New XM product

JamesFeinberg · **Posted:** Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:49 pm

After traveling with Jim P. some this summer and getting some first hand experience listening to XM radio, I have been thinking about getting one for myself. My biggest hang up to date was the portability of the available units which all seemed a bit clunky in their implementation. I think this one finally pushed me over the edge...

MyFi

I believe these were just announced very recently so I'll probably wait a few weeks to get some solid feedback. Anybody know of any websites reviewing this thing or possibly some first/third-hand experience with them?

Now if they would only merge one of these things with an IPod and traveling life would be complete...

Jim

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:56 pm

Uh, the page you reference says they aren't available until December, so I doubt anyone has one to review yet. :-)

A good site for reviews on this stuff is Gizmodo, which has something on that unit already:

http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/xm-myfi-by-delphi-024234.php

As for merging one with an iPod, well, that would be the cat's meow. Don't expect it soon, though, that's for sure. Shit, I'd be happy with an iPod that had an FM tuner.

--Donnie

JamesFeinberg · **Posted:** Wed Oct 27, 2004 3:15 pm

Donnie Barnes wrote:

Uh, the page you reference says they aren't available until December, so I doubt anyone has one to review yet. :-)

Doh! You mean it's not December yet? :oops:

I was kinda hoping a few sites were given a pre-production unit to test or something. I'm very curious about the reception with the built-in mobile antenna more than anything.

Maybe I'll get lucky and Santa will bring me one. Oh wait, I'm jewish, never mind! Where's Chaunukka Harry when you need him, dangit! :lol:

Jim
- cool site though-- looks like I won't get much work done this afternoon...

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Fri Sep 26, 2008 4:50 pm

Bump for more satellite radio tech. I'm thinking of buying my dad something for Christmas this year and any advice would be appreciated.

1) With XM-Sirius, what is the most future proof (when do we expect consolidated devices to be released).

2) I'm thinking a portable unit. He travels a lot (sometimes his car, sometimes fly, then drive a rental for many hours).

I'll check and see how he hooks his iPod into his stereo this weekend...

Scott

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Fri Sep 26, 2008 11:24 pm

Jim, I had XM back when I was dragging a race car around, and for a while after that when I was just driving other people's race cars around. There was one thing that I just hated about it that made me cancel the subscription. With the units that come in through an FM signal, anytime I drove through an area with an actual radio station broadcasting at my chosen frequency, the XM reception would be rendered useless. Which meant scanning the lower and upper sections of the FM dial for frequencies that do *not* have stations - sort of like the inverse of "Seek." And without fail, by the time I was done fiddling with that, the same thing happened with the new frequency, and I had to do it all over again.

I really, really hated that.

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:28 am

Karl Shultz wrote:

With the units that come in through an FM signal, anytime I drove through an area with an actual radio station broadcasting at my chosen frequency, the XM reception would be rendered useless. Which meant scanning the lower and upper sections of the FM dial for frequencies that do *not* have stations - sort of like the inverse of "Seek." And without fail, by the time I was done fiddling with that, the same thing happened with the new frequency, and I had to do it all over again.

I've got a Sirius unit, but I assume XM units are the same. Using the FM transmitter is the easiest way to get the sound to your radio, but it's also the worst in terms of fidelity and hassles such as you mentioned. There are at least 2 other ways of doing it.

Most modern radios have an auxiliary input (e.g. for ipods, etc.). You can feed the XM/Sirius output into that, to give the best quality. If there's an aux input on the back of the radio, it's a nice clean installation.

My radio didn't have an aux input so I had to get an FM adapter which plugs in between the car's radio antenna and the radio and injects the Sirius/XM signal instead of whatever the antenna is picking up, whenever the Sirius/XM is turned on. It was easy to do and it works great. Mine was pretty cheap from the Sirius store, but I see the guys in the link above are selling theirs for $10.

Just to put that out there...

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sat Sep 27, 2008 12:42 pm

I do the same thing as Carl.

MUCH, MUCH better sound and no hunting

Stacy King · **Posted:** Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:54 pm

Karl Shultz wrote:

Jim, I had XM back when I was dragging a race car around, and for a while after that when I was just driving other people's race cars around. There was one thing that I just hated about it that made me cancel the subscription. With the units that come in through an FM signal, anytime I drove through an area with an actual radio station broadcasting at my chosen frequency, the XM reception would be rendered useless. Which meant scanning the lower and upper sections of the FM dial for frequencies that do *not* have stations - sort of like the inverse of "Seek." And without fail, by the time I was done fiddling with that, the same thing happened with the new frequency, and I had to do it all over again.

I really, really hated that.

I got a second Sirius unit after about 6 months of my original, I wanted something smaller than my original, so I bought a unit they were selling at Best Buy at the time... it's the one that looks just like a radar detector. If you can find one of those, the FM Transmitter in those kicks ass. It's powerful enough to override most weak radio stations. I've got two pre-sets on my car of 105.9 and 87.9, the unit has a function where you can pre-set different transmit channels, which obvioulsy I have set on those two... and between those two channels, I've been able to listen to the Satellite pretty-much everywhere.

I even got a letter in the mail from Sirius telling me I shouldn't use the FM Transmitter function on the unit because it was stronger than FCC regulations allow :twisted:

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Sun Sep 28, 2008 7:28 am

Stacy King wrote:

I even got a letter in the mail from Sirius telling me I shouldn't use the FM Transmitter function on the unit because it was stronger than FCC regulations allow :twisted:

I recently got a similar letter from XM saying the'd supply at no charge an FM adapter, probably like Carl mentioned, for a listed type of units. My old XM was on the list so I guess they'll send me one. Like Karl mentioned, resetting the stations when traveling was a real pita. My daily driver now has a built in Sirius unit. Pretty much all I listen to.

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