I've always been hesitant about buying audiovox equipment too and when I bought my cell phone a few months ago that had the Toshiba stamp on it, I found out it was actually made by Audiovox. I have to say, it works pretty darn good too. When you do finally buy a unit, a better one is going to come along. It's the nature of technology. So if you're waiting for a better one, I have a feeling you'll be waiting for a while, they just keep coming out with better units all the time. If I was you, I'd just go buy one now and start enjoying the sat. radio. I couldn't wait anymore to get xm on my stereo so I finally sacked up and bought it a month ago. I found out 2 weeks later that XM and Pioneer just released a new XM unit (made for the AVIC head units) that will have INSTANT weather and traffic updates for over 20 major cities (one of which is mine, phx). It even ties into the navigation on my unit that shows (by color) which roads are moving at certain speeds, etc. I was pretty p/o'ed about it but what can ya do ya know? It happens. It just seems to me that they can only put so many bells and whistles on a portable unit before they start to get to big and bulky. I wish I could recommend a good XM portable unit but I didn't really have to shop for them since Pioneer makes a specific XM unit for my head unit. I know crutchfield is always a great resource to find out product specs.

 

O.K. this is getting a little advanced for me.What is a portable unit. Is is like a boom box or does it still play through your car stereo? Does anyone have this on a 04 ford PSD? I have the head unit that has the in dash 6 cd player. I have the same head unit in my 03 cobra and we also have a dodge stratus R/T. Is there anyway we can put connections in all three vehicles and just use on box and what ever car we drive at the time we just take the box out and use it in that vehicle and only pay one monthly price?

 

I got a "portable" sony unit. I have a holder in my truck, in my house, and in my boat. I like being able to take it where I want. My wife has her own that can be taken out and put into a boom box. And the extra XM unit is $6.95 a month.

 

Here's the low down. You have one unit that receives the satellite signal and they usually (if I'm not mistaken) have external antenna's. You can take that unit and move it where ever you want, the car, home, work, etc. But you have to have some kind of external source to play it through, like the car stereo, a boom box, headphones. I wish I could help you out more with the wiring portion of it but I really don't know (I'm running an aftermarket unit that has xm built into it). The problem with my unit though is that I can't take it out of my truck, it's permanently there. The portable units are nice because you can take them anywhere you want and play it where ever, a friends car, out in the woods, whatever. There's a website you can go to that has TONS of wiring diagrams for lots of different applications, it's www.the12volt.com . You might have to sign up to get through some of the links but they don't spam you at all. I have only received one email from them and that was confirming my membership (which is free by the way). You might want to head to the store (retail store) and see what's out there and have those guys there explain to you how it works as well. It's alot easier to understand if you have it right in front of you. Did that all make sense?

 

I got my Sirius Orbiter last week. Order it from Radio Shack over the Thanksgiving weekend. The receiver and car kit was $150 less $50 in rebates. They had a special promotion to get a free home kit worth $50 at the time. Currently, its hooked up via a cigarette lighter and a cassette adapter. Not the best way, but it was fast and easy. After three days of use, I can't see myself listening to standard radio programming again (except for Howard).

I'm looking at http://www.installer.com/aux/ (scroll down for the Ford adapters) to provide a line in to the stock radio. The nice thing is that this adapter provides three inputs. It will be nice to have my Sirius receiver and iPod hooked up without having to swap connections. I had thought about replacing the stock head unit as the radio sensitivity on it stinks, but with satellite now, I probably won't use it much and probably won't use it starting January 2006.

Just a note on Sirius: Although it is satellite based, Sirius also has terrestrial (ground) based transmitters in certain areas of the country. Typically this is in larger cities where it is not always possible to get a good satellite signal.

 

I have had both sirius and xm.I had the xm first and then put sirius in my new truck. I didn't care for the sirius, the programming sounds all the same.It sucked so bad that I bought new equipment and went back to xm, they have a better variety of music. When i had the sirius, I had the in-dash unit and it was hard to read while driving, and you had to use the remote to change stations. The removeable xm reciever is easier to use, and you can buy a portable boom box for 99.00 and take it with you. Xm has a new unit,the ski-fi 2 and it has a built in modulator and with the ski fi 1 you had to buy a modulator and hook it into the antenna input for the dash unit. With the new one, it will transmit to the dash unit without any hookup to it. The new one is only 30.00 more than the old one with the seperate modulator, and you have to buy the mount kit seperately. The new one comes with the mount kit. I think it was about 179.00. The new one also has a memory that can record 30 minutes of music and play it back. I think you can save some songs in the memory too. It also has the football, or other sports read outs on the bottom of the screen. Xm also has the ground based transmitters for the city also. Just go to best buy and check them out.

 

Starch that is pretty intense. I guess I will have to get me a xm. Who all carries xm, does circuit city or best buy install or is it really simple?

 

Try crutchfield or Target also