My weekend with Sirius

I canceled my subscription to Sirius more than two years ago, and haven't had much chance to listen to satellite radio since Sirius and XM merged. So this weekend I was happy to I discover that my rental had a Sirius receiver and a package with about 80 stations. I know the company has been struggling lately, so I was curious to hear if the service had improved.

I was pleasantly surprised. The annoying DJs who talked between every song have been scaled way back, although they still talk more often than I'd like. The programming is more eclectic than I remember--Boneyard (classic hard rock and metal) and Little Steven's Underground Garage (well-curated rock and punk) turned me on to some killer music I'd never heard before, like BeBop Deluxe and the Purple Hearts, and the Grateful Dead are always welcome when cruising through redwood groves to the beach. I also forgot how much I missed those moments of serendipity that radio sometimes provides--listening to my own music collection on an MP3 player guarantees I'll always hear music I like, but it leaves very little room for hearing the first notes of Eric Burdon's "San Franciscan Nights" just as the city's skyline appears in the distance.

But I still didn't like it well enough to consider re-subscribing, even for only $7 a month. Here's why:

Quality of service. The service dropped out pretty frequently, and it wasn't like I was deep in the wilderness--just driving through the mountains south and west of Silicon Valley. There's also something strange about the sound quality itself, perhaps too much compression? No matter how loud I turned it up, it didn't sound full enough. Playing with the EQ didn't help either. The FM radio sounded better.

Repetition. I spent about three hours in the car each day on Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday I was already hearing repeats! It was fun hearing the Who's "The Good's Gone" and Art Brut's "Alcoholics Unanimous" on the radio, but do I really need to hear them twice in two days?

Safety. I know my musical tastes are a bit off-center, but with the exception of the Underground Garage and XMU, the selection of tunes was pretty safe major label stuff. Not much independent music, no local acts, and nothing too far out. One of the best radio experiences I've ever had was driving through a blighted part of San Jose last year and stumbling across a half hour of soft noise (if you can imagine that) and feedback on KFJC. Surely with so many stations, Sirius could devote one to way-out music like Sun Ra and early Zappa+Mothers and Fantomas.

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[the_lipster]

Matt - You are really really cheap!!!!! I am suprised that $7 a month is too steap for you. Is satellite radio better than regular radio? A sandwich in todays market costs as much as a monthly subsription.

Again - You are cheap.

[travis7219]

I agree with the sound quality. However, I think the sound in the car and in my home are different. Quality sound better in the home sound and I so listen more at home than in the car anyway. I mostly have the Sirius for the grateful dead. If they dropped the dead channel I would drop the Sirius...

[sting7k]

Why does everyone complain about the DJs? They are on between every 5-6 songs and talk for literally 20-30 seconds about an event on Sirius. Is that really that bad?

[scaught78]

I don't get it either. I actually like the DJs too. Jake Fogglenest on Sirius XM U is one of the best. The DJs are why I think it is a much better service than just hooking up my iPhone and streaming Slacker.

[DatabaseDoctor]

The DJ's don't provide any useful benefit and only serve to annoy many of us. SirusXM shoudl get wise and take them off, save some cash and keep the focus on the music, not the noise.

[tadbittipsy]

Sirius sucks and always has. We canceled our service two and a half years ago, before we moved. They continued to bill us and has been trying to extort money from us, then they sold the debt to one of those collection agency who even called our work place saying we were deadbeats, I almost lost my job. They'll never get our or our friends money ever again, even if broadcast radio dies, that's what ipods are for. Be your own DJ.

[tadbittipsy]

And by the way Matt.. bless you for being a Sun Ra and Mothers of Invention Fan!

[svk1069]

I love my Sirius radio and gladly pay for the subscription. It saved my sanity from the constant barrage of ads on FM.

Local acts?

It's satellite radio. It's the same all over the world. How are they supposed to know what a local act is?

[imdooner]

Well put.

Local acts? Seriously? When is the last time you heard broadcast radio that wasn't programmed by some idiot executive in New York or LA? Sure, you might come across the odd public radio station that has some local shows but even they only play those acts in specialized shows - at specific times where, if that is what you want to hear, you can easily turn off the Sirius and tune it in.

