Can anyone refer me to a site where I can get some serious data on sat radio? Is it worth it?
- posted
19 years ago
Can anyone refer me to a site where I can get some serious data on sat radio? Is it worth it?
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (RAJP53) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m05.aol.com:
Worth is highly subjective. You obviously need a radio that can get the signal and then there are subscription fees. It's certainly not worth it to me as I rarely listen to radio and have 6 disc in dash cd player.
xmradio.com.
But I warn you, there is no turning back. Have a CD collection numbering in the thousands that hasn't been touched in two years. XM makes you quickly realize you can never collect enough music to compare with their selection.
I have Sirius, too -- but the playlists are not that much better than FM. If you like music, check XM out.
FWIW, Sirius broadcasts many of their channels on Dish Network. If you have Dish, you have Sirius in your system. Some friends have the Sirius system, and it works pretty well, the auto antenna works great but the portable antenna (for the boom box) needs to be pointed slightly west, I think. And, it uses a lot of power, the supply is rated for 2.5A, so forget about using batteries. And, the classic rock they listen to is just as monotonous as FM, without the commercials.
-John O
Something that sold me on the XM versus the Sirius was the monthly fee. To be honest, the other thing was having personal experience with my parents and their SkiFi. Unless you make a 1 or 2 year committment, paying monthly $9.99 US is the XM deal. Just this summer XM signed up it's 1-millionth customer. I don't know about Sirius. I really like XM's variety but as the post below states, if you have Dish, you're getting a similar line-up through Sirius anyway. One plus for Sirius from a guy I know with Circuit City is that Sirius does online audio streaming so you don't need your deck in the office, particularly if you are in the middle of a steel and concrete building where even FM/AM radio is hard to pick up. He is a big football fan and Sirius covers the NFL in an exclusive deal. XM does not have this.
Last I looked, several deals offered through Circuit City, Best Buy, and Crutchfield.com as retailers offers a complete system of the "Roady2" for around $130 and allowed for a mail in offer of a home or car kit for free.
I bought the SkiFi reciever and got two home adaptors (one for work and home) and the car kit. The home antenna needs to be positioned with a south-facing clear view. If you get the SkiFi, save your money on the boom-box that XM offers. If you love music quality, you will be dissappointed with the speaker quality of their boom-box. Very little low-end response. The plus side to it is it's immediate portability since the antenna and speakers are all included. I would still suggest getting the home kit and either hooking it via RCA to mini-jack chord to your home stereo or even your favorite computer speakers.
It was posted a while ago that the in-line FM modulator of the XM stereo unit won't fit the new model year Subaru antennas. Can anyone confirm this? Sounds a bit hard weird to me.
I just had Sirius installed this week on my 2001 Forester. I like it so much that I'm testing out the home unit and boombox now, as I write this. By testing, I mean that I'm playing the Sirius preview channel and trying to determine the best location in the house for the antenna. Not too much success with that yet, as the signal seems to fade at times.
No such problem with the car unit though. Instead of buying one of those Sirius add-on modules (which connect to your car's in-dash radio either thru FM modulation or cassette deck), I replaced the entire in-dash stock radio with a Clarion unit that can pick up Serius. Nice clean install that way, but a bit more expensive in upfront costs. There just wasn't a neat way to physically install the add-on module in the Forester.
Bottom line is that I went with Serius because of the NFL package, because you can receive streaming music over the internet and because you can try it out for
3 days online -- seeI'm happy with it so far.
RAJP53 wrote:
They're now at about 2.5 million.
Between 500K and 600K.
XM doesn't offer NFL but has more college (NCAA) coverage.
This is a common complaint with Sirius. XM doesn't suffer from that problem. XM40 (Deeptracks) has caused me to totally abandon my CD collection (numbering in the thousands).
Have Sirius only and agree completely with the playlist issue - unless they fix it they'll have issues holding on to subscribers. I listen mainly to some of their alt and elecronic streams and find some days its fine, but other days that I hear the same set of tracks on my morning commute as my evening commute, which makes them no better than FM (although I can hear genres you just don't get on FM, like chillout).
However, my main reason for getting Sirius was to escape AM talk radio, and Sirius certainly delivers, especially NPR, the World Radio Network and the BBC. However, XM are introducing their own version of NPR, and since the Sirius streams can't broadcast All Things Considered and Morning Edition, it may well be a better option.
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