I recently bought a car radio that can be expanded to offer Sirius, XD, and HD radio. If I was to upgrade it, which would you choose? Would I be happier saving to upgrade it to "imprint" or 45w rms?

BTW - Very pleased with my Alpine IDA-X305S so far. Only problem is I can't figure out why the dimming function is fubar. When I turn on dimming function all the lights do is pulse. (at the risk of hijacking my own thread - does the Miata support dimming of the radio when the lights are on?)

 

HD Radio.

Every time to listen to a satellite broadcast, the terrorists win.

 

imprint.

and an ai-net to headphone adapter.

and a usb car charger.

then you can listen to whatever the F you want on your smartphone.

 

Thats what this radio is. All it has is radio and USB/Smartphone. It does pandora streaming from the iphone. I looked back and couldn't remember the last time I used a CD so I figured what the heck.

 

$500 up front gets you a lifetime subscription to sirius. When I've got sirius, I don't listen to anything else. I never have to worry about 15 minutes of synchronized radio commercials on my 20 minute drive to/from work, and since I absolutely hate hearing people talk on the radio in the morning when I'm trying to get my blood flowing, it's nice to know that my favorite music station is going to be playing music in the morning, and not some ******* "RR and Lucy in the morning!" ****. Additionally, there are always at least 3 stations with similar genres of music, so If one of them isn't playing something you like, you have 2 other choices. I don't get local news/traffic/weather, but if I'm worried about those, I hit the "source" button. During football season, there is a 99% chance that your favorite team will be covered on not one, but TWO stations (home team station and away team station), regardless of where you are in the country. If you root for a top 25 school, there's a 90-95% chance that their sports game will be on too - any other action sports (not golf, because golf probably doesn't sound too good on the radio) are on too.

 

howard is on sirius.
end of thread

 

Howard is the reason XM went from clear frontrunner to distant memory in a year flat.

 

Speaking from the perspective of a radio insider, Howard is a jackass and his empire is collapsing.

When Howard was on terrestrial (broadcast) radio, it was a whole different ballgame. Frankly, it was the inherent dichotomy between his personality and the decency rules of the FCC (and the Standard & Practices departments of the networks) that made it interesting. How far can he push it? What clever loophole will he come up with next? What's he going to try to sneak past the censors? From my point of view, those very limitations that he so loudly pined about were a large part of what drove the creative element of the show.

When he got booted over to Satellite, the walls came down. Suddenly, there's nothing he's not allowed to do or say, so there's no challenge to it anymore. He's already turned it all the way to 11, so there's really no intrigue left.

The listener base just isn't what it used to be. Howard's numbers on satellite are falling. Bubba already jumped ship from Howard 101 and went back to terrestrial full-time.

 

Howard who.

 

Hasn't had a piece of original material since his first day on the air. **** and *** was the only reason that guy was ever even remotely interesting.

Hook up Pandora on your smartphone... $36 for a year subscription, unlimited customizable channels on every internet device you own on one account. Plug into your headunit.

My favorite channel for just listening:
Sting w/Genesis, Springsteen, Huey Lewis. It goes all day without a bad song. I like listening to my own MP3 collection occasionally, but the coolness of streaming "stations" is the variety you weren't expecting. At least once a day, Pandora picks a song I hadn't heard in a decade, so I click the thumbs up and the selection just gets better and better.

My wife has a bunch of channels she listens to, and we've got a few for the kids.

The only advantage to Satellite radio is if it has a specific "thing" you're really interested in... Nascar, Baseball, etc... but you still get commercials on half the channels and the music isn't near as good nor has the variety of what Pandora finds for you.

 

whoa whoa backup there pardner.

pandora gives you all-the-internets-you-own access? or is it simply login-based?

 

pandora = login will get your account regardless of which internet you are on. I listen to pandora on andoid a LOT when I'm away from otherwise decent music - especially working out. I remember my friend telling me about pandora when I was in middle or high school. Must have been 12-15 years ago