SiriusXM sound is flat and, well, crappy

I am not an advocate against satellite radio or anything. I could care less how you choose to spend your money. Just better options out there if you take a look.

 

I’ve been more than happy with XM, I see no reason to switch. The coolest thing is it works without cell reception.

 

The $30 comes from when you ignore your subscription ending and they tag on any price hike they want. I told them to lose Howard and got mine down to $12. I would rather have teeth pulled without painkillers than to have to deal with customer service from the Phillipines again. I drove from one end of California to the other without a break in music and didn't have to search for a channel. That's worth it to me.

 

15 years ago I distinctly remember hearing one or two of the Sirius stations trial the idea of playing commercials.

I called them right then and there to cancel my subscription. I never checked to see if they ever reversed that action. I'm not paying to listen to ads when the radio exists for free.

Been paying for slacker premium ever since. No commercials. More content. Just as cheap.

 

For clarity, unless you want the most basic package I think most of my accounts with satellite came out to about $9 a month. The issue is when your agreement runs out they automatically begin billing you at whatever the premium rate is. This was about $30 per subscription if memory serves correctly. When you have several vehicles they all do not end at the same time and I found that on several occasions I was being charged a lot more than I expected but had overlooked it. Of course you can call and deal with haggling down the price but that gets old. OR, you can get apple music, Spotify or Pandora for an average of $15 a month and your car will play it for you when you start the car. You have access to listen to any new music or pretty much anything on the planet whenever you want along with about every podcast. Thousands the times of content and the ability to personalize your listening experience for much less of an investment or at least the same in most cases. For those of you that love satellite radio, good for you. I had no idea it was such a nerve.

 

Just sayin' your experience is not the same as mine. I think it's worth $6 a month.

 

My wife has had to do that every year with Sirius, last year went from close to $40 a month down to $6.00. I just use spotify, easy and I can usually go for 40 minutes of play after I have lost signal.

 

Also Spotify alone has 188 million subscribers so yeah, satalite is not doing great in the grand scheme. I think the US has something like 276 million vehicles registered.

 

I took their $60 deal when they offered it for the year for the premium service. I’ll threaten to cancel it when it’s over and they’ll give it to me again if I decide I want it. They can’t handle a radio driving around that they aren’t getting a subscription from.

Regardless, I mainly have it for more the talking stations. News, sports, informational, etc. The music quality just sucks, it’s not so much the truck’s audio. I’d much rather listen to terrestrial FM which broadcasts HDradio. My Lexus has the Mark Levenson system, it’s one of the best audio systems I’ve ever heard in a car, and the XM music still sucks. If I want music it’s from my phone, a CD, or the FM radio.

 

I think it's worth it for $6/month. My kids pay more for their Spotify. During the warm months we take trips almost weekly to the lake, where losing radio reception would get annoying, and cell phone service sucks. Yeah, you can have your downloaded playlist on Spotify, but the wide range of music and stations on satellite makes it more enjoyable to me. Also, I don't have unlimited cell service. I pay $14/month for my 2 GB, and never use all of it because I'm on WiFi most of the time.
I don't mind spending a little bit of effort every 12 months getting the $6 deal. Just set a reminder in your calendar about a week before, and you can do it over chat. Just tell them you want to cancel your service, and you'll automatically get connected to the person who can give you the promotional deal. You can do it in the background while playing video games.

To each his own, though.

 

they've had the same awful radio stations in my area for 20+ years. unbelievable that people still listen to this garbage. same 10 songs over and over again and brain-draining talk radio.

 

Spotify is $12.99 for the "Duo" premium plan, so yeah, $6.50 per month per car/person.

 

I'm with you. It's worth the price of a coffee.

 

I am surprised no one mentioned Pandora. Am I the only dork using that thru Apple Play in the truck. I think it is the best option next to having something on a thumb drive.


I will say every song on Pandora say fuck in it somewhere. It is crazy. When did that become a thing?

 

I use Pandora, but usually through headphones when mowing the lawn. Pandora or the free Prime music.

 

I make sure I download some of my playlists for Spotify along with a few episodes of my favorite podcasts..."Just in case" lol.

 

Switched to Tidal bc of a streamer in a home system. Sound quality is really impressive.

 

This is one of the reasons I like Sirius. I don't have to plan my entertainment ahead of time, I just start the truck and it's on. Again, I'm not bashing anyone, just exposing another reason I like sat radio.

 

Oh, I don't take it as bashing. I actually am a Sirius sub myself. I just choose to stream off my phone for that too; I never swapped my radio's over lol. It all depends on what I'm planning on listening to.

 

For SQ, Tidal is the bomb streaming service.