spec1alk

I bought a new clarion touchmedia deck about 6 months ago and they had a promotion that they would give you a sirius satelite reciever for free with the purchase of a 1 yr contract to sirius. The reciever integrates with my clarion deck. The only reason I got satelite radio at all was the free deal.

The 1 yr contract was averaged 9.99 a month but also included 3 months free since I signed a 1 yr contract. Installing the antennae also cost me about $100(including the cost of the antenae).

I live in montana and moved there about 1 month after installing the deck and satelitte reciever. During the drive from san diego, CA to montana I did not encounter any coverage problems. I was able to listen to the radio the whole way. It also works flawlessly driving in the mountains of montana.

I dont know about the sound quality but I do know that I cant stand 128k mp3's. mp3 compressed music just does not have the emotion that a good CD has. Sirius isnt great either, but I have listened to XM in my uncles H2 and I feel the sound quality of sirius was better. Try this, burn some mp3's to an audio CD and play them in normal cd-audio format in your car. If you are satisfied with the sound quality, then you will probly be happy with XM's quality.

The biggest draw for me on the sirius radio is the exclusive NFL contract. This contract allows me, a transplanted chargers fan, to listen to my chargers announcer, not just the home team announcer. So a vikings fan(they are going to the superbowl but I dont think they can win) can listen to their vikings announcer, every vikings game of the season. Unlike directv's nfl sunday ticket, sirius' contract includes ALL games, including monday night football(sunday ticket doesnt include this which is just stupid). Sirius has ESPN and ESPN radio as well as a couple other sports stations. They also have a ch 124 which is NFL Radio. Its NFL, all day, every day. Its great. NFL Radio has a special segment pertaining just to fantasy football. Its a great channel.

I think the rock stations are also pretty good on sirius. I like classic rock(101 kgb fm was my station in san diego) and the classic rock channels (14/15) play some good tunes and they dont play the same song very often. I dont think I have heard them play the same song twice in one day.

Lastly, Sirius allows you to stream *most* of their channels over the internet FOR FREE. I believe all of the music channels can be streamed over the net. Only a couple talk stations can be streamed, and pretty much no sports stations may be streamed. I really wish they would stream their sports programming.

I think they also had exclusive rights to hockey and they had a contract for basketball. If they get the contract for mlb then this discussion is over. As it sits right now, sirius is the obvious choice for a sports fan. The only exclusive sports contract on XM I am aware of is NASCAR, and I love nascar but its not really enjoyable to LISTEN to racing. You have to be able to watch it.

In closing, I think the programming of sirius is better all around, but especially for sports and talk. XM is bigger just because of their GM contract. If sirius partners with ford(which is likely), they will be just as big, if not bigger, than XM.

edit: wanted to add that sirius has added weather and traffic for the 20 worst traffic congested cities in the US.