New Radio: HD vs XM VS Sirius vs none of the above (poll)

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I am thinking about a new radio for my daily driven beater pickup truck and wonder if anyone has experience with any of the digital radio formats now offered. For a little background, I spend 7-12 hours a day behind the wheel delivering pizza so my audio system is important to me. I currently have a mid priced JVC CD player with lots of toys on it, 2 Pioneer IMPP 10's, Cerwin Vega Coaxials in the doors and the factory tweeters in the doors. The subs are run off a 275 watt Jensen amp and the satellite speakers off the deck. The CD player is Sirius ready, but is Sirius any good? I could just use the Sirius connections with the current deck, but it doesn't allow me to use an iPod with it. It does run MP3 and WMA discs though. JVC offers a CD player with built in HD, but it is a cheap model lacking some of the features I would like such as satellite radio, a MP3 player jack or USB port, or Bluetooth capability. I can't get AM reception after 6 pm where I deliver and am missing out on Sean Hannity and other talk hosts, which is why I was thinking about satellite. My current deck has around 150k miles on it (3-4 years old) and also lacks HD radio.

 

[Derision]

Re: New Radio: HD vs XM VS Sirius vs none of the above (poll

I am thinking about a new radio for my daily driven beater pickup truck and wonder if anyone has experience with any of the digital radio formats now offered. For a little background, I spend 7-12 hours a day behind the wheel delivering pizza so my audio system is important to me. I currently have a mid priced JVC CD player with lots of toys on it, 2 Pioneer IMPP 10's, Cerwin Vega Coaxials in the doors and the factory tweeters in the doors. The subs are run off a 275 watt Jensen amp and the satellite speakers off the deck. The CD player is Sirius ready, but is Sirius any good? I could just use the Sirius connections with the current deck, but it doesn't allow me to use an iPod with it. It does run MP3 and WMA discs though. JVC offers a CD player with built in HD, but it is a cheap model lacking some of the features I would like such as satellite radio, a MP3 player jack or USB port, or Bluetooth capability. I can't get AM reception after 6 pm where I deliver and am missing out on Sean Hannity and other talk hosts, which is why I was thinking about satellite. My current deck has around 150k miles on it (3-4 years old) and also lacks HD radio.

If it was my choice, I'd go with the HD radio. Because it's free. I know a few people that swear by the satellite radio, but... I don't know. Sirius is held together by Howard Stern, but he's the only draw -- from what I hear, XM is doing much better. HD seems like it isn't going anywhere, and it's free enough to be interesting to everyone.

 

[Silent viewer]

as of right now hd is pointless and it actually is not going to help you with selection. i have used xm and sirius and i would by far go with sirius, i hate xm. i had xm for a year and spent more time searching for something to listen to then actually hearing anything good. sirius has so many good music selection and i would say it is a wide variety not to mention the above mentioned howard stern, if you are that type of person, i personally love listening to him. my vote is sirius!

 

[megaladon6]

. i have used xm and sirius and i would by far go with sirius, i hate xm. i had xm for a year and spent more time searching for something to listen to then actually hearing anything good

same here. i absolutely love my sirius. it has tons of music, the dj's spend their time playing music and not bullshitting, and if you want they have plenty of talk radio. xm has stupid dj's who don't know anything about the music and they have a bunch of commercials! and sirius was growing LONG before stern came on. yes they gained a bunch of listeners by signing him, but if that was all they had then they wouldn't still be growing. sirius also has better customer service, and i believe better prices. xm pissed me off by cancelling my regular station with no warning and raising the prices retroactively! a bunch of guys at my old job had xm, but when they heard the music on my sirius they all switched.
hd radio.....is hd radio. its the same programming just better reception, thus a few more stations.
what you can do is get a regular hd stereo and a portable or plug & play sat receiver. they can retransmit over standard FM freqs. this way you can listen at home also.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I want an integrated solution which is why I don't have an add on tuner. My current deck can take a Sirius tuner, but I have to buy the receiver and antenna to mount to the truck. BTW, where do you have the sat. antenna mounted? Most of the ones I know of are roof mounted, but I was wondering if it would be possible to mount it to the cowl by the regular antenna on my truck. It's a 6 in wide plastic panel that could be replaced if I ever decided against it and that way there would be no permanent holes in the truck.

 

[megaladon6]

the sat antenna is magnetic, put it wherever you want. mines on my roof, it has never been accidentally moved, in the car wash, pushing snow around--stays put. but if want to remove it its easy and the paint hasn't been scratched.

 

[srercrcr]

I've owned XM for a year now, have it connected to the stereo receiver system as well as I can pop it in the car. IMO satellite radio offers depth of entertainment, meaning is there something you'd like that broadcast radio isn't offering? Are you way far away from a huge broadcast offering in major cities? I like 50s 60s R &B, as well as financial news. Broadcast merely offers Oldies and hourly general news, not way deep enough for me. There's even special weekly shows that go deep.
If all you want is Underwood, Hill, and McGraw, broadcast will fill your every need.
Here's a new rub....XM and Sirius sound like they're merging. The two systems are supposedly non-compatible. I "hear" users of one or the other system will have to buy new hardware. I will bow out at that point. I've already made a front-end investment, not gonna do it again, for their convenience. So you might hold off until the dust settles.
You can check out all their programming offerings online.

 

[megaladon6]

they are working on a merger but it will take a few years for the legal and financial issues to b e worked out. even after that your equipment will work, you may only receive your original company though.

 

[srercrcr]

I don't believe there will be two companies...they would merge into one surviving entity. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Silent viewer]

i dont think they can merge, wouldnt that be a monopoly??