XM Radio Advice

[jschris]

Hello all-

I've been considering going with XM Radio for a while now. I was just kind of wondering if those that have it think it's worth the money, if there are any service issues with it, customer service problems, etc.

 

A couple of specific questions as well: I'm thinking of going with the Nexus 50 radio/MP3 and a car kit--I wouldn't need a special radio in the car to listen to live XM, would I? If I understand it correctly the Nexus would just transmit to a specified FM radio station and I could listen live through my car stereo. Am I wrong?

 

I'll save the dumbest question for last: is the radio hard-wired to the antenna at home? If so, I couldn't really use it in my basement as I have no south-facing window.

 

Thank you very much for the advice.

 

Jason

[gypcasino]

Right, you can run it right through your car stereo. And since you're way up nort der hey you should have no problem finding an unused frequency to use.

Another relatively inexpensive option is to buy an inexpensive car stereo that has an auxiliary jack on it. That way you will be assured that whatever's on the FM frequency you're using won't bleed over.

I'm not familiar with the Nexus but I have a MyFi and it has an antenna with a long cord that you plug in. If you have a window in the basement you might be OK but otherwise you may be out of luck. Maybe somebody with newer hardware can provide a better answer. I haven't been keeping up with the new radios. Although I'm going to buying one soon since the display on my MyFi crapped out.

And yes, to me it's worth the money. Customer service is overseas and sketchy but you shouldn't really need it once you're done signing up and picking your payment option.

[Beerambassador]

My wife and I had it for almost two years, but decided we weren't using it enough to justify the expense. If you do a lot of driving (long commutes, business travel) or have more obscure music tastes it can be really nice. I really like Americana/alt-country music, so XM was a god send for that sort of thing.

 

But since we both only drive about 20 minutes to work and don't drive a lot of long distances we weren't using it a whole lot. Getting reception in the house was a pain, so I almost never used it outside of my car.

[gypcasino]

I listen at work so the expense for several hours a day so the expense is definitely justified for me. I only have a three mile one way commute so yeah, I don't use it whole lot in the car either. And I'm also a big fan of Cross Country, channel 12.

[Beerambassador]

My wife still listens to it at work, for some reason they haven't canceled that.

[Fatter than Joey]

I think XM/Sirius >>>> radio -- It's not even funny.

 

I have both -- make sure you pay attention to the sports -- XM has baseball only -- Sirius has NFL/NBA/Nascar.

 

I like to listen to the XM/Sirius to find new artists.

[RyDogg66]

1. My dad has XM, and he gets his money's worth out of it for 24hr MLB baseball alone.

2. I had both XM and Sirius, until my car was broken into in that god-forsaken city of Milwaukee and they stole everything, I enjoyed both. Sirius was installed into my car, XM was the portable unit.

3. If I had to get one again, it would be XM, simply for the baseball coverage. It's darn good.

4. Last I head, they may be merging, but that last winter. It would be something to look into. FI they do, I dont think you would need to get new gear, as whatever you had would just pick up the extra channels added by the merger.

5. If you listen to FM radio (I never do) then this will change your life because the stations are 1000x better.

[Fatter than Joey]

4. Last I head, they may be merging, but that last winter.

 

They agreed on a merger -- I think the anti-trust people are going over it at this point.

[jschris]

Thanks for the input everyone. I wanted something for my car because the sports radio I listen to in the morning now comes in for maybe 15 minutes of my 40 minute commute. Plus all of the FM radio stations I like up here in the hinterlands have converted over to Christmas carols now, so if the sports talk gets annoying I really can only go to my CDs now.

 

As a bonus, this sort of doubles as an mp3 player that records from XM, so I can bring it in the house (won't get stolen from the car--nice feature) and even if we can't get live reception I can still play a recorded station for music. And yeah, I'm drooling over the baseball content.

 

Thanks again!

[Invader3K]

I have had XM for about a year, and really like it. I do a lot of driving during the week, so it is nice to have something in the car other than the standard conservative talk/classic rock/local sports stations. I like the alternative music stations, as it's something broader than just listening to my own CDs or MP3s. I think my favorite is MLB on XM, though. The talk on their is VERY good in regards to baseball, and they actually talk about all the teams, not just Yankees/Red Sox.

 

The model I have allows you to take the radio from your car to inside, though you have to buy a separate adapter to hook it up to your stereo. One concern might be the audio quality as well...my car doesn't have a cassette player or auxiliary input jack on the stereo, so I have to go through the FM adapter. It sounds OK...but sometimes the music sounds like low quality MP3 (or like a cassette that has been dubbed one too many times, to use another analogy). If you can hook the XM tuner directly to your stereo somehow, I think you tend to get better audio quality.

[patrickgpe]

i had it and canceled it. It was nice during baseball season. At home and work i found that aol radio was just as good as xm and free.

[Patrick425]

I have XM and love it. I basically just listen to it in the car. I have a 30 - 40 minute ride to and from work each day. The baseball coverage is great. Plus I also like the alterantive and comedy channels.

 

I have the XM to go radio. It allows you to record things with the press of a button. However, I think the recording industry started expressing concerns about this and they decided not to make it any more (but I'm sure you can buy it on Ebay).

[brettac1]

It's worth it for Ron & Fez and Opie & Anthony alone.

 

I originally got it for baseball, but it's pretty rare that my receiver leaves 202.

[GAME05]

though i'm having a sudden problem with mine, i like XM a ton. even in the offseason here, their baseball coverage is great. during the season there's a guy at night who really knows his stuff and makes some smart, objective comments. tv baseball analysis doesn't even come close. they were analyzing the moves of every AL Central team this morning.

