Well Mr stern is almost on sirius and the NFL season is heating up. I'm not blown away by XM's programming so its time to switch to sirius. I am looking for a system to use at home and in the car. I was wondering how many of you are doing the same and what you have come up with as a nice clean install in the TL. Ive done a little research...
Sirius using XM antenna

I think I am down to either the S50, starmate replay or sportster replay and I am targeting the compartment underneath our existing radio/nav units.
Has anyone gotten and used the s50 and is there any way to mount it cleanly in the TL ? Its kind of bulky with the base but the functionality seems great.
The starmate replay looks cool but seems really bright based upon what everyone is saying....
The sportster replay would be the best option but it looks too big to fit in any of our little compartments.
Any comments would be appreciated.

 

sirius sound quality is terrible.. i did it in the TL with a direct AUX input.. horrible

 

I wouldn't say because your mod didn't sound good that Sirius sound quality is terrible. I currently have three Sirius subscriptions, and I think it's equal to or better than what the XM sounds like in my TL.

I have the OEM built in tuner in my A4, and I have two plug and play units that I use with the FM modulator in two other cars. I think even with the FM mod the sound is really good.

 

I have both Sirius and XM (An older Audiovox Sirius unit in my other car with an FM Modulator) and OEM XM in the TL. To my ears the Sirius sound is as good if not better than XM and there is just no comparison in the music programming. I hardly ever listen to XM anymore and when I do it just makes me more disappointed. The only channel I do use ocassionally is CNN Headline News (Sirius only has regular CNN). I wish I had an option for a factory system for the Acura. I probably won't be renewing my XM subscription when the free trial is over.

 

you need to re-tune your ears. it's obvious that you have no clue about sound...

 

Go with the replay, the S50 has ALOT of limitations.....

 

Hard to believe sirius sounds any worse than our xm.
No matter...I would rather listen to things that I like with worse sound quality than things I could care less about with better sound quality.

 

XM's programming sucks! They play the same stuff over and over. There are too many station promo's and the DJ's wont shut the hell up! (expecially that damn Ms. Kitty). I have Sirius on my home stereo and the variety of music seems to be alot better and the DJ's rarely run their mouths. If i knew how to switch it in my TL, i would have done it a long time ago.

Plus i own Sirius stock!

 

How important is the antenna placement? I don't want to install anything in my car, so I'm wondering about putting the antenna somewhere on the dash. I don't mind the wiring laying around, I can hide it. I just don't want to mount anything or make any serious changes to the TL. I'm leasing.

Joe

 

I have the Starmate replay and it fits perfectly - without any mounting hardware - in the bottom cubby hole. Search for a thread I started showing my install. I have all the wires hidden underneath the center console and behind the dash. Looks pretty nice I think. I have the antenna located on my dash and i get full signal strength there. I have to agree that the sound quality isn't the best. But let's face it, neither was XM. I guess that's the price you pay for compressed digital sound.

 

Yeah, your install does look good. How did you get the replay unit to fit in that compartment? Was there some type of universal mounting hardware that came with it?

How did you hide all of the wires? Did you take the dash apart?

Thanks.

Joe

 

Believe it or not, that Starmate replay fits perfectly on the edge of the cubby hole without any mounting hardware. If I want all I do is lift it out and it comes right out, but it is tight enough that it doesn't rattle around at all. It kind of gets wedged between the door for that compartment and a the bottom and rests on the edge on the left hand side.

To hide the wires, I took apart the center console and the panels underneath the steering wheel. I had to drill a small hole in the compartment to feed the wires through as well.

 

I didn't mean to say that FM modulation is as good as an OEM installation, but the sound of XM vs. Sirius is not that different, particularly once you factor in road noise and other less than ideal listening conditions in a car.

In any case, I'd rather listen to FM modulated Sirius programming than OEM XM programming. The sound may not be quite as good with FM modulation, but the better content more than makes up for the difference. I wouldn't care if I could get recording studio quality, 24-bit, 192 kHz sampling rate quality with 120 dB noise floors (that don't matter with 60 dB road noise) from XM if they didn't play any content I like. I'd rather listen to an AM station if it played what mattered to me.