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Nabby

macrumors regular
Jul 10, 2008
225
146
Not necessarily a big fan of Sirius, but just yesterday I grabbed the SlickDeal for 6-months steaming for $38 and got a $50 Amazon gift card. Thought was just going to not use the service. At least I'll check it out now.

Nabby
 

hface119

macrumors member
Oct 24, 2012
81
78
I literally JUST had an aftermarket unit installed an hour ago, paid $100 with installation for the SiriusXM part, and NOW there’s a CarPlay app?!

Because why wouldn’t that happen.
 

massysett

macrumors newbie
Nov 29, 2017
2
0
The music stations are good. They play a great variety of music. But the sound quality over the satellite is horrible. About as bad as AM radio. Extreme compression artifacts. So hopefully with streaming you get better sound quality.

But I'm not sure their streaming is worth the price. Slacker Radio is as good, and cheaper and easier to cancel.

Sirius XM's talk stations are not worth it. Too many commercials.
 

brianbunge

macrumors 6502
Aug 11, 2011
386
38
Kennesaw, GA
I had XM before they merged and liked it originally but it’s overpriced junk now. I called in to cancel and they keep offering deals to try and keep you. Told him even if they gave it to me for free I’d still want to cancel it.

This past weekend I had a rental that had XM and wow does the actual quality sound like garbage. The music itself is okay to a degree but when they talk between songs the quality is so tiny it’s actual painful to listen to.

This company needs to die.

The sound quality is a function of the quality of the tuner in the radio; not specifically the service itself. It sounded awful on the factory radio in my Wrangler but when I added an aftermarket radio with one of the new tuners it is now a night and day difference. The typical factory radio probably has a **** tuner in it.
 

mdelvecchio

macrumors 68040
Sep 3, 2010
3,151
1,149
This past weekend I had a rental that had XM and wow does the actual quality sound like garbage. The music itself is okay to a degree but when they talk between songs the quality is so tiny it’s actual painful to listen to.

Agreed —listening to talk heavy programming like NPR instantly reveals heavy compression, sounds quite poor.

I canceled my new car’s service because they wouldn’t offer mobile streaming for free, and adding the fee made it more expensive than Apple Music - for a streaming-only service! AM gives you access to whatever whenever.
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The sound quality is a function of the quality of the tuner in the radio; not specifically the service itself. It sounded awful on the factory radio in my Wrangler but when I added an aftermarket radio with one of the new tuners it is now a night and day difference. The typical factory radio probably has a **** tuner in it.
Not the NPRA station of talk radio. The compression is served side, not on the client.
 

brianbunge

macrumors 6502
Aug 11, 2011
386
38
Kennesaw, GA
Agreed —listening to talk heavy programming like NPR instantly reveals heavy compression, sounds quite poor.

I canceled my new car’s service because they wouldn’t offer mobile streaming for free, and adding the fee made it more expensive than Apple Music - for a streaming-only service! AM gives you access to whatever whenever.
[doublepost=1512090401][/doublepost]
Not the NPRA station of talk radio. The compression is served side, not on the client.

I mean, it’s talk radio. I’d rather have compression for a bunch of talking heads over music stations.
 

Plutonius

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2003
9,032
8,404
New Hampshire, USA
SiriusXM is a joke.

They drastically overcharge for their service especially in the era of unlimited data and streaming services. Want to access the Sirius XM steaming service? You’ll have to pay more.

Want to pause your service if you are going to be out of service area for a long time? Want to cancel your service? You’ll actually have to *call in* and be harangued by them with “special offers” that expire after six mo tha or so and then revert to their normal pricing. Yep. You have to call in and talk to a sales agent.

Ridiculous dinosaur company and service.

I pay $30.00 for 6 months. Seems like a good deal to me.
 

likegadgets

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2008
773
340
US
Reading the rest of the posts here, I thought I was the only one who disliked this company. I have no use for them. Granted, my commute is short and I'm rarely in my car for more than 30-60 minutes at a time, but it's their telemarketer like attitude that bothers me. I've received the free trial subscription in the last three cars I've bought and have literally never used it once. But, I will get call after call after letter after letter telling me to renew or whatever.

I'm sure lots of folks like this service, and I'm glad it is there for them. But if this company was a woman, I'd file a restraining order.

