XM and Sirius, side-by-side feature comparison |
Loading ...If you are thinking about checking out the satellite radio scene, as I have pondered at times, then this site offers a side-by-side comparison of the two major players. Last updated September 13, 2005.
Thanks Digg:
Currently there are 2 Major Players in the Satellite Radio Market. The current players are XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.
Key points I picked up:
- Cost. both services cost $12.95/month
- Music. 68 CD-quality stations for XM vs. Sirius with 65. The comparison chart shows 61 of the 65 are comercial free, but I’m guessing that’s just a misprint and all 65 are commercial free(?).
- Sports. Sirius has more professional sports signed up (NFL, NBA and NHL) vs. XM which has NASCAR. Although XM has FOX Sports radio. Both have ESPN radio
- Entertainment. The biggest news on the satellite scene is Howard Stern going to Sirius. Also, Adam Curry fans will note that his podshow is on Sirius as well. Sirius also has Court TV. Both XM and Sirius have Radio Classics and Discovery. Both have Radio Disney for the kids. For mature adult audiences — and an extra $2.99/month — Playboy is available for XM. Sirius doesn’t seem to have any additional pay channels.
- Support. Sirius offers 24/7 support while XM has limited hours, but is open 7 days a week.
If I sign up for satellite, I’m probably going for Sirius. We’ve looked at it a few times and thought about it, but I just haven’t wanted to pull the trigger. Why? I guess it was that I didn’t think I would listen to it enough.
We already have the RadioShark running 24/7 (weekdays I listen to Jim Rome and KIRO-710), though the volume is turned down sometimes. Now that we have the Slingbox running on a machine, that runs 6-8 hours per day too. Beyond reviewing and testing I just don’t see where satellite would realistically fit? Especially when you factor in music and podcasts … yikes. Not enough hours.
Basicaly the radio and TV are background noise while working. I don’t actually tune into most of it while working. Something about working in silence just doesn’t work for me. Gotta have the activity around me, I guess.
Do you work in silence? Have a radio, music or TV playing in the background?
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- Sirius to charge subscribers $2 more for higher quality internet streaming
What sucks is that there’s no guaranteed service in Alaska. Otherwise, I would have signed up already.
Comment by Eugene — September 29, 2005 @ 6:15 pm PST
I actually had both for a while and decided on XM. I was having difficulty getting Sirius’ signal at home, not so with XM. Also I found that the sound quality on XM is superior to that of Sirius’. To me, Sirius sounded like an Mp3 that was really compressed. Although I liked the music stations on Sirius better (as far as the songs they played and style etc.) Yes Howard will be on in January (one of the reasons I got it) but what pushed me over was the news that Ron and Fez were joining Opie and Anthony on 202. Both these shows are worth the entire subscription cost alone. Not to mention XM also just signed the NHL.
Comment by Jonathan — September 30, 2005 @ 12:18 am PST
I’m with you TDavid on having to have some background noise. Of course I’m listening to Radio Skipper streaming from my pc… http://www.radioskipper.com Between that and my MP3 player and DirecTV with DVR I just don’t see the need for satellite radio… I already get a bunch of music stations from DirecTV…
Comment by FranciscoIV — September 30, 2005 @ 8:48 am PST