Are you Sirius?

My mom has had Sirius radio for over a year now (ever since Howard Stern switched over), and we have nothing but praise. For the most part, as long as the receiver is in clear line-of-sight with the satellite you get perfect reception. We also occasionally get reception indoors or when driving in parking structures, but that's hit-or-miss and most likely depends on whatever material is blocking the signal. I wouldn't say we live in the largest city, but when she travels around Los Angeles she still gets perfect reception.

There are a bunch of different units to chose from, depending on where you plan on using the radio. We have the "Starmate", which is designed for car use but can just as easily be moved indoors and attached to a different receiver. I wouldn't necessarily call it "portable" though, since it requires an external power supply, receiver, and speakers (or you can opt to broadcast to an unused radio frequency, which is most likely what you do in your car; the signal is strong enough when close to your radio so there's no cross-frequency interference). The portable units like the Stiletto are designed to be carried around and used indoors, plus the more expensive models can stream the radio live from nearby WiFi networks (which you can also do by manually logging into the Sirius website at home). If you just plan on using the radio in your home and possibly in your car, then go for one of the "Plug & Play" models. If you're only planning on using it in your home and you have a nice computer sound system, then just stream it from the internet. Otherwise, you can get an actual home unit, which probably gives you more sound output options than the typical 3.5" found on the car units.

As for XM and HD radio... can't comment :) Music is music and both companies have similar offerings, so I don't really see the difference between XM and Sirius there, however Sirius has Howard Stern, which I consider a huge draw in terms of content (and apparently has tripled to quadrupled their number of subscribers). If you're not a fan, then you always at least have the option!

Have Sirius...Love it. I listen at work. I have an XM radio in my truck, and I'm hoping they merge so that radio will be functional with Sirius.

PS - Vote Sanjaya

I've had Sirius since Stern came over there. I've been WAY more happy with it than I expected.

I also have the Starmate receiver, and am really happy with it. The only time I haven't gotten reception in my area (NJ) is when i'm in a tunnel. It's almost all commercial free (talk radio has 6 minutes per hour of commercials so that the performers can have a break and go to the bathroom). I couldn't go back to regular radio.

From what I have heard, I enjoy Sirius quite a bit more than XM, it's just preference though. With Sirius, all channels come with the price, XM has some premium channels.

If you are interested in listening at the gym (i haven't bothered, since I have an mp3 player and the gym has XM in all of its machines), there is a portable "walkman style" unit you can get for Sirius that will record something like 60 hours of content and "tivo" it for later use. It's expensive, but it seems like a nice unit.

The unit that I have in my car, the "starmate" will let you pause, and rewind up to 45 minutes of content. It also has a feature where you label all of your favorite artists and songs, and when they come on any of the stations it prompts you whether you would like to switch over to that station to hear it or not. I *REALLY* like this unit.

Good luck!

Edit: Ah, here's the portable player, the STILLETO. $230 bucks, but here's an interesting tidbit from the website:

Offers up to 100 hours of storage capacity and can handle MP3 and WMA files, enabling you to mix Sirius content with your own personal music collection

Looks pretty slick too!

Just wait until they start putting commercials on every channel once there's no more competition...


Remember when cable companies promised "no commercials" when they first came out? Well, most of you probably don't, but that was what they promised. No commercials. Then all of a sudden they decided to pull a bait and switch and now you can't find cable stations without commercials. Ain't that grand? It'll happen to satellite radio too.

Quote:

Original post by Mithrandir Remember when cable companies promised "no commercials" when they first came out? Well, most of you probably don't, but that was what they promised. No commercials. Then all of a sudden they decided to pull a bait and switch and now you can't find cable stations without commercials. Ain't that grand? It'll happen to satellite radio too.

QFT.

That's when my subscription will expire. Until then, i'm enjoying the service.

Quote:

Original post by Mithrandir Just wait until they start putting commercials on every channel once there's no more competition... Remember when cable companies promised "no commercials" when they first came out? Well, most of you probably don't, but that was what they promised. No commercials. Then all of a sudden they decided to pull a bait and switch and now you can't find cable stations without commercials. Ain't that grand? It'll happen to satellite radio too.

Actually, I'm too young to remember that. However, I'm primarily interested in paying for content I can't get for free as opposed to paying for no commercials.

Anyway, if people wouldn't pay for commercials, they couldn't charge for them. Too bad I'll probably still pay for the commercials on satellite radio

I am Sirius, and don't call me Shirley.

XM vs Sirius? Anyone had both. Ive got XM now and it seems to have alot of content on it that I enjoy. Has anyone have any comparison on both? (seeing as how XM's price is now the same as Sirius)

I thought they were going to merge?

Also, I am extremely disappointed that I can't find an image on all of the internets of Sirius from Bomberman 64...

I had Sirius in my car for three months. I found the lack of commercials to be the nicest thing about it. The talk shows were ok, nothing amazing (I never got into Stern, and there's only so much you can blabber about the whole day on Playboy). I also didn't find a music channel I *really* liked. There were many different genres but for some reason nothing they played really clicked with me.

Reception is excellent whenever there is a clear line of sight to the satellite. The moment I drove under a bridge I got a brief pause. So I doubt it will work indoors in a portable manner - you'll probably need an antenna on the roof.

After three months I decided not to continue, mostly because there were no channels I *really* liked. If I found those, I'd definetly subscribe, so it sounds like you might actually enjoy a subscription.

Also, I heard XM radio has commercials, but that could be an urban legend.