No pics, so don't ask.
I just installed my Sirius Satellite Radio into my car, after $45 worth of damage my friend caused, it's in and looks good. Anyway, there's still a problem. Satellite radio is *supposed* to be crystal clear, beyond CD quality. The thing is that it's not crystal clear like it's supposed to, and how I've heard it before. Some wires were cut and rigged up, so could that be a problem? Since Sirius runs through an exsisting FM station, if that station isn't clear, could that be the problem? Also, I did NOT ground the system, if that has an impact on anything I don't know. My deck has also seen some damage from racing, and taking it in/out so much.

Other than that you can't go wrong with 180 commercial free stations! Anyone else have XM or Sirius?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MrIllegalX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">No pics, so don't ask.
I just installed my Sirius Satellite Radio into my car, after $45 worth of damage my friend caused, it's in and looks good. Anyway, there's still a problem. Satellite radio is *supposed* to be crystal clear, beyond CD quality. The thing is that it's not crystal clear like it's supposed to, and how I've heard it before. Some wires were cut and rigged up, so could that be a problem? Since Sirius runs through an exsisting FM station, if that station isn't clear, could that be the problem? Also, I did NOT ground the system, if that has an impact on anything I don't know. My deck has also seen some damage from racing, and taking it in/out so much.

Other than that you can't go wrong with 180 commercial free stations! Anyone else have XM or Sirius?</TD></TR></TABLE>

you NEED to ground it.. what damage did your friend do? what type of radio do you have? what sirus tuner did you install? where is the sirius antenna on your car?? ive experianced MANY installs of both systems and they all seem fine.. as for cd quality it is very close but i think you have a better chance of getting cd quailiy when you have a direct connect unit that works with the aftermarket radio.. btw i installed 2 delphi sytems today at work and everything went smoth..

 

just an FYI, you don't need to ground the alpine direct connect. I never had mine grounded in my car for over.. about 2 years now, and it's working fine

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rjr162 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just an FYI, you don't need to ground the alpine direct connect. I never had mine grounded in my car for over.. about 2 years now, and it's working fine</TD></TR></TABLE>

kinda odd.. how is the alpine tuat020xm mounted in the car? is there skrews going into metal? or is it just sitting there suspended in the air? if you secure something like that metal it can ground that way sometime.. its not the best ground but it does work.. just like you dont have to ground a headunit in some cars cause the antenna plug will give it a good enough ground SOMETIMES.. aguan not the best way to do it tho

 

He cut and spliced some wires, I forgot which ones, but when he did that it blew some fuses and melted some other wires, but I repaired it all. I have a Sony CDX-M620 CD Deck. The Sirius tuner is the external one that came with the kit. It is the direct connect until with the FM modular hooked up. The Sirius antenna is on top of my roof. (It's crooked, but that won't affect anything. lol) So why do I need to ground it, and any recommended grounding points? I don't even know what wire to ground.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MrIllegalX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">He cut and spliced some wires, I forgot which ones, but when he did that it blew some fuses and melted some other wires, but I repaired it all. I have a Sony CDX-M620 CD Deck. The Sirius tuner is the external one that came with the kit. It is the direct connect until with the FM modular hooked up. The Sirius antenna is on top of my roof. (It's crooked, but that won't affect anything. lol) So why do I need to ground it, and any recommended grounding points? I don't even know what wire to ground.</TD></TR></TABLE>

well its cant be a direct connect unit if it is a sirius and you have a sony radio.. what is the brand of the sirius tuner? it is an fm modulated one and you need to ground.. look at the sirus box and there should be a black wire somewhere in the wires.. find a good grounding point and ground it.. you can extend the wire to the front of the car and ground it where the radio is grounded as well if needed...

 

ok, sorry got confused. I believe it is made by Panasonic. I just need to ground it to a non-painted, metal point right?

 

yes

 

ok I'll get on it. is this supposed to solve my sound quality issue?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hybrid95CivicEX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

kinda odd.. how is the alpine tuat020xm mounted in the car? is there skrews going into metal? or is it just sitting there suspended in the air? if you secure something like that metal it can ground that way sometime.. its not the best ground but it does work.. just like you dont have to ground a headunit in some cars cause the antenna plug will give it a good enough ground SOMETIMES.. aguan not the best way to do it tho</TD></TR></TABLE>

my guess is it was the screws, altough i scraped nothing off the XM unit or anything. The unit its self was on the carpet under my pass's seat. I thought it was weird myself (because I had it grounded at one point but the wire broke). Just wanted to make a note of that

 

grounding problems do lead to noise issues.. i cant garantuee it will solve it but it should help i would think

 

alright, I'll let you know when I ground it this weekend

 

couldn't find the ground wire just by looking at it. when it's not so hot i'll bust out the insallation book and check it out.

