Sirius Review

[.RJ]

You can be good at installing audio by following directions and taking your time without ever really knowing what the hell is going on with the electronics - there's a lot of kits, adapters and harnesses out there to make it easy enough. I've done it in most of my cars.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Alrgiht, just for me would you leave enough room just in case you have to solder the wires back on the transformer?

Let me know if it works or not, because in fact if your theory does work it would actually be easier on us as we wouldnt have to find space under the dash to hide the transformer.


PS- Circuit city is so busy we dont have time to take our time and what adapters are there for wiring in remote start security systems. Also, we do use adapters and harnesses for head units, but everything else we rewire, and if we run out of harnesses, we wire it ourselves, so we do know what we are doing WITHOUT any adapters and harnesses.

[.RJ]

Looking at the a/c adapter for the 'home kit' it says on the sticker 12V.

So, I'm not sure what you'd need a transformer for - remember, a transformer only steps voltage up or down.

Vp/Vs = Np/Ns

[.RJ]

So... a year later I'm definately signing up for another year. I've just been really happy with the service, the music, etc. Works in the house, car, no reception problems anywhere.

They've signed on Oakenfold (live show rebroadcasts) and Paul Van Dyk on the trance/house station which has been pretty nice. They've got NFL, and also signed on Nascar for '07 - I wont listen to either of those but Sirius seems to be getting a leg up over XM, so hopefully that means they will continue to draw in good programming for the other stations.

[Evan]

yeah Im seriously considering signing up. Oakenfold and PVD were the clinchers, combined with the nosedive of regular radio in this area (not that it was very good to begin with)

what sucks is that its yet another monthly bill to pay. $13/month may not break the bank but it adds up in combination with cable,phone, tivo, internet, maengs mom, etc every month

[.RJ]

If you're going to make good money......

[Chris]

I've had my Sirius (Sportster model in my case) since July and its been amazing. My drive is 50 min each way to work and its the only thing to keep me sane. It worked out well in the del sol because I ran the antenna wire up the A pillar and then into the rubber gasket in my targa top and just set it on the roof.

I get really good reception in the Baltimore/Annapolis using FM 88.3 or 88.5, but usually I never change the station. I kept the antenna wire zip-tied to the power adapter wire which helped the FM signal.

I mostly shuffle between Alt. Nation and Octane, the hard rock keeps me awake.

I also just ordered my brother the S50 model, which is the portable radio. I can't wait to see how this is, since it portable radio anywhere, has 1 GB of MP3 storage and can record live songs. It also came with a car docking station. I got a crazy deal on it since I have a subscription: 6 month subscription for $7/month and the unit itself with the car docking station was only $80.

[.RJ]

Yeah, I'm considering getting one of the portable radios - The thing about the S50 is that you cant listen to it live on the go, so thats out for me.

The new line of portable units (stiletto) look really nice, i'm on the fence on buying one instead of an ipod -

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/servlet/ExecMacro?nurl=control/StoreItem.vm&ctl_nbr=2640&siId=1984804&catParentID=7874&scId=7874&oldParentID=7870">http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/servlet ... entID=7870</a><!-- m --> - $250, no mp3 storage

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/servlet/ExecMacro?nurl=control/StoreItem.vm&ctl_nbr=2640&siId=1745656&catParentID=7874&scId=7874&oldParentID=7870">http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/servlet ... entID=7870</a><!-- m --> - $350, 2GB MP3 storage

[Chris]

ah shit, didn't realize the S50 wasn't live on the go. I guess we'll see if its annoying to use, or maybe I'll call and see what my options are for upgrading.

[.RJ]

The idea with the S50 is, you record stuff while its plugged in to your home/car kit and then you can listen to it like an MP3 player.

[JustinG]

im a fan of my XM as well, been subscribed for like 1 1/2 years. I like the baseball over the summer, and the channel selection is good. only big difference i can see between the two are the sports offered.

[Maengelito]

yeah Im seriously considering signing up. Oakenfold and PVD were the clinchers, combined with the nosedive of regular radio in this area (not that it was very good to begin with)

what sucks is that its yet another monthly bill to pay. $13/month may not break the bank but it adds up in combination with cable,phone, tivo, internet, maengs mom, etc every month

i was gonna offer you the free player with a 6 month pre-paid subscription at $7/month. i've liked my sirius for the NFL while driving on sundays. the raw dog comedy has been pretty good. the music isnt that great, but its awesome not having commercials on the music stations. howard stern just rants about how people are saying he's taken a huge dive by moving to sirius like every 5 minutes so it gets old. i probably wont listen to nascar, and i dont listen to the NHL games even though i want to. overall though, i think its well worth the $13 /month

[Jewels]

Rex and I love ours. I paid ours by the year to save a little bit, and I'll probably do it again this year if I have the money to do it that way. As soon as we can, we are probably gonna get a second one for the durango, cause mine is just through the head unit. We have the unit for the Durango, we just having installed it, or got a subscription yet. My parents have a new Trailblazer that came with XM, so they tried it out and they ordered it. I liked the sports better on Sirius- I love me some football, that's really the only reason we went with it.

[Jeff]

EDIT- I just realised that this is like...a year old. But hopefully my comments might be helpful reguardless.


XM is by far my fav. Much better programming. Sylvia had Sirius for a few months and finally just said "Alright, give me my XM back, this sucks." I can listen to either one...and I have...until the free service runs out or Circuit City realizes they never deactivated it.

RJ-
As far as the 12V issue. Our Friend DJ is thinking about XM radios. Which are 6 or 5V depending on the model. Now, a Sirius is a 12 v unit and you CAN cut the cig plug off and wire it directly without modifying the cig plug/transformer that is on the XM units. So, make damn sure you know which wire is ground and which is hot and just hack off the plug and wire it up. The StarMate will smoke like crazy when you turn it on if you have them backwards...but they still work if you turn it right off and flip the wires back :lol:

Mike-
There is no way to interface your dash controls without buying that thing you linked to. If those dash controls are paramount for you the best thing you can do is buy that module first. Then look at the list of radios it works with and buy on of those. The install should be very simply and I can walk you though it over the phone if you would like.