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Tuesday March 14, 2006
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 My review of the Sirius S50 ($265 Street) posted yesterday and I got my first reader feedback today from "AngryTypingGuy". Basically, it went something like "it's not portable, its doesn't receive live content on the go, it is over-priced, and the MP3 capabilities are limited." Oh, and "Cover more XM products." Except for that last one they are all good points and I made them in the review. (I promise to test some new portable XM products soon.)
Still, the author misses the real appeal of the S50, and that is the programming itself. Long before Howard Stern moved over, Satellite radio was incredibly addictive. I have been a Sirius listener for nearly two years and I will never go back to standard, commercial-laden radio. Even living in NYC, the stations are just better. I can get my Alt/College radio fix (Interpol, Art Brut, My Morning Jacket) with "Left of Center" and then switch over to Pure Jazz for dinner music (Miles, Coltrane, Armstrong). The S50 has some quirks, the biggest being you have to pre-record your music, but after a week of using it you can quickly collect hundreds of your favorite songs--even if you have only heard them once. There is a ton of value in that. Oh yeah, if you look at the photo on the left, you will see that Weird Al Yankovic is playing. I have no idea how that got there and it would never make it onto my iPod, but I love it. That is the charm of radio.
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March 14, 2006 9:37 PM
That thing is like someone coming out right now and anouncing they have a new Product that is coming out with a double deck Casset and FM radio.. For the price your pay for that glorified I-pod you should get more, Specially when the XM on the go being less than that and there soon to come model that is smaller than that, This Sirus product is trash much like most the sirus products coming out along with there so called king that is an old has been himself. Sirus why dont you just try spending some money on actuall products and less on Has Been Radio personalities..
March 20, 2006 9:33 PM
I've had Sirius for over two years now, and my S50 since December. It is very cool. It takes a while to get up to speed with it, and it has some quirks, but once you dial it in its quite awesome. To compare it to a XM player portable is not quite apples to apples. I've been and XM subscriber for over 3 years, and have used thier portable unit. While listening to satellite music live portably is awesome, the antenna aiming is an ongoing and patience testing process. It doesn't work well on trains or in any area with a limited southern exposure. Its not so bad in major metropolitan areas due to the local signal boosting. The S50 eliminates that need for wireless antenna aiming all together. My S50 has over 30 hours of content stored from three of my favorite channels, which delivers lots of steady, enjoyable listening in a train, tunnel or in hotel room with no windows. The S50 has had some headaches, but in relation to the hours of content I have gotten out of it, its been great. With regard to Howard Stern, like him or not, Sirius' content is really more geared to your 25-45 year old male than XM. The stations rock, and have a cool programmed edge. The music stations don't have the random feels of the XM stations, where a 70 station could hit you with Kiss and Air Supply back to back. The Sirius stations are well programmed with lots of great old NYC DJ's spinning some great selections. XM has awesome content, and if you love listening to baseball on the radio its the way to go, but for me Sirius is my choice.