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Questions from a moron
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| Questions from a moron
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| JohnNapolitano |
I keep looking, but seem unable to find the answers to some really basic questions I have. Hopefully someone will have mercy on this moron and answer a few question for me.
Do you hook up your Sirius receiver to another radio? Or does it operate on its own? I have a boombox but no nice stereo receiver. Do I need one, or if I buy a receiver, do I have everything I need? The impression I'm getting that it operates on its own and doesn't require an existing system to channel through. Also, some bitch broken into my car, stole my stereo, and broke my antenna. Do I need to buy a car stereo to get the Sirius receiver to work in my car? Do I need to get the antenna replaced, or does the Sirius receiver have its own antenna? How is the reception?
Finally, what would you recommend if I wanted a CHEAP receiver which I can use at home AND in the car?
Thanks in advance.
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| Lush Rimbaugh |
I will try and answer some of these:
1. You dont need a seperate receiver to listen to Sirius. I bought the starmate replay and I listen to it through my computer. I have a 3.5mm cord running from the 'audio out' hole on the unit into the 'mic in' (green hole on a compaq computer), the power cord pluggin it in, and the antenna sitting on the window sil that plugs into the unit, too. As long as my computer speakers are on, I can listen in. Also, I can plug this unit into my TV surround system using the same 3.5mm cord, or I can plug it into my bose shelf system if I put it on the 'aux' setting. So I can listen to it through my computer, my bose, or my home theatre - very versatile.
2. It will work on a boombox if it has an 'audio in' Im sure, or, if you can switch from auxillary to auxillary. If you have nice computer speakers, I'd recommend going that route.
3. To listen in your car, you would plug the unit in through your cigarette lighter or power it directly to your battery. A cord will run from the back of your Sirius unit to your car stereo for audio. A sirius radio antenna runs from your sirius unit and mounts somewhere on your roof or trunk. Yes, it 'has its own antenna.'
4. Sitting the antenna on my window sil gets me 2 out of 3 bars sometimes with it bouncing up to 3 full bars at other times. The other night when it was snowing really hard and cloud coverage was bad, the signal was off and on. But I haven't even looked into which direction to aim it, I live in Columbus Ohio.
I wrote a sort of testimonial on here titled 'my experience getting started with sirius' about 3 weeks ago, if you look back a page or 2 or 3 you will find it and I explain everything I did and went through when I set my system up. Its very easy. See you on the other side. :cool: |
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| JohnNapolitano |
| Excellent. Thanks, Lush. Appreciate it. One point of clarification: You say "A cord will run from the back of your Sirius unit to your car stereo for audio." My stereo was recently stolen, and I haven't replaced it yet. Do I need a working car stereo, or just working speakers? If it's just working speakers, I won't bother with replacing the stereo at all. |
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| boombox |
Quote: Originally posted by JohnNapolitano
I keep looking, but seem unable to find the answers to some really basic questions I have. Hopefully someone will have mercy on this moron and answer a few question for me.
Do you hook up your Sirius receiver to another radio? Or does it operate on its own? I have a boombox but no nice stereo receiver. Do I need one, or if I buy a receiver, do I have everything I need? The impression I'm getting that it operates on its own and doesn't require an existing system to channel through. Also, some bitch broken into my car, stole my stereo, and broke my antenna. Do I need to buy a car stereo to get the Sirius receiver to work in my car? Do I need to get the antenna replaced, or does the Sirius receiver have its own antenna? How is the reception?
Finally, what would you recommend if I wanted a CHEAP receiver which I can use at home AND in the car?
Thanks in advance. |
All PnP(Plug-and-Play) receivers have at least two ways you can listen to them: 1. You can retransmit the Sirius program via the receiver's built-in FM transmitter. So you would set your FM boombox or stereo to an unused station and set the Sirius radio to retransmit to your radio on the same FM frequency. 2. You can hardwire the output of the Sirius PnP to an auxiliary input of your regular FM radio/boombox. In addition to these 2 methods, some receivers(e.g. XTR1) have an output jack for headphones. Some allow you to connect them to their boombox built for that receiver which acts as a craddle. Yes, you will need a working stereo or amplifier for your car. And yes, all sirius receivers come with their own antenna. Go to radio shack, circuit city, or bestbuy, tell them your situation, what you need, and they'll help you get the receiver that fits your needs. Good luck. |
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| boombox |
Quote: Originally posted by JohnNapolitano
Excellent. Thanks, Lush. Appreciate it. One point of clarification: You say "A cord will run from the back of your Sirius unit to your car stereo for audio." My stereo was recently stolen, and I haven't replaced it yet. Do I need a working car stereo, or just working speakers? If it's just working speakers, I won't bother with replacing the stereo at all. |
I just realized that in your case, your best bet is to replace your headunit with an FM/AM/Sirius head unit. It's worth considering since your stereo was stolen. Hope that helps.
Here's an example. There are others so shop around:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...d=1099388637157 |
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| JohnNapolitano |
Sounds good. Thanks boombox. At $400 the head unit you linked to is a bit more than I was looking to spend. I think maybe the Starmate Replay and a new $100 car stereo might be the way to go. I'll ask at the store like you suggest.
Thanks again. |
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| Lush Rimbaugh |
| JVC makes a head unit for around $140 that is Sirius ready that plays MP3s I think best buy sells it. |
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