[kurt_fire]

Both are $12.95/month and I want to get one or the other. I will it use it primarily to listen to classic rock, blues, and jazz. I would like it to be portable and able to hook up to two different cars and my home theatre.

Do they both have the same sound quality? Do they sound better than FM radio? Are they on par with a CD in sound quality? Also, how do you connect them exactly to a stock car stereo?

Which would be the better choice for me?

 

[blessingx]

They're no where close to CD sound quality. At best they're FM comparable and after a few trials I disagree even with that. I actually got headaches after listening more than two hours. XM is putting out I think ~32 AAC+. That's not even 128 kbps MP3 (usually rated at ~48 AAC+). Sirius is similar. I've seen tests say either is superior in the sound department, but I think the differences are minor. I really think you should look at the programming and content to decide. Most here seem to discuss XM (it certainly has the better home deck with the Polk), but I'm firmly in the NPR/BBC/Stern Sirius camp. If you're considering the latter I suggest you look at the Starmate Replay (has newest chip).

Most current PNP systems on both have FM transmitters, so you can either use that to your car stereo or plug in directly if you have a jack. There are obviously car stereos you can buy. The PNP have, depending on the model, either a dock with a jack or a mini jack on the unit which you can plug into your home stereo with a $5 Y mini-RCA adapter.

If you want to visit fan sites to get the low down of each go to:
http://www.xmfan.com/
http://www.siriusbackstage.com/

Again the price, hardware, quality and complications (antenna, reception, etc.) are similar enough that I really think you should look at the content of each to decide.

An independant guy set up this site is you want to see what's on the Sirius channels at any one time. There may be something similar of XM, I just don't know it.

I just gotta state again that the sound quality isn't going to be steller. You shouldn't consider this a step from rabbit ear broadcast TV to cable. It's more like rabbit ears to rabbit ears with content you may prefer. I (and at least one other here) tried and dropped the service (me Sirius, he XM)because of the quality. I'm considering giving it another go and see if my expectations were unfair. It's not like some of the content you can get anywhere else.

 

[no1likesme]

we have sirius and they seem to play a lot of new artists before they really become popular (mtv, fuse, radio, ect...)

i would go with sirius but you will have to decide which has better programming to fit your tastes

 

[Sweet Spot]

Ok, so we know that technically, the bitrates used for sat broadcast are not up to snuff with what we consider audiophile quality, but, this does not seem to account for what happens when you're listening to their setup. I've heard both company's set ups, and truth be told, they're both pretty much on par, and when matched with decent speaker systems, actually sound pretty damned good.

I'd say definitely FM broadcast quality or more, without static. There are dropouts from time to time, but that's a small thing. Programming, as said above, is what you want to pay attention to. I'm also into NPR, but I'm definitley not into Stern. I'm more an Opie & Anthony - Ron&Fez kind of guy. Sirius tends to play, and overplay most of the very contemporary/popular genre stuff, while XM leans torwards bands you've never heard of and more of the underground/indie artists. I actually prefer XM's line up of channels.

You can do a trial thing with XM online, so I'm pretty sure you can do the same with Sirius. You should do that first.

 

[audiomagnate]

I have XM via DirecTV, and it sounds absolutely horrible, like really low bitrate MP3. FM can sound wonderful with the right equipment, but they screw up the signal at the station to get louder average levels in cars and on crappy systems.