listen to FM again...Only real differences are Sports coverage- Sirius has the NFL, XM college. I listen to college games (OK, only my beloved Seminoles) while on the road, but only care about statistics in the NFL (yes, Fantasy football has ruined me) so I slightly prefer XM, as they update constantly on NFL games even though they do not broadcast the games... it's a crapshoot.

 

[Spyder]

but nightwolf, that's got blue back lights!

 

[thu]

I activated XM in my STS three days ago. I noticed that it went blank ("no signal") a couple of times for 5 or 10 minutes since then, sitting under clear skies. Is that normal?

So far, I've listened to about 90% XM and 10% FM.