[JoePhoto]

I have both - Sirius was a Christmas gift from my wife in the form of the Stiletto 2 portable radio. XM came in my new SUV.

I like the Sirius music stations song rotations a little better (rock, metal, 90's alt. rock) but I like XM for the NHL coverage. It seems that you get a DJ about half the time on most stations. Some of the DJ's are just plain stupid and like to talk over songs on some Sirius stations (Cavino on Octane 20 for example) which annoys the hell out of me. A note if you have young ids, both companies have DJ's the like to use excessive profanity (F* this, F* that) because they can. Also most all of the songs are album versions and not edited for FM radio.

Both offer online streaming radio but one thing about Sirius that I absolutely can't live without now is the hi-def online radio. It costs an extra $2 a month but it's absolutely worth it. The streaming radio is CD quality (I believe 128kbps or higher) and there are several free 3rd party applications (namely Stream On and Sirius Tuner Yahoo Widget) that will stream the hi-def radio without interruption for as long as you want. Playing the radio from their website keeps a browser window open and it shuts off after 90 minutes unless you interact with the browser window - so the 3rd party apps are a must IMO. This is important to me because I work in a studio on several computers when I'm not shooting.

You can get a free online preview of both from their websites. I'd do that and see what channels you like. Also most of the online streaming low quality XM music stations are available free through Shoutcast (download Winamp from winamp.com).

Since the merger was approved, I'm anxious to see what happens. I have my favorite stations on both and I hope I'm able to access both on either of my radios when/if they combine actual services.

Hope this helps.