XM or Sirius

[Ian Macoomb]

Anyone using or considering? I want your two cents.

Also everyone interested should take a look at this device: http://www.soundgate.com/products/docking-station/index.htm

 

[Mr Anonymous]

I seem to recall hearing that Sirius has financial stability problems, but XM seems to be well-financed.

I could be wrong, but it's something you might want to look into as part of your decision-making.

 

[BlackOnBlackATX]

I was told the same thing, sirius is having some problems since theyre not growing too fast, but the catch is i was also told by someone who holds sirius stock that the guy who owns it is the same one who invented cell phones, and hes going to try and stick it out until it hits big (and you know hes got the money to do it). for now though i would go with xm, mainly because it has a bigger following in aftermarket decks (im a big alpine and pioneer fan, kenwood has sirius and im not too fond of their decks). i would go with xm, but in the end you shoudl go see if you can find reviews and base it on that.

<small>[ December 13, 2002, 11:44 PM: Message edited by: BlackOnBlackATX ]</small>

 

[megaplay]

I love my XM radio. For one thing I could get a modular to plug directly into my Pioneer radio and not through and RF module and lose quality. It has every type of music or talk radio you like. XM does have the bigger following but unfortunately both are not doing well financially. Having just finished an article in USA today about a week ago XM is not going to be profitable till late 04 and Sirius is looking at early to mid 05.

 

[sleepa]

A guy i work with has a chrysler 300M with XM radio, and he loves it!! just my 2 cents

 

[shojuan]

IIRC from when I last read anything comparing the two, sirius seemed like it would be more suited to what I would like. Hehe, might turn into a VHS/Betamax type of deal.

Rick

 

[Deaks2]

I wouold think that these two satellite radio companies are going to be dead in the water soon.

The US legislature has enacted the law regarding Digital Radio via regular broadcast, so now all local channels will be allowed to brodcast digitally on land-based transmitters. I will try and find a link to the article...

 

[ericwick19]

Well, I think paying 10 bucks a month for radio, is just plain stupid, especcially since most people who have the satelite radio has it induced into thier cars radio via a FM modulator, which just converts the digital signal back to analog. But if you really want it, go with XM. It is 2 dollars cheaper a month, and has 100 channels as opposed to Sirius' 80 channel lineup. By the way, Chrysler is utilizing Sirius in some of their 2003 models, and GM is using XM, never heard of Ford jumping on the bandwagon yet, though.

 

[projectSHO89]

Ford is in the Sirius camp.

As far as financial pressures, both companies need additional money within the next 6 months. As you may be aware, access to capital in the markets is much more difficult since the dot com crash and many investors are far more leery of throwing money at ideas. Expect both companies to get more money, but at less favorable terms.

OTA digital broadcasting is not an issue of competing with either XM or Sirius. Since a regular analog FM OTA broadcast station has adequate sound quality for mobile applications, there is really little discernable difference in sound quality between it and XM (for example). By the time you get through compression and decompression, you've already lost enough of the quality to make them indistinguishable. The proposed digital broadcasting standards is more about bandwidth and additional digital features than it is about audio fidelity.

As far as paying for subscription based radio, think about that same argument regarding cable and satellite TV. In most metro areas there are 5-8 OTA stations to choose from, but cable and satellite TV have grown tremendously in the last 25 years because of the variety and choice they offer despite of their cost. Not everyone is a Luddite.

I purchased a Pioneer -903 for my wife last November two days before it could be subscribed. Got it running on the 15th for her and she loves it. She can now choose stations (of the 100 available) without putting up with the stupid prattle that passes for commercial broadcast radio in St. Louis (and probably everywhere else, since almost all programming is put together by consultants who think they know what the public should or wants to hear). I purchased the Sony 1st Gen PnP for myself back in July and enjoy the service with its multitude of choices. FWIW, the ergonomices of both add-on units is horrible, on par with most aftermarket stereo head units, but the service is what was the selling point.

Steve