Hey gang - I'm awaiting a new Cayman S in April, and I opted to not order it with satellite radio and have been pondering alternatives for piping in Sirius or XM (and have read many threads on the topic here - love this place!).
Anyhoo, Sante Fe posted something about this as well (in K-Man S's CES review post), but one potential alternative I found might interest those of you who have an iPhone. There's an existing PC/Mac app called StarPlayr (that's spelled correctly) that streams Sirius/XM through the net so long as you're already a subscriber (I like it better than the browser-based player Sirius offers on its own) and the company is looking to release an iPhone version of it in the next month or so. I'm hoping that I can use this app on my phone and connect it via AUX in, and if mobile net reception is good enough I may be able to avoid having to mount an antenna.
Check out RogueAmoeba's NiceCast. I use it to get streams of sat radio over my iphone, not in the car, usually, but it does work in the car. The trick on the iphone is that you need an internet radio application. There are several to choose from in iTunes.
Good luck.
Thanks, Matt. I'll check that out as well (I use Rogue Amoeba's AirFoil already to stream net-based audio to my stereo at home, and am quite happy with it)!
As bad as sat radio sounds, I'd suspect you'll compromise a lot of sound quality by getting it through an iphone b/c it's likely even more highly compressed. I even Pandora on my iPhone, but the sound quality isn't anything to write home about!
I use the iPhone in my daily car for live streaming music over the internet. All most 90% of the music I listen to is only available through internet, XM comes close but not close enough. I don’t have any FM radio stations in NYC area that really play the music I listen to.
Anyway I downloaded apps from the App Store and loaded my favorite stations. I select the 3G option from the phone and connect to my Fav Internet station. I then connect the phone to the aux input in my car and listen to w/o interruptions for maybe 30 minutes driving 60-80 mph. This is not CD quality but close to XM quality and I get to listen to what I want wherever I am.
So I actually recommend this.
Ohh also Congrats!!
I regularly stream Pandora through my iPhone into my CS via my Kenwood 8120 head unit without trouble. The sound quality is FM-like, which is passable through my upgraded Focal speakers. Pandora almost sounded better with the original Bose system b/c the sound was so poor to begin with!
Between my iPhone and a separate USB cable & swapable drives routed into my center armrest area, I carry many gigs of music and only occasionally listen to HD radio. For me, I can't see the point of paying another $15/mo. for Sirius or XM.
what I still need to do is figure out how to use apple script to change the application state (ie change stations). If I can do that I can listen to all of the content, and eliminate the sat radio in the car.
For now, there is no good way to get all of SiriusXM in the car w/o the radio in the car.
The iphone should do it all, and could, but I suppose that licensing and AT&T will become a roadblock.
Thanks for the 'grats, TComBrat! And good feedback here from everyone.
I'm ok with not-great-quality audio from satellite - I mostly listen to TV news channels (and H. Stern) on satellite, but for music I stick with CDs and my iPod (I have a 160gb model fully loaded with lossless audio), and I DID spring for the PCM + iPod dock in the car, since I'll use that much more. For the amount that I use satellite, and the stuff I tend to listen to with it, $750 for XM seems outrageous.
Can you guys recommend some of the 'net radio iPhone apps you like? I try to avoid surfing the app store if I can avoid it.
I use Pocket Tunes.
Costs more, but seems to work consistently.
