skonopa Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 ---------------- On 6/8/2005 12:25:15 AM m00n wrote: Do either have good ambient channels? ---------------- On XM, the channel Audio Visions (XM-77) is probably the closest to what you are looking for. For Sirius, it looks like Chill (Sirius-64) is the ambient channel. As to how good it is, I cannot tell, as I don't have Sirius. Since I do have XM, I'll give that "Audio Visions" channel a listen on the way to work and let you know how it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilbert Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 I have XM, but it's because it came with the truck. I like it when I use it, which is typically for long road trips. But to be honest, I don't know if it's worth the price. Lately, I've been thinking about ditching it, since I typically only use it on long road trips. My use car or bike for my daily wheels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 I guess it really depends on the market area. Those of us that live in "Northern" areas with a choice of about 5 stations really like the variety, you get to listen to what you want, not what the radio station likes to play. Here in Thunder Bay, Dougall Media has a stranglehold, we are a captive audience. They own rock 94, hot 105, larry fm and also CFNO in marathon. I guess that is why Sirius is in a good number of vehicles around here, grey market or not. If I lived near Duluth, where I could pick up radio from both Duluth and Wisconsin, I'd be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 ---------------- On 6/9/2005 1:14:42 PM michael hurd wrote: I guess that is why Sirius is in a good number of vehicles around here, grey market or not. If I lived near Duluth, where I could pick up radio from both Duluth and Wisconsin, I'd be happy. ---------------- I live halfway between Richmond and Washington, D.C. Plenty of radio stations to choose from (as well as in Fredericksburg itself). Unfortunatly, it seems they all play the same music. For example, 101.1 out of D.C. is indentical to 102.1 out of Richmond (and both are owned by Clear Channel, which does not help). 99.3 out of Fredericksburg is also the same format, and play the same songs as those other two. Then you have 94.7 out of D.C. and 96.9 out of Fredericksburg, both of which play classic rock, but again, nearly identical song lists on both. Also, how many friggan country-western stations does one area need? Not surprising that the most popular station in this area is 93.3 out of Fredericksburg, which is a country station, followed by 104.7, which is another country station. 104.7 bills themselves as "Country that Rocks", but I and several of my friends calls them "Country that Sucks". Yeah, there are a decent amount of stations here, but there is no real variety to go along with them. Not only that, none of the stations really play the music that I really want to listen to, which is old-school hard-rock/metal as well as power/prog metal. 102.1 out of Richmond used to, until Clear Channel pretty much ruined it by changing the format to an all alternative rock format. The "Boneyard" channel (XM-41) on XM radio fills that in very nicely. I finally said to the hell with the FM radio and got XM, and never looked back. I also have a fairly long commute back-n-forth to work, and the XM is really nice for that. Also, really nice for those commutes to the ski area during the winter to do my ski patrol thing (that is a good hour and half drive each way). To me, satellite radio was worth every cent I spent on it. And BTW, for m00n, I did listen to that Audio Visions channel on XM. Yes, indeed, it is ambience, and pretty darn good also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted June 12, 2005 Author Share Posted June 12, 2005 Installed Sirius today. Works great in the car but to get a signal in the house with the home adaptor, I have to run the antena out the window, onto a chair sitting in the driveway and angle just so. 20 minutes later, I need to re-adjust. PITA. I guess I'll need to get an extension and mount the antena on the roof somehow. Now I can relate to those old cable TV commercials where the guy uses all the mirrors so he can see the TV in the house while he adjusts the dish outside. BTW - There are a couple GREAT jazz stations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 Gary- Go out and buy a car antenna for sirius and use this for your home antenna. T'he reason this will work is bc the car antenna was designed for 360 degree reception where as the home antena is only in a 90 degree direction (like a dish). This will take care of the problem because I had the same problem for months and months. Best of Luck and glad to hear you are sirius. -George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted June 13, 2005 Author Share Posted June 13, 2005 Thanks for the suggestion! Looking forward to giving it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 What a JOKE! I just signed up for the 3 day trial at Sirius. Tuned in to the "Pure Jazz" station which is defined as: "The classic sounds and styles of the jazz masters, past and present." The first song that comes up is Jamie Cullum "Twenty