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Why I have XM and Sirius plug-and-play radios in my truck

I am a satellite radio fanatic, as you can see in this video. I have both XM and Sirius plug-and-play radios in my truck. I chose plug-and-play over direct-connect radios because they make my time with my satellite radios even better. Directly connected tuners do have some advantages — they can be hiden away under the dash, out of site, and all the channel changing is done right on the face of the vehicle's radio, but plug-and-play tuners allow me to do some pretty cool things that aren't possible with direct-connect tuners.

With plug-and-play tuners, I can pause, rewind, and fast-foward whatever channel I am listening to. I can't tell you how many times I've used this to play a song over and over. I hear a great song come on, and I just want to hear it again, no problem hit the rewind button, it goes back to the beginning of the song, or you can hold the button down to do an audible rewind, like on a CD. I've memorized the words to a lot of songs this way.

It also comes in handy when listening to talk radio. Like when I pull up to the drive-thru window at the bank or a restaurant, I just hit the pause button, then as I'm driving away I can pick up right where I left off. In my truck the cigarette lighter jack is always on, so I can leave the plug-and-play radio on while I go in a store. This is nice when I get back in my truck, because I can "rewind" about 45 minutes and hear what I missed, and fast-forward to catch up or skip a commercial break during a talk show (yeah, the talk channels have commercials, but I skip them whenever possible).

My Sirius Sportster 4 has about a 45-minute memory buffer, and my XM Sky-Fi 3 has 30 minutes. XM plug-and-plays take it even one step further. With XM, the memory buffer keeps recording even when I change channels.

I also love the bigger, more informative displays on plug-and-play radios. I really like being able to listen to one channel while I scroll thru the other channels looking for something different to listen to. It's kind of like digital cable or satellite TV at home, where you have an on-screen guide to make channel surfing so much easier. With a direct-connect tuner, you have to change channels to find out what's on another channel.

One of the first things I hear when people get in my truck for the first time is, "Man, what's all this stuff on your dash?" That's the downside to plug-and-play radios, they do take up some room on your dash. So, if a "clean" dash is important to you, then a plug-and-play may not be right for you. For me, the extra stuff I can do with a plug-and-play radio is worth the extra gear on my dash.

With satellite radio, the programming is the main attraction: commercial-free music, NFL, MLB, NASCAR, comedy, etc. The tuner is not the reason I got satellite radio, but I really believe that my satellite radio experience is better because I chose plug-and-play tuners.

Posted Mon, Apr 14 2008 9:25 AM by JRS
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Comments

dds22 wrote re: Why I have XM and Sirius plug-and-play radios in my truck
on Mon, Apr 14 2008 9:33 PM

You RRRRRR so right JR, I drive a new vehicle every day ( I deliver fleet vehicals) all over the north east, Main to Verginia, most of these have factory installed Sirius or XM and I still power up the old Sportster TK-2. She's getting old now but she goes where I go. I'm getting a little concerned though !! the newer plug & plays have weak transmitters and I'm not sure what to do for the future. I don't have to change my frequencies very often,it's a strong unit!!!

JRS wrote re: Why I have XM and Sirius plug-and-play radios in my truck
on Tue, Apr 15 2008 11:47 AM

Hey man, I’m impressed, you have factory XM or Sirius available in many of these cars, and you still choose to use the plug-and-play radio. I applaud you big time, I really do. You are being put in a funky position though. If I were you I’d keep your TK-2 working as long as possible because the new transmitters, courtesy of the FCC, are definitely not as strong as they once were.

You might find more and more new vehicles have an auxiliary input jack built into the factory radio. That’s definitely the way to connect your Sirius tuner, using a mini-to-mini audio cable, like the Scosche I335 Mini Stereo Cable. I have an aftermarket stereo, and I use the aux in connection for both my XM and Sirius. In fact, my SKYFi3 has an audio output jack, and an audio input jack, so I can have two audio sources plugged into one aux input on my radio. So, I plug the Sirius Sportster 4’s audio out into my XM, and my XM’s audio output into the audio input on my radio. Obviously, I don’t mind the extra wire on my dash.

