I recently purchased a Sirius Satellite Reciever and signed up for the service. The main impetus for doing this was to be able to listen to uninterrupted sporting events, comedy, music, etc. on long trips in the car. I had to fiddle with it for a few days to set it up correctly, and now here is my review: Receiver: I went with the El Cheapo Starmate. It is fairly small, looks nice and is very portable. The FM transmitter (for playing it on your radio over unused FM channels) in it may not be as strong as some of the more expensive models, but I have no way of verifying this. Connection to the car: As stated above, it has an FM transmitter for playing it over an FM signal. However, I used the audio out port on the side of the unit and just plugged it into the audio in port on my sony head unit using basic RCA cables. The volume is a tad lower this way, but I can still turn the stereo loud enough to be uncomfortable. Content Selection: There is a station for pretty much anything you could want to hear. Techno, Rap/Hip Hop, Alt. Rock, Punk, HardCore, you nameit , there is a station for it. Additionally, there are many talk stations. On the "Raw Dog" Comedy station this morning, I listened to a Dave Chappelle bit that I had never heard before. Sirius also has the largest sports line up with NFL, Most of the College Football Divisions, College B-Ball, English Soccer and others. MLB is on XM though. Sound Quality: This is the kicker. If you are a die hard audio file, don't even consider Sat. Rad. yet. Its just not there. The SQ is variable with the best sounding being FM quality and the worst sounding being internet radio on a low bit stream (it can get seriosuly bad). Again, a nicer receiver may fix this to an extent, but the codec and bitrate for Sat Rad are known to have a little room to improve still. Overall, after you have had it on for a few seconds, the sound quality does seem to improve, but I think its just the brain compensating. Ease of use: The set up of the receiver was cake and even without looking at the manual I was navigating most of the content with no problems. I did need to crack out the manual to find the Bears game this weekend as it was on a channel waaaay out of the sports listings (I actually wish I hadn't of found the channel as the Bears got killed). Cost: Its $12.99 a month, though I opted for the quarterly payment plan bringing the price down a few cents. You can add additional receivers for $6.99 a month more. There is no "premium" content that cost extra. The price you pay gives you complete access to all the programming. There is a lifetime option for $499. I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone might have.... P.S. Sirius is also planning some major changes within the next several months, brining to market its 3rd generation of hardware, adding Howard Stern (I actually don't like him at all, but many do), adding/changing channel content and adding more ground based repeaters.
since ive been with sirius they have added around 14 stations. I hope you enjoy your service man. Its great having uncut, no commercial radio.