asu174

iTrader: (11)

I have had Sirius in my car for about a month now. Here is my personal feedback on it.

Reception: Parking garages- I get nothing. Going under an overpass- sometimes it cuts out. Overall, I am really not impressed with the reception, considering I have a hideous, gigantic antenna mounted to my trunk lid. It should not be cutting out nearly as much as it does.

Sound Quality: No gripes here. SQ is comparable to CD and light years better than radio stations.

Channel Selection: Awesome! But the thing that sucks is that there is a full 1-2 seconds of silence when flipping between them, so channel surfing is somewhat discouraging. I do, however, have about 12 music stations that I love, so there is ALWAYS something good on. I just have to have the patience to find it.

Appearance: The deck looks great, the receiver stows away nicely, but the antenna is extremely ugly, especially on a white car. It wouldn't be so bad on black.


Overall, I am relatively pleased with my Sirius system, but with the ability to download free songs off Limewire makes me question why I am spending $13/month for this service.

I was considering the lifetime membership for $400 (ends Jan 04), but that sort of up-front investment is mildly scary for two reasons.
1. Sirius' stock is doing horribly. They could go under any day.
2. The "lifetime" is attached to the ESN of your receiver, not to you, personally. If your receiver dies after two years, you are screwed.

Anyhow, long story short: I have not decided if I am going to keep it or not.

slickrick

iTrader: (12)

nice write up! i say get rid of it. buy an mp3 player and dl songs. thats what im doing.

Cliff Clavin

iTrader: (11)

Thanks for the review. I am considering getting Sirius or XM, but I am waiting for a true portable set up (like the size of a discman) so I can use it at work, too. I think they will be able to work out the antenna stuff just like they did with cell phones and hand held GPS.

I don't see the point in getting sirius just for music (I have about 4k songs in mp3, plus all the CDs I have and can convert), but I really wish I could get it to listen to talk radio and sports.

Does anyone know if Jim Rome is available on Sirius or XM? I know they have lots of sports channels, but specifically I am looking for the Jim Rome show, since there aren't any stations near me that carry it and since I moved, I have been missing it.

PAPA SMURF

asu174-two things I must comment on your impressions:

1) maybe it's a local thing but reception for Sirius in the NYC/LI area is EXCELLENT

2) with reference to your comment on the ESN-the ESN is actually attached to your tuner, not the receiver

as for the quality/quantity of varied music not to mention the fact that you can get super trendy/super new music and the oldies/classics 24 hours a day and there are no commercials makes it a valueable item.

I have heard XM and have sirius and sirius kicks the **** outta XM

HKMax

From what I found out, big cities have repeaters. So what you're listening to is not from settellite, rather the signal is fron local repeater.

I also got Sirius (Audiovox Jump pak). Haven't installed or anything. I'll do that shortly and going go a 4 hour cross the state trip. I'll report then how the reception and performance is.

asu174

iTrader: (11)

That's what I meant. It's not attached to your head unit- it's attached to the "black box".

JeremyMarkham

Sirius sux.

maxsthebest

I just installed an in-dash Panasonic Sirius unit and I am very pleased with it. The sound quality is very good, some stations sound near CD quality. My unit is FM modulated. The selection of music is awesome! It definitely beats listening to the same crap that's played on AM/FM. I feel like I am now in control of what I want to hear, when I want to hear it! No commercials is definitely a plus. I should have gotten Sirius a long time ago. Besides, I am the envy of my friends who don't have it and wish they did.

It's definitely worth the investment. You will never go back to listening to AM/FM radio again!