Hi guys, and thanks for reading this.

Mrs. medic8r has informed me that she wants Sirius radio for Christmas. Ever since WETA-FM dropped NPR, we don't get NPR any more, and this is the driving force. She'll want to listen to it at home and in the car, so I've started looking at the gadgets available. After looking at Sirius' web site, it's clear there's a lot of ways to skin this cat.

So, anyone have one of these Stiletto systems? It seems that's the way to go, as they will dock into an AVR with a kit, or into her car with a kit.

The AVR she'll be docking into is our HK AVR-145. I don't think that it is especially Sirius-ready, but there are some RCA jacks on the front that I imagine I'll plug a dock into. There's space on our mantel for the thing to sit unobtrusively.

I figured that I'd check with my posse before strolling into Circuit City or the like with all all my noob ignorance. Any advice is appreciated!

Mmmmm. Tender noob ignorance covered with a subtle apathy sauce. Delicious.

I have only listened to Sat. Radio in rental cars. In my totally subjective opinion is that I am consistently disappointed in the audio quality for music. Sirius, I think, actually sounded worse than XM but I can't say for sure as it's always different cars. Some stations are better than others but I think if I won the hardware free I'd probably not hook it up unless the reoccurring charges were also free. If you like talk radio, then I guess it would be just the thing.

Sorry, that doesn't answer any of your questions but you did give ma a chance to rant about our last form of free broadcast entertainment turning into a pay service.

About the only thing I enjoyed was laughing at the incredible range of things you can enhance with a pill on some of the 'not so commercial free' stations.

To add something objective. 3 people in my building have these, Delphi Roady XT and think they are the best thing ever. I know nothing about them so the link takes you to the first review I found.

Somebody's feeling his Wheaties today, eh?!

BTW, I took your advice and installed that DVD burner in my Dell. Didn't even have to med up first.

Thanks for the info, but after getting off my butt (apathy sauce, grumble~) and looking into service options, it looks like Sirius is definitely the way to go. It has three NPR channels to just one for XM, and that one on XM doesn't have much of the programming that we like, such as Car Talk and Fresh Air.

Props also go out to oldskoolboarder, who politely offered (via PM) to send me, CV-style, a no-longer-wanted XM portable kit.

No worries, I certainly wasn't pushing one service or the other. That particular receiver was just the only one I had any 'reviews' on from people I knew.

I hadn't heard that particular phrase much until my visit to Oregon this year. It seems to be the regional version of "No problem."

I think it'd make a good motto for my practice.

'Riight'

That's the one everybody down here seems to be using at the moment, drives me nuts.

I've had XM since they've been out, and I've been pretty happy with it so far. But all of the Sirius folks seems to be raving about that service, I'm thinking about switching.

Doc, don't know anything helpful about Sirius, but rather curious about the WETA comment. It's one of the streaming FM stations I listen to listed on Classical Webcast that also carry varying amounts of NPR coverage. Simple computer hookup at home; no help in car.

I've got Sirius in my car. Came with the 300C pre-paid for a year. It took me a month or so to get into, but I soon found myself not listening much at all to regular FM broadcasts. In fact the only time I do is when I need local traffic info, then its back to satellite. When it came time to re-new, it wasn't a question. As far as SQ goes, it isn't quite as good as FM, lacking slightly in detail and imaging...
But then again I've been spoiled by my Axioms.

YMMV

Scott

WETA-FM used to be a full-time NPR station, i.e. news programming, talk shows, stories of interest. You could always tune in and catch a nice story.

I think that they still do news at the top of each hour, but the bulk of their time is now spent playing classical music. No more "All Things Considered", "Fresh Air", etc.

Thanks, Scott! I'm definitely going to go with Sirius. My wife will not notice the SQ difference, especially since most of her listening will be talk radio. She jokes about me being a "Home Theater Snob" anyway ...

Some other options to consider:

1) You will need to pay a little extra per month for each radio

2) You can download a program from http://www.siriusmac.com (if you have a mac) which will allow you to listen to sirius through your mac (at no other cost). You could go thought sirius.com, but this program automates the login process and gives you a cool stiletto looking interface.

3) I fogot what three was for

4) If you have an iPhone, you can get sirius ANYWHERE, if you can get a cell signal (through the built in Safari web browser), which is more likely than using their portables. For instance, you can get a good signal inside a building which you probably will not be able to get with their portables.

5) You can pay a nominal cost for a higher quality feed.


I originally got Sirius for Stern...but have grown to like a lot of the other channels...Raw Dog Comedy (104) for one. I only listen to FM now for quick local traffic (WTOP).