 

Man now I'm confused.....
Mostly its just 3 wires
red-12 volts switched
yellow - 12 constant memory
black- ground
antenna plugs into reciever.

Friends don't let friends install...how this got butched is a
mystery to me oh well.
Hope it works out.

 

The antenna should have a ground plain and have a direct view of the sky. If you sirius works, you have the main unit grounded, otherwise it won't turn on.

Did you play with the FM modulator and try changing the frequencies at which it inputs to the sony stereo? most FM modulators operate on the lower freqneucy spectrum where it's usually small/ college radio signals that don't broadcast with much power. 88.1, 88.3,88.5, 88.9 Mhz.

If you are using an FM modulator, it will never sound as good as it can, just because it's playing through the FM tuner. Your digital satelite radio will only sound as good as FM.

 

i have sirius with the kenwood deck, and it is pretty clear. i wouldn't say cd clear, but alot better than any radio station. some spots it sounds like a cd, but not all the time like alot of people think. Also, Sirius is working on putting transmitters in big cities, so that it will sound good between big buildings and such. once in a while it will chop up and sound wierdm never staticy, but wierd in mountains sometimes and in just random places. I was also told that if the wires from the antenna are ever cut, it will never work as good as before. might want to look into that. im not too impressed with it, and i listen to cd's more now than i ever did before. and the 'dead rat' looks like **** on top of my hatch

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dc24me &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The antenna should have a ground plain and have a direct view of the sky. If you sirius works, you have the main unit grounded, otherwise it won't turn on.

Did you play with the FM modulator and try changing the frequencies at which it inputs to the sony stereo? most FM modulators operate on the lower freqneucy spectrum where it's usually small/ college radio signals that don't broadcast with much power. 88.1, 88.3,88.5, 88.9 Mhz.

If you are using an FM modulator, it will never sound as good as it can, just because it's playing through the FM tuner. Your digital satelite radio will only sound as good as FM.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

If thats true, that it won't turn on if it's not grounded, then somehow I must have it grounded it and not know about it. I'm pretty sure it turns on without a ground though. And yes, I've messed around with the frequencies, and the quality does vary from each one. Since I'm using the FM Modulator, and again if what you said is true, then that'll explain my sound quality problem.

 

It's a lot more than just three wires...it's like 10, but those are the basic ones. I am still using a rigged wire for the power supply, it just an extension, but I'm not sure what the quality of the wire is. It's connected by those little plastic wire connector things with the metal inside, and they're crimped and electrical taped, so the connection should still be good, unless someone yanks on it.

The antenna wires wern't cut, it was some other wires. My friend LOVES to cut and splice, which he did without me knowing, and when I gave it power....everything in my car went dead. (Lukily for him he left before this happened) What he did was cut the power wire, extended it with some wire he had, and connected that wire to the back of my Sony deck. (I have NO idea why he did that)

The dead rat looks bad on my car too....especially since it's crooked. That adhesive sticks! I want to straighted it out but Sirius said that it could take off some paint along with it.

 

What brand is your sirius system? Some brands come with lousy fm modulators (audiovox) Does it have an aux/line out or is it FM mod only? If it does, sony probably makes a piece that converts the cd changer control on your cdxm610 to an auxillary input. so if you have a line out you can connect to your aux inpt on your 610, you're all set.

Otherwise, get a deck which is sirius compatible and a compatible box. Or better speakers.

I have seen dozens of sirius/xm antenna removed from the car and they always come off easily. No paint should come off if your car is a 97 with oem paint.

 

the Sirius system is from Panasonic. I'm pretty sure it's FM Mod only. Sirius decks are too expensive, maybe some day. I have 2-way Boston Acoustic speakers. My paint is not OEM, that's why I'm worried.

 

It's probly the modulator. If your sound quality is suffering it's most likely due to a crappy modulator. I have the Delphi XM system in my car and the modulator for that was a total piece. I spent some extra money on an auxillary input adaptor for my Clarion and now the Delphi is directly connected and sounding wonderful. FM modulators suck.

 

and where would I be able to get one of these aux input adaptors? how much?