Rep Power: 314

What do you think about paying for radio?

Sirius seems to be the clear choice.


Sirius Radio



I notice more and more Kenwoods, Panasonics and Clarions have this option now.TV

 
Rep Power: 0

i think its stupid....listening to the radio is good enough for me...i can take the commercials and stuff, plus they aren't that long anyway if you have a good station near you

 
Rep Power: 314

how can I make this a poll?

 
Rep Power: 333

i saw a review on tech tv's the screen savers. they say that alot of satellite audio is heavily compressed. so despite being digital and all its still not as good as CD quality. its probably slightly better then regular radio as far as quality and having no fuzz etc. but not as clear and crisp as CD.

kinda like a low bitrate MP3 almost.

 
Rep Power: 318

hmm maybe i should get an mp3 style head unit mine got stolen about a week ago and im tryin to figure out the best head unit

 
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nakamichi. 0.005% THD on the internal CD player, 0.1% THD on the internal amp. Great SQ. http://www.infinitecaraudio.com/cgi-...atalogno=CD400
<the Nakamichi for $300.

 
Rep Power: 811

Satellite radio is absolute crap. I had xm for two weeks and the quality was horrible! If you have any kind of ice mods, you won't like the quality. I wasn't that impressed with the programming, and the receiver just broke down after the 2 weeks. Such a waste. Sirius is supposed to be even worse cause xm has way more satellites and towers.

ssmshortie-definately get a deck with mp3 playback. Having a single cd with 100+ songs on it is the best.

 
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My shop sells 2-3 XM and Sirius units a day and we've never had someone return one because they didnt like the way it sounded. For the best sound tho you should get an xm or sirius ready deck and get a matching tuner for the deck. The fm modulated pieces don't sound all that good IMO but I've still heard no complaints about those either. The only thing I've seen comeback in the past year is defective panasonic sirius tuner boxes.
We have XM playng all day at work and i don't have any complaints, although I don't personally have it in my car because i'm a cheap bastard.

 
Rep Power: 811

Yeah, my setup was a pioneer xm deck with pioneer tuner and direct ip bus connection. Still sounded bad. Like a low bitrate mp3. Some stations had boomy bass, and others had none at all. I only liked a few channels, and even those weren't that great. Regular radio, minus the static, sounds much better.

 
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but my local radio stations suck

 
Rep Power: 316

local stations here on the radio suck, plain and simple, i NEVER listen to the radio for this reason. very little music on the stations i do get (there are like 3 stations). so i would get satelite radio because of this, and i might next year, depending on what deck i end up with.
i haven't heard XM yet, but i've heard sirius, and i think it sounds good. its sounds A LOT better than the radio, but yes, not as good as CD's. to me it sounds kinda like 128kpbs MP3's.
i just want both companies to make smaller recievers and antennas, if they do that, i'm in.

 
Rep Power: 344

honestly, i love my xm. i haven't listened to the radio or bought a cd since i hooked it up. i don't understand why everybody thinks it is poor sound quality, it is very crisp and clear in my car. you have your choice of what you want to listen to and if all else fails, the comedy channel is always good. they have weekly specials in their programming, guest dj's, a live music station, and even a tuning channel where the sound is unbelievable. the best part about it is that you never have to worry about static or stations fading in and out. oh well, this is just my opinion...

 
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here are the facts:

1 - xm has better cound quality than sirius (sirius uses a higher form of compression in their broadcast, kinda like comparing a 128 kbps mp3 to a 160 or a 160 to a 192)

2 - xm is cheaper by a few bucks

3 - sirius has fewer commercials (xm only has commercials on SOME stations, not all, and theyre like once an hour or something if i remember correctly)

4 - regardless of which unit you get, if you get an fm modulator, your sound quality is gonna be radio quality. the only way to go with satellite radio is either by rca or by a unit that runs directly off your deck


ive personally never tried sirius, but someone lent me an xm unit for a week once and i was all over that thing like you wouldnt believe.

 
Rep Power: 335

sirius

 
Rep Power: 328

towers? wtf it comes from the satellites...

oh, and never mind the fact that XM has ONE satellite to Sirius' TWO (named Rock and Roll )

 
Rep Power: 316

i believe sirius has three satelites, one or two are backups. sirius also owns there own satelites, they bought and launched them into space like 10 years ago, xm rents or leases time off someone elses satelites. this is what i heard from my local shop (i trust them).

 
Rep Power: 328

ok i was just going by what i'd heard too. all apologies.

Sirius has three satellites in an elliptical orbit that reaches an altitude of 29,200 miles above the Earth as it passes over North America. Each satellite will spend 16 hours a day broadcasting and the remaining six hours in the dark. At least one satellite will always be in position to broadcast the pure digital signal. XM uses two satellites in a geostationary orbit at 22,300 miles to stay in the same position over the Earth as it rotates. Sirius claims that its elliptical pattern and higher altitude allows it to transmit at steeper angles to minimize interference from tall objects. Satellite technology requires a line of site, so repeaters are still required despite the position of the satellites. To compensate for tall buildings and tunnels, Sirius is installing 94 repeaters to boost the signal. XM is installing between 700 and 1,000 repeaters for the same reason.