Like many new cars mine came with a trial XM subscription. As somebody mentioned, on the business side they are incredibly sleazy and dishonest. I liked the content although I would only go for the 1/2 price deal ($75/yr.) because you generally only really listen to 30% of the content. However its all moot because I voted with my feet--until they start running a customer friendly operation I am not going to give them money.

[Ungod]

If they ever brought back Boombox I would sign all 4 of my radios up again in a heart beat! That station played stuff you would never hear on the radio and nearly impossible to find even online; mash-ups, bootlegs, remixes, etc. They made a MAJOR mistake in shedding the type of content that really separated it from every other radio station out there. It was a VERY sad day and I miss that channel every friggen day.
RIP Boombox and Liquid Todd!!!

[DatabaseDoctor]

I've been an XM subscriber for many years. I can attest to the drop in sound quality, tremendous increase in drop outs with a clear sky and not a hill on the horizon (South Florida = no hills). The customer support I've received has been fine but the music does repeat on many stations. Combine that with the presence of those annoying, stupid, "talk over the music" DJ's who act like children spouting inane verbiage that completely ruins any "warm and cozy" feeling you built up listening to your favorite channel, and I'm not very interested in putting SiriusXM into any new car I buy.

The dropouts are a major factor. The sound quality not so much. The DJ's that came over form Sirius are a HUGE factor. Yes, I know its only for a few seconds but if I wanted to listen to some idiot talk over the music, I'd be listening to FM. My mp3 player can give me cross country coverage so another big reason for satellite radio is gone.

Hey SiriusXM! Get serious and save some cash... fire the morons who don't even introduce the song but only jabber to make it feel like an AM/FM station!

[hazzar]

Music only, get an ipod. Or better yet...both. I've been a subscriber since 2004 and love it.... and I don't subscribe simply for the music. Just explore the channels and find out for yourself. Sirius-Xm is definately one of the best entertainment values out there today. There is really nothing in radio, internet or "free" that even comes close.

[rolegp]

Try Pandora on an iphone connected to Aux jack in your car, its all of my songs programed and very rarely if ever do I get dead spots because of the look ahead buffer. Sirius or XM or what ever sounds awful, I get better sound quality from my local radio station. Sirius will not be around very long unless they make drastic improvements and quick. The pricing is not the issue, its the quality, content, and service the all SUCK.

[bramweiser]

The content on XM (effectively a near-total combination of both XM & Sirius now) isn't the issue. Having a supposedly "portable" radio (an Airware, as it happens) whose battery is supposed(!) to last up to all of four (4) hours on a charge but often won't get far beyond three (3)...and they call that "portable"?

Do I really need to lug my AC adapter with me wherever I go, let alone need to wait another three (3) hours to RE-charge the thing?

Anyone have truly good ideas about this, please?

[todd3617]

When Sirius took over, they distroyed some excellent programming from XM. They took away the unique stations so they could add more mainstream top 40 type stations. The great thing about XM was giving us the opportunity to hear music you wouldn't normally hear on the radio. The stations they kept, they watered down the playlists. BPM was a station I listened to daily, they played up to date music, had guest interviews of the artists they played, answered the phones and interacted with the audience. Now they changed their playlist, repeat songs heavly, sometimes they'll play a song every other hour. They've eliminated the interviews, they don't answer their phones. It's a very boring channel now.

When XM and Siruis were separate companies, they had a reason to do unique things, so they could compete. Now everything is dull and drab. Another example of what happens when there is a monoploy. If you don't need to compete with anyone there is no reason to try and be on the cutting edge, no reason to innovate. All thanks to the US government.

[tjkramer]

Satellite radio sound quality is abysmal at best. The compression algorithm is far more harsh than even FM radio, almost to the point of making satellite sound little better than AM. $1/month is too much to pay for such a poor product. It is little wonder why satellite radio has proven to be mostly a bust for the past 4 years. Two of those years, the economy was great. If the picture quality of cable looked as bad as the sound quality of satellite, I wouldn't pay for cable either, channel selection or no channel selection.