Roland Hulme

I'm going to be biased and say it's awesome - but it is. I CAN'T listen to normal FM radio now, with the cheesy DJs and repetitive song lists and adverts.

The Sportster 5 is a really nice Dock & Play radio. I have the Starmate 4, which does pretty much everything the Sportster 5 does, but isn't so pretty.

The cool thing about Dock & Play radios is you can buy one and a subscription, but take it out of the car and listen to it at home without needing a second subscription. EDIT - you can also fit it at work OR listen through your PC online (it's free with your subscription.)

Fitting it to you car is not stupidly difficult http://rolandhulme.blogspot.com/2007...assic-car.html

Sportster 5 is the coolest Dock & Play, but they go as cheap as the $29.99 Stratus if you want something cheap 'n cheerful.

You'll need -

A radio (29.99 or more) which comes with a car kit.
A subscription ($12.95 a month)
A home kit (49.99)

check out the deals here... http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/serv...e=msafreeradio

And then you can listen in your motor, pop it out when you get home and plug it into your stereo. Easy as pie.

And, seriously, once you've started listening to SIRIUS, you can never go back to regular FM radio!!!

My brother-in-law actually has XM built into his truck and likes that more, but has SIRIUS at home.

Roland Hulme

Hey, at least somebody will talk to me!

neil

A couple of notes - I never went to the full hassle of fitting the antenna to the car - I have mine sitting on the dash and it works fine.

If you have one of the Stiletto models you can listen to the radio over wi-fi so that would work with headphones around the house (assuming you have a wireless network).

Roland Hulme

Stunned silence from 50 SIRIUS engineers when I told them that.

neil

I meant the antenna, not just the radio in case that's where the message got mixed up.

Duncan Roberts

It's the second one that I'm not 100% happy with!

neil

I got the lifetime subscription - big initial outlay but I don't have the monthly fee and the lifetime subscription worked out to be equivalent to about 3 years monthly fee anyway. At the time it had an offer which means if I change radio I can transfer the subscription for $75 - no idea if they still have that; at the time it was a limited offer.

Roland Hulme

My mate said that! "I ain't paying thirteen bucks to listen to music."

He spend $75 on iTunes every month.

I think this is still going.

Duncan Roberts

I don't use iTunes but I do use napster at $15. The main difference is that with that I can use the same account on my home computer, my work computer and another computer and my wife can fill her mp3 player with as much crap as she wants, all from the same account. With sirius I wouldn't really use it a whole lot and I can only use the subscription with the 1 radio.

Roland Hulme

It depends on your lifestyle.

I tend to listen on the drive too and from work and at home, through my radio, so the Starmate 4 Dock & Play is fine for my needs.

I also have a Stiletto 2, which is the handheld model. It's weakness is the poor signal - it really needs to be docked to an antenna to get a good signal. But it automatically records stuff, so when i commute into the city I have 100 hours of various channels recorded to listen to - and I can skip through songs to listen to 'the good stuff.'

but I'm not really passionate about music. I just want stuff to listen to and I like the effortless variety. I also like listening to talk in the car, like Playboy channel (better than you'd think) and SIRIUS Left and Patriot.

neil

If it wasn't for the fact I have a long commute I wouldn't bother so it sounds like it's not worth it for you.

If you're ever near a computer there's always so much available online to listen to anyway including all the BBC radio stuff.

One thing I really hate about Sirius is the number of people who assume I have it because I like Howard Stern (b'stards, no I hate f'ing Howard Stern and actually I was tempted not to get it because that means I am contributing to his overinflated pay cheque).

Roland Hulme

Average listener time is an hour a day - half an hour's commute each way.

130 channels of music with NO commercials. I love it. Everything from pop to rock to bluegrass to blues to soul, hiphop punk. EVERYTHING.

If you just want hassle-free enjoyment of good music, without too many presenters, no adverts or bullshit like that, it's a good bet.

Turn on the car. Turn on the radio. Job done.

Manc

I'm not biased, and it is awesome.
I'ved an old model Streamer GT for over a year now, rigged upto my truck with one of those mushroom antenna's.
A simple cassette adapter and I'm happy as a pig in poo.

I prefer it to XM as I get radio one and a plethora of premiership games (however Charlie and Georgio are sucking chelsea's knob.......) and I enjoy listening to 606 and world soccer daily.

I would never go back to regular radio.