Satellite Radio - XM vs. Sirius

[18rabbit]

Any recommendations for (or against) satellite radio? Sirius is now available in some marine stereos receivers but I haven’t seen any Delphi XM marine stereo receivers, yet. Other than programming, is one satellite system better than the other? Both cost $10/month subscription.

 

[datawire]

Re: Satellite Radio - XM vs. Sirius

We have XM in my wife's Yukon XL, the camper, my work van, a boom box, and now the boat. The Yukon unit was OEM, and got us hooked. We bought "portable" units off of eBay for a fraction of their MSRP. and just swap the receiver around to whatever we are in - so we only pay for a single "secondary" receiver ($5.95 a month). We have permanent antennas for all the receiver cradles that also came from eBay. We love XM, and I believe the channels are identical with Sirius.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Satellite Radio - XM vs. Sirius

Datawire - I talked to the folks that sell both XM and Sirius receivers. They said the channel line up is different but not by much. How did you get XM on your boat? I can find Sirius in a couple different marine AM/FM/CD receivers, but I haven’t seen XM for boats.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Satellite Radio - XM vs. Sirius

For what it's worth, both companies have had difficuty in the past earning a profit. However, DELPHI (GM) has thrown it's weight behind XM. I'm thinking if push came to shove, GM has a lot bigger pot to draw from. <br /><br />A couple years back a satelite TV company called PRIMESTAR went out of business leaving those customers high and dry with equipment they had purchased and no service. <br /><br />If I were in the market, XM would be the way to go for me.<br /><br />You might give THIS a look.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Satellite Radio - XM vs. Sirius

Thanks, KaGee. Another piece to buy. A while back I read that XM had more bandwidth, greater bit depth, overall better sound quality. And it turns out Sirius costs a couple bucks/month more. It looks like Sirius is allowing their technology to be imbedding into 3rd party hardware. For $20 more I can get Sirius capability in a marine am/fm radio receiver. Delphi is keeping a tight hold on the manufacturing of the hardware. $60 for the receiver, another $160 for the marine kit…and that allows XM to be interfaced with a 3rd party am/fm receiver. It looks like Apple (XM) vs. IBM/PC (Sirius) marketing strategies. Hardware wise, I think Sirius has a big advantage. I recently heard on Fox News that XM is now turning a profit. I was waiting for that. As you pointed out, that has it’s advantage. Maybe I should wait until Sirius becomes profitable or XM licenses it’s technology to 3rd party manfs.