Speaking of Car stereo, here's my take on Sirus XM

IdI love to have it for that money. But they stole $200 from us over a 3 month period. My fault for not watching autopay, but we argued with them, they we're no help, we cancelled service. I miss it but I don't like being ripped off, so goodbye Sirius XM.
 

I've been using a Ipod Classic in the my 2012 Nissan Sentra since buying it new. Paid off & we're due for another car as soon as my wife's work car starts giving us problems (nickel & dime repairs). Wife will get the Sentra as the new work car … along w/ Ipod that she will probably never use.

I guess most new cars come with usb ports now? Or I might start using a usb stick if it has a port on the head unit.
 
Last edited:
Mark, most new cars have a USB Port. Just load up a 64GB stick with your whole collection and let it shuffle. It's FREE
Thanks,Brian. Alreadg doing that. I have about 4,000 songs on a flash drive and it's well used. The Hyundai's have a pretty decent GUI but don't seem to support shuffle. And, that very same USB port is where we plug our Iphones in to access Apple Car Play which also allows control of Pandora and TuneIn* from the 7" touch screen.

Just think: One year ago I didn't have an Iphone and now that do, we had to upgrade my car to get full access. Actually, the car came first. Then, the Iphone for the Google Maps on the screen. Then I discovered that USB/flash drive trick and then found the music apps.

* and probably other apps as well. Haven't tried yet.
 
Just think: One year ago I didn't have an Iphone...
I simply cannot imagine not having one today. Not only for a wealth of music related apps, but also for health, finance, navigation, sports, social, travel, calendars, calculators, browsers and weather.

iPeng loaded on both phone and iPad are used to control content for my music systems whether it is my own, internet radio or from Tidal. It also controls volume in the garage system.

music.jpg
ipeng2.jpg
 
Think about it: What does it cost them to provide service? They send out a signal and that's it. They pay royalties for the music whether 1 or 1,000,000 listeners listen to it
For clarity, SIRIUS XM pays a set royalty rate of 15.5% of gross revenue. Effective 2018-2022. This is a 41% increase from what they paid 2012-2017. For reference, they generated $4.09 billion the first 9 months of 2017.
 
I would never give Sirius XM a single penny, just because the refuse to take NO for an answer when you tell them you aren't interested in their service.

They are relentless when you buy a car with that feature and don't use it. They just keep calling and sending letters.

We politely told them we weren't interested at least twice, probably more when they called. The next time I told them no a lot more sternly and demanded that they take us off their calling list. They told me they would for sure. They called again a few days ago, and I got pretty damned nasty. I asked the woman if she understood effin' English before I told them never to call again. If there happens to be a next time, I will threaten legal action whether I can actually take it or not.
 
All this information on streaming is great as well as using elibrary music but. There are two things about sirius that differ greatly and are advantageous.

Listening to music you know and own and have heard x amount of times, is inferior to hearing something unknown and new which you end up enjoying.
This is accomplished by humans running the shows broadcast on many stations.
Someone here said the music is looped. B.S. There may be times, tapes are running a play list, however it is likely, a listener may not be familiar with all of what is being looped. There is a probability something they are familiar with yet do not own may or have not heard in a time also be enjoyed.

The second is there is a greater chance of broadening one's knowledge of different types of music with Sirius/XM, then there would be picking out what to listen to which includes selecting a streaming station as mostly their motivation is to sell you something. With Sirius you have paid and they must meet your expectations or you can cancel. Paying for any incoming entertainment is not a preference and many include advertisements which are prevalent in streaming services as well. A lot of Sirius is commercial free. Cable TV used to be that way. When Sirius runs ads on my favorite stations I will probably quit as a subscriber.
 
I had it in my last 3 vehicles, but my current one doesn't have a Sirius capable stereo. I had been getting half a year for $43 or so CDN. My work eats up my data on my phone so streaming isn't much of an option. Plus data up here is one of the highest in the world so I don't want to pay my company for going over it. I may get a sirius capable head unit, which also has usb/bluetooth and android connections. The Am/Fm here stinks and is tiresome.
 
