looking to get XM... should I wait?

[Celco]

I use to have XM for a few months in my old 190E about 5 years ago. I loved it, it was cool, no commercials kicked ass. When i sold my car the XM receiver went with it. Since having my Pioneer radio that is SAT ready and stock pile of Best But gift cards from xmas I have been looking to get back into XM.

Trying to find one of the XM tuner addons is pretty much fruitless and no one knows when they shipping again. Finally someone talked to me about the XM/Sirius merger. Sounds like they are liquidating the stock of them for incoming new technology.

Should I hold out for the merger to finalize?
If I get XM now, will they leave everybody with old XM technology out high and dry?
When is the merger going to finalize?
I want XM again....

Anyone who knows please clue me in on some info.

Thanks,
-John

 

[Andrewsmc]

I dont keep up with the info alot, But i highly doubt this soon in the game there guna leave anyone high and dry.. Certainitly considering it comes in about every chevy vehicle made.

 

[Circuit]

I use to have XM for a few months in my old 190E about 5 years ago. I loved it, it was cool, no commercials kicked ass. When i sold my car the XM receiver went with it. Since having my Pioneer radio that is SAT ready and stock pile of Best But gift cards from xmas I have been looking to get back into XM.

Trying to find one of the XM tuner addons is pretty much fruitless and no one knows when they shipping again. Finally someone talked to me about the XM/Sirius merger. Sounds like they are liquidating the stock of them for incoming new technology.

Should I hold out for the merger to finalize?
If I get XM now, will they leave everybody with old XM technology out high and dry?
When is the merger going to finalize?
I want XM again....

Anyone who knows please clue me in on some info.

Thanks,
-John

Since you have a Pioneer radio, the part you are looking for is the GEXP920XM. It is made by Pioneer and is much better quality than the crap Terk XM Tuners.

The reason that the Terk XM tuners are not available is that XM is switching to a new setup for direct connect (which is crap on a whole other level), and they are leaving pioneer compatibility out, since pioneer has their own box.

Do not hold out for the merger, as no one, not even my sirius rep who I talk to on almost a daily basis, knows when it is going to happen. Even when it DOES happen, you will lose nothing.

XM and Sirius's infrastructures are totally different so they cannot be combined. The only thing they can do is send programming back and forth between their broadcast HQ's and then out to their respective radios. This also means that you have nothing to worry about in terms of your subscription.

The merger is going to finalize when the FCC and SEC decide it is OK. They want to make sure the XM/Sirius merger is not a monopoly. I think the merger will go through since XM/Sirius have to compete with a ton of different types of digital music entertainment (iPod/MP3 players, regular radio, HD radio, CD's, etc.).

So in reality, us as consumers have nothing to lose from this merger, only a ton more stations to gain.

 

[otterpopdotorg]

I have to admit I have some curiosity here too. I have the XM Audiovox Xpress that I got for christmas 2 years ago.

Currently I have it plugged in through the front input on my deck but the audio output level is pretty low (i have boosted it in the control menu) but it still has a huge difference between that and the cd volume.

I was curious if anyone had the gex-p920xm to confirm that it sounds better than the plug-n-play unit being plugged into the front aux. (pioneer deh-p2900mp)

Someone on ebay sells the refurbed units for around $30 with $20 shipping, which makes it cheaper than getting it from anywhere else.

Thoughts on sound quality, volume, etc?

 

[ritek45]

I have to admit I have some curiosity here too. I have the XM Audiovox Xpress that I got for christmas 2 years ago.

Currently I have it plugged in through the front input on my deck but the audio output level is pretty low (i have boosted it in the control menu) but it still has a huge difference between that and the cd volume.

I was curious if anyone had the gex-p920xm to confirm that it sounds better than the plug-n-play unit being plugged into the front aux. (pioneer deh-p2900mp)

Someone on ebay sells the refurbed units for around $30 with $20 shipping, which makes it cheaper than getting it from anywhere else.

Thoughts on sound quality, volume, etc?

CIRCUIT is absolutely right on every point, XM/SIRIUS merger is a waiting gaming TBD by FCC & SEC,[hopefully sometime this year it will be approved]. We, the consumers will benefit the most. All XM and SIRIUS receivers will work because they don't want to lose the customer base, plus think of all the cars that already have it wired from the factory!

Otter-adding the GEXP920XM or even the SIRIUS SIRPNR1 or SIRPNR2 is a DIRECT connection to your radio, giving you a DIGITAL signal. It doesn't go from DIGITAL to ANALOG as in the case of using a Plug-n-Play unit.

Advantage of the direct tuners is that they offer THE BEST SOUND quality, disadvantage is that you can't use that same subscription anywhere else as you can with the PnPs.

There's some new solutions that both SIRIUS and XM are releasing this year. Personally, I think SIRIUS will offer the best solution with their VDOC, allowing you to use your PnP as a direct tuner in the car and still having it be portable.

 

[otterpopdotorg]

Oh, I have no questions about the merger changing some things. I just have no need/desire to get any of the new "bells and whistles" unless it gives some kind of sound quality upgrade. I have no desire to have howard stern on my radio. (does that make me sound like an old conservative guy?)

