I'm considering going with an Alpine XMA-T200RF XM radio receiver/changer controller and a CHA-S634 changer. Can anyone share with me some insight into going the RF route and your opinions on it? Thanks for the help.

Jason

 

Going RF is a cheap way to go for an add-on but thats all there is good to say about it as you will never get the kind of fidelity that you get with line level. The frequency response, s/n ratio, etc (overall sound quality) will be mediocore. Simple way to understand this is the following: when you play a CD vs. a radio station right now, and you should be able to hear how much more crisp and clean the highs are and how much tighter, reinforced and natural (not boomy) the bass notes are with the CD, so the XM module going RF will sound no better than when palying a radio station. Since XM is digital, it should have the potential to sound as clean as a CD, but you wont get that result with RF. Needless to say, any CD played in the changer will never sound as good as one played on the head unit itself since the CD played with the changer will also enter the system via RF.