XM or Sirius?

[Whistler]

I asked this on a couple other forums I go to but I still havent decided which one I want... We just got them in Canada. Sirius seems to have some better talk stations, but XM has a better variety in music (from what I can see in the 3 day trial). Also, with XM I can sign up using a US address and get ALL the channels. Because of Canadian laws, if you sign up to the US service you miss out on a bunch of them.

[cmattson]

About a month ago I was asking myself the same question. For tuners, I think XM's got some better looking equipment. As for lineup, they are almost identical. Sirius has Stern and a Court TV-type channel and XM doesn't have. Sirius exclusively has the NFL network channel and NBA broadcast rights. XM exclusively has baseball's broadcast rights, a 24/7-baseball channel, and several college broadcast-rights (Big10, ACC, etc). Other than that, you can basically get the same thing from both of them. Cost is identical -- other than Sirius has a "lifetime" option that is ending soon; $500 and it covers you for the life of the receiver you tie it to -- so if the reciever dies, the contract is over -- it's non-transferable. I ended up buying the XM SkyFI2 (with car docking station and home docking station) . Mounting in the car took all of 3 minutes. Puting the home dock in at the office was even easier. You just set your car/home/office radio to the station you've set the satradio device to broadcast on -- it's that easy. *** I LOVE IT ***. I can't say enough good things about it. After 11+ years of a 1-hr commute (each way) and 8-10 hours at work everyday, it's fairly safe to say that I was completely and utter burnt out on the playlists, err, I mean "radio stations" that they have on the air in the Mpls-area. Besides my preference for the XM tuners (over what was available for the Sirius tuners), the biggest selling point for me on XM was that XM had MLB. I'm a huge NFL and NBA fan -- but all of those games are at night and on the weekends -- when I'm not in the car & not at the office -- which is when my sat. radio would get 99% of it's use. MLB on XM gives you access to all MLB games (even spring training!) & my AM reception in the office building is spotty -- so I can't tune in those afternoon Twins games. Lastly, the local broadcasters of the Twins (WCCO, 830AM) doesn't feel they need to broadcast anything more than a 2 spring training games. Obviously their lineup of old people and farm reports are considered vastly more entertaining than a Twins game could ever be (you can just taste the sarcasm, can't you?). A couple of other things to keep in mind: XM has a few "XM2GO" units that are brand new. One made by Delphi, one made by a company called Taos--who makes the Delphi unit for Delphi -- and yes, they look the same other than logo and color (oops, you're Canadian: colour). Pinoeer makes a unit as well. These 3 units are portable (imagine a walkman). They've got headphone jacks and rechargeable batteries (good for about 5 hrs). I came really close to purchasing one of these instead of my SkyFI2. Sirius also makes a portable, walkman-like device, but it's brand-stinking new and costs over $300 (compared to about $150 on the XM devices). The Sirius model looks really cool & has a built-in MP3 player to boot. The XM units all come std with a car-adapter and a home-adapter. If you shop around, you can find a considerable difference in price on the units. I ended up buying my SkyFI2 unit @ www.buy.com; the unit, car docking station and home docking station was about $152 (that includes shipping). There was a $50 rebate on the unit as well -- so I only spent about $100. I liked the SkyFI2 device because it was easy-to-operate -- a solid consideration when you are planning to use the device in the car. Best of luck!

[sciguy_0504]

I tried the trials for both and I ended up choosing Sirius because it played more music that I liked and (the main reason) the $150 receiver ended up being free after the sale price and a special rebate. Saved me some money.

[Hudson]

Having driven a number of cars (for extended periods of time) with XM and Sirius, I prefered XM. I'm not a Stern fan or Opie & Anthony (XM's equivalent) and I'm not a big sports person. I do, however, like a variety of rock music. I seemed to hear more repeats on Sirius while XM seemed to play more variety.

[Guest Josh]

I will be going with Sirius in the Solstice for the sole reason of Howard Stern. Exactly the reason why I stayed away from the XM option.

[aaaantoine]

Went with XM in the Cobalt because... A. I don't feel like putting aftermarket equipment into my car. I mean, I was reluctant to even stick the EZPass tag to my windshield. B. Howard Stern isn't reason enough for me to prefer Sirius over XM.

[Bluecollar]

I got the same XM unit as cmattson about a year ago. Had wanted to get satellite radio for a while, and the MLB games are what sold me. You get to hear the home team broadcast of every game. Just the MLB channels alone are way more than worth what I pay for a baseball junkie like myself. With the XM subscription you can also listen to all the music channels plus a few others online, about 80 some channels. Unfortunately they can't put the MLB, news, or talk stations online. If you have a broadband connection at home this option is nice when you are on the computer.