Which satellite radio is better, XM or Sirius?
I purchased an XM Radio Roady2 for my wife’s car last weekend. This is an external unit with built in FM modulator that allows it to play through the radio. I went with the external unit for a few reasons. Installation was a snap – attach a tiny magnetic antenna to the roof, clip the unit on to an air conditioning vent with supplied gizmo, plug the power cord into the cig ligher, and you’re in business. You can also pull the unit out of the car and use it at home with additional adapters supplied for free in a promotion that ends in September. They’re also expected to start selling a walkman-type portable player this fall that you snap the tuner into. Of course the downside of all this portability is it can be easily ripped off from your car, although I’d imagine the thief would have a difficult time having a stolen unit activated. My decision of XM over Sirius was driven mainly by market share. As I understand it, XM currently has 2.5 milli
We also decided XM over Sirius because we liked the style better than the Sirius models (they are so huge!!) and the fact that you can bring in the receiver and listen to it at home (at no added monthly cost; the Delphi hardware is great package in my opinion — giving you lots of options which is exactly what we wanted). Maybe the Sirius hardware receivers are so big is so they can get all the names to show up on the screen. Our Delphi cuts off the longer band/song names, which can be annoying. So I’d suggest checking out their programming and seeing which is really more important, then look at the hardware (both in car and at home) to see if there are any that stand out one way or another for you.
Disclaimer: I own a small amount of both XM and Sirius stock IMO Sirius has much better programming than XM. The 2 NPR stations, plus the fact that Clear Channel is _not_ a major stakeholder of Sirius really seal the deal for me. I had an FM transmitter with Sirius in my last car and found the audio quality to be lacking. With either solution, I’d suggest not getting one that “connects” using an FM transmitter. I keep hearing rumors that Alpine is going to be switching from supporting XM to Sirius (that and that Alpine will be releasing a connector for its stereos that allow you to hook up your iPod and control right from the stereo), which is making me wait to get it installed in my vehicle.
