Satellite Radio - who's got it?

[aldive]

Satellite Radio - who's got it?

What service do you have and why did you select that one?

 

[Burns]

Ha ha i dont have it is 100%

I have not seen the need to get it right now. I am fine with the radio i have. It would be nice the but i can justify paying for radio

 

[nssj2]

i have sirius, mainly for their music. They have, in my opinion, not as much music, but better music. and they have A LOT of options for talk radio, which is nice on trips. their sports coverage is great too.

 

[Heath]

Sirius... I've had both XM and Sirius... I do enjoy the programming on Sirius a little better than XM but not enough for that to be my deciding factor... The thing that really pushed me over the edge were two words... LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP!!!

 

[cybergasm]

I had XM to start with but there music programming sucked. So i changed over to Sirius and liked it much better.

 

[hunterdan]

I have Sirius, mainly because I do a lot of driving and am always looking for a station that comes in. Plus I got the tuner and a 1 year membership for Christmas.

Dan

 

[tipdrill]

We have XM with directv and in our 3 GM vehicles. (I have the only ford.)

Pros:
Tells song name (but does the same on FM)
Never have to change channel
Quality better than FM

Cons:
Signal goes out under bridges
NOT commercial free

As for Sirius, never tried it.

 

[shamaal]

I don't have it.
I listen to local right wing radio (four stations) and they carry some of the nationally syndicated shows (Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh and Savage) along with local firebrands. For music I stick in a CD and let it play over and over for a month or two. Currently it's Ten Years After - Alvin Lee and Company.

 

[v1rotv2]

I got Sirius because up here in the northwest bcause xm had a rep for losing signal. Sirius at that time had two satellite operation and gave us better signal dependability. I have had them now for 3 years and love em'. I can see what the market is doing while 40 mi. into the national forest up here. The other day I was listening to Tobey Kieth while a black bear was crossing in front of me.

 

[Tozzi]

I have sirius - mostly picked it because I heard the rock and hiphop type channels were better - Only complaint I can say is compared to XM it seems like I lose the signal a lot more..have a friend who has xm factory installed in accord and it rarely ever cuts out, and when it does you hear like "snow" for about 1 second maybe 2 then it comes right back where as sirius cuts out you hear nothing for 2-more seconds then music comes back

 

[DOZIER]

Like my music library on my head unit too much, along with the ipod capability. I really have no use for sirius.

 

[jsbaker]

Have both. Have sirius in my Z71 and XM in my 05 X. The only reason I went with XM for the X is because of the price. I wanted a factory look and did not want to pay the price people want for the sirius tuner. I hate the Xm service so far and am holding out for the other half to say to spend the money for the Ford sirius tuner or find a good deal on an Avic unit.

 

[calisoundmix]

i was one of the early xm adopters, had it for over 5 years and have been satisfied the entire time, maybe the older equipment is more reliable but i hardly ever lose signal (even under many heavy duty freeway overpasses). i enjoy their choice of music with the exception of current underground hip hop, but their modern jazz, reggae, and many rock channels are to my taste.

 

[Alanslinky]

I have XM and love there music selection. I got it because XM had exclusive on Major League Baseball... the only thing I envy sirius owners for is that they get radio margaritaville.

 

[JasonF]

I got XM because I liked the hardware better at the time. I got the Audiovox Xpress which has a non-obnoxious black/white LCD and 5 lines of text, all for a very reasonable price.

Pros: Signal very good, only cuts out under rural bridges or near mountains. Terrestrial augmentation in Atlanta was very good, I even got reception deep in a parking garage.

Free online streaming of most channels. This is a nice perk for at home. Some channels are not available though.

Cons: Alternative/Rock programming sucks. They play the same songs over and over. I like channels 20, 26, 47, 54. Does anyone listen to 44, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53?? Is it just me or does the music suck on these stations 95% of the time? Their DJ's need to take a lesson from any popular FM alternative rock station such as DC101, WAAF or WBCN.

Sound quality is OK but not great. This is really noticeable on my nice system. I would say it sounds like a 96 kbps mp3. If I want to impress someone with sound quality it has to come from a CD.

Also FYI, something I learned is that if you want cheaper rates, simply call them and tell them you'd like to cancel your subscription. If they ask why say something like "it's too expensive for what I'm getting." Their phone people are trained to try and make a "save", so they will offer you a promotional rate to try and keep your business. I found they will typically offer 6 months at half price. After your subscription goes back to normal price simply wait a month and do it again


Jason

 

[ErickSaint]

I have XM, as stated above it was a hardware thing at the time. Sams club was running a special on a car kit and a cd/am-fm/xm portable radio for around $150. Online the car kit was $60 and the radio was almost $150, so figured I would give it a try. My biggest thing was to be able to take XM on job sites or camping trips thats why i wanted the radio. At the time I think the sirius portable was sat only, didnt have the cd/am-fm option. having the cd/am-fm is nice if I end up in a building that I cant get XM in. That was about 2 years ago, I never listen to regular radio anymore.

From what I hear from friends signal is better with XM around here, never have it cut out really unless I'm 2 or 3 stories deep in underground parking. Guys with sirius seem to be complaining all the time about signal issues, I have only really seen it a few times in their cars.

Most of the channels I listen to are commercial free, but if you listen to some of the clear channel crap like KISS XM there is a bunch of advertising.

 

[calisoundmix]

yea in terms of hardware xm has the advantage, which is the reason i originally bought it, their satellites send out better signals than sirius, as for sound quality i have no complaints but my alpine deck has a feature to "reduce compression artifacts" which vastly improves the sound. jasonf i listen to 53 occasionally but other than that none of the rest you mentioned, i haven't even had my fm radio mast hooked up in over 3 years

 

[justin146]

I have XM and Sirius in my F150.

 

[mcpherson]

A few years back I had XM, while I was driving 6 hours a day. It was real nice to have since I was driving all over the north half of Georgia.

My negative about XM, which would be the same for probably any satellite providers would be that they don't like to work under bridges and underground parking lots.

 

[wharriso]

I had XM. I used it for several months then lost interest. I had to rent a car to travel across PA with Sirius in it and the programming and song selection was much better. My Explorer came with Sirius and when I changed my HU I bought a new Sirius receiver for it. I will NEVER go back to XM... unless the companies merge.

Actually, if you are really into baseball, XM has lots of live games on. But if you prefer football, Sirius has the live football games.