I know see a title with xm above, but i was wondering how many people out there have it and is it worth it?
I heard rumors there are still commercials, i thought the point was to have none or less.
How much are you guys paying for the subscription?

 

I thought I would never pay for radio but I am hooked. If I listen to the regular radio it may be for a total of 5 hours a year now. The XM can go with you everywhere (almost) so when traveling to a different state no need to search for channels. I pay $38 every 3 months. It is worth it.

 

Subscription varies since sometimes you get deals/discount offers. I was offered like 80 for a year, I think regular is like 150ish?

To me, it's a waste of money. Ever since they merged with Sirius the stations seem to play a lot more commercials than before and their music is pretty repetitive for my taste. I bought an iSimple for 90 bucks and couldn't be happier with my selection lol.

Overall, it isn't worth the money unless you listen to certain channels that you can't get normally like stocks or something. I just had it for music for the free 3 months when I initially bought my car and let it cancel after that. That is when they mailed me the offer but I simply ignored it. If you call them to get it I think they will make you pay regular price.

 

I am not impressed with the sound quality. The channels vary from bad (talk channels) to acceptable (classical music). I have found that music played back from my Ipod sounds much better (MP3 192k and up).
The biggest advantage is that the stations are the same everywhere.

 

I remember hearing that some stations were sued and now they have to broadcast commercials. I noticed too that there was an increase of commercials once Sirius came into the picture.

The songs are repetitive, but I only listen to 5 or 6 stations. The good thing about satellite radio is that you can pick the genre of music that you're in the mood for.

 

When I first got the TSX, there was plenty of stations to choose from that had good music. Now my choices have dwindled down to channels 8,9, 20, 21, 26, 30, 41, 47, 48, 51, 54. And even so they all seem repetative like everyone's saying. It seems like every channel plays Nickleback or All American Rejects...err, wtf. And the biggest thing I also got irritated about was the commericals. I got a deal that went out a few months ago for 6 months for $30ish dollars. I will not be renewing if they don't offer me the same price.

 

I got rid of it after 4 years, their now charging for internet xm which really pisses me off.

They said i could keep it free if i locked in 300 bucks worth of xm in one shot.

Honestly i liked alot of the channels 30 31 81 82 68 67
but it was always in and out and it was quite annoying that stations would be so repetitive during the week.

 

I just picked up the TSX last weekend and it has a ton of stations. I was wondering how I even get XM at all and we didnt pay for any subscription? any idea, and will this even last?

 

The TSX may still have time left on its subscription from the previous owner. They pretty much end the subscription within 3 days when it lapses.

One person has had it for free for a long time. Either the previous owner was a business (e.g., corporate car, and their accountant hasn't noticed that they are still paying for it), or the previous owner had a multi-year package paid for.

 

They are evil. They play ads. If I am paying to listen to music, I should not have to listen to ads. Cable TV used to be the same way. There were no ads since you payed to watch TV, instead of free antenna TV. Now... the evil comcrap is getting even more greedy, just like XM/SIRIUS.

 

wow, thanks guys for saving me money!
I'm not going to sign up for xm, repetitive and only good for traveling

 

the only reason I have xm is because I travel alot. (30,000+miles a year)

 

After 3 years of XM, I still think it's very good. It's always on in my car and you always hear the new music before it goes on regular FM.

 

best way to go is to find a deal/coupon and try it out. it was ok before the merger now its kinda commercialized... and now i lose reception a lot more going under bridges...

 

You get 3 free months of subscription with a purchase from the dealer. If you bought it used from someone then idk, maybe they just left over some of the subscription for you.

 

I have had XM for more than 4 years now. Since car was new. I cannot ever go back to regular radio. I love the many different types of stations and the fact that you can tune in to the stations anywhere in the country. This makes it awesome for long distance trips. It is a keeper for me.

 

The choices in XM is very good. I had it for 2 years now and I'll probably renew it again. I live in LA and radio stations are ghetto here. They play gangster hip hop and Mexican music that all you can hear is the beat. They drives me crazy. Even the commericals are ghetto. I don't think I can never go back to regular radio again.

 

I've had it a couple years, but I've been able to get the "cheap" deal thus far. It hasn't been near as good since they made their change last fall and got rid of Fred, Ethel and Lucy (LOVED those stations). Stations are just ok now, but certainly better than the garbage they play around here, but my main stations don't play as good of music as they used to, and worse, there's random "babble" from DJ like people... which is annoying...

Not sure if I'll renew this fall if they won't give me the deal. Main reason I did this time was that I was about a week away from making a cross-country trip when it was set to expire...

 

I got the $77/year deal. Its not that tough to do, there's a sticky about it. I've had it since I got the TSX, and I had it in my last car for quite some time. The quality isn't as good as CD or FM. And only some stations have commercials. If you look at the lineup, the ones with a CM at the end have the, but most don't.

I've got to agree that since the merger, I'm not that impressed. I had hoped for better stations, but it seems that all they've done is take away the best of XM and replaced it with the crappiest of Sirius. Don't get me wrong, I'll probably renew if I can get the $77 deal again, but I wouldn't pay the full $13 a month for it. It is fantastic on long trips though.

 

rtea - These "they play commercials" comments are over-stated. There are some channels that do, most do not. I've had Sirius/XM for over 4 years now and I love it. Worth every penny to not listen to commercials. But, here's the deal.

- Channels that Sirius/XM produce themselves will not have commercials.
- They do obtain programming from non-Sirius/XM sources and yes, those might have commercials. My experiences is they are few and far between.
- Most stations have DJs, but they don't talk much (except for a few, but even then, MUCH better than FM).
- The signal compresses the music a bit, end result is that quality will be lower than say a CD, but will be easily comparable to FM and in many cases better.
- Satellite radio is line-of-sight, so the antenna has to "see" the sky. It breaks up at times under bridges or if large hills obstruct the line of sight. This does not happen often.

When my TSX got it recently and I had to drive a Civic for two weeks, I honestly wanted to drive it into a tree because the pain of a head-on crash would have been less painful than listing to FM station commercials and annoying DJs. Give it a try - I'm at the point now that I won't buy another car without it.

 

hey, at least you guys have the option of listening to xm - we don't have it here in hawaii. we have basically all of ~10 channels, 5 of them play nothing but hip-hop/rap all the time. 3 play local hawaiian music and the rest is for old people.

i just came back from a short trip to texas and our rental had xm - i loved every minute of it.

 

Dude if you're in Hawaii, then I would be doing other stuff than driving around listening to XM radio...hehe, lucky bastard.

I haven't been there ever, but just seeing the images on tv and hearing about it, I'd think I was in heaven if I went there!