XM or Sirius?

[sketch1]

So I did some searching this morning to determine the answer to the question in my subject. XM or Sirius. I found plenty of good advice but I still am lacking a few answers. So if anyone has any input it would be appreciated.

Currently we have XM radio at work so I am pretty familiar with it. The main stations I listen to are XMU, The Loft, XM Cafe, MusicLab, Hear Music, and the 80's and 90's stations every once in a while. However by Far XMU is my most listened station, they play all the indie bands (Sufjan Steves, Mates of State, Acid House Kings, Metric, Mobius Band, Nada Surf, etc)

So my first question, does anyone with Sirius listen to Left of Center? That is Sirius' indie band station and I was curious of the quality of programming.

Question 2wo, how about the Comedy channels on sirius? I have read in some post that someone said some stations play fm radio broadcast versions of songs, shortened and/or edited for time and content. Is this the same with the comedy channels? Or are they the cd version in its pure unedited format?

Question 3hree, I have the JBL 6 Disc in Dash changer. I know I can hook up any sattelite radio tuner into the mini jack port, but in order to utilize the head unit I have to buy one of the hidden tuner boxes, opposed to buying any reciever and hooking it into the HU, correct?

Last question, (sorry for the lengthy questions).

If I get sirius I am eyeing the s50
does anyone have this unit? Any opinions or comments on it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[barc111]

In the end it comes down to personal preference.

I had XM in my last vehicle, and now have Sirius in the 4runner. I listened to the same channels on XM as you, however I now prefer Sirius. Sirius just seems to have more variety, plus they have Howard Stern if you are into that. Plus the Playboy channel is FREE, whereas you have to pay for it with XM

Sound quality is the same, service price is similar, equipment price the same. My advice is find a friend with Sirius and check it out for yourself. Best buy usually has working units as well.

 

[drake3]

Sirius gives out 3 day trials. I did this when I was comparing XM and Sirius. They let you listen to it online and I found I liked the music selections on Sirius better.

And yes, the Toyota satellite radio options let you control the channels from the steering wheel and display program information on your JBL head unit. Those are pretty big pluses to me.

 

[sketch1]

Well I went to Radio Shack and best buy to check out the S50 in person and at both stores the demo was broken...maybe a bad sign now that I think about it. I have also signed up for a free 3 day trial listening to Sirius, haven't had much time to check it out yet but I hope it will help answer some of my questions.

 

[atomic punk]

I have both XM in one car (factory supplied) and Sirius in the 4Runner.
The comedy channels on Sirius are adequate for my needs:
> Rawdog is unedited, uncensored content
> Blue Collar Comedy channel and
> Laugh Break are edited for the younger audiences.
(Jim Breuer's show on Rawdog is great if you like spontaneous comedy and listening to popular comedians in the studio).
> Maxim is also a personal favorite of mine - which has a good mix of music and unedited entertainment including instudio comedy.

I don't know about the S50, but any unit that allows you to pause, rewind, and fast forward what you're listening to is a HUGE plus. I use that feature on my Sportster Replay unit ALL the time.

 

[leesdawgs]

dude, go with sirius....I listened to stern on terrestrial radio when I could I could get him and now if I hadnt already had a sportster Id buy one just because of him. I also love the maxim station and I listen to all the rock stations...there are a couple of stations that are censored like all the hits channels and some of the other less listened to stations but if you like rock most of them arent censored. I dont believe left of center is and I know alt nation isnt. I mainly listen to octane and faction and they arent either. the only thing I dont like about my sirius is how they picked up so many schools for the college football season but UGA isnt on there. that pissed me off but Id rather listen to Larry Munson any day of the week anyway.....


My girlfriend had xm before we started dating and now she likes my sirius more than hers...plus we take the portable boom box with us to the beach and put the face plate in and listen to the same stuff as in the car....


Lee

 

[atomic punk]

I agree with everything dawgs said about the censored vs uncensored channels. I can't say that I've noticed Sirius playing any shortened songs. Ie: the latest single "Through the Iris" by Ten Years, played mostly on the Octane channel, has about a 1 minute cool sounding mellow instrumental at the end of the song that I NEVER have heard on FM until I heard it on Sirius.

I originally chose Sirius for Stern, but I'm keeping it for everything EXCEPT Stern, since I can only listen to him for 15 minutes/day.

But since he has his own channel, they broadcast a replay of the show on later at night too. Good feature for those that can't listen in the AM.