I more than dislike them. I despise them. They harass you incessantly. Last account I had, I gave them a fake name, A fake address, a fake email, and a fake phone. Then paid them a year in advance with an anonymous postal order. When the year ended I called to renew - but they stated they only renew if you agree to auto-renewals at the "then prevailing rate" (3 times as much as the permanent $99 year special offer). I refused after they would not agree to enter a cancelation date ahead - they wanted to be called to cancel a few day before the renewal. I agree - this company should die. I now use regular radio and streaming. Do not miss them
 

redbeard331

macrumors 68030
Jul 21, 2009
2,607
4,729
I liked them until they got rid of faction, now it’s iust a bunch of garbage you can hear for free on the radio. Such a shame, loved listening to Marky Ramone.
 

827538

Cancelled
Jul 3, 2013
2,322
2,833
SiriusXM is a joke.

They drastically overcharge for their service especially in the era of unlimited data and streaming services. Want to access the Sirius XM steaming service? You’ll have to pay more.

Want to pause your service if you are going to be out of service area for a long time? Want to cancel your service? You’ll actually have to *call in* and be harangued by them with “special offers” that expire after six mo tha or so and then revert to their normal pricing. Yep. You have to call in and talk to a sales agent.

Ridiculous dinosaur company and service.

I have a Spotify family streaming plan, basically paying $3/m for unlimited ad free music. Had a look at the prices for Sirius XM, I won’t bother with it when I move to the US.

MINT SIM $20
Spotify $3
Amazon Prime (split with my fiancé) $5
Netflix 4K $6
/$34 month
All my entertainment needs sorted.

But huge thanks for destroying the internet, that’s sure to send prices sky rocketing.
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Had SiriusXM in my 2017 Santa Fe for the year I owned it (sold it a couple months back). Trial for 3 months and then I subscribed only after getting $120 dollars off the price. Ended up paying I think $135 for the year including streaming. I agree with the audio not sounding good. It was OK but Apple Music sounded way better, so did terrestrial radio. It auto canceled when I sold my car and got a refund. Have not heard a peep from them at all. No emails either so I really didn't have a bad experience myself.

Seems crazy to me when a Spotify family plan that you can split between 5 people is $180. But then again satellite radio isn’t a thing in Europe. None of our cars have it. Huge selection of free digital radio though.
 

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
I am shocked they are still in business. Their edge used to be talk radio, but things like podcast have killed any value XM was holding onto.
 

GDF

macrumors 65816
Jun 7, 2010
1,352
1,289
I like it, as I travel a lot and this streaming stuff does not work well in remote areas, but Satellite radio always does. As long as you call in they have reasonable rates and I can listen to my favorite sports teams, talk radio and music whever I travel.
 

hipnetic

macrumors 65816
Oct 5, 2010
1,266
562
I just bought a CarPlay head unit on sale with installation included, but they couldn't fit me in for the install for another week. Unfortunately, I already know going into it that I'm going to have to jump out of CarPlay mode a lot in order to use Waze. I absolutely need Waze for any highway driving I do. From what I've read, Apple is the one preventing CarPlay mapping apps from happening.
 

deeddawg

macrumors G5
Jun 14, 2010
12,245
6,393
US
The app integration is interesting, though problematic if you do much driving in very rural areas with spotty cell coverage. I suppose it's fine if you never leave the cities or major highway corridors when travelling.

*shrug* I enjoy SiriusXM. Sound quality is fine for me. Maybe depends on the channel or the tuner in the vehicle.

Never had an issue cancelling service when selling vehicles or pushing for the discounted rate. Not sure why folks have had a problem. As for them bothering me, hasn't been an issue. Though I suppose me giving them an unused google voice # and seldom-monitored email account help with that. People aren't still blithely giving out their real phone#and primary email to companies known to do this stuff are they? o_O
 
Last edited:

AbSoluTc

Suspended
Sep 21, 2008
5,104
4,002
I have a Spotify family streaming plan, basically paying $3/m for unlimited ad free music. Had a look at the prices for Sirius XM, I won’t bother with it when I move to the US.

MINT SIM $20
Spotify $3
Amazon Prime (split with my fiancé) $5
Netflix 4K $6
/$34 month
All my entertainment needs sorted.

