got sirius?

[jdmart]

DISH got me hooked on Sirius and am looking for advice from those who have Sirius or have been researching Sirius. Specifically, what equipment package and accessories do you recommend for car and home? What source do you recommend? What does Dish offer by going through them for equipment or activation? I just finished cancelling HBO/Cinamax after watching the season finale of the Sopranos and plan on applying the $17 towards Sirius and NetFlix.

 

[ROLLTIDE]

Did I mention that only dorks Look at this site ?

 

[GaryPen]

I just finished cancelling HBO/Cinamax after watching the season finale of the Sopranos and plan on applying the $17 towards Sirius and NetFlix.

But, Six Feet Under starts next week! And, what about the return of Curb Your Enthusiasm? (It may be a ways off, you'r right.) At least you made a good choice with NetFlix.

 

[bcshields]

Dish offers a car kit and a plug and play (PNP) reciever for about (I think) $150. No discounts on service for subscribing.

I went to Circuit City, got the JVC PNP reciever (which is a little bigger than most) a car kit, and they threw in a home kit for free, totalled about $150. They also have a kit at walmart which is an Audiovox brand.. a little cheaper.

The way it works is that a wire runs from a magnetic antenna on your roof to your reciever base. Another power wire runs from your power cigarette outlet to your reciever base. On the side of the base is a switch for a radio frequency in the 88.1 - 88.7 range. Just tune your car radio to that station and you're installation is done.

The hardest part is where to mount the base and hiding the wires.

I wouldn't waste the money on installation.. unless you have to do something non-typical, like running a wire off your battery or some other special work. BTW, Dish isn't installing.. just selling the stuff. Your individual retailer might install for a fee.

 

[jdmart]

Thanks for the great info! I'll start shopping around. Ultimate Electronics is advertising the Kenwood Portable Satellite Tuner KTCH2A1/KPAH2C with car kit and Sirius sports bag for $119.95. Does anyone know anything about this model? How does it compare with JVC or Audiovox?

 

[DWS44]

I'm curious...probably a dumb question, but how much difference in the sound quality can you tell from a "car kit" broadcasting on an FM frequency vs. a new head-unit w/ Sirius (or XM) built-in?

Also...can you mount the antenna inside, say, on the dashboard rather than on the roof? The reasoning there is...can you easily move such a "car kit" from one vehicle to another?

 

[bcshields]

can you easily move such a "car kit" from one vehicle to another?

Depends how easy it is to hide the wires. The FM Modulator car kit is basically antenna wire, power wire, and a base. My car is a Saturn Ion, which is basically made of tupperware and legos, so the wires are simple to hide. I've moved my kit from one car to the other in maybe, 5 minutes. Once you know where to put the wires it's a breeze.

 

[hzhao]

I just purchased Audiovox with both Home and car kit for a friend. Total cost about $240 and the car kit has built-in FM transmitter as well. Works great.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Thread moved to our shinny new Sirius forum.

 

[BenDee]

http://xmorsirius.com/getit.html
http://xmorsirius.com/reviews.html

The Hot Deals page will be updated later today with a couple new deals, and to remove the old ones.

 

[digitalelegance]

FNF Deal

Ultimate Electronics is advertising the Kenwood Portable Satellite Tuner KTCH2A1/KPAH2C with car kit and Sirius sports bag for $119.95. Does anyone know anything about this model? How does it compare with JVC or Audiovox?

That's not a bad deal for the H2A, however, there have been some issues with the displays on that model failing. It isn't as tall as the other units, but it's quite a bit deeper. The display on the Kenwood is also pretty small compared to the JVC or Audiovox models.

There is a deal going on now called the "Friends and Family" deal. For $49 you get a PNP with either a car or a home kit.

In order to participate:
Call 888.601.6292 and let the SIRIUS representative know that you are calling as part of the Friends and Family program.
You'll need to provide the promotion code 101 and the referring SIRIUS employee's work email address for verification.
You can choose from the Kenwood, JVC, or Audiovox receivers.

You'll also need to buy at least a 6 - month subscription. The activation fee is waived.

I'm not sure if I should post the employee's email address to use, so just PM me if you need it.

 

[KTMCDO]

Thanks for the great info! I'll start shopping around. Ultimate Electronics is advertising the Kenwood Portable Satellite Tuner KTCH2A1/KPAH2C with car kit and Sirius sports bag for $119.95. Does anyone know anything about this model? How does it compare with JVC or Audiovox?

i have the kenwood model
the only thing that that model doesnt offer
is a s-seek feature and no boombox feature as well
the rumor is that kenwood is making a newer version that might have a boombox in the future s- seek Song-seek remembers and searches for 20 favorite songs
keenwood ktch2aHere2AnywhereTM Portable SIRIUS Receiver



Key Features:

Completely Portable SIRIUS Satellite Tuner with optional home and car kits for use at home, office, truck, boat or car.
Browse other streams by Category, Channel Name, Preset, Artist Name or Song Titles playing before switching
4-line dot matrix display with scrolling capability to show full Artist Names and Song Titles
Large Text display mode for easy viewing from across a room
Store up to 24 Artist and Song titles in memory for later recall
Channel Skip feature with Parental Lock control
Antenna Signal Quality meter
Adjustable Brightness
Adjustable line output level
24 Presets
Remote Control
hope this helps

 

[n9wbr]

There is a deal going on now called the "Friends and Family" deal. For $49 you get a PNP with either a car or a home kit.