 
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i would stick with XM, i have it and love it. Sirus is on its way out, theyve decalred bankruptcy a few times now. there struggling for cash flow. on their website, there is a deal for a lifetime subscription for $400. the only reason a company would offer a deal like that is because their struggling for cash

 
Rep Power: 344

i actually heard that eventually, sirius and xm are going to merge and have one fee for both. i'm not sure how accurate this is but i trust the person who told me. he owns the shop that built the mercedes that took first place in nationals last year.

 
Rep Power: 811

Possibly. You'll still lose the signal when you're driving around buildings and under overpass/bridges. Gets annoying. And it really does sound like the music is missing frequencies. I say regular radio sounds better because it does come from an uncompressed cd--the only thing is you get static. XM actually deletes certain frequencies. If you have a stock audio setup, you probably won't notice much.

 
Rep Power: 314

I can't find any info that they have declared bankrupcy.

Oh yeah this is kinda nice

 
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Yes, last year Sirius was in financial trouble, but they were given like $200 million by somebody to stay alive for now. Actually, XM may get into some financial trouble, because they have one more satellite on the ground as a reserve that was supposed to go up in about 10 years. But due to a design flaw in one of the satellites already up, they may have to launch in the next 2 years, and the last time i heard anything, XM's insurace denied their claim to pay for a new reserve satellite.

As for the actual products, they are ok, XM seems to have a better signal - if i turn on Xm in the shop it will find signal, sirius wont. Some times the sound quality is better then other times (on my XM), its kinda strange. Sometimes it is bad enough to make me not listen, but not very frequently. Im not very excited about XM's programing, I really got it because i like to listen to House music, and obviously that isnt normally played on the radio. So there's only one channel that ever plays anything decent, but i only seem to hear a new program about once a week, and there are a lot of repeat programs on that channel!

I guess i could get sirius, but the plug n play units are all fugly and the headunits that support direct tuners are garbge for the most part.

For me, not really worth it. Most of the channels that i listen to are really top 40ish anyway with fewer commercials. i guess its good i got my stuff for $50.

 
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I have Sirius and I am adding it to my 2nd car I like it so much.

 
Rep Power: 322

Satellite radio is a cool perk - however the price of the equipment is much too high right now. I might become interested when they start giving the equipment away with subscription contracts.

 
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Uh, no not really. Sirius is giving away a free tuner with Panasonic or Kenwood deck and an antenna purchase. I got all my equipment and paid for a year of subsciption for under $425. Try Crutchfield or Sirius websites.

 
Rep Power: 322

at $13 per month your total should only have been the cost of the subscription - mark my words, pricing will come down when/if it gets popular enough to the point where they will be giving away the hardware at some point.

It's all opinion - $425 is too much for me.

 
Rep Power: 316

at my local dealer, they are giving away free tuners and antennas for sirius as long as you activate it.
its a jensen FM modulated stand alone sirius kit, comes with everything you need to get it working with your factory or aftermarket (i think you can actually use the aux in on your aftermarket radio).
there is one catch, the cost of installation because you have to get it installed and activated at the shop to get the free hardware, still not a bad deal, and there is no contract, you can do it month to month if you want.

 
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Sirius's marketing plan has always been to give away the hardware, kinda like direct tv did/does. Some of the crappier systems are completely given away (like the jensen or the first audiovox systems), while the better ones require you to buy the antenna. You can get a rf modulated panasonic tuner for free with the purchase of the $50 antenna, thats really a good deal to me. And if you think that the pricing is going to go down, it already has, its called commitment, lifetime of sirius for $400. Or even if you commit to a year, its only $11.50 a month. Anyway, sirius will probably keep offering comparable giveaways for quite a while, and if you want xm, you will have to pay for the hardware, although they have some rebates too, but not nearly as deep as sirius's.

 
Rep Power: 412

I have Sirius and love it. The only problem with the satellite systems is when you go in tunnels and such like previously mentioned. It's still great to drive state to state without static and without changing any stations.

Coming from the financial world, both companies are in rough shape. Sirius has enough cashflows for a while, and has no problem raising more from investors when needed through equity and debt offerings. XM has quite a bit more subscriptions, but internal money management there and the recent insurance denial is against them could put them out of business just as quick. Both companies are burning up cash like it's toilet paper so we'll see how long they will last. The positives are that both companies have contracts wth all the major automotive makers to keep installing them in new cars and the satellite market keeps growing at exponential growth...

 
Rep Power: 344

havok2k1...you hit the nail on the head...with honda and gm vehicles coming xm ready, it should keep progressing. do any car manufacturers use sirius? i think satellite radio is moving in the right direction and pretty soon, all new cars with have it.