Sirius Canada Satellite Radio

[Drawbar]

I have it for Stern, comedy and the sports.

[Inno]

I have it for when I travel in remote areas where there is only crap radio or very poor signal. Satellite comes in strong with my favourite stations all the time.

[tdu]

If you don't listen to the radio, it's also one of the few ways to hear 'new' music. I love finding stuff I haven't heard, and it's great for that.

Normal radio is all commercials, and the same 10 songs played 3 times a day. It's horrible.

So I personally consider Satellite to be worth it.

...Unfortunately I decided to finally subscribe around the time they merged and decided to wait for the dust to clear instead. Why aren't they merged in Canada yet? Do they plan on it soon? When will they both stop selling their own radios, and focus on joint ones? I guess the current ones can likely get both (?), but I'd still like to see what they come up with when both companies technology combine to make one product. It seems like I should be waiting for some of these things to resolve before starting a new subscription.....

[starchoice]

There is no merge in the works for Canada at this time. The Canadian companies are distinct from the U.S. Sirius and XM in Canada are two separate companies which have separate agreements in place to furnish product they acquire from the U.S. There is already one (interoperable) radio available which can handle both technologies.

[Nascar318is]

I like it better.

1. I travel a lot and I get uninterrupted signal everywhere I go (unlike FM).
2. To keep up with current music I would always be burning a new CD but with satellite I am always current.
3. I can listen to Howard Stern.

Ditto, I've had my Stilleto for about 3 years now. I went from 50 cd's in the car to about 2, my radio is programmed for 2 stations(instead of 6), my local rock channel and my sirius. I also find that sirius (octane, faction) don't play the same song every 15 minutes like on some local radio stations. You can sometimes hear the same song played 3 times in 2 hours. Too many commericals, too much talk. And the variety! I can go from hard rock, to 80's to country to Nascar Radio, and nhl playoffs. With the Stiletto I can record programs or songs and plug them into my favorites so when that song comes on(no matter what channel) it will tell me. You can't do that with FM. I can also use it for cutting the grass, or snowblowing the yard, or going for a jog. So to me it is very handy to have, that is why after a 2 year subscription I got the lifetime on it. Now I have a car kit in each car, and I am looking to buy the slbb-1 boombox. That's just my opionion, it all depends what you want it for and what you can do with it. An Ipod was never enough for my needs so I went with Sirius.

[surfmonster]

The downside to XM is their sound quality. The sound quality is pumped through at 32 kbps which is fine for talk radio but not acceptable for music. In contrast, you can pay an additional $3/month to get 128 kbps sound on Sirius. No such thing on XM. Coverage is also better on Sirus than XM.

On the contrary...XM's sound quality is better than Sirius...do some reserach, maybe look at CNET's Sat Radio Guide

I have an Alpine head unit in my car that was XM ready and I bought the add-on module for it and activated the radio...I have to say the quality of the XM music is far superior to regular FM stereo. I think a lot of people lose quality when they go to the FM modulating units (i.e. the XM is picked up by a tuner and then "re-broadcasted" to your existing FM radio. This FM modulation in itself offers a lot of signal loss and thus a decrease in quality.

As of 2007, XM had 7.5+ million customers and Sirius had just over 5 Million

As for coverage, yes Sirius covers all of North America whereas XM only covers Continental United States and Canada, but isn't that enough for most of us?

[tdu]

dulation in itself offers a lot of signal loss and thus a decrease in quality.

As of 2007, XM had 7.5+ million customers and Sirius had just over 5 Million

One thing not taken into account there though is Sirius's subscriber based increased by like 6 times within a 2 years period, which is crazy. They were definitely going to surpass XM, and I believe by the time the merger happened, they actually had.

Say what you want about Stern, but before he came to Sirius they had under one million subscribers. All he needed to bring over was one million new subscribers to pay his salary (which is actually the shows salary) and he did WAY more than that. And did it within a year.

Is Cnet's satellite guide current? I have heard these sound quality issues are a new thing (since the merger)

[Pavel]

On the contrary...XM's sound quality is better than Sirius...do some reserach, maybe look at CNET's Sat Radio Guide

I have and my info is from research including from past and present Sirius/XM owners. That link is kinda dated. Those that have any kind of "ear" for music (which is always subjective) say the quality is crap. However, in the past, XM was better, at around 64 kbps. If you know the technical part, 32 kbps which is no better than AM radio can't sound good (to a lot of people). The bottom line is that if u like talk radio, sports, and comedy then Satellite radio is for you, but if you enjoy listening to FM quality or better music, then it's not.

[NightRain]

sometimes you get songs that are not on your mp3 or cd player

Totally agree. I love my iPod and my exisitng collection of music. But I sometimes like to discover new bands, which is hard if you only listen to you iPod. I listen to Liquid Metal (formally Hard Attack) and NFL Radio the most, but I also enjoy Lithium, Bone Yard, Octane and sometime Hair Nation and Comedy channels. I rarely listen to CD's or my iPod in my truck anymore and I even stream Sirius to my cellphone to listen to it at locations where my radio isn't.

If it wasn't for Sirius I probably never would have discovered Volbeat, I heard a few of their songs on Liquid Metal and really enjoyed them so I got their albums (3 of them) and haven't enjoyed a new band this much in a very long time. If you like rock/metal check out Volbeat, I truly love them now and wouldn't have even known they exist without Sirius. They now have a place on my iPod too.

I also really enjoyed the month of Mandatory Metallica on Liquid Metals station too, great stuff. Sirius is one of the bills I pay each month that I don't question, it is $15 well spent. I enjoy it so much that I haven't even considered calling asking for a discounted rate (even though I'd probably get it) because to me $15 is a great deal already. I know this is probably in violation of standard RFD practice but I'm cool with that. I've had Sirius for about 32 months and have never regretted it.

[Rekognize]

I called like Dec 09 to cancel after my 1 year subscription was gonna end. they just took my info and canceled and said have a great day. infact the guy was the biggest *******. Sad to loose it, but glad to save the money. Its not worth it for the amount of times i use it.

Same here, cancelled because I don't really use it, the quality mehhh, and the stations are now running ads at least the ones i listen to

[tdu]

Same here, cancelled because I don't really use it, the quality mehhh, and the stations are now running ads at least the ones i listen to

How common are the ads now?

That is a bad move on their part. One of the key selling features was lack of ads. They should trim the fat and get rid of some of the big names they have hired if they want to save money. I think very few of the big investments they made (other than Stern) ever really paid off for them.

[Rekognize]

How common are the ads now?

That is a bad move on their part. One of the key selling features was lack of ads. They should trim the fat and get rid of some of the big names they have hired if they want to save money. I think very few of the big investments they made (other than Stern) ever really paid off for them.

It was pretty common, like every 3 songs..

Now I just have a data plan with my iphone and use WunderRadio to listen to online streams in my car via data/audio/charger cable plugged into my iPhone..

[smithfan]

It was pretty common, like every 3 songs..

Now I just have a data plan with my iphone and use WunderRadio to listen to online streams in my car via data/audio/charger cable plugged into my iPhone..

Not sure what channels you were listening to but none of the 9 or so channels I flip between have any type of ads\commercials.

[bhavers]

I've had Sirius (Canada) for about 3 years now. It's easily worth the $160/year simply because I no longer have to listen to Rush every 5 minutes.

Closeah to the heaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart

[tdu]

It was pretty common, like every 3 songs..

Now I just have a data plan with my iphone and use WunderRadio to listen to online streams in my car via data/audio/charger cable plugged into my iPhone..

Is this on Sirius or XM?