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school me on satellite radio

SIRUSSIRUS 2,554 Posts
edited October 2005 in Strut Central
anybody here have it? does the signal work in the subway, or disappear like regular radio?how does sirius compare to xm?thanx.

  Comments

  • cardovacardova 743 Posts
    also, does it work outside u.s./canada?
  • SIRUSSIRUS 2,554 Posts
    also, does it work outside u.s./canada?
  • funky16cornersfunky16corners 7,175 Posts
    anybody here have it? does the signal work in the subway, or disappear like regular radio?how does sirius compare to xm?thanx.

    My wife and I have two receivers. It will not work in the subway, tunnels etc. The antenna needs to have a somewhat clear line to the sky. Other than that, we love it.
  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,390 Posts
    I'd say XM is probably marginally better but really you have to check out the stations lists to work out what's right for you. Same kind of pricing, same kind of breadth of output. Those two are North America only at present, I believe, but digital radio is alive and growing elsewhere in the world.



    A good FM signal actually gives you better sound but the joy of successfully making a clean digital recording straight from air with no fuss is hard to beat. Erm, if that's what you wanted to do. Digital also gives you data channels with names of songs, artists, stations, DJs, coming up next etc etc. Digital is the way to go for convenience.



    Receives signals like a regular radio, albeit from a digital transmitter, so still needs an antenna and positioning like a normal radio. When the signal breaks up it stutters or cuts out rather than going all snap crackle and hiss. Ford are putting them in all news cars from 2007, I think.
  • ScottScott 420 Posts
    Good point by Flomotion. The sound quality on Satellite radio (both XM and Sirius) is nowhere near CD-quality, as people are lead to believe believe. The exact bitrates of each channel are closely held secrets by each provider, but this much is certain: it's not even FM quality.

    Since they're compressing over 100 channels into their fixed bandwidth, all channels suffer. Music channels average around 64 kbs, which is a poor-quality mp3. The talk stations are around 16 kbs, which is (barely) acceptable for voice.

    That being said, I'm with Sirius, mainly for the NFL. Each game has the home and away team's radio feed, so I won't have to miss games when I'm travelling on Sunday (which seems to happen often). Also, I'm very interested in seeing how Stern sounds on satellite radio in January.
  • djannadjanna 1,543 Posts
    SIRIUS has awesome hip hop stations- old school, mixtape dj's, hot shit, dope dj's like Premier, Smallz, Red Alert, Lord Sear, Kayslay, Envy etc etc etc You can hear some Beatnuts, then some Special Ed, then some e-40 and then some Chamillionaire. and Howard is coming!

    I don't know XM, who has XM? what are they like?
  • SIRUSSIRUS 2,554 Posts
    SIRIUS has awesome hip hop stations- old school, mixtape dj's, hot shit, dope dj's like Premier, Smallz, Red Alert, Lord Sear, Kayslay, Envy etc etc etc You can hear some Beatnuts, then some Special Ed, then some e-40 and then some Chamillionaire. and Howard is coming!

    this is a huge selling point for me obviously.does sirius have that walkman thing like xm? does anybody have that?does it have an output so i can hook it up to a stereo like a ipod?
  • mistercmisterc 329 Posts
    Both Sirius and XM have problems w/ the signals dropping out. Unlike satellite TV their sattelites are not geocentric (not sure if that's the right word). Basically they don't rotate with the earth, they have fixed positions. I believe they have three satellites and it drops out when your recption switches from one to another (this happens from trees, buildings, subways, etc.). I think XM might have repeaters in the big cities to try and solve this problem.
  • speshboogiespeshboogie 105 Posts
    Programming wise (particularly Hip Hop) Sirius rules, hands down.
    I have Sirius & love it.
    Had XM, it was ok - it doesn't suck - but Hip Hop aint fuckin with Sirius.
    Sirius got Evil Dee, Primo, Tony Touch, Lord Sear, just to name a few.
    Sear had Marley Marl on last week!!

    Couple of the mixshow dudes on some stations are 'meh', but for the most part always something dope to listen to.
    And you tend to hear more shit MAAAD early b4 it's released.

    Receiver wise, I think I have to say XM has a wider variety of units to pick from, including the hand held jammie, which is dope.

    But from what I understand, Sirius is going to really be stepping there receiver game up, not to mention Howard Stern is coming to Sirius & that pretty much means a significant increase in listenership as well so expect it to get better.

    Signal wise, I hear XM is superior, but both worked well for me.
    How you install/setup will play a big role here too.

    I gotta little $99 Wal-Mart boombox joint.
    Works perfect in the whip, at home it's 50/50, and at work I listen online/streaming.
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