 

[sketch1]

I really don't care about Stern... I have never been able to hear him on the radio before so I don't feel like I am missing out. I used to watch his TV show every once in a while, but to be honest I can't see myself listening to his show... I am mainly interested in the Comedy because I am finding myself buying at least one comedy cd a week of iTunes, and I thought it might be cheaper to pay the monthly fee for satellite radio.

 

[sketch1]

Alright, so now I am leaning toward XM and I am looking at the Pioneer Inno... Does anyone have this unit?

 

[jcioffi23]

I'm going to have to vote for Sirius here. Their music stations play all of the current music and in many cases I've heard songs on Sirius from bands that were otherwise unknown, and then sure enough I would hear them on terrestrial radio.

As for Stern, I used to listen to him on radio before the move, but now I think he's gotten kind of stale. I've been listening to Opie and Anthony on the radio in the morning instead of Stern on satellite to be perfectly honest. I just wish i could get the second half of their show that they do on XM.

But if you're looking for best all-around content, I'd have to vote Sirius.

 

[Fins_UP]

If I had to vote, I too would say Sirius in a heartbeat. My parents have XM and I've had Sirius since the first year it came out. I've listened to both extensively. Howard Stern or no Howard Stern, Sirius beats XM easily in my opinion. Music is better, comedy is better, sports are better (for me), on-air personalities are light years better. I could care less about Nascar and baseball, but I love hockey and football. If you like Nascar and baseball, you might want to get XM.

I could go on forever about both but don't feel like typing that much. The bottom line is this: You cannot possibly go wrong with either one. They are BOTH sooo much better than FM radio. Once you listen for a month or two, and you get in a car that doesn't have satellite radio, you will want to drive off a cliff, it's really that much different. But telling somebody which satellite radio service they should get is like telling somebody they really should like vanilla ice cream even though they might like chocolate better.

Good luck.

 

[DarksideSurf]

I just bought the XM Sportscaster for $50 at Best Buy. The unit is small enough to fit anywhere and the backlight matches the 4Runner amber ! I just have to figure out if I want to mount it on top of my dash or do a custom Dremel job in my armrest.

I prefer XM only because I like their music and sports selection better than Sirius.

 

[RL4673]

I've had both and I am glad I switched to Sirius. The rock stations are excellent, STERN, and if you like sports, they have the NFL and are getting Nascar in '07 (The two biggest sports in the US). The only drawback is that Sirius has DJ's that run their pie holes way too much. No DJ's on XM. You'll be happy with either, though.

 

[sketch1]

So everyone who has said Sirius has posted that Stern and Sports are the main reasons... I personally don't care about Sports of talk radio, so those reasons really don't help me at all... For those of you who have had both have you noticed differences in the quality of the music channels? And just so you know, some XM stations do have DJ's but they don't talk much, probably 30 seconds every 30 minutes or so.

 

[atomic punk]

In reality, if you still haven't made your decision yet, and you're looking for Sirius vs. XM discussion, you can find ALOT more information and opinions elsewhere on the web than just from a handful of members in here.

BTW: metal and rock is WAY better on Sirius than XM also, but you didn't ask about that, so it doesn't matter.

Sound quality is about the same from my experience, maybe the Sirius is a wee bit better: but keep in mind that both transmissions are compressed audio. My XM comes standard (factory installed) into the Acura TL with the stock sound 5.1 (Bose?) system. My Sirius is a portable unit played through a $1300 custom 100% aftermarket system.

 

[sketch1]

Thanks for the input Atomic, the reason I still haven't bought one is because I am really not yet decided on if I am really going to get it or not. To be honest it really doesn't matter to me what I get from everyone I talk to (people in person, not online) they all tell me that they are both pretty much the same... opposed to the talk radio and sports. A good friend of mine tells me he prefers the indie station on XM(XMU) opposed to Sirius, so XM is probably what I will go with, and to be honest that is the only station I will listen to, except the comedy stations every once in a while and a few others when XMU isn't playing a song I like. But anyway, thanks for all the input.

Oh and when I was asking for quality I didn't mean so much as quality of the audio, I meant more about the overall quality of programming. But it sounds like they are pretty much equal. Thanks for all the help.

 

[leesdawgs]

if you like rock, sirius has a station that plays only stuff that cant be heard anywhere else and is otherwise unknown called Revolution. The music is the stuff that will become hits in a month on regular radio but somehow they find it first.

otherwise, the rawdawg comedy station is every one you can think of who has a dirty mouth and I listen to it alot too. there is also a censored comedy station but who doesnt like a little eddie murphy everyonce in a while?

also, I read the other day where sirius is growing exponentially faster than xm and will soon catch up and pass by them. I hope you dont buy a reciever and then they go out of business....

Lee