Will XM survive Sirius' growing popularity?
Written: Sep 08 '06
|
| Full Review |
On an average work day, I spend four hours commuting, and then another two hours in the truck while working. When you do that 7 days a week, sometimes for a stretch of 5 weeks at a time, you quickly grow exhausted of FM radio and your own CD collection. It was so bad that I even came to truly hate a few select DJs. Fortunately, that all came to an end recently, when I was shifted to a different truck that had XM radio. Unfortunately, that same truck came attached with a somewhat lazy smoker that made me do most of the work, but the radio made it all worthwhile.
I’m actually subscribed to Sirius myself, since it came with my new car, but I’ve spent many more hours listening to XM’s channels. To date, I’ve been a little more pleased with Sirius, but the difference between the two providers has grown so narrow that I cannot truly crown one as being decidedly better than the other. Given the similarities, you’ll notice that parts of this review are identical to my earlier Sirius review. I have done my best to highlight the very few differences that do currently exist at the consumer level.
In Your Car
Soon enough, you will find yourself listening to satellite radio. With the blitz of car companies signing deals with XM or Sirius, it’s getting to the point where you have to intentionally avoid getting satellite radio with any new car. But why would you do that? If anything, you should quit waiting and buy a portable satellite receiver now. They tend to range in price from $50 up to $300, with the more expensive units allowing you to pause, rewind, and fast forward live radio (among other features).
The exact method of installation will vary between different receivers and different mounting packages, not to mention different vehicles. However, in general, it is as simple as mounting the receiver on your dash or windshield, plugging it in to the cigarette lighter, and placing the antenna in a place with a clear view of the sky. For a sloppy job, you can have the receiver installed in 5 minutes. Since I wanted a clean look with no visible wires, I took the time to hardwire the power source, route the antenna cable under paneling, and create a custom mount, which took me about 5 hours, since I’d never done anything like that before. Now that I know what I’m doing, it could be done in around an hour.
Once the receiver is installed, you can either call XM to set up a subscription, or you can go to their website and do so there. Since I wasn’t the one to do this with XM, I can’t really comment on the process. If it’s anything like Sirius, it’s a painless step that is over in just a few minutes.
In Your House
Even though most of the promotions make it seem like satellite radio is for your car, it is every bit as practical in your house or even where you work. It can be a little tricky to find a place to mount the antenna that has a clear view of the sky, and you’ll need to purchase a few extras, such as a home docking kit, but it’s otherwise just as practical as running satellite radio in your vehicle. Better yet, most home audio systems are a little easier than vehicles for beginners that want to hook up an AUX output, which gives you improved sound quality.
Coverage & Quality
One of the biggest advantages of satellite radio is that you can be in the middle of nowhere (in North America) and still be getting a crystal clear signal. As long as the antenna has a clear view of the sky, you’re good to go. XM only uses two satellites that are placed in geostationary orbit (Sirius has 3 that are placed in a moving constellation), so coverage is theoretically not as expansive as Sirius, but not in a way that’s going to impact the average person. Some receivers will momentarily drop the signal by simply passing under an overpass, but that’s mainly determined by antenna placement. In garages, under thick trees, or even when you’re surrounded by large buildings, you may lose reception. There are also times when, for no apparent reason, the signal drops off for a second or two before getting picked back up.
Satellite radio does have better sound quality than conventional radio, but it’s still not CD-quality. The only way you get sound quality that good is if you hardwire your receiver to your vehicle’s head unit with an AUX output, which generally isn’t an especially cheap or easy task. Normally, your receiver uses FM modulation, meaning that it picks up the signal from the satellites, and then transmits it within a small radius (15 meters or so) at an FM frequency of your choice (which you then tune to with your vehicle’s audio system). The sound quality suffers by having to broadcast at that FM frequency, giving you quality that isn’t far off from regular FM radio. It also means that other people running their satellite radio at the same frequency can interfere with your signal, which can push your buttons when you get *groan* Paris Hilton in the middle of your Led Zeppelin. My Sirius receiver seems to have exceptionally poor FM transmitting powers and is constantly being overtaken, but that’s something that varies from one receiver to the next.