 

I got mine in large part because I live out of state, so now I can still listen to Ueck call the games at night. Between innings I hit a button and cheer for the Cubs to die on that channel.

 

the stations will help you find a ton of new bands since you can pick your favourite genre and always have that. with all these over-air "we play everything" idiotic formats you're constantly flipping channels since they'll flip from AC/DC to Blondie in a heartbeat.

 

45 and 50 are my favourite channels. too bad there's only one blues channel, and there's one good jazz channel, too.

[Gormans Gofer]

I have Sirius, and generally, I love it - when it works.

It comes in great in the car, now that I have a modulator. Without the modulator, if you're driving in the city, the station you have Sirius tuned to may conflict with another local station, and it will fade in & out. If you're in the country, it always comes in great.

I also bought the boom box accessory, which works well if it's set up in a wide open space. If it's under anything (umbrella, overhang, etc.) it doesn't come in well at all.

Also, I listen on my PC. It seems, though, that if I have another browser open, it conflicts with Sirius, and it cuts out pretty often.
In spite of those problems, it is well worth $11 / month, no doubt about it.

[LouisEly]

I think XM/Sirius >>>> radio -- It's not even funny.

 

Amen to that, brother.

 

I have had Sirius for at least six years and love it. A couple of tips:

 

1) For best reception in the car invest $200 in a stereo that has an auxiliary jack or a satellite radio receiver. If you're going to pay $13/month (I spent the $495 on a lifetime subscription years ago - if you love it that is the way to go) you might as well drop $200 on a better car radio.

 

2) For in the house (like your basement), listen on-line. I pay an extra $3/month for CD-quality radio streaming through the internet. Just get a wireless router and run it through a computer in the basement. Or just get really, really long speaker wire or red/white RCA cable and run it to the basement that way. Or try a wireless speaker system in the basement.

[burniebrewer]

I've got XM in the car, love the baseball and The Boneyard.

 

If you have a radio subscription, you can listen for free on your computer. I do that as well as play it through my TV as it's free with a DirecTV subscription also.

[Gormans Gofer]

Louis -- before you spent the $3 / month to upgrade for improved Internet connectivity, did you experience a lot of disconnects? I do, and it's really irritating. I do have a wireless router.

Thanks!

[Schlitz001]

I missed this thread earlier and I just want to add that XM radio is probably the best purchase I've made in the last year. Honestly, between the music, news, comedy and MLB channels I sometimes sit in my car listening after I've reached my destination. I travel a lot for my job (45,000 miles last year) so maybe it's more made for guys like me, but I can't even imagine going back to regular radio at this point.

 

Even the offseason radio is great MLB coverage. They were at the winter meetings recently and would interview whoever walked past the booth (GMs, trainers, owners, players, etc.). You get to hear a lot of great interviews from Charlie Steiner, Kevin Kennedy, Rob Dibble, Holden Kushner, Eric Byrnes, the Ripken Brothers, Chuck Wilson, Jeff Joyce and others. Do yourself a favor and get it.

 

In fact, I can recommend a friend for XM and they pay only $6.99 a month. If you want the discount code e-mail me at quiet451@gmail.com. I'll give it to the first person who e-mails me to be fair.

[jon12272]

I have had XM now for 3 years and i love it. i work on the road and local radio sucks butt other then for road conditions. I usually listen to the MLB channel. My favorite shows are: The Show with Rob Dibble (ex-brewer) and Kevin Kennedy and Baseball this morning. I also tend to listen to the Adult comedy channel and the canadian comedy channel.

[LouisEly]

Louis -- before you spent the $3 / month to upgrade for improved Internet connectivity, did you experience a lot of disconnects? I do, and it's really irritating. I do have a wireless router.

Not a lot, but I did get some, and yes it is a lot better now - I can't remember the last time I got a disconnect or ran out of buffer. I don't use a wireless router though - I connect via an ethernet cable to the router because it is next to my home computer.

The sound quality of the $3/mo. connection is so much better that it is definitely worth the upgrade. I wouldn't say it is CD-quality, but it is very, very close to CD quality - you have to be listening on headphones to tell the difference between it and something on a CD.

[BuckyTuba]

the roommate just got it.... it's AWESOME. channels 47 and 54 rock!

[Patrick425]

The Show with Rob Dibble (ex-brewer) and Kevin Kennedy and Baseball this morning.

Yeah, I like listening to The Show on my way home (although, I usually only get to hear the last 20 minutes or so of it). However, sometimes Dibble drives me nuts. He always will take the players side in every case..whether its about PEDs, money, whatever. One time he basically said that baseball needs a new commissioner because Selig is from Milwaukee and Milwaukee is really not that "hip", baseball needs someone who is in touch with today's generation, someone from NY or LA. I came very close to calling in and blasting him, but by the time I would have gotten through, the show would have been over. I understand that Selig may not have his finger on the pulse of the younger generation, but it has nothing to do about where he came from.

 

I find that I agree with Buck Martinez and Mark Patrick in the morning much more. They are not afraid to be a little bit more critical and call the players out on their responsibilities when it comes to things like steroids or HGH.

[Invader3K]

Dibble does seem to be quite anti-Selig for whatever reason, but overall I really enjoy him and Kennedy. They do talk about all 30 teams, which is more than you can say about a lot of places. Of course they touch on the big stories quite a bit, but if a trade happens involving, say, the Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, they will discuss it.