Free Listen November 19 - December 2
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Have to laugh to see that Escape is back on. Cancelled when they took it off, and have never looked back. Good riddance!! Internet radio is great and FREE!
If the quality of the Canadian (when did THEY get added??) channels is any indication (tuned there for curiosity in the "free" sub provided with new car) I'd not pay for the service, even if I drove great distances. Sounds like a dialup modem on their talk channel, and their country (along with most of the "mainstream) country channels have almost NO stereo separation/sound awful. I can see why people drop these subs. They no longer concentrate on quality of sound, it's all about the amount of channels and format, but once you get to a channel, the sound is not as good as a well engineered terrestrial station!
I take advantage of the $25/6mo (or was it $20?) offer because it's too cheap for me not to. I can't listen to any channels critically or I just get upset and turn it off. But I often listen to one channel for awhile, in order to discover new (or old) music in my favorite genre. You can't find my genre on local FM radio stations, and there are those damnable commercials to deal with. So FM is out for me, other than NPR.
How do other people find new music to listen to? When I was young and foolish, I just used FM radio and dealt with their issues.
How do other people find new music to listen to? When I was young and foolish, I just used FM radio and dealt with their issues.
During these free listen events, I record the music channels I like.
OK the quality isn´t the best, but I try to get the most out of the free listen
OK the quality isn´t the best, but I try to get the most out of the free listen
Ah... (1) Internet radio has so many possibilities that what I want to listen to is buried among millions of other web pages. But mainly for me (2) this doesn't work so well in my car. How people can stand to stream internet radio via their phones amazes me. Dropouts or lack of availability are worse than the crappy audio quality on SiriusXM! At least I can't drive out of range of the satellites.
The Canadian channels (on satellite) aren't much to go by - they have some of the lower bandwidth of any of them. They are mainly there, because Sirius/XM were both required to add Canadian Content in order to sell their services in Canada. They sound fantastic online, where there are no bandwidth constraints. The only talk channel that's super compressed is Canada 360 / AMI-Audio, which uses the same codec as the Traffic channels, AMBE(R), at 4 kbps. (AMI audio is basically a radio reading service for the blind, and I believe the only such service available on a North American wide platform.) Obviously, nothing is going to sound nice at that bandwidth level. Again, online, that's not an issue because it's broadcast in full sound quality as all other channels are. CBC Country does suffer from a lack of stereo separation on the satellite feed. It's not a bad mainstream country channel. Historically, XM didn't have much Canadian content other than the NHL and a decent Canadian Comedy channel, and Sirius had pretty much everything else. Since the merger, this has improved for both sides, as NHL is now available on Sirius, and XM now has a full Canadian lineup rather than a handful of "me-too" channels. Both platforms now offer CBC, Radio-Canada (the French service of CBC), NHL, etc. The highest rated Canadian channels (on SXM Canada) are CBC Radio One 169, and Radio Canada Premiere 170. Also, there's now a couple online only Canadian stations, one of which, Iceberg Radio (no relation to SatGuys' Iceberg), has a format of Canadian Classic Rock - Trooper, Loverboy, etc.
I don't understand why ANY self respecting audio-delivery service would allow ANY of the channels to sound as bad as the mentioned Canadian ones, and many of the others. Oh well, XM/Sirius has become a broadcasters' best friend. LOVE how they're using TERRESTRIAL on all the major audio networks to tell people to tune them in on EXPIRED radios. Guess they know where quality advertising exists! And, properly done, (writing, producing, scheduling all inclusive) commercials are part of the entertainment, not a tune-out.
It may just be me, but the Sirius radio in my 2011 Ford Fusion sounds so much clearer and fuller than the XM radio in my 2014 RAV4. The RAV does have the prettier display however.
I vote for speaker quality causing this perceived difference. (But I don't really know.)
I've always appreciated satellite radio and have had both services since their infancy, but usually two or three times a year I do a road trip and become more appreciative. After a 1,500+ miles in the beginning of October, I felt no different. The sound quality doesn't bother me that much. The channels I listen to sound decent in my car, could be much better, but I will take the nearly interference free reception, with no commercials on the music channels, and no censored music any day over the audio quality of Hybrid Digital radio and its CD quality 10 minute non stop block of commercials multiple times an hour. Terrestrial radio only exists to play songs to fill the air time the stations sales staff can't sell ads for. My buddy that I took my most recent trip with wanted to listen to our local classic rock station when we first got on the road, so for the first time in about a year I flipped over to FM, the audio quality on the commercials was awesome! After about 15 minutes (two or so songs) I switched over to Sirius XM and put on Classic Rewind, my buddy who is not technologically inclined whatsoever, and as no idea what satellite radio is didn't even really notice until we stopped for gas about 300 miles later and he said 'I haven't head a commercial on this station yet'. Grand total of two service outages. Once when going through a tunnel, and a momentary blip going through a non EZPass Express toll barrier.
As we got closer, I flipped over to NASCAR Radio, which was a HUGE plus when wanting up to the second weather info for the race to plan for the landfall of the potential hurricane.
We went through some very rural areas with no or poor cell phone reception, so I'm not sure how internet radio would have been a benefit.
Does the Fusion have the Sony system?
I haven't heard XM in a long time, but I find the sound quality on Sirius in my wife's Expedition one of the better sounding systems for Sirius and it's the Sony set up. Most of the cars I've been in with friends/relatives who have satellite radio built in either drive Ford or Chrysler products, so I've only heard Sirius recently and while all close, my wife's is a tad better. Whatever I have in my Navigator is the best sounding Sirius feed I've heard. Not sure who makes the speakers, (used to be JBL, not sure if Ford still uses them or not) but the system is THX II cert.
As we got closer, I flipped over to NASCAR Radio, which was a HUGE plus when wanting up to the second weather info for the race to plan for the landfall of the potential hurricane.
We went through some very rural areas with no or poor cell phone reception, so I'm not sure how internet radio would have been a benefit.
Does the Fusion have the Sony system?
I haven't heard XM in a long time, but I find the sound quality on Sirius in my wife's Expedition one of the better sounding systems for Sirius and it's the Sony set up. Most of the cars I've been in with friends/relatives who have satellite radio built in either drive Ford or Chrysler products, so I've only heard Sirius recently and while all close, my wife's is a tad better. Whatever I have in my Navigator is the best sounding Sirius feed I've heard. Not sure who makes the speakers, (used to be JBL, not sure if Ford still uses them or not) but the system is THX II cert.
I tuned my car radio during this free preview period to Escape, the channel that I always listened to before I cancelled the service. The sound was awful compared to what it used to before they dropped it. Now they have come back with a cheapened version that is just tinny and shrill sounding. Absolutely terrible. However, the playlist seems ok the short time that I had it on. But pay for it? No way!!
No it is the basic non sync radio that comes with the SE package and the V-6 (wonderful engine) is the only option. The Toyota radio is the 8 inch or whatever touchscreen radio in a RAV4 XLT. Our last RAV had the optional JBL sound system with XM and it too was unremarkable on all mediums.