Channels
XM offers similar programming to Sirius with over 100 channels, but I would say Sirius has the slight advantage. When it comes to music, I’ve always been able to find a good song on Sirius, but sometimes there is absolutely nothing good playing on XM. Sirius further has the advantage with talk shows, having big names like Howard Stern and Eminem on board. Sirius also has a larger selection of sports and comedy coverage, while XM has a wider variety of news channels. Full channel guides can be found at their websites:
xmradio.com / xmradio.ca
sirius.com / siriuscanada.ca
I’m a big-time channel surfer, and XM seems to be quicker at picking up signals and broadcasting them. No doubt, it is largely a function of the receiver, but it seems all XM receivers I’ve used have been quicker. Both Sirius and XM immediately display the channel, artist and song when you are surfing, but XM simply pumps out the music a bit quicker for those times when you don’t know the artist or song.
Uncensored...kinda
For now, the FCC has no control over satellite radio content, leaving talk show hosts free to use the F-bomb all they want. Similarly, you can listen to talk shows describing various human orifices in ways you’d never have expected on radio. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is debatable, but if you’re a conservative parent, you’ll be happy to know that you can lock out channels.
Canadian subscribers are kept closer to the edge of their seat, as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) does claim to have some control over the programming on satellite radio. On the bright side, the CRTC hasn’t officially interfered too much with Sirius or XM to date, although it did mean a slight increase with Canadian-grown content by adding a few CBC channels. The main limits right now are that no localized content can be provided – meaning no weather forecasts or traffic reports.
Commercial-Free...kinda
The worst parts of AM/FM radio are unequivocally the advertisements, and in most cases, the DJs. Much to my disappointment, “commercial-free” music only removes one of those elements, leaving you with the occasional DJ that comes on and rambles on about nothing. The DJs are relatively good, but still, give them the pink slip and me the music.
Once you get off of the commercial-free music channels, the advertisements are still quite restrained, with one or two being inserted here and there. Since they do help keep subscription costs down and they aren’t long and obtrusive like AM/FM commercials, I can’t complain too much.
How does it compare to Sirius?
The only real difference between Sirius and XM is the channel programming and the receivers they offer. Even the difference in programming isn’t that astronomical, and isn’t enough to substantially sway my opinion. Even the monthly subscription costs the same, although XM did have the upper hand until recently.
So really, my recommendation is to find the receiver that you like the most, whether it be Sirius or XM, and go with it. Of those that I’ve used, Sirius’ Starmate Replay was my favourite, but I don’t mind the Sportster Replay that I own beyond its weak FM transmitting. I somewhat prefer the XM SKYFi2 over my Sportster Replay, but not much. Being comfortable with the receiver is what I’ve found really counts, with all of the other small variations between Sirius and XM being trivial.
As a note, if you go and look for Sirius vs XM comparisons, pay close attention to the date the article was written. XM and Sirius have undergone many changes, and something written just a year ago may no longer be true.
Pay, eh?
With their growing popularity and increased programming, both Sirius’ and XM’s price have been creeping up over the years. Even so, I don’t think I’ve ever met a person that didn’t think it was worth the cost or that regretted their decision. XM has recently increased its C$12.99 per month rate to match Sirius’ C$14.99, and still doesn’t offer a lifetime subscription option that you can get with Sirius. However, XM does offer pro-rated rates for multi-year subscriptions. In the US, the price is essentially identical with currency conversion at $12.95 per month for XM or Sirius. Don’t forget that there’s also the one-time cost of the receiver, which is about the same cost as a one-year subscription on average. Activation also costs money with both providers, being C$15 online, or C$20 by phone.
It’s Worth It
Had I not obtained a Sirius receiver and the year-long subscription as a promo through Mazda, I probably would not have bothered to buy satellite radio in the first place. I just couldn’t get my head around paying for radio, but now that I’ve tasted it, there’s no going back. I expect I’ll stick with Sirius, as that makes the most financial sense for now, especially since XM has nothing to warrant making the switch at this point in time.
Satellite radio is something you should have. Whether it’s XM or Sirius is of little consequence at this point in time. XM’s programming is good, and Sirius is perhaps better overall, but it really depends on what your ears desire. As I said with my review of Sirius, base your decision on the receiver. If you’re not comfortable with the receiver, you’re not going to be very happy with the service.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tch7
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Reviews written: 112
Trusted by: 145 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.