^^^ This.

I got 3 months free XM with my car. I hated the constant commercials and self-promotions: "Now playing on channel 54,874 is blah, blah, blah." I want to hear music, not talk. For the same reason, I have not listened to FM radio in ages.

I bought an old iPhone on CL and it plugs into a USB port in my car. I use the Slacker app to cache my music, so I do not use data when I am on the road. That phone is my new cassette player. I can store a lot of music on it and there is no talk. I can listen to the music I like, at the quality I choose.


I uploaded 256Kbps copies of all my digital content to my phone for everything from general driving to long road trips. I'm simply not a radio fan in any format.
 
I uploaded 256Kbps copies of all my digital content to my phone for everything from general driving to long road trips. I'm simply not a radio fan in any format.

My music collection won't fit on my phone. Even reduced to low resolution MP3, my phone does not have enough memory. I tried copying a portion of my library to a USB memory stick to plug into my car's USB port. It worked well for a while, but for some reason my car (a 2017 Camry) stopped recognizing the memory stick. :mad: Now I am back to using a streaming service on my phone. Pandora Plus is working well, so far.
 
having XM in the car was useful when I traveled a lot; but as I'm home most of the time, I discontinued my XM service a month ago. And that's just one of the cash sinks that I am trying to trim out; had a subscrip to WSJ, let that go -- they weren't happy. Downgraded cable, they weren't happy. Downgraded mobile plan, they were OK with it (T-Mobile is a nice company). Will be cutting off Amazon Prime, as I am not buying enough to make it worthwhile. Going to credit union today to talk about reducing bills in general... but I digress. If you don't NEEEED something, don't pay for it.
 
Their decision about quantity of stations vs quality of stream sealed the deal for me. Every time I hear it, I can't get past the robotic and artificial quality of the sound. It's (way) inferior to terrestrial FM to say nothing of the various digital options present in most cars today.

Also for those advocating "just dump thousands of songs to a USB stick" - this doesn't always work well. The puny CPU in most car stereos can't deal with a large file system and you can forget about any kind of decent shuffle. I tried this in my 2012 Lexus and the thing ground to halt for 15 minutes just trying to show the top level folder. Epic fail.

Using the much faster processor in a modern phone and beaming it to the car via BT seems to be the best way for me at least. When I'm not spinning DVD-A's in high-res surround that is :).

jblnut
 
I find it laughable when someone speaks to the sound quality. Being a nerdy type who absolutely understands microwave signal as well digital to analogue conversion if there were problems that big I would never spend a dime on it. if it existed. i aint from oklahoma but I definitely understand "show me".
Video signals carry much much more information in their signal and if there were problems with signal drop outs Dish and DSS would not exist. Simple audio even with multiple channels compared to what comes from full AV signals is much more apt to be trouble free.
So for you naysayers on satellite audio service I am calling you ALL out. Show me one example of compressed distortion,dropouts, sound quality whatever. I have a pile of B.S.flags. Keep in mind i listen to a lot of different stations a lot of hour,s. Experience and honesty is where I stand.
 
Every time I hear it, I can't get past the robotic and artificial quality of the sound. It's (way) inferior to terrestrial FM
I outdrive many many FM & AM signals anywhere in the country. Who does not??? FM broadcast range is severely limited and interference from adjacent stations is common. So what are you talking about??? Unless you are in a major metro area, Chicago, Detroit, whatever you will have more weak stations then strong ones.
 
I wouldn't listen to it if it were free, the sound quality is terrible.

I completely disagree not that you care. I can drive from one end of this country with you in the seat next to me and PROVE you wrong. You will admit it
 
I uploaded 256Kbps copies of all my digital content to my phone for everything from general driving to long road trips. I'm simply not a radio fan in any format.

I like your honesty. it's confusing but that's why they make different colored tooth brushes.
 
Back
Top Bottom