Oooooh...I'm 4 posts away from 2000.

Thats my thing, I would like it to be in the head unit, because it is so clean as you said, but there are allot of other places I would like to use it besides JUST the car.....

Wooo wooo.....

vs only 100 something for just the HU adapter that plugs directly in without going through FM modulators....if your HU is capable of hooking up a sirius adapter.

3 more...

Right but then I wouldn't be able to take it with me, and thats important....

Yea, I hear ya. I can't speak for sound quality for external units. Maybe someone who has one will chime in soon. Isn't there a way to make the docking unit directly connected to your HU? Then you can just remove the unit and leave the dock connected.

I have a portable unit and have hooked into the factory radio thru a fm modulator. That is the best way i found to do it keeping the same head unit. It gets good reception with no static.

How is the sound quality tho? I mean is it clear and crisp?

That would be ideal, I don't know if there is or not...

there is but you cant use the HU to control the channel settings. that is is your HU has RCA inputs.

I wanted best sound quality, i think this is the best way you can get it in the car.

but if you did it like mine you would need 2 radios and 2 subscriptions, one in the house(portable) and one in the truck (permanent)

I cant speak for others, but i have an older xm external unit (I am even using the rca inputs on the headunit and the output on the xm unit) and the sq sucks. Thats the main reason I dont listen to it alot. I prefer the best quality

Well I have RCA inputs, so I can run the sound that way and just have to control the sirius on the portable unit? That would be ok, because I am sure the sound is better that way then thru the antena.....

Sound quality is not bad with RCA's, as good as FM radio through the modulator. Not quite CD quality through the RCA's though, and the quality of some channels is great and other's mediocre -- probably a difference in bit-rate.

I listen to baseball, news-talk, and the old time radio shows the most so quality is less of an issue. Most of my music is on my 6 disc CD/MP3 changer in the dash anyway.

The sq is crisp and clear on mine. the only prob i have is my antenna blows chunks!!
i think i have a kink in the cord

Got ya, good to know....

If you decide to go with the fm modulator, be sure to get a wired one. all you do is plug it into your dock the pull the radio and plug the fac ant into it, the plug the modulator into the radio

With Delphi XM rigs, its not a modulator so much as a "coupler". Basically it can switch off your outside antenna and couple the internal modulator to the antenna jack on your FM HU.

One thing about the Delphi one: there are capacitors in the XM rigs that take a few seconds to tens of seconds to discharge. This means that when you power off the XM rig, the outside FM/AM antenna does not get immediately reconnected. That fooled me (and others) for awhile.

It actually powers down, so to speak... Correct?

good to see you're going with Sirius and not XM... i hate XM... their content is nothing, and a lot their channels are labeled as random names that give you no clue as to what sort of content might be on that channel. luckily, i get XM for free... i wouldnt pay a penny for it otherwise (came free with our sat. tv package at our shop).

as far as sound quality in the car.... if you hook it up correctly and tweak a little bit, it wont be bad at all.

i use my sirius in my truck like 99% of the time while driving.... i cant stand listening to FM anymore... every channel is nothing but commercials, plus ads claiming that FM is better because its "free." only thing i'm getting for free with FM is chopped up songs and free commercials to listen to, lol.

I get Sirius with my dish network- best of both worlds

I wonder if they would cut me a deal since im already getting it with dish? i dunno but i'd really like to have it in my car, I had XM in my truck and hated it- played songs I never even heard of, and started getting commercials then that's when i pulled the plug on that one..

i have a sirius sportster in my truck and i love it... i bought the fm modulator and the sound quality is fine for me but im not too picky about that stuff since i have my stock speakers and head unit in the truck still

That will change I think as the services "converge". They will keep the best of both systems.

There's some great content on XM -- just not for YOU, lol...

oh i know, i can't wait till they merge... id like to have the mlb channel(s)... XM can keep the rest of their content though, lol.

i didnt read this whole thread so if im saying something others have said please forgive me. I looked at both XM and Sirrus. I bought XM . Im told if you dont have stellar credit the sirrus wont even give you an account. I dont know if this is true or not. Sooner or later XM and Sirrus will become one company and nobody knows for sure how the equipment is gonna go. I wound up buying XM . My reasons was because i love country music and in the NYC metro area they dont offer it on free radio ( AM &FM Bands). If you drive in the city both XM and Sirrus you will find no service in tunnels by some bridges and in some areas certain antennas will mess with the signal. Ive never been cut off duue to weather tho. The interference is usually a couple of seconds but if its a song you like its enough to really irk ya
The XM radio set itself is junky. My Delphi unit broke almost immediately with the display and it was a big hassle to send it there to get it fixed and send it back.. they wouldnt credit me so i left it. A year ago Xmas my wife bought me a new unit in my truck but that one has to stay put you cant take it in and out like the delphi unit and stick it in a docking station in the house.. I know Sirrus has a similar thing and my buddy has it and it works nice
I got kinda disgusted with the XM and had it shut off they seem to play the same thing over and over and i didnt think it was worth the money.
Also the XM messes up the AM signal so its difficult in city areas to get AM stations such as local news and traffic , although XM did have its own traffic thing which was better than the local news station but its format ( with a computer generated voice) was annoying. Plus I couldnt get the ball game all the time, at least not with the announcers i knew for years..
Im told now you can get somethng depending on where you live (NYC area has it) and its another band of radio that is free and they have all genres of music. I forget the name of it ( im getting old and senile) hope this helps your decision

I have a RoadyXT, my wife has a Roady2, and there's a SkiFi2 here in the house I got from Peter that is really nice. So far no problems with the Delphi stuff -- sorry you got a "lemon".

Bob, wasn't it you that asked about the direct FM adaptor? I answered you about that in your post but you never replied.