XM radio?

[arpecker]

Does anyone have this? what do you think of it?

[Captain Hags]

My dad got the pioneer XM unit w/ the HUGE Terk thru-glass antenna in his denali. I've only used it a couple of times, and the sound is really good, and so is the selection. As far as I know, right now the avalability is pretty area-specific. Also, the antenna looks like a huge phallus-like object, pretty unsightly. I think you can get alpine head units that have the tuner and everything built in, so you don't need any extra stuff.

[JasonJ75]

Dude, its satellite...How is it area specific? I plan on getting it as soon as Alpine can make me a Mp3/XM unit..Word is their current 7878 is a POS and will be discontinued shortly.

[Red Rocker M3]

Originally posted by JasonJ75
I plan on getting it as soon as Alpine can make me a Mp3/XM unit..Word is their current 7878 is a POS and will be discontinued shortly.

I sure hope not! I just put one in the M3 and I have been happier than a sailor in a $2 whore house with mine. What kinds of things have you heard about them? I have checked numerous audio forums and everyone there was singing it's praises.

The XM option on the Alpines is an external device about the size of a small amp and, from what I have heard, it will be for a long time to come. There is just too much circuitry involved to try and integrate it into a CD player. I hope that I am wrong and that they can combine the XM and MP3 functions into one tidy unit.

[MPower95]

what exactly is XM radio? I have heard it mentioned but dunno what it is>

[Red Rocker M3]

Check it out here

XM Radio

[SoGold]

xm satellite radio is a pay service (10 bux a month) that offers 100+ channels of cd quality music, coast to coast with no interuptions/commercials and you never lose the signal over distance cuase it's broadcasted from above.

As for decks, the alpine and pioneer decks have built in controls, so you can switch from cd, to radio, to satellite radio; however, you still need the processing box with is about the size of a small amp which gets mounted elsewhere. So a deck can easily have MP3/cd/XM, becuase it's just switching sources, not actually decoding the signal. The alpine 7878 does both.

[SupraDreamer]

Originally posted by SoGold
xm satellite radio is a pay service (10 bux a month) that offers 100+ channels of cd quality music, coast to coast with no interuptions/commercials and you never lose the signal over distance cuase it's broadcasted from above.

As for decks, the alpine and pioneer decks have built in controls, so you can switch from cd, to radio, to satellite radio; however, you still need the processing box with is about the size of a small amp which gets mounted elsewhere. So a deck can easily have MP3/cd/XM, becuase it's just switching sources, not actually decoding the signal. The alpine 7878 does both.

I have done a good amount of research on both XM and Sirrus which are two satelite radio providers using two different networks. Both though use satelites to transmit to repeater stations on the ground, so in theory you should not lose reception, but this may not be entirely true, especially when the weather is bad. Ask some satelite TV owners and they can tell you. Also last i checked (not for a month or two) Sirrus was the only provider offering some commercial-free music. The other thing is that you must make sure you decide which provider you want to go with before you buy the receiver, cause the receivers are different for the two services. Considering that it is still a very new technology, I think I will sit this round out and wait for the next wave of receivers and antenna's, which I hope will be better integrated.

[Captain Hags]

All I know is that tree's mess with my reception BIG TIME, so if you live in the forest, I would spend your loot elsewhere!