Something". For those who aren't familiar with this piece of crap, just imagine Justin Timberlake doing a bad Harry Connick Jr. impersonation. Gary - What station did you find that you liked? The trial only grants access to a few of the jazz stations, but what's there is absolute garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted June 13, 2005 Author Share Posted June 13, 2005 Yesterday I listened to 3 different stations. On pure jazz, the first 5 songs were all great. I got Miles Davis, Stanley Turrentine, Joe Henderson, and Gene Harris all in a row. This morning I listened and between a few great songs they trew in some trash. I then turned to the swing station and listened to some Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman before tuning back or going the Jazz Standards and heard some Cannonball Adderly, more Joe Henderson and Gerry Mulligan. All-in-all, I think PureJazz is pretty good. Occasionally there are some bad songs though. I have 30 preset stations so there's always something to hear. I also like channel 16 (The Vault) where I heard some good old rock tunes you don't get on the radio. Lots of Allman Bros, old Steve Miller (Sha Ba Da Do Ma Ma Ma Ma) and stuff like that. Another station was playing Phish, String Cheese Incident and some Dead. I'll say this, if I can't figure out how to get better reception, it's all going back. The car was great until I hit the MD beltway this morning. It was on and off static thereafter. For $12.95/month the reception should be better than what I've heard so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuclearay Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 Moon: Sirius:Chill plays the likes of Theivery Corporation, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Moby, etc. Sometimes they will throw in some straight acoustic stuff too. This would be the audio equivalent of Xanax. For some harder electronica there is several selections but one of my fav's is "Oldschool Breakbeats" although it is hard pressed to be called ambient. The thing I enjoy the most about Sirius is they have actual programmers selecting songs. For years and years I tried to listen to 'cable radio', only to find that every time I turned it on I was listening to the same 4hr track of music. My tastes in music are as wide as Rosie O'Donnel's... Never mind. Anyways, the selections are pretty good on Sirius except for Classical music. I would call their Classical channel "mostly modern/20th century"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted June 13, 2005 Author Share Posted June 13, 2005 ---------------- On 6/13/2005 2:04:50 PM nuclearay wrote: Anyways, the selections are pretty good on Sirius except for Classical music. I would call their Classical channel "mostly modern/20th century"... ---------------- What I discovered so far with the classical stations is that everything they play is familiar. Famous stuff in other words. That's fine for a while but doesn't help much when you're trying to expand your musical horizons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuclearay Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 That's fine for a while but doesn't help much when you're trying to expand your musical horizons. ---------------- Exactly! I do find myself listening to Sirius at home as much as I watch Dishnetwork. I originally thought my hometheater would be 50%music/50%DVD; its closer to 90+%music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 The question of who will be in business peaked my interest. Serious is loosing 900 million per year and is about 5 billion in the hole. XM is making money. Yet the Serious stock is going up. Go figure. JJK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gullahisland Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Time for a little follow-up. I completed the 3-day trial with Sirius and have to confess, I was premature in my harsh judgement. I heard so much fantastic music that I'm not sure I can live w/o it. I listened exclusively to the pure jazz station for no other reason than it was all I could ever ask for. I've just completed my first day of a 3-day trial on XM and, so far, I'm not impressed. The music is a little more run of the mill, or at least very main stream. As far as sound quality goes, Sirius is far better. In addition, the output BALANCE is much better. With XM, I'm constantly turning the volume up and down. I don't think it's that Sirius uses compression. I think it's just that XM sets their playlist and does nothing to adjust for the output levels. Kinda' like what happens when you put various recordings in your 5-disc changer and press "shuffle". Some recordings are just more saturated than others. To make matters worse, when the "announcer" comes on, it's ALWAYS waaay too frickin' loud. And speaking of announcers, with Sirius, you get a REAL DJ. Even better, they're jazz industry giants. I'll keep listening to XM for another two days, but I think my mind's already made up. Now I just have to figure out what kind of hardware to get in order to make the expense justifiable. Good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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