Sirius Satellite Radio, Kenwood Receiver - Options?

sdwindansea · 11-12-2007, 08:00 PM

We are going to be getting Sirius Satellite Radio in the next couple days. We currently have a Kenwood in dash CD receiver (MP2035). This is a relatively basic unit that is satellite radio and has a front auxillary input.

We would like to end up with the cleanest, easiest to use and best sounding solution possible. It is not a requirement to remove it from the van and use it in the house (plug & play). However, if this was the best solution, we are not opposed to that either.

Does anyone use their Kenwood receiver with the SIR-KEN1 radio tuner (http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 9871896285)? This would allow us to use the Kenwood receiver to control the Sirius programming without any additional receivers. How well does it work and does the Kenwood receiver display the songs, channels, etc properly?

Do you have any other recommendations? Thanks as always.

-Geoff

Jeffrey · 11-12-2007, 08:36 PM

My Kenwood 7100 has the optional Sirius reciever. It works great and is fully integrated. I don't know what kind of display your unit has, but I'll bet it will work just fine.

lowracer · 11-12-2007, 10:03 PM

Get something fully integrated with your receiver. I have this in my company car, a Chrysler Pacifica and it is great.

I slapped a Sirius Sportster 4 in my SMB and it's a kludge of wires, antennas, cassette adapters, remote controls, more wires, and suction cups, lots of suction cups. Sure I can take the unit and plug it into my boombox in my office when I'm not in the vehicle, but man what a mess when driving. That being said, there's nothing better than satellite radio for long solo drives across the desert USA.

sdwindansea · 11-13-2007, 09:48 AM

Thanks for the feedback. I will definitely go with the fully integrated solution...unless my installer somehow talks me out of it. My only concern is that the Kenwood receiver I have only supports one line of text. Oh well, it's what comes out of the speakers that really matters.

Buji · 11-13-2007, 02:12 PM

I don't know if I would go with an integrated receiver (I have xm) if the installer can wire a line-in port to your stereo.

Sirius has some crafty portable receivers, and most people I know use an FM transmitter to get the sound out to the head unit. The benefit with the non-integrated component for SMBers' would be the ability to take the portable receiver out of the van and to the picnic table, fishing pier, hiking trail etc.

As I mentioned earlier, I have XM integrated in my van, but I chose integrated because I'm getting the XM traffic/weather data fed to my head unit.

lowracer · 11-13-2007, 02:20 PM

Portability is definitely a consideration. The Sirius boom box is nice to have, I've got one. But I'd say nay nay to the FM radio link. It's a "Sirius" pain in the ass to use on a long highway drive. I found myself searching for empty stations far too often on my recent drive from Dallas to San Diego. And in an urban area like San Diego, good luck finding an unused FM frequency. I bought a cassette adapter, but found to my dismay that the autoreverse deck in my Dodge would eject it after determining that it wasn't really a tape!

jage · 11-13-2007, 08:31 PM

I bought one of those cheap truck stop radio transmitters and found that after an hour or so the odometer on my van transmitts interference on 88.5 FM

The only way to get it to stop is to feed it fresh batteries, so it transmits over the interference.

I've also enough places that have stations on 88.3, .5, .7 and .9 at the same time making it useless even with full batteries.

I'd hope the sirius version is a little higher quality, but as for what I've got- pretty annoying and only somewhat useful.

sdwindansea · 11-13-2007, 08:35 PM

I'm definitely not going with an FM transmitter style setup. I've used one in the past and I've hated it. I've talked to several different people, include Rob who does the SMB electronics and it sounds like the Direct Connect into the Kenwood receiver is the best option. The obvious downside is the lack of portability, but that is not a really big deal to me. You also lose out on some of the additional features of a plug & play version like the memory, multi lines, etc.

curtis · 11-15-2007, 08:56 PM

I've been commuting to Los Angeles from San Diego for over 4 years now and my Sirius Sat radio has been a staple for me. Personally the sound quality of the music has not always been the best. Not all applications are consistent. Certain programs are really why I chose the company though. Just a little interesting tid-bit. One of my patients I picked up on a 911 call was telling me all about the new H.D. radio soon to be coming to the market. (this was 6 months ago) He confidently shared the ins-and outs about the technology and strongly felt it was going to put Sirius and Xm out of buiseness eventually. Not too unlike how H.D. T.V. is strongly coming on board. So, F.Y.I., we'll see what this new H.D. stuff is all about. I've started to hear adds for it already.

sdwindansea · 11-15-2007, 10:52 PM

Well, I did get the Sirius DirectConnect for my Kenwood receiver. I'm extremely happy with it, even with the previously mentioned shortcomings. The sound quality is excellent. Next week will be it's first real test during our trip through Big Sur. The best part is that I'm listening to Sirius right now as I type this post via Sirius Internet Radio.