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Sirius Satellite Radio

A

achie25

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 2, 2005
336
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My wife has really been wanting sat radio for awhile now and with her birthday coming up I am planning on getting her one. I am planning on Sirius.

Anyone with any experience with this? I am looking to get a receiver for the car and you can take it into the house. Does the sat signal work well or will I need an antenna for the house?


I guess I am really looking for some overall opinions and any advice that will come in handy.

thanks
 
I recommend any home kit for whichever Sirius reciever you chose...Yes you could use the antenna from the car near a window and it works ok but you still need an ac power cord for it unless you have some type of adaptor.

I recommend the Starmate 2 for it's replay functionality.

If the reciever is just going to stay in the car I'd recommend a Sirius One reciever. It's on sale for $29.99 at Circuit City and looks like a radar detector.
 
I agree you will deffently wan't a antenna for the house, preferably up on your roof, there will be a map in the manual for the reciever that will tell you the best direction to face the antenna depending on what part of the country your in for best reception. I've never used the Starmate 2, but it seems very nice. It's sexy just look at it :) http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/ser...=&oldParentID=7871&catParentID=7871&scId=7879. As for the Sirius One I had one in my new car for a month or so, and it's a great reciever especially for the price, just doesn't have a home docking kit. I just upgraded my stereo, and intergrated everthing, so I gave it to my Aunt. Welcome to Sirius, I've had it for almost 4 years now, and can't live without it.

Oh, and depnding on how anal you are about sound you might want to see if you can get an aux adapter for your car, and plug the tuner in directly, Im not a fan of FM modulators.
 
Depending on how your house is built, you may not need an antenna on the roof. For example, in my house, the signal goes right through the roof and I get great reception even with the antenna just sitting on my desk nowhere near a window.
 
I know that radio channels from the Uk are heard via Sirius in America but i dont think that it is available here so i dont know much about it. We have DAB digital radion and that picks up stations across the country with no aerial.
 
achie25 said:
So I assume that one of the models mentioned above will replace my factory installed CD/radio?

So I lose my ability to play CD's? Or is there another option?

Does anyone know much about the S50 http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/ser...r=2640&siId=601930&catParentID=7874&scId=7874

It says that it is not MAC compatibe so I assume that you can't use itunes with it. Didn't expect to.
Click to expand...
You can buy Sirius radios with CD built in.

The S50 has to be docked to work so its not really that portable.
 
achie25 said:
So I assume that one of the models mentioned above will replace my factory installed CD/radio?

So I lose my ability to play CD's? Or is there another option?

Does anyone know much about the S50 http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/ser...r=2640&siId=601930&catParentID=7874&scId=7874

It says that it is not MAC compatibe so I assume that you can't use itunes with it. Didn't expect to.
Click to expand...

NO none of the above models replace your factory radio. They have built in FM modulators, and you just tune your factory stereo to the set frequency, and you get Sirius. They also have audio out ports for home use, or if you get an AUX adapter for your factory radio.

EDIT:As for the S50 having to be docked, so do all of the tuners, besides he just wants to use it in the car/house, so he would need a home, and car kit and he is done. The S50 is portable for recorded contect though, just not live Sirius.
 
achie25 said:
So I assume that one of the models mentioned above will replace my factory installed CD/radio?

So I lose my ability to play CD's? Or is there another option?

Does anyone know much about the S50 http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/ser...r=2640&siId=601930&catParentID=7874&scId=7874

It says that it is not MAC compatibe so I assume that you can't use itunes with it. Didn't expect to.
Click to expand...

No, all those models mentioned so far are called Plug-n-Play units, they're addons to your radio. Just hook up the antenna and power, and set the FM transmitter in the Sirius radio to an open station and set your car radio to that. Or better yet, use an AUX input on your car radio if you have one. You can still play CDs and still listen to FM radio, but after getting Sirius, you won't want to go back to FM.

There are aftermarket car stereos out there that have Sirius capabilities built in and if you hook up the proper tuner box, will work with Sirius. And yes, those would replace your existing CD radio.


Just give me a couple minutes and I'll run out to my car and get some pics of how I have my Starmate Replay installed to give you an idea.
 
As promised, some pics to hopefully give you a better idea. Sorry for the crappy quality, they're from a camera phone


Just an addon unit to my car stereo (I happen to have an aftermarket one anyways, but my parents have the same Sirius radio with their factory stereo):
siri1.jpg

The Starmate:
siri2.jpg

The stereo. I have mine going through an AUX adapter for best sound quality, you could use FM if you wanted. Might be tough in a big city though where the FM dial is pretty full. There's also an FM hardwire thing that connects to the stereo and cuts off your cars antenna when the Sirius radio is on, so you have better quality. And of course, I don't lose any existing functionality. I could switch over to CD or broadcast radio. I haven't done the latter since I got Sirius.
siri3.jpg

You can click on the pics for a bigger version if desired.
 
Thanks for the pics. I get the picture now. I am going to do that for sure. I will get it for my wife's 04 Trailblazer and I think that I will throw it in my 99 Tahoe as well.
she listens to mostly music and I spend the majority of my radio time on the limited AM radio stations primarily sports talk and talk radio in general. Looking forward to the NFL games and being able to hear Stern again.
 
The new Sirius Sportster 4 is a great little unit except for one thing. If you live in an area where there are alot of strong local radio signals (like here in Baltimore) you will probably not be able to use the built in FM modulator. The local signals beat the heck out of the signal from the Sportster4. I had to buy an hardwired in-line modulator ($50 installed).

I've had Sirius for two years and I love it. Never listen to regular radio anymore. Not positive if the Sportster 4 "boombox" is out yet, but it should be very soon.

Keep in mind that all Sirius subscribers are able to login to Sirius via the internet and listen to all the non-premium channels. You can listen to the music chans but not things like the comedy chs and Disney ch. They don't cost any additional fee, just not available via internet.

Another nice feature on the Sportster 4 (and prob some others) is that you can set your favorite NFL team and the radio will search for that broadcast for you. Otherwise it can be difficult to find the game without looing it up online. This feature also works for NBA and NHL.
 
yg17 said:
As promised, some pics to hopefully give you a better idea. Sorry for the crappy quality, they're from a camera phone


Just an addon unit to my car stereo (I happen to have an aftermarket one anyways, but my parents have the same Sirius radio with their factory stereo):
View attachment 57888

The Starmate:
View attachment 57889

The stereo. I have mine going through an AUX adapter for best sound quality, you could use FM if you wanted. Might be tough in a big city though where the FM dial is pretty full. There's also an FM hardwire thing that connects to the stereo and cuts off your cars antenna when the Sirius radio is on, so you have better quality. And of course, I don't lose any existing functionality. I could switch over to CD or broadcast radio. I haven't done the latter since I got Sirius.
View attachment 57890

You can click on the pics for a bigger version if desired.
Click to expand...


Does it ever get in the way. How flexible is it to move?
 
achie25 said:
Does it ever get in the way. How flexible is it to move?
Click to expand...


It doesnt get in the way, no passengers have complained. The mount its on does move a bit, but I never really have a need to move it. It can rotate, and swivel.
 
Anyone else not able to use the web player now that they updated it

Anyone else not able to use the web player now that they updated it

I wrote tech support already but I wanted make sure I wasn't alone.

-Paul
 
200paul said:
Anyone else not able to use the web player now that they updated it

I wrote tech support already but I wanted make sure I wasn't alone.

-Paul
Click to expand...

Just tried it, and it doesn't work for me either. It gets all the way to the "Channel Selector" Pop-Up, but when I click on a channel it doens't play just says "-19421" when I click play
 
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