bhome83

sorry i don't know the technical name for it, but are these things any good? i like xm radio, and would love to be able to listen to it on the bus, in the park, etc. just like my ipod. i take it though they are all very expensive considering you have to pay for the unit and the subscription fee.

cungar

I have one that is portable and I use in my house and car. It's called XM 2 go. As far as walking around with it, forget it. It needs an antenna that is largely unobstructed that you place in your car or hosue and without it, it's pretty much useless. You can't go indoors like to a gym or mall and even the outdoor reception is pretty spotty. I've heard there's an antenna you can use for walking that attaches to your shirt pocket, but I haven't reached that level of geekdom.

I'm pretty tired of XM radio anyways. I don't think it's worth it and I'm going to cancel next month. I'll get Bob Dylan's show off bit torrent.

scottp120

Sirius is way better. They have the Stiletto SL100 which is a portable device about the size of an iPod that can store up to 100 hours of Sirius programming on it or you can put your favorite mp3's on it. I'm glad I didn't get XM a few years ago when I was thinking about getting it because I was getting so tired of "FREE FM". The reason it's free is because it sucks. I would be stuck paying $12.95 a month to listen to Oral and Anal (Opie and Anthony) and Oprah (which she doesn't even come to the studio, she calls Gale King and some other friends over the phone).

bhome83

opie and anthony were on Leno last night. so what exactly is there show about? Ive never heard about them before, but did like the fact that they hated howard stern who is a flippin dumbshit. that's one of the reasons i dont wan sirius. might actually fall on his channel once in a while.

das Monkey

I got the Pioneer inno (XM) as a gift for someone the other day and have been messing around with it all week (wanted to get it all set up for him, so he could use it on Christmas Day). I've been pretty shocked with how awesome it is. I got signal in my office (max bars), in my pocket in my office, in a concrete parking deck (max bars), in my car in a concrete parking deck (max minus one bars), and in my pocket in my car in a concrete parking deck. Getting signal outside was child's play. The only time I lost signal was in the elevator in my office building. I'm in a repeater zone, though, so that may have a lot to do with it. I haven't tested it traveling far from home yet.

I went XM for the gift because he wants MLB packages and big band/standards, and I read the XM portable devices were more reliable in terms of signal. If I were to get it for myself, I'd likely get the same thing since I couldn't give two shits about Stern/O&A, but would like Cinemagic. Also, the XM devices look professional, while the Sirius ones look really silly, particularly the Stilettos.

If you decide on the inno, CircuitCity.com was running a $50 instant rebate special earlier in the week on top of XM's current $50 mail-in rebate. I think they had an even better deal on the Helix, but I had already decided on the inno.

Good luck.

das

scottp120

I've listened to Opie and Anthony's show and it's barely listenable compared to Howard Stern. I've been listening to Howard since the DC 101 days 20 some years ago and these guys are nothing compared to Howard. Opie is a bore fest, while Anthony has ALL the talent. He does great impersonations and is actually funny. If Anthony was to find a better partner, maybe the show would be better. I saw them on Jay Leno last night too and every time they're on they bash Stern. If it wasn't for Stern, these guys wouldn't have anybody to look up to.

tonyc3742

Yeah, cause you have to listen to Oprah or O&A.
I'm pretty sure on either service there's 10, 20, 30 channels that each customer doesn't care a white about.
Personally I detest "shock jock" regardless of who they are.
XM has no long-term contracts, and no multiyear plan termination fee, unlike SIRI, so you wouldn't be "stuck" listening to them regardless.
My wife had a Tao XM2GO which was great. It was the first portable satrad, I believe. It could hold five hours of content and had a built in FM transmitter and built in antenna, so depending on the signal it got, you could just use it [more than once I set it on top of my parked car and broadcast via FM to my stereo]. The built-in antenna isn't good enough to use it as a walkman type thing, or indoors without an external antenna, but you could always listen to recorded content. There was also a set of headphones with a built in antenna, though I don't know how well that worked.
The Inno and Helix and Nexus allow you to store more content, and load MP3s, though I'm not sure of the numbers [more than the 2Go, I'm sure]. I think one model of those only recieves live content while docked, though.
The neXus 25 is 80 bucks after rebate from xmradio.com right now, you could probably find cheaper prices on some of the other ones as well.

The Cow

or you post something remotely on topic, WTF dude?

The wife and I both have the early MiFi units. She's more happy with it than me. I do really like the portability of it though. No complaints there. I can hook it into the home theater or the cars with no problem

The units themselves are pretty solid and I would recommend, but I think you might need more of a recommendation of what you will get out of it. I'm very happy with the XM lineup, but they are missing some sports stuff for me.

Definitely check into the programming. I think XM has good portable options and I'd be surprised if Sirius didn't have equal or better. The content options seem to be the deciding factor these days.. Kinda like the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray options.

s}{ammer

I have to jump into this discussion for some reason.

First, I had Sirius for about 1 1/2 to 2 years. I had an Audiovox PnP2 in the wife's van and a starmate? in my truck. I still have the radios out in storage but I let the service run out earlier this year. I listened to Howard when he first came on and I found myself asking why. His show isn't funny, and it gets old listening to this old guy burp and everyone around him kiss his ass like he had never done anything wrong and his crap smells like roses. I mean, to be honest, part of the reason I let go of sirius was Stern coming on. There was just this huge build up and then nothing. I found myself only listening to my favorite two or three music stations and NFL radio. Then I got bored with the music stations since the stations on Sirius aren't that deep. The last straw was when I got bored with NFL radio since that was all I listened to and there wasn't much going on since it was the off season.

Then in September, I got an XM2GO from TAO for my birthday. I didn't really want it so it sat in my drawer for a month. Then I found a link online to get free activation and 3 free months so I figured I would give it a try. Here's my take so far....

XM is much better at music than Sirius. It took me some time to find the right stations because IMO the names for the stations don't really make sense. I should say, for the music I listen to, the rock and metal and alternative. So I am listening to these stations and I don't even notice any repeats for a long time. That and if I scroll through channels they are almost always playing different music. With Sirius I would see the same song on two or three channels at the same time.

O&A, perhaps it's just because I had never heard them before my free XM trial, but these guys are funny. They are the opposite of Stern, he is so boring and his so called skits are never that good. These guys crack me up every time I listen though. I have heard them bagging on Stern but to be fair it is funny to see how far the mighty have fallen. At one time Stern was everywhere and now he is almost an afterthought. From what O&A were saying Sterns ratings on Letterman are even lower than theirs now.

If you want SatRad for music, I do believe XM is the way to go. Also, having owned 2 SIRI radios and 1 XM I must say the XM radio I have and the others I have seen are better quality and they seem better designed. My Audiovox sucked and the starmate was so small and yet the windshield dock broke within a week of having it so it never stayed in place and would always swivel down.

If you are getting SatRad for either Stern or O&A then you already know which one you want. Me, I think I will stick with XM when my free 3 months are up. It's pretty cool to be able to clip the XM2GO on my belt and listen to live SatRad. It doesn't work well if you have clothing that can cover or fall over the top of it, but if you are out walking and clip it on your back you are good to go.

comanche_doyle

I've been pissed at xm since they got rid of music lab. I really want that back. They also butchered the Sporting News radio channel with their crappy programs. The only good one is Carville/Russert, and that was already available on another channel. Not a good year for xm in my opinion.