Plamar

I just bought a Delphi Skyfi XM satellite radio this weekend, and let me tell you, this think kicks some serious a@@. It was less than $200 for the radio and the car kit, and I also ordered the home adapter that lets you use the same radio unit in the house with your home stereo (the car has a cradle that the radio slips in and out of). They also sell a boombox for $99, but I prefer the fidelity of my home stereo.

The subscription costs $9.99 a month, but with 100 channels it is worth the money.

Anyone interested here is the link that tells you all about it!

www.xmradio.com

shazaam

yeah its pretty cool. I got the serrius radio though from kenwood. I had them do a custom install where the sunglass holder is below the rear view mirror, so it looks like it came from the factory that way.

good luck with it

L33T35T 4Runner

Yup, XM rules! ive praised it many times on this board before...

i used to listen to it at work all the time

since you just got it.. lemme tell you the good stations

80, 81, and 82 are cool techno stations, careful though, 83 is disco

48 is an awesome rock station

42 is hard metal rock, good stuff

41 is like oldies rock, awesome station

4-9 are 40s - 90s respectivly

and check out the unsigned bands channel... they got some good stuff some times. dont remember the number, sorry

taco04

dont forget channel 150. The comedy channel rules!!

Nobody

Got any pic's of the install??

Cradle? is it a din config?

keisur

yep, I got the Sirius Kenwood system too. mainly because Sirius has not commercials. I was thinking of getting the XM for my wife's runner because I want to see if it's any better. they seem to have the same types of channels, only the Sirius system doesn't have Playboy channel. hehe.

ksurfer

So which one's better?

Sirius or XM?

I imagine Sirius...I mean they have Pamela Anderson hosting her own show on it, doesn't get much better than that right?

midiwall

This is highly debated on the XM and Sirius forums. Personally, I think that it comes down to if you want to pay an extra $3/month for _totally_ commercial free programming.

• The quality of the broadcasts are the same.
• The programming is generally just as good on both.
• Some stations on XM are commercial free, but not all. Those that arent will get you with about 4-5 minutes of commercials per hour. Not bad at all. Sirius _is_ 100% commercial free.
• Both systems are at their peak capacity in terms of the number of channels that they can offer. That's not really a bad thing, given that we're talking about 100 channels of fun.
• Both systems offer the same type of "sideband" information along with the music, i.e., Artist, Album and title.
• Both systems have companies offering "transplantable" receivers which will work in your home or car. But, XM has a company that is also making a "boom box" for it's receiver (re: Delphi, http://www.delphi.com/products/consu...i/skyfi_audio/).
• Delphi (using the XM service) offers a discount for multiple receivers billed to the same address (just $6.95/month for receivers #2-4). I don't know if Sirius does anything similar.
• Delphi is about to launch a 3rd satellite for extended coverge. But, this will eventually replace one of the two in the sky now, which is running low on battery power.
• Both services have "terrestrial" (ground based) repeaters which minimize the dropouts in urban environments where tall buildings could block your signal.
• Both systems buffer 4 seconds of data to minimize the "normal" dropouts as you pass through trees and tunnels.
• Neither system will work along a heavily wooded mountain trail.

Personally, I went with XM and bought two Delphi systems. I have the home adapter and two car adapters. I love it... I haven't listened to FM since I put it in about 6 weeks ago.

hre814

sdastg1, anyway to post some pics of your system mounted where the sunglass holder used to be? What did the install run you? Thanks!

Herman

shazaam

You know I have done so many cool mods to my interior, and I wanna post pics, I just don't know how to post them for free. I used to use montypics .. but they're not free anymore. If you can show me an easier way, I can post the pics for ya

Cobb

midiwall - not to correct you, but 100% of Sirius' Music channels are commercial free, the other channels still have commercials

L33T35T 4Runner

if anybody wants to listen to XM radio, im streaming it from my shoutcast server

http://66.75.118.29:8000/listen.pls click that if you have winamp

if you dont, then add http://66.75.118.29:8000 to your windows media player playlist

im currently playing XM 48 Squizz, its a rock station

shazaam

you know what though, even on the commercial channels, serrius advertizes themselves. like after every third song you hear how great the radio you just bought is.

The other negative thing I have noticed, while they play great songs, they repeat them through out the day, esp. like the top 40 hits channel. Not only that, if one station is playing the song, the other one will play it simultaneously, or within a few minutes of it.

I love the news channels though, I can catch FOX news, BBC, and CNBC in the morning on the way to work, and leave early, instead of sitting at home at home and catching the news.
I wish they had a visual field though, so we could watch at the same time. I know I know ... can't have tv while driving, but its ok to glimpse once in a while.

Yosmany

I was quoted $300 for the Delphi system. Does your $200 include a FM modulator, or is that the normal car kit with a tape adapter.

Also, has anyone mounted these on their 2003. Could you tell me where you found a spot on their interior.

midiwall

Ahhh! okay... Thanks Jacob!

Mark

L33T35T 4Runner

my server is still up if anybody wants to listen. if you want me to change the station, let me know. choose something from here

http://www.xmradio.com/programming/f...el_listing.jsp

i dont work for them.. but i know a good product when i see one, and this is a great service!

midiwall

The Delphi prices are pretty fixed; Receiver is $129.99, Car or Home kit $69.99, BoomBox is $99.99. FM modulator can vary, but Delphi's own is $49.99. Oh, they also just released the "Roady" at $119.99 which includes a car mounting kit, but it's a _car only_ tuner. There's no facility for running it in your home as well.

If you find anything other than those prices, then the retailer is taking it out of his own pocket. One site that you may want to keep an eye on is Crutchfield. They will sometimes have "scratch and dent" or "returns" stock, and those will sell lower than retail.

ref: http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/P...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0


I don't know what the 2003 interior looks like, but I put mine right down in front of the transfer case shift lever.

keisur

I noticed that too. on the comedy channel 147 they also repeat a bunch of standups.

loosehead

Couple of Q's, guys...

My wife and I have been thinking about adding this, too, and the Skyfi caught my attention, mostly because of its versatility as we could move it to either vehicle, so...

1. Which is better, cassette adapter or the FM modulator?

2. Do you still need separate antennas(one for each car) with it?

TIA,

AznSky

Shahzad if you want me to host the pics for you, I can on my imagestation

if not, just do it yourself, very simple www.imagestation.com

once uploaded right click on the pic, go to properties, and then copy the url from there.

btw what's the news with the supercharger?