On Sirius Satellite Radio
For years I have been hearing hype about satellite radio and its comercial free benefits. Benefits such as; lowered annoyance, stations that never are out of range, and increased quality. As the new owner of a Sirius Satellite Radio Tuner, I am here to address those benefits.
On Lowered Annoyance:
Now, I absolutely hate radio station DJ’s like John Tesh. I don’t want facts about irrelevant things John. Thankfully most of the Sirius stations I have listened too are banter free. And I like it.
On Coast to Coast reception:
This is one thing I havent driven far enough to appreciate yet. And one that you do not really realized until you find yourself many miles from where you started still enjoying the same station.
On Increased Sound Quality:
Now, if anyone has ever listened to streaming audio from the web, thats about the best comparison I can make. I personally try to rip MP3’s of my cd’s at high quality, 192kps or better, which is pretty close to CD quality for a compressed format. Sattellite radio sounds better than a web stream, but worse than a high quality MP3 or CD.
Other things that I have to say about Satellite radio that nobody ever told me and I didn’t see floating around in the public domain:
If you buy a tuner and connect it to your aftermarket CD player, it may or may not show you what you are listening to. Pioneer, Alpine, and Sony are currently the only cd players on the market that will show you that information. And not all of them either. The other makers show you the station names and nothing more. I found this to be kind of a bummer.
If I had to do it again, I would say purchase one of the small removable units. There are many advantages to this. First, it costs money for each tuner you have. So getting a portable unit that you can play in your house makes perfect sense. I would recommend that you try to hook it up directly to your cd player vs. through FM modulation. On the other hand, perhaps the FM transmitter would take away some of the “compressed” sound.
All in all, its been positive, and there are some cool gadgets coming out in the next year that look to be a fun addition to already broad array of satellite radios. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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