Bought the SV with several add-ons but no XM. I was running a Sirius Stiletto through my Altima but the sound was seriously compromised. Not sure if it was because of a **** poor installation by Best Buy or not... Anyways, I have the Aux Jack and run my Zune through it with CD quality. Is it possible to do the same with the Sirius unit?

 

Yes, but i dont believe through your aux jack, you would have to go through the back of the radio if im not mistaken. Did your Sat radio run off of a FM transmitter? I.E. used a radio station to send the Sat signal through, if you did that would be why you had poor sound quality. Best buy is a shot in the bucket when it comes to stereo installs, you can get a guy who takes pride in his work, or the dude that wants to hurry up and go home.

 

You should have just opted for the factory XM. Since Sirius and XM merged they have the same programming now. Either way, you should have a car kit that you used on the Altima for the Stiletto. It should have come with an FM Extender Antenna, if you want to be quick with the install you basically plug that in to the Stiletto and run it to where ever the car antenna is and just leave it as close as possible to it and hope for the best. If you want to get the best sound, you have to get an FM Direct Adapter. That is what Silversurfer was talking about that is used to connect to the back of the factory stereo. Go to Sirius' web site to look for it or other options, but I think those are the only two options.

 

Your Stiletto is portable right? So it would have a standard headphone jack? Skip the FM stuff, use the aux input. I've used it for my zune, my phone, my kiddo's mp3 player, my portable XM player (recorded, not live), and even a computer once.

 

This is what I was thinking. I've plugged my Zune in the MP3 jack and the sound was CD like so I figured doing the same for my Sirius reciever would produce a similar result. I stopped by Best Buy and explained what I wanted to do but they tried to persuade me to let them install it using an FM modulater and run it directly through the stereo. When I mentioned that this method sounded like crap in my Altima they said it was just prob not installed correctly. The con against using the portable antenna is reception. They claimed that I would probably not get good reception at all bu just laying the antenna accross the dashboard when in use. I'll look into it further and let you guys know what I find out.

 

Hahaha, of course they wanted you to use their install service. That would have increased your costs some and lined their pockets. Retail didn't do so hot over the holidays and now they are looking for anything.

In my old car, I did exactly what you are talking about. I put the antenna as far forward in the front window as possible. Nice thing about Sat radio is it's digital and I believe your receiver, like mine, buffers about 1 minute or so of the signal. You probably won't notice any dropouts.

 

Cool. Question though. How do you draw the power? Is there a cig lighter adapter that you plug the Stilleto into?

 

Not sure. I have an XM portable. The Inno.

The battery lasts so long in it (surprisingly) unless I made a 12 hour trip, I'd never drain it. I always recharge my goodies at home. Always seems no matter what charging cable I buy, it always causes electrical interference with audio devices (my Zune included)