Satallite Radio? Who has them?

[Germ]

Anyone have a Satallite radio? If so, what brand, what model, and most important do you like it? Is it worth the buy? Do they work well when offroading?

I am thinking about getting an XM but i am looking for some input from you guys.

[Mike Kelly]

My father-in-law got a Sirius Sat. He likes it. He bought it primarily because Stern is going to Sirius and we can no longer get him in our area. As for using it for off-roading, it should be fine. BUT, if you are getting scrapped by trees, it could move or take off the mag-mount antenna. It's a strong magnet, but a strong branch will pull it off. Plus, if you are in heavy woods, I don't know about the reception - never tried it.

From what I hear, XM has a better and bigger channel selection, but Sirius is supposed to be expanding.

If you spend a lot of time in your ride, it's prob a good buy. CD's get old sometimes, and the radio just sux.

I'd get one if I could talk myself into paying for a monthly subscription!

[rockcrawlintoy]

thick trees will scramble the signal. as far as trees takin off the antenna i doubt it. it doesnt even stick an inch above the cab. do u like football or baseball? XM dropped the hard rock/metal station from their line up.

Drew

[Germ]

Actually the Hard Rock/Metal station was one of the reasons i wanted it. I have heard that station before and they played a lot of good tunes. Do you know why they dropped it?

Also, i am not too sure if i want to pay a monthy subscription yet, i would need a trial period, haha.

Are the XM radios that are built into like an Alpine cd player any good, or is the seperate unit better?

Thanks!

[Mike Kelly]

You can get the tuners that plug into your head unit, or head units that have the receivers built in, but, the advantage to gettin the portable unit is that you can take it into your home and listen to it on your home stereo by hooking it up to your home based antenna.

You can get car kits for multiple cars and move to all your vehicles. Of course, this will cost you.

[Germ]

admin said:

You can get car kits for multiple cars and move to all your vehicles. Of course, this will cost you.

Doesn't everything!!!

Thanks for the reply's Mike and Drew! I still am unsure of the whole XM thing. I have heard that if you get one of the XM units that you preset to an FM channel on your radio, you get horrible reception. I guess a lot more research is in need!

[Mike Kelly]

Nah... that's not really true. I have used my father-in-laws sirius system via the FM transmitter and I think it sounds great. The FM transmitter in the radio is only good for about 10 - 15 feet. Generally, you put it real close to your radio in your car so the reception is great. If you are that concerned about it, you can also hard-wire it into your head units input jacks as well.

Don't let that turn you off - it's worth it.

[snap-on]

How are the Mpeg artifiacts? Ive heard that the music can be very "MP3 ish" because its compressed inorder to be transmitted via digital stream.

IM thinking serious because of Stern. But the hardware isnt nearly as nice as XM. but im hopeing they come out with a new line of hardware by next year.

Im thinking seperate unit that you take from car, to work boombox, to home stereo thing.

[rockcrawlintoy]

Sirus is cool cuz u can get a password from them and listen from any computer also. As far as the harware i have sold both XM ans Sirus and they are very comparible.

DRew

[cbrsport17]

i got XM through my Alpine head unit, i love it to death, so many radio stations to listen to when i used to drive back and forth from new jersey to louisiana....almost never lost a signal either

[2toyotas]

if you want a unit with it all built in, the only radio that has it is the alpine 9820XM it has the tuner built into the radio. all you need in an antenna and you are ready to go!

[highrevz]

I like Sirius