bigjacksauto

I still scan through the xm. Stations while they are free only on e in a while do I find a song that I really like.
Also the. Clarity is very. Good but it seems that some stations are not broadcasting. In a high quality digital. It almost seems as if some stations are almost in mono instead of stereo.
With more and more people getting iPhones. And androids I think the xm radios will slowly. Go away or they will at least have to drop there prices way down.
I find that with my android phone plugged into my hhr and either slacker or Pandora free internet radio I get a better variety of music plus it's nice to have the album cover come up for each song

Snoopy

I agree with you, "bigjack". That is why I do not subscribe to XM, although I have it in my vehicles.

I primarily listen to 4-5 stations.....1-2 jazz, 1 rock, 1-2 news/talk. The news/talk stations are NOT in need of a better method of listening. The local FM jazz stations are much better sounding than XM jazz (I also suspect a poor transmission). The local rock station is o'k but does get a little monotonous.

When traveling X country, I haven't had problems located anything to listen to....either am or fm (ok, sometimes the CD's are used).

bigjacksauto

Snoopy
Good to hear that I am not the only one who notices that some of the xm stations appear. To be monototone

Grizzly old man

When I was young I did a lot of work to get a radio of my very own. After I finally got one I did a lot more work to be able to buy batteries for it but, there was rarely a time {that I had the time} that I wasn’t listening to my radio once I had one.

As time passed I upgraded many times and I’m always on the lookout for something ‘better’

Now with that small amount of back story, I rarely ever listen to commercial broadcast radio stations anymore. All I can find on AM is talk shows, sports, political crap, and religious propaganda and of course all manner of commercials.

FM used to be so awesome, they used to play deep album cuts instead of the usually short top 40 45’s and sometimes whole album sides from bands you actually wanted to hear. Now there are only ‘classic hit’ stations with their 20 to 50 tunes they can afford to pay royalties on and all manner of commercials nothing I ever want to hear anymore.

Of course I started making my own compilation ’albums’ once I got my first 8 track record deck. I moved on to cassette and now CD’s. On our recent trip to Tennessee I actually got tired of the 500 or so tunes I had on the CD’s I burned for the trip and tuned across the FM band in the HHR to see if there was anything better to be heard on the far away FM stations.

There was nothing different from the more local to me FM stations around home here.

That was why I bought the XM radio to put in the ‘92 Pontiac. I had hoped to be able to listen to some different genres like techno and dance trance music but my main hope was since it was subscriber ‘radio’ that there would be no commercials.

Some of the channels were and may still be pretty well commercial free but not all. After paying for XM for two years I opted not to renew my contract because in my mind XM sucked.

My brother in law bought the XM radio from me and uses it to listen to the all talk channels. He really like Rush Limbaugh. He could get that crap on AM.

07azhhr

I seem to remember more channels back in 2005. I did not have it myself but new cars/trucks had them turned on already when they came in off the truck and while I did my inspections I would listen to it. I remember there being atleast 2 comedy stations and more rap/hip hop stations. Now there seems to be only 1 hip hop and another that they lump with the first one but seems to play stuff I would not consider to fall into either of those categories. Even the first one "HEAT" plays mostly songs that I do not want to listen too. The coedy channel seems to be little exerps from various skits and is not always even funny lol.

So how much is this service now? I only ask out of curiosity.

Snoopy

Are you saying this NOW because you are listening to the "freebe", which I think ends today? If so, the freebe/trial does not provide ALL the stations. Once you subscribe you get them all. You can still get a trial, I believe, for 6months = $25.00.

07azhhr

That would be a correct assumption. You would think that if you are trying to drum up business by providing and free trial time frame then wouldn't it make more sense to play all channels to their fullest??????????? From reading the posts in this thread I am not the only one that says there just isn't anything that I would listen to on a regular basis.

AND a 6 month trial is $25 ?????? WTF that better atleast have all the stations. Even if that means it is only $50 per year I still did not find anything worth listening to amongst the trial channels. That gives me very little to zero faith that there would be anything I would like even if I had full access.

NYCHHR

After reading your post, I was in Radio Shack the other day and bought a 3' audio cable with 3.5mm plugs for $10. Best $10 I ever spent. I plugged in my Droid, started up Pandora, opened up one my "stations" and there it was. Unlike XM, no fading going under overpasses, great sound, custom music, etc. I've had my HHR for three years and had to have XM, but when my subscription runs out I'm not renewing.

I've never paid the full subscription price for XM, always getting a year for $77 or less. I only listen to about five stations. XM customer service is for ***** and I will be so glad never to have to deal with them again.

bigjacksauto

Glad to hear that
I just purchased a mountek mount cradle that actually go's in your CD slot and will pretty much any phone droid. Or ipod. Etc
I was using Pandora bit switched to slacker radio. Seems to work better. For.me at least