Terrestrial Radio is Dead - SIRIUS Rocks!
Things have been a little slow on the posts around these parts, I know...but I am still here alive and kicking. It's been a while since we talked about gadgets and gizmos, so here's the first of a few gadget reviews that I think you should know about.
So terrestrial radio is dead...WTF you say? Yeah, radio as you know it is dead. I know it's been said before and a lot of people really don't get it, I was one of them. Well folks, I have been converted to Satellite Radio and I will never go back! I just recently received a Sirius Satellite Radio for my birthday. I specifically got the Sirius Sportster Replay model with the car kit. Installation was pretty straight forward,
although if you want a "clean" install that won't have wires showing everywhere, you may want to have a professional install it if you don't have the chops for that kind of work. After the installation, activation was straight forward and pretty painless. One thing you will want to make sure you get is the Wired Fm Modulation Relay. This little box will make all the difference in the world on sound quality if you are going to route the receiver through the FM stereo. There are definitely more elegant ways to get your satellite radio installed in your vehicle (like routing it through an AUX jack if you have one), but the FM route is definitely the quickest and easiest. Considering that you aren't going to get CD quality sound from any satellite radio no matter how well you hook it up to your existing setup, the extra effort for the AUX input just didn't seem worth it. The sound quality overall, is excellent. Although it's no CD, it's still better than FM and unless you have a high-end audio system that goes boom, this setup should be just dandy for your listening pleasure.
After a few minutes on the phone, my receiver was activated and I was up and jammin. One thing you want to make sure of is to let the Sirius rep know you would like the Playboy Channel activated (if you so desire- and it's free). That channel is turned off by default to safeguard parents against any kids that may be listening (although after listening to Howard Stern's channels, I don't know that there is much difference between Stern's channels and Playboy). The content on both channels is pretty raw and a bit over the top most of the time. Definitely not for young ears.
What makes satellite radio so appealing to me is the variety of content and NO COMMERCIALS on the music channels. Notice I said on the MUSIC channels. You will definitely hear commercials on all other channels, some of it from Sirius and some from network channels (FOX News, CNN, Bloomberg, etc) which I assume Sirius has no control over. One thing I can say about those commercials is that if you happen to hear one for something you want more info about, you can actually save the information to the radio's memory (Sirius actually broadcasts information about the commercial via the receiver). How often have you been driving and heard a commercial with a website URL and you couldn't write it down because you were driving? Now you can hit one button and BAM, it's saved in memory. VERY COOL. Moving right along with cool features is the Tivo-like features of this particular unit. The "rewind" models offer the ability to time-shift your content. So you are driving along jammin to your favorite tune, or listening to a show when the inevitable phone call comes in, and usually right at the worst possible moment. No worries here, hit pause and take the call. You can rewind, fast forward, just like your Tivo. The buffer only holds about 44 minutes, so don't talk too long or you will miss out on what you have saved in memory. Going back to the content, it just seems never-ending. I am absolutely in looooove with Big 80's, Classic Rewind and 1st Wave.
The whole reason I switched was because I am sick and tired of hearing the same crap on the radio every day, 10 times a day. Today's DJ's also need to learn when to STFU and just play music. My iPod is great and I love it, but for the car, it just doesn't do it for me anymore. I have 80 GB of content, so playing DJ and organizing playlists just takes too much time. I'd rather use the iPod for Podcasts and videos (if I ever finally get around to upgrading to the video iPod - for now videos are limited to my PSP). Satellite radio fills a void for my music needs perfectly. The comedy is out of control and talk channels are interesting to say the least. The traffic / weather is another AWESOME feature that comes in handy with the ridiculous south FL traffic. Another thing I am looking forward to is NASCAR on Sirius starting in 2007. That's going to be HUGE. I'm not so crazy about listening to a race (unless I can't watch it on TV for some reason), but the channel will be dedicated to racing and motor-head related news around the clock. Tony Stewart will have his own show and Sirius is pumping the hell out of this. I can't wait for that. And then there's the online access to the music channels. This feature is pretty kick-ass if I do say so myself. Although for best results, you should have a fast broadband connection, it's a great little feature for listening to Sirius while at work. You won't get all the channels you do on the receiver, but you get more than plenty to keep you jammin on the 'puter. Nice little bonus.
So with the good, there's always some bad. Albeit, there isn't much to complain about here. My main gripe is the loss of signal on occasion, which typically is when going under a bridge or under a car-port like at a gas station. I could understand losing the signal going through a tunnel, but under an open air car port? That totally blows. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that the antenna is an omni-directional low-profile antenna and not avery powerful one at that. Maybe they could build some kind of buffer into future radios, but that is unlikely due to the complexity. My friends on XM say they don't experience the loss of signal as bad as on Sirius. Not quite sure what the difference is, but this is certainly one area Sirius should look to XM to learn from (if they haven't already done so). Gripe #2 is with the radio unit in particular. According to the manual, you can change the back-lit color of the display. When you follow the instructions in the manual, the menu's they demonstrate don't appear anywhere. I guess it's possible that they have upgraded the firmware and removed this capability in lieu of something better, but I'll be damned if I would have know about it otherwise. An updated manual on the website would be in order at the very minimum.
Gripe #3 is with the installation. While everything was pretty straight forward, Sirius needs to seriously consider providing alternate means of powering the unit. The included cigarette lighter-plug barely had enough length to run from my center console arm-rest to the dashboard. Mind you, I am driving a 2006 Mustang, not exactly a big vehicle, and I barely had enough cord to get the unit mounted to the lower left side of the dashboard (while running the wire through the console / dash (ie. stealth mode). I would have liked to have a coiled cord for a short run (like from the center of the dash to the center console) and a longer straight cord version that could be used with the cig. lighter OR hard wired and run through the car in stealth mode.
Overall I am tremendously satisfied with the unit and Sirius Satellite Radio as a whole. If you have been looking for something new and exciting to make those long commutes more tolerable, this is definitely a worthwhile investment. Stay tuned for a few more gadget related reviews coming soon. Can anyone say GPS? ;-) Happy motoring!
Technorati Tags: Portable Audio, NASCAR, Satellite Radio, Sirius
