Anybody know about satellite radio service their and recievers. Which is better XM or Sirius? The reception for regular radio sucks and i'm tired of listening to commercials I was hoping someone might be able to give me pros and cons about the service providers and their products.

 

i like sirius and im happy with the support ive gotten. ive been with them for about a month now. too much music to even know what to listen too. lol

 

i like my XM....they seem to have more channels than sirius....it is really all in what you want.....one has one channel that the other dont ....i really got XM to listen to NASCAR and all the sports programming!

like the old saying goes...."opinions are like as* holes...every body has one.."

 

I am with Sirius right now, have had them for about three years now. I used to work for GM and had the evaluation vehicles with XM and really did not care for it at all.

And about NASCAR, SIRIUS will have it next year the last time I talked with them on the phone so I am excited about that.

I can actually tell what is on the channel with SIRIUS, like octane is alternative, hair nation is old hair bands like poison or whatever. How the hell do you know what SQUIZZXL is? I could never figure the station names out on XM.

 

I have had Sirius for about 3 years now. At first I had it in my truck via an 'intergrated' (read: hardwired, non-dockable) receiver for my Kenwood head unit. It was included for free w/ my head unit, so I figured why not.

Hardware first: get yourself a plug-and-play (PnP) unit, not a hardwired set. This way you can bring it into the house w/ you at night. W/ satellite radio you pay for a subscription for a given receiver, not for yourself. This means if you can't bring the radio w/ you, you can't listen to it. PnP units are where it's at.

PnP units also offer several lines of display while built in and OEM (not an option on our Rangers, but still) units typically offer one very short line of display. I have since bought an Audiovox PNP3 receiver for my GF. I liked it so much I bought a second one (but have yet to activate it) for myself. The PNP3 offers 6 lines of readout, which is fantastic.

Now, services. I have Sirius. I love the content for the most part. They DO play ads, but only for themself. (Which I find retarded since you have to already be a subscriber to listen!) But it beats the snot out of FM radio!

However the customer service from Sirius is DREADFUL! If you ever have a problem and have to call them, God help you! I have been back and forth w/ them for over 2 years w/ billing problems. Most recently they charged my CC THREE TIMES for renewal. It took weeks for my CC to get refunded the extra $275 they charged me!

That said, I will probably keep my GF's subscription and eventually even activate my receiver just because FM radio sux that much. It is a lesser of two evils thing. I would love to tell Siruis to go stuff it on account of their customer service alone.

 

sirius all the way,had it for 5 years,love the hardattack 27 channell

 

I have had sirius for over a year and I love it. Altho the new pnp units fm transmittier isnt as good as the old one I have its still better than listen to commericals. You can preview both online for like 3 days I believe to see which one you like better.

 

I've had Sirius for 2 years and although I like the music, I'm a HUGE NFL fan and the talk shows are NOTHING like on over the air crap shows (including ESPN and Fox---even Rome). You can listen and be totally informed and learn all about the NFL like on no other show anywhere!! I'm not just a regular listener, but a regular daily caller as well. Many a subscriber got it for Stern and wound up a NFL show listener instead. The talk shows do have commercials, but the breaks are only about 3 minutes long--not 10. Sirius is more slanted that way, but they do have a lot of music stations that I like--The Vault (album cuts of classic rock bands), also uncut rap, metal bands as well. All the music stations have DJ's that impart a little background info after 3 or 4 cuts on a song or 2 and info on concerts. Also a 24/7 Rolling Stones station as well.
Had one radio go dead on me (within the warranty) and had a brand new one out of the box in an hour from Radio Shack after a couple of calls.

 

Why by a PNP unit when you can listen to it online for free, kinda defeats the purpose.

 

quick tip.

If one of your buddies has the service, just add your receiver to their plan.

Its much cheaper to add a receiver than to get your own account.

I forget what it was for sirus, maybe 5.99 a month.

When i get my new truck i'm going to pay my buddy for like a year in advance on his account.

 

Because the online content is limited. For example the NFL channel 124 Ozarkruffrider was talking about is not available online.

Also online audio quality is pretty bad. I'm listening right now and it claims it is ~34Kbps! I'd rather have a cradle at my desk sporting a PNP unit.. but that isn't always feasable.

 

Another Sirius customer here. I have it hardwired into the Pioneer HU. I like listening to Howard and the Pulse music station Best of the 80, 90's and now.

 

Yea the audio is not the greatest but they are adding channels often. Last time I talked to customer service they were bringing all the channels out online soon.

 

Sound quality is going to be bad. They have to fit as much programming into the band as possible. I still prefer it to commercials and it will have to get HORRENDOUS for me to leave Sirius. (http://radio.about.com/od/listeningt...ellitequal.htm for more info)
I've had Sirius for almost 2 yrs. I love every bit of it and I hate Howard Stern and sports which is are usually the 2 biggest draws.
I also don't like XM's channel naming. Channels named "Myrtle" or "Bertha" don't mean jack. They may have changed since I last checked them out.
My system is hardwired going thru my Pioneer HU. I love it but as NHBubba said taking it inside would be nice.

 

How the hell do you listen to nascar???? its boring enough on tv, do they just say the leaders name every 3 minutes or somethng? i mean what actually goes on in a race thats worthy to talk about?

 

love my sirius had it for 2 weeks but I have an old antenna from 2003 so it cuts out under overpasses :(

 

And the number 28 car..well most of them..just took a left turn. A LEFT TURN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Ok now they are going straight again..uh oh...uh oh...ANOTHER LEFT TURN. The drama is unfolding at a blinding pace....

 

how did u install the antenna? im not too fond of the roof mount out the brake light; any creative ideas? For those of you with the PNP units, where did u mount those?

 

I have Sirius, going on 3 years n ow, awesome customer service, awesome reception. XM is the same thing just with more sports channels....Not the best picture but my reciever is on my center console next to to my tachometer.

Pic was from my accident when i blew the linnin's (airbags)

My Antenna is ran through my 3rd brake light through the headliner etc etc. My buddy had his above his windshield on the drivers side, and another guy i know had his on his windshiled wiper cowel

 

if you go through the brake light, jsut make sure you seal it good with some silcone...

 

I use to listen to XM all the time when I worked in an office and I loved it. I listend to sirus somtimes and would rather have XM.

 

Haha, stone him!

Sirius rules. One benefit of XM is i hear their DJ's actually shutup. On Sirius, a few channels I want to kill the DJs. Channel one, they dont STFU. A few others. But some **** is hella funny. They get really gangsta on the rap channels and faction is funny with bam margera and other peeps.

 

Last I heard they cannot bring many of the talk and news channels online because of licensing issues.

 

Where do you guys put your XM/Sirius Radio's in your trucks? Space is pretty limited and I put mine to the left of the shifter (5spd) but pretty low...kind of hard to access at times but there arent really many options.

 

mine is a direct tuner for sirius. its controlled by my headunit.