Can you guys help with Portable Satellite Radio players?

[kwitel]

Looking to get either a Sirius or XM player for my sis's b-day.
I dont know ANYTHING about these products.
All I know is id like for it to be small/portable and potentially have a small hard-drive as well (although thats not a must).

Can anyone recommend a good product to look into?

Which service is the way to go, Sirius or XM?

Thanx Much!

 

[RubenNYC]

With satellite, I strongly suggest looking at the available content first. If she's a huge fan of Major League Baseball or Opie & Anthony, you'll want XM. If she's a huge fan of any other sport on the planet or Howard Stern fan you'll want Sirius.

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RubenNYC /img/forum/go_quote.gif With satellite, I strongly suggest looking at the available content first. If she's a huge fan of Major League Baseball or Opie & Anthony, you'll want XM. If she's a huge fan of any other sport on the planet or Howard Stern fan you'll want Sirius.

Just spoke to her-she wants XM.

 

[whistler]

For XM there is http://www.xm411.com for a more in depth discussion of the system.

 

[kwitel]

Seems that the Inno and the Helix are the big XM contenders.
Any Sirius units I should consider?

 

[Sweet Spot]

I just hope she's not a stickler for sound quality. I recently dumped XM service, though not really due to the sound quality, it was an issue concerning the Opie and Anthony show, which was really the only reason I was a sub in the first place. Anyway, I thought the music would be a great bonus, but I could never get used to listening to any of it because I found the sound quality to be absolutely HORRID.

I hear Sirius' SQ is a bit worse than XM's, which is a damned scary thought... I also found the "deep" playlists on xm to be really trite and over the top. I mean, ok.. give me some stuff I've not heard, but how about playing some stuff which IS familiar ? And I don't mean the usual crap which is played on FM in terms of pop, rock etc... Cuz outside of that stuff, it's all up in the air.

Doug

 

[lt.milo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwitel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Seems that the Inno and the Helix are the big XM contenders. Any Sirius units I should consider?

The Inno and helix are awesome. My brother has the Pioneer Inno and absolutely loves it, and I am jealous. You can store mp3's on it and the signal quality is actually really good. I definitly recommend it. Also, I really don't think I would look at Sirius, XM is really great.

 

[RubenNYC]

My wife and I bought Sirius for each other 'cuz we're big Howard fans. The fact that I get to listen to music I like but don't own without commercials is a bonus (I can't stand NYC FM radio and never listen to it anymore). The SQ can't compare to any of the DAPs we discuss on this board but is plenty good enough for me.

 

[LDMES]

I have had Sirius in my Car since Dec 04 and until we sold my Fiancee's car to buy a new one for her she had Sirius too. Now she has a new Honda CR-V which came with XM free for 3 months and I can tell you I am amazed at how much more I like the Sirius programming over the XM programming. Now there is a merger plan for the two companies in the works so they may eventually be the same company, but for my money I would go with Sirius over XM and we are getting her Plug and Play unit installed in her CR-V and will not be paying for the XM Service. A co-worker has the Stilleto-100 and he absolutely loves it. I agree that the SQ may not be the same as the DAPs discussed on Head0Fi but if what you want is portable radio then I would go with the Stilleto -100 personally. I am saving up to buy it myself.

 

[kwitel]

Thank you all for the input.
I found a Samsung Helix online for a $100!!!
I think I may just pull the trigger on that one.