I typically drive 100+ miles per day. It's roughly 50 miles from home
to the office and then there's going out to lunch and running errands
on the way home, etc.
6 months ago I got a hard drive based MP3 player. It stores 30gb of
MP3s, which has been more than enough for my entire collection of
200-300 CDs, some downloaded music, etc...and plenty of room to spare.
I thought this would be perfect for the drive - I can take my music
anywhere. Well, it's been great and it still is, but obviously, you're
limited to the music you already have. Recently I had been thinking
the time may have come for satellite radio. A co-worker had gotten XM
in the last few months and said he had been enjoying it but wasn't
very happy with the music choices on the hard rock / metal stations.
He and I have similar musical tastes as we both cut our teeth on a
steady of diet of Ratt, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden and the like in our
younger days and still enjoy that type of music. Still, XM is the
market leader and is 3 bucks cheaper on a month-to-month basis so I
was learning towards XM. I started at Best Buy and spoke to the
salesman to get his take on it. I asked what "in his opinion" was the
better service. "Sirius without a doubt," was his response.
Unfortunately, when I asked why, he couldn't really give me anything
that I could make a decision on. He liked the fact that a local
(Atlanta) sports-talk radio station' morning show was simulcasted on
Sirius so he could get that station when the AM radio signal was too
weak. That seemed to be his only reason for endorsing Sirius.
Hardly anything to hang my hat on. I asked a few more questions and
soon realized that I may very well have been dealing with the worst
salesman I had ever encountered.
I left still leaning towards XM radio.
The next day I went to Circuit City. I spoke with one of the guys
there and asked him the same questions and he too, recommended Sirius
over XM. His answers were more fulfilling than the other guy's as he
touted Sirius' more palatable music selections, as well as more
comprehensive weather and traffic coverage for the Atlanta area.
He went over and showed me the Sirius display unit they had (something
the other guy never offered to do) and I played around and immediately
thought I had died and gone to heaven when I tuned to Sirius' Hair
Nation (023) and heard one of my favorite songs of all time, Dio's
'Rainbow in the Dark.' "It's an omen," I thought.
I looked up XM's station guide on the pamphlet and couldn't find a
similar offering so now I'm leaning towards Sirius over XM.
I asked about hardware. Circuit City was running a deal. You buy the
Audiovox unit and the mobile adapter kit and you get the home kit for
free. On top of that, when you buy the Audiovox unit, you get a
mail-in rebate for a $50 gift card to Circuit City. Sure, it's not
quite the same as $50 cash but I'd spend $50 there anyway.
So, for all practical purposes, for $100 I now have Sirius in my home
and truck.
I figure for an extra 3 bucks a month I can put it into perspective
this way - that's a dime a day. That's a couple of Mountain Dews at
the Quick-E-Mart.
So, now I've got Sirius in my truck and I'm loving life. I'm enjoying
every single rock station they offer as well as the comedy, sports,
and talk. My commute goes by much quicker than before and believe it
or not, I've actually wished my commute were a little longer (except
for the gas prices) so I could enjoy the radio a little more.
So, as we all know, when someone asks " which is better, XM or
Sirius?" The answer is always subjective. The best *for me* is
undoubtedly Sirius. I'm a fan and will be for a long time.

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