I plugged my ipod into the same front-input as I have been using for my xm unit. I got a much better signal, so im having to draw the conclusion that the sound quality issue im having is due to the sound output of the car dock of the xm. (it sounds fine when plugged into the dock on my desk). I will be getting the gex-p920xm in the next couple of weeks. Likely I will post an install photo session when I put it in. I just want to do it at the same time that I put in my new infinity amp and subs (thank god for clearance deals at best buy. got my amp for $60. subs in the enclosure free as trade-out for some web work for a friend).

 

[ritek45]

You may not want all the "bells and whistles", but the new Stilleto SL2 has "SRS TruBass" and "SRS Focus" that puts back some of the sound quality back into compressed files, like mp3s and wmas. And you don't have to listen to Howard, there's ton of other content on SIRIUS, and I'm not an old conservative guy.

But before you go out and but the Pioneer tuner, go into the menu of your XM unit and see if there is a audio adjustment

 

[otterpopdotorg]

I went ahead and ordered the gex-p920xm. Hopefully it should be really easy to install. For those who have done something similar, how did you mount your antenna? Currently I have mine going through the trunk, but I think that's what's allowing a small amount of rain into the trunk. (that won't be good next week when I install my amp and subs). Ideas?

 

[ritek45]

I went ahead and ordered the gex-p920xm. Hopefully it should be really easy to install. For those who have done something similar, how did you mount your antenna? Currently I have mine going through the trunk, but I think that's what's allowing a small amount of rain into the trunk. (that won't be good next week when I install my amp and subs). Ideas?

what do you have, is it a sedan, wagon, MX5, Cx7/9? Common antenna placement is right above the front window or above the rear window on most cars and ran thru the weather seal.
Circuit City, Best Buy, Car Toys, can also run the antenna for you for about $50 give or take.
For self installs though, check the HOW-TO section

 

[otterpopdotorg]

Im not paying one of those know-nothings to install it.
I am, however, going to invest a few bucks in one of the antenna splitters, because the antenna that comes with the 920xm is really small.

SO I tied the power into the regular stereo harness (easy), ran the wire under the passenger side carpet and through the moulding (pain in the ass) into the trunk, grounded the wire to a bolt (easy, once i bought a socket wrench) and then ran the antenna out through the trunk, into the processor. (easy, but somewhat temporary)

Im thinking that I will bolt the xm unit to the top of my subwoofer enclosure when i install it. (just gotta find some 10" subs at a decent price).

What I noticed: the volume issue seems to be gone. I didn't get to turn it up really, since the Mrs was in the car, but I will test it on the way to work in the morning. Audio quality doesn't seem much different though. A little cleaner signal. Guess you can't have it all.

Overall, i'd give the project a 2/5 for difficulty overall. I broke 2 more of the trim retainers doing this. I'm going to need a bunch of them.

 

[ritek45]

Im not paying one of those know-nothings to install it.

Dude, I understand that you might have had a bad experience with some installer sometime in the past, but they work on ALL types of cars ALL day. I wouldn't discredit all of them so easily, given some are bad but not all of them.

And as a former "know-nothing" and one that continues to have a passion for 12v-I would NEVER, EVER mount a sat tuner on a sub box, EVER!

Funny thing, is I remember customers bringing in their "self installs" and having to fix the disaster when they blew a fuse or did something ridiculous. And I would charge them extra for the additional time in fixing it versus them bring in the install from the beginning for a nominal charge.

 

[otterpopdotorg]

I didn't say -everyone- who works at any kind of stereo store is a know-nothing. but wholly 90% of the people at circuit city and best buy stores, especially the ones outside of major metro areas, are entirely misguided, undereducated fools who barely (if even) passed high school.

I also understand that some customers might have botched their installs. But the reality is, most of that is due to bad advice given to them by people at stores and a lack of understanding in electrical theory. The same sales/install people who tell them "dude, you really need this 45,000 watt amp and these huge 70" subs. it's the only way to get decent sound".

I just deleted a huge rant that went right here, because it made me sound like I was planning to burn circuit city to the ground. (and if anyone is going to get that, it's home depot) I guess what Im saying is, I would love to have a decent stereo place that I could go to and trust them with my car -- however, no such place exists. There are barely 4M people in the state, so the options are to do it yourself and chance breaking something that will cost you another $50 to replace, or spend $90 minimum and have some idiot break something, superglue it back together in place, and pretend it didn't happen.

While we are at it, what ever happened to the quality of Circuit City's products? They used to cary good stuff, but the brands they carry seem to be slipping in quality (in a big way), and what they have that's decent (not good, but decent) is WAY overpriced. I remember being able to go in there and get some good stuff back in the day. I tried to buy an amp wiring kit there, and they had stuff that made wal-mart's selection look professional.

As for mounting the xm unit on the box, it is looking like that won't work anyhow (amp is too long), so I'm building a mounting board from maple butcher block that will allow me to route the wires cleanly.