Corin said:
Can you please elaborate on WHY you both preferred Sirius? Was it programming, reception, what?
It was the programming, reception for both services is very good.
One reason I like Sirius is because of the variety of talk radio which I like to listen to on my commute to work in the morning.
The reason my wife and I both hate XM is because of the music channel programming. First, the commercials are aggravating. I also find the DJ's more annoying on XM than on Sirius.
Second, and the biggest reason we dislike XM, is because of the obscure song lists they play. We enjoy listening to 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s music as well as current hits. The problem we had with XM is that most of their playlists are side "B" material.
We want to listen to music "hits" from years ago, not some "B" side song from years ago. It wasn't a hit THEN for a reason, why the hell do I want to hear it now.
Some people say that you tend to hear the same songs on Sirius more frequently than on XM. I believe that is true. However, their playlists are quite large and you don't hear the same songs that often. Besides, with the variety of channels, you hardly ever hear the same songs unless you're glued to the same channel constantly.
On another note, I've spoken with at least a dozen people that have switched from XM to Sirius. All of them are much happier. I've yet to speak to someone that went from Sirius to XM, although I'm sure they're out there.
Good luck with what you decide. I know you can sample some of Sirius' stations on their website, and I believe you can do the same at XM's. Once you're a subscriber to Sirius, you can have the music streamed to your PC. I use this feature at home when I'm working out.