Upgrading To A Better Xm Receiver

Harvey Halabookie · January 11, 2010

My trial period for XM is up this month. I have a Sirius Sportster 5 in my Malibu that I run through the Aux input in the OEM radio with a car mount and aftermarket Sirius Antenna. My dilemma is that although Sirius and XM are basically the same now, in the truck I cannot pick "favorites", like song or music group. On the Sirius Sportster I have 30 presets and an audio tone alerts me when they are playing on another channel.

I am considering my three options:

1) Renew the XM in the truck to keep the factory look that I like and live without my "favorite" presets.

2) Let the XM expire. Buy another car kit for the truck to use the Sportster in through the Aux input like in the Malibu. I would have to run a new antenna and the clean factory look would be gone, but I can take the plug-and-play unit with me from car-to-truck and vice versa, keeping the presets.

3) I have been looking at Crutchfield.com for new receivers that feature "favorite" song and artist presets. My problem is that I am very confused on this. It seems that a bunch of adapters are required to get the OnStar, door chimes, and steering wheel controls to work, and there are compatibility problems with the factory XM antenna.

Before calling Crutchfield tech support, I figured I would ask here for some opinions. Does anyone know of a new receiver that I can just plug in that features "favorites" without having to purchase all kinds of adapters and wiring harnesses? If it is worth springing for the new receiver and necessary equipment, what will I need, and what radio is recommended? I plan on having this truck for a long, long time, so i don't want any trouble down the road with aftermarket radios and electronics.

Any help is much appreciated!

hespeler · January 11, 2010

there is a guy on XMFan.com that will make you a cable that you unplug your antenna wire form the factory xm tuner in the truck. it's behind the glove box plug it into his wire and route it too where ever your mounting your portable. that way you keep the factory xm antenna on the roof. as for intergrating it in to the stock radio you either have to tune the fm station or mp3 plug on the front. there is no better tuner for the radio itself. i would have to go look up his email and post but I ordered a cable and its been great. just use my portable xm/sirrus now.

Harvey Halabookie · January 12, 2010

That sounds good to me. If I could use the factory Antenna I will just order a mount and plug into the Aux port.

I checked XmFan.com. If you could get me his email and or find the link to his post that would be great!

You would think that after having Xm available for at least four years now, GM would come up with a better radio to store favorite artists and songs. This was my one complaint on the XM survey they sent out after I bought the new truck.

Thanks!

Harvey Halabookie · January 12, 2010

Thanks for the info. I searched online and found this cable:

http://www.tss-radio.com/sirius-single-inp...ble-p-3883.html

I will just use a vehicle-specific mount and take the Sportster between my car and the truck.

I'm wondering if I can hardwire the power for the Sportster dock to an ignition source through. The only problem is that the Sporster runs off of 5 Volts and not 12.

hespeler · January 12, 2010

yup same type of cable, just unplug your antenna at the xm tuner behind the glovebox. plug it into the factory end and then route the cable.

jdubya · January 13, 2010

I was wondering if this was possible today...

My issue is that I do not have a factory radio that was xm equipped but I do have that antenna on the roof. Is it possible that the antenna cable for the factory antenna is routed behind the glove box already? I have an aftermarket DVD player with sirius built in.

jdubya · January 13, 2010

Thanks for the info. I searched online and found this cable:

http://www.tss-radio.com/sirius-single-inp...ble-p-3883.html

I will just use a vehicle-specific mount and take the Sportster between my car and the truck.

I'm wondering if I can hardwire the power for the Sportster dock to an ignition source through. The only problem is that the Sporster runs off of 5 Volts and not 12.

btw for hardwiring the power you can use the cigarette lighter adapter that came with the kit to hard wire it. The tip is the + and the metal plates on the side of the adapter are - . What I have done is take apart the tip of the adapter where the fuse is, strip some wire and thread it through the button at the tip and under the fuse. then strip another piece of wire and loop it around the ground plate on the side of the adapter. Tape everything up really good so that it does not come apart.

You can hook the wire coming off the tip to any 12v ignition source and the ground to the chassis. I normally pull 12v ignition from behind the radio as I normally have it out while installing the FM modulator.

Harvey Halabookie · January 13, 2010

Thanks for the info. I searched online and found this cable:

http://www.tss-radio.com/sirius-single-inp...ble-p-3883.html

I will just use a vehicle-specific mount and take the Sportster between my car and the truck.

I'm wondering if I can hardwire the power for the Sportster dock to an ignition source through. The only problem is that the Sporster runs off of 5 Volts and not 12.

btw for hardwiring the power you can use the cigarette lighter adapter that came with the kit to hard wire it. The tip is the + and the metal plates on the side of the adapter are - . What I have done is take apart the tip of the adapter where the fuse is, strip some wire and thread it through the button at the tip and under the fuse. then strip another piece of wire and loop it around the ground plate on the side of the adapter. Tape everything up really good so that it does not come apart.

You can hook the wire coming off the tip to any 12v ignition source and the ground to the chassis. I normally pull 12v ignition from behind the radio as I normally have it out while installing the FM modulator.

Thnaks! That sounds like a great idea.

Harvey Halabookie · January 26, 2010

UPDATE:

I completed the installation and I am more than happy. Thanks for all the input. The only extra item I had to get was a 20-foot vehicle antenna extension from TSS Radio to go between the adapter and my Sirius Plug-And-Play unit. The adapter cable was not long enough to reach where the Bracketron mount attaches.

The audio sounds great, except when the engine downshifts and revs higher I get a slight whistling noise from the radio that increases in pitch with the RPMs. Anyone else experience this? I have the Sirius tuner plugged directly into the AUX input in the front of the stock radio. I know they make noise filters, but will this help in my situation? If anyone has any ideas on what filter is good and where/how it should be installed, please let me know.

Now I am just waiting for my new steering wheel with the audio controls and I think my interior/audio mods are done!