If aux-in, and cassette adapters aren’t an option in these vehicles, then you are left with the FM transmitter, and since you drive a different vehicle every day as part of your job, you may have to choose between sound quality and the “extras” found on your plug-and-play. You could have worse problems, though. Imagine a vehicle with no satellite radio at all. I shudder.

dds22 wrote re: Why I have XM and Sirius plug-and-play radios in my truck
on Thu, Apr 17 2008 10:17 PM

I do use the aux. wire in to the car unit and it works great. Sometimes I have another driver going also( behind me) and he sets the same frequency and we listen to NFL channel, oldies 50;s and old country. We were inYoungstown Ohio Tue. used 90.1 all the way 19 Hrs road time andd the roadsterTH-2 didn't miss a beat I purchased one of these new antennas like a booster it's reported it's stronger aaaand it seems better I leave the antenna inside on the dash with a non skid sticky pad!!! It works great dosn't miss a beatAAAAATTTT AAAALLLL. I aalssso heard they put a peice of tape over the transmitters to make them weaker??? I have questions on that though, ya know!!!! Happy pluggin dds22

Aaron wrote re: Why I have XM and Sirius plug-and-play radios in my truck
on Thu, Apr 24 2008 3:26 AM

interesting read...  I actually never thought about the ability to rewind or pause with XM like you can with sat. TV.  My biggest beef with portable units was the dash clutter hence the reason I have an in-dash (an ancient but still works Sony FL-500 or some such) XM ready head unit.  The XM reciever is under the drivers seat and the antenna routed under the carpet, side panels and through headliner and out the third brake light.  I spent a lot of time taking out the seats, trim carpet and headliner to hide everything.  The only way you can tell I have XM is to read the display on the head unit.

Even though the portable units have the pause and rewind functions and what not (my dad has a portable SKy-fi that he uses while working in the yard, the car and when it's not there, it is always connected to the home stereo.  He loves it.), I am not sure that for me those functions would out wiegh my want to a clean uncluttered look.  I won't even connect an Ipod with an FM modulator to mine because that would mean adapters connected to power points more wires to get tangled.

Do they make an in-dash head unit that has the capabilities of a portable??  I know that my next unit when ever it happens to be will be a little more thought out than my last one.  I went for price on it and was only looking for XM capability and it has it, but it's somewhat cumbersome to use.  It also won't play MP3's and has no iPod control, and only has one pre-amp out.  If I had spent 30 more bucks, I would have gained at least the ability to play MP3's and 2 more pre-amps.  iPod controls hadn't been thought of yet.  That's how old my unit is.

So my next unit will have iPod control at the very least so I can take my iPod and hide it away in the center console, sat. radio and at the very least 3 pre-outs.  If they make a unit that has the capability to pause and rewind sat radio, I would be all for it.  If not, I would be okay living with out it since I have never had it anyway.

JRS wrote re: Why I have XM and Sirius plug-and-play radios in my truck
on Tue, Apr 29 2008 3:59 PM

Aaron,

Sorry it took me so long to respond to your posting. Your desire for a clean uncluttered dash definitely contradicts with the Plug n Play and/or portable. There may be a solution you aren't aware of though. You'd have to be willing to switch to Sirius from XM. if you don't mind doing that, you could try the Sirius SC-Vdock1.

The SC-Vdock1 uses a plug and play, or portable Sirius tuner, like the Sportster, Stiletto, Starmate, and others. You plug your plug-and-play into the dock, connect your antenna to the dock, connect power to the dock, and put the dock under your seat (It's OK to just st it there)

The Vdock connects to a brand specific interface. For example, you'd connect the Sirius Vdock to a Kenwood stereo using a made-for-Kenwood adapter. Then you'd control the Sirius tuner from the buttons on your radio, as you do now.

This option gets you some of the benefits of the plug and play (ability take it it out of the car and use it in your home, office, other vehicles, etc). This opption does not give you the pause, rewind, and fast forward feature though.

So, you could keep the uncluttered look and feel, and still have a lot more flexibility by replacing your radio with one that has more pre-amp outputs, controls your iPod and is compatible with the Sirius SC-Vdock1.

As far as I know, nothing like this exists for XM.

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