In order to participate:
Call 888.601.6292 and let the SIRIUS representative know that you are calling as part of the Friends and Family program.
You'll need to provide the promotion code 101 and the referring SIRIUS employee's work email address for verification.
You can choose from the Kenwood, JVC, or Audiovox receivers.

You'll also need to buy at least a 6 - month subscription. The activation fee is waived.

I'm not sure if I should post the employee's email address to use, so just PM me if you need it.

I just signed up for this promotion so I could get a second reciever for my wifes vehicle. Sweet deal. $49 for the JVC plug in play and it included the mobile mounting equipment. Strike while the irons hot. My understanding is this promotion is about to expire.

 

[BenDee]

The new H2As now include S-Seek/clock. The way to identify them is by a blue circle on the new boxes that says:

Now with
-Song Seek
-Sleep Timer
-Alarm Clock

 

[digitalelegance]

My understanding is this promotion is about to expire.

From what I've heard, the deal doesn't expire until September.

 

[Sirius_Rich]

I'm curious...probably a dumb question, but how much difference in the sound quality can you tell from a "car kit" broadcasting on an FM frequency vs. a new head-unit w/ Sirius (or XM) built-in?

Also...can you mount the antenna inside, say, on the dashboard rather than on the roof? The reasoning there is...can you easily move such a "car kit" from one vehicle to another?

I'll try to answer from my non audiophile perspective. I base my opinions on my personal usuage. I personally use a Kenwood 7015 Sirius ready head unit, 2 Audiovox PNP's (one hardwired and one FM transmitted), a Audiovox Boom Box and a Kenwood DT 7000S home unit. I have a Dish SR 200 Traveler not hooked up at this time. I'm waiting on a new car purchase.

The home unit is optical output and the SQ is as you would expect, great. The 7015 has the best SQ of the mobile units with the hardwired unit having less interference problems with local terrestrial broadcasts which is not a big problem, but does occur occasionally here in Houston. Having said that, the background noise of driving a car really makes the SQ issue less of an issue, but the head unit does provide the best SQ. The Boom Box SQ is that of any portable radio with 5 amps and 4 inch full range speakers. I like using the Boom Box for outside activities.

Which way you go depends on if you want the features of a plug and play and its portability and use of a Boom Box. If you are going to just use it in the car, I would recommend the head unit with the biggest display available. The unit I have is a high end model that retails for $1400, but also functions as a DVD player, navigational, HD radio, and has a 7" GUI touch screen. There are plenty of Sirius ready head units that are less than $200 that sound just as good.

If the music is all you are interested in for home use, stay with the Dish feed of Sirius. But you will be missing some of the best original entertainment and talk programming available along with the Sirius sports feeds. Obviously most of the news feeds are on Dish already, but not all.

I have one of the PNP's antenna on the dashboard and works just fine, but the signal strength is not as strong. I have done a signal strenght test on both antenna placements with the same unit and antenna. In a marginal signal area (heavy trees and underpasses) it would make a difference in potential dropouts. Either way you will love it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sirius_Rich]

Sirius hardware deals

Thanks for the great info! I'll start shopping around. Ultimate Electronics is advertising the Kenwood Portable Satellite Tuner KTCH2A1/KPAH2C with car kit and Sirius sports bag for $119.95. Does anyone know anything about this model? How does it compare with JVC or Audiovox?

The SQ will be equal. The differences are in the displays and how the units will be installed in your vehicle. I like the bigger display pnp's, but the Kenwood unit provides a flatter footprint for installation.

There are several programs available and is hard to keep up with. This site sells the Dish SR 200 for less than $140. Best Buy is selling the Jam Pak for $124 and I hear of a Friends and Family deal for $50. Sirius.com is now selling hardware directly. PM me for details. I highly recommend the yearly subscription plan for greater savings.

 

[itsonthedish]

DISH got me hooked on Sirius and am looking for advice from those who have Sirius or have been researching Sirius. Specifically, what equipment package and accessories do you recommend for car and home? What source do you recommend? What does Dish offer by going through them for equipment or activation? I just finished cancelling HBO/Cinamax after watching the season finale of the Sopranos and plan on applying the $17 towards Sirius and NetFlix.

Why would you want to cancel HBO just because one show ended?

 

[jdmart]

Why would you want to cancel HBO just because one show ended?

I'm sure you and many others enjoy other HBO shows. We only liked the Sopranos series which won't be back until mid 2005. As far as movies we like to watch what we want when we want so Netflix is the answer. With HBO you'd have to wait a couple of extra months to see the same movie if they happen to carry it which is not likely. So we are simply putting the $17/mo. HBO/Cinamax fee toward Sirius and Netflix instead. I know we're all different but "that's what makes the world go 'round."

 

[jdmart]

Update. Finally got my Audiovox PNP2 with home and car kits yesterday and installed it today. I am very happy with the system and all its great features. Thanks digitalelegance for the equipment and Sirius Rich for the install help!