packetjunkie

I've had Sirius for over 6 years now; when I went from my last car to my new TL, I was given XM. XM seems "nice", but I like Howard Stern in the morning on my way to work. I thought about all the options posted here, but really don't want to mount anything (hoping the merger goes through) or spend any time wiring up something by taking the dash apart.

So, here's what I did. I bought a cable for my Blackjack that lets you connect headphones to the BJ. Then I used my iPod cable to connect to the AUX connection and fired up my Sirius app. Logged in and TA DA! Streaming Howard right through my stereo, no antenna, no mess. Now I can use my iPod or Blackjack to tune in.

Reception was flawless and I had my Howard Stern fix for the morning commute.

[Oh, I also installed the Google maps app and get traffic updates streamed to my phone as well.]

timmahh

This may be a better solution when it comes out:

http://www.vaistech.com/news.php

timmahh

Ok, so now that i'm awake and read your post..

Nifty and cheap way to get what you want - nice job! Hopefully we'll be able to get integrated Sirius support when the product above comes out; I too am a Sirius subscriber and i'm not looking forward to loosing my channels when I get the TL. I have DirecTV which broadcasts the XM channels so I know they have good stuff, but I know I like Sirius and the channels they have.

I'm guessing your phone battery won't last all that long in this configuration; do you get any feedback when you have the phone charging and you're plugged into the aux in?

packetjunkie

I use the extended batteries on my phone and my commute in was about a half hour; still showing a full charge. Keep in mind, the Blackjack's come with XM support already built-in. I'll let you know after a couple days of use how it goes.

I'm hoping the merger negates any need for new equipment; but for me this solution works just fine for now and gives me my Howard fix today.

timmahh

Addict =p

Supposedly there won't be a hardware change for newer cars when and if this merger completes; I know I had the first gen Sirius setup that used the big antenna with two wires; internally the XM and Sirius antennas were the same.. and when the Sirius one broke, the XM antenna worked fine.

packetjunkie

Day 2 and all is working just fine; with AUX volume way up I had a loud *pop* when I plugged in the cable (note to self to turn volume down).

I notice that the Acura doesn't have a good way of dealing with cables coming out of the middle console when using attached items - do they expect the iPod to be in the console? Maybe I missed something there.

I haven't tried the music channels, but Howard works fine and no skipping at all. Battery life was about normal considering my heavy usage.