XM vs Sirius

[danwxman]

Sirius has two 24/7 conservative talk stations and two 24/7 liberal talk stations, including Air America's full schedule. Also ABC News & Talk (Hannity), NPR talk, C-SPAN radio, and OutQ gay radio (which is like another liberal talk station lol). There's also some other general talk stations like women's talk and hispanic talk. In terms of news there is BBC, CNN and FoxNews....I believe both Sirius and XM carry those though.

I am very satisfied with Sirius's political talk lineup (way more then even I can listen to)....

Here's a general list of what service is considered better for each area:

News: XM
Talk: Sirius

Opie & Anthony: XM
Howard Stern (coming 2006): Sirius

NFL/NHL/NBA: Sirius
MLB: XM

Alternative/Obscure rock: XM
Mainstream/Classic rock: Sirius

Pop/world music: XM
Dance/hip-hop music: Sirius

XM is $9.99 per month and Sirius is $12.99 per month...but XM charges more for their premium channels and online listening so you end up paying more then Sirius, while Sirius has everything included in one price.

Generally in terms of price Sirius has cheaper equipment, but you can find good deals on each. I would recommend the Audiovox PNP3 which is going for only $89 right now or the Sportser which is similar.

[danwxman]

I've never tried XM, but had Sirius in a rental car once...I found that reception, even in well populated areas, was absolutely horrid.

Might have been a problem with the antenna. Well populated areas are flooded with terrestrial repeaters, so there should be no signal issues at all.

[danwxman]

I've seen recievers for both XM and Sirius, and the XM recievers are much, much better designed than the clunky Sirius recievers.

I have the Roady. Great entry-level reciever.

XM is also coming out with a portable reciever, which should be awesome.

This:  which fits into the palm of your hand, is clunky?

[danwxman]

If you get any one of them installed in your car, can u take it out a year later and use it as a regular radio.

You would need to get a portable "PNP" unit. It can be used in a car kit, home kit or boombox.

[danwxman]

If you get any one of them installed in your car, can u take it out a year later and use it as a regular radio.

You could, but I would instead recommend that you just get a Plug and Play XM SkyFi2 or Sirius Sportster that you can switch between car and radio with...

This:  which fits into the palm of your hand, is clunky?

No, but the XM2Go has a better design:

Well, the Xact is not technically a portable unit...although it can be used as one.

[danwxman]

The XM MyFi is neat but the technology needs to be fine-tuned and the price needs to go down before I purchase a portable unit like that. The antenna goes onto your back and I've heard it looks rather odd....and if you hold it the wrong way the signal goes dead. Sirius is supposed to come out with a portable unit this summer, hopefully it will have all the kinks worked out and actually be a better unit then the MyFi.

[danwxman]

MAS117, I did have the Audiovox PNP2 but upgraded to the PNP3. It's much smaller and sleeker, I would highly recommend it.