But huge thanks for destroying the internet, that’s sure to send prices sky rocketing.
[doublepost=1512121830][/doublepost]

Seems crazy to me when a Spotify family plan that you can split between 5 people is $180. But then again satellite radio isn’t a thing in Europe. None of our cars have it. Huge selection of free digital radio though.


I like the live aspect of Satellite radio and the selection. I have Apple Music as well but the "live" radio is not something I find appealing. It's also edited (profanity). They play some weird songs as well.

Just nice to flip channels with no commercials and you find what you want. I was big on the 80's channel as well. Not many options here locally. Terrestrial radio is filled with commercials and ads. I swear most stations are just ad stations with some music mixed in.
 

joker00

macrumors regular
Apr 30, 2011
182
85
regardless if you like or don't like Sirius, I was wondering if the APP in CarPlay mean your actually internet-streaming Sirius? This also means the cost is far cheaper than the satellite based costs. (Though I think you need the way overpriced satellite to get internet streaming)???
 

tekriter

macrumors member
Jun 16, 2004
40
52
The sound quality is a function of the quality of the tuner in the radio; not specifically the service itself. It sounded awful on the factory radio in my Wrangler but when I added an aftermarket radio with one of the new tuners it is now a night and day difference. The typical factory radio probably has a **** tuner in it.

Exactly right. My wife’s Kia Sorento has an audio system that makes SiriusXM sound horribly compressed.

My new Honda CR-V, on the other hand, plays SiriusXM beautifully.
 

deeddawg

macrumors G5
Jun 14, 2010
12,245
6,393
US
Just nice to flip channels with no commercials and you find what you want. I was big on the 80's channel as well. Not many options here locally. Terrestrial radio is filled with commercials and ads. I swear most stations are just ad stations with some music mixed in.

To be fair, SiriusXM has it's share of commercials... for stuff on SiriusXM and at a MUCH lower frequency than OTA radio. One local FM station I listen to can get bad; I swear I was halfway to work one morning before they actually played a song.

I agree with the "live" aspect, I like having the faux-interaction of a DJ sometimes, which you simply don't get with the music streaming services such as Pandora.
 

avanpelt

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,956
3,877
This past weekend I had a rental that had XM and wow does the actual quality sound like garbage. The music itself is okay to a degree but when they talk between songs the quality is so tiny it’s actual painful to listen to.

While I'm not fan of SiriusXM (primarily because their customer service is absolutely abysmal), their actual product has remained relatively solid for me over the past 10 or so years. I've noticed no degradation in quality when listening via my Sonos speakers or in my car. Perhaps the car you were in had a lousy sound system?
 

rek71226

macrumors newbie
Jun 30, 2007
11
0
I had XM years ago and several recent trials of SiriusXM. I like several stations, but the sound quality of Lithium was awful and they need to charge at most $5 a month (for me at least - short commute). IMO, it will be hard for them to compete with IP radio/streaming services as data becomes cheaper/unlimited.
 

noobinator

macrumors 604
Jun 19, 2009
7,227
6,793
Los Angeles, CA
Tried this out today and it doesn’t work very well, if at all. Takes forever to load then I press a station and nothing happens for literally five minutes and then as I’m listening to regular radio it kicks on and won’t easily let me back into my other regular FM.
 

hface119

macrumors member
Oct 24, 2012
81
78
Tried this out today and it doesn’t work very well, if at all. Takes forever to load then I press a station and nothing happens for literally five minutes and then as I’m listening to regular radio it kicks on and won’t easily let me back into my other regular FM.

I haven't had any problems. I just got a CarPlay unit installed yesterday, and coincidentally the Sirius app came out same day, but I've been using it for 48 hours now and it's been pretty solid. Takes about as long to load as the iPhone does.. but CarPlay is just mirroring really so it should.

Re: everyone with the quality of Sirius, I like it. I really only listen to a few music channels, some talk radio and cable news simulcasts. It really depends on your needs, obviously - I'm pretty low maintenance with what I'm listening to considering the options available.

I also noticed that Bluetooth for whatever reason keeps making the audio on my CarPlay interface go silent. Siri stops talking mid-way, never comes back until I unplug/plug back. I unpaired my phone from my car and now it's fine. Anyone else experience this? I guess I don't need to be paired with CarPlay, except now I always have to be plugged in... but I guess I would be anyway? *mind blown*
 
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