Sirius vs. XM In My World

My friends anyone who knows me knows that I have a Sirius radio. Recently I have decided to give XM a try and stick with the best one. I try to be fair minded and open to change to something better, I think I can objectively pull off a fair compairison of both services now that I am equally invested in both.

I have read enough about XM to wonder if I am missing out on anything with their much deeper playlists and cheaper equipment. Well I bought a small XM receiver car kit for about fifty dollars at Wal-Mart Friday so the experiement begins.

So far I have had a hard time finding a channel that caters to my 80's metal taste. Sirius has Hair Nation which is 80's metal and they have Buzzsaw which is classic rock with the metal edge like AC/DC, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, and Led Zepplin.

I have been listening to the Boneyard which is as close to either of these channels I can come and have heard Leatherwolf, Accept, and Four Horsemen. While not bad bands they have never really achieved the status of metal gods. I have heard Tesla which is a band I love only to find they played Making Magic which is practically a filler song. Out of all of the hits Tesla has had they chose a more obscure song to play. I can say that so far listening to the Boneyard is like gold mining, you are sifting through a lot of mud to get to a nugget of gold that you enjoy.

I am watching the XM player which lists the channels and what is on them and I'm watching the Sirius Backstage site that lists what is playing on Sirius as well. So I am swapping back and forth between the two players when there is something I want to listen to however I am mainly on the XM player since that is the one I'm evaluating and getting a feel for.

Sports wise, well XM has an exclusive on MLB while Sirius has the exclusive on the NFL and NBA. No need to compare here for me since I am neutral at best on the MLB. Both carry plenty of college basketball however Sirius has March Madness. Sirius has the clear victory in this category.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I am also a Country music fan. I really can't complain about the selection that XM has had as I am familiar with some of the more forgotten Country music stars of the 60's and 70's. My Dad was a truck driver during that time and with 8 tracks of the Statler Brothers, Freddy Fender, Johnny Cash, and Conway Twitty I can enjoy these very much. However I have found the same selections on Sirius. So the Country stations are pretty much even. I am more than satisfied with both services in this regard. Actually I might give a slight edge to XM since they have seven country channels to Sirius's five.

Talk Radio is what I love to listen to quite a bit. Now I can tell you that being in a market that has never had Howard Stern I am unfamiliar with his show and the show's dynamics. His move to Sirius wasn't much of a factor to me. I can tell you that after listening to a few shows I'm not that impressed. You can revisit my post about Internet Talk Shows to get a better opinion on this matter. His show is just an acquired taste I haven't acquired. I am looking forward to hearing the Opie and Anthony show so no edge is given here yet. XM has the exclusives on Air America and Fox while Sirius has ABC, NPR, Patriot, Talk Right, and Talk Left. So now matter your political leanings you have plenty to choose from with a slight edge to Sirius for the amount of channels available over XM like my Country music decision.

Both carry Christian talk channels, Women's channels, advice channels, and news channels from American and around the world. So this is basically a draw.

So after a couple of days of listening and unbiased comparision this is how they stack up right now but stay tuned to further updates.