[masmole]

It's done. A day ahead of schedule. My dealer really came through and delivered and I have nothing but praise for my first service visit. As promised, they installed a miniature non-MB sirius antenna inside the driver's side hood cowling in lieu of the large wart of an antenna normally specified by MB to be installed on the exterior of the trunk lid. The reception is perfect! Amazing since the antenna is so small (it's about half the size of a normal desktop pc mouse.) I drove from the dealer 45 mins away in the south suburbs back home to the city without a single break in the signal or interruption of the music. In the oem sirius unit I have in my X5, a break in the signal happens at least twice on the same drive, and that antenna is perched up high on the roof where it should be. Strange that the stealthy solution in the SLK seems to be working better.

on a side note, when I picked up my car, it was parked in the delivery area right behind a CLS55 AMG that was waiting for its new owner to claim. Such a breathtaking sight to see two beautiful beasts at rest. Apparently it was the dealer's first CLS55. I had no idea it was even on US shores yet until this evening. Beautiful car especially in AMG trim except the quad tail-pipes looked out of place in the CLS's tapered rear end. This one was black on black with walnut burl wood. Very classy. It stickered for $99K. But at that price, I think I'd rather wait for the E60 M5.

 

[Julien]

That looks great (or looks like nothing). I will say to anyone thinking of Sirius that I now feel like it was a waste of $700. The SQ is marginally above poor, full of digital artifacts and lifeless compression. The DJ's are obnoxious and babble on about dildos, farting, there love life, and even talking on top of the music making it worse than FM (how disrespectful). The play lists are about as deep as a Kiddy pool at the YMCA (same songs over and over and over...). I can't wait until the iPod dock comes out.

 

[masmole]

Actually, I enjoy the programming on Sirius and think it's worth every penny. I have it on my S4 and X5 and wouldn't have gotten it on my SLK if I had thought any less of it. It really depends on what you listen to. But I do agree with what Julien said, some of the more mainstream channels are often occupied by mindless chatter and recycled playlists... then again, isn't that what POP music is all about? I mostly stay away from that, namely channel 1 "Hits" and such as you can get that from regular FM "kiss" radio. But there are lots of other channels worth listening to... and there are even definitely some electronic/house, rock, hard rock, jazz, hip hop etc that have some excellent playlists that are not recycled. The real beauty is having all these channels at your disposal. Who cares about certain programming that suck, simply change the channel.

That said, I am also looking forward to the iPod interface, but not necessarily to replace the entertainment value Sirius offers.

 

[masmole]

oh and as far as the sound quality, I think it sounds great to my non-audiophile 31-year old ears. The Logic 7 on the harman kardon pumps out sirius tunes with good bass, clear mids and highs, and excellent overall range of sound. I am very pleased. Perhaps to an audiophile this is not enough, but I am not one. Sure there is some evidence of compression in some cases but in my opinion very negligible and not that much worse than lower bit rate MP3 compression which sound fine on most car audio systems. Considering road and wind noise from driving, nit-picking on sound quality in a car is pointless. Then again, I'm a person who loved my tape player in my car when I was in high school []

 

[smoothcoat]

Question about the reception...
How is it? can you compare it to the radio? does it cut in and out?? can anyone in the NYC metro area comment on this?
Because i have a Sirius boombox in my house and it cuts in and out all the time. And I am a little disappointed about that. So if the reception in the SLK's is better, and that great,mouse in the hood mount solution works. I might be sold, I would be sold now if it wasn't $800.! I really got it to listen to Howard Stern next year, but in todays NY post paper, there seems to be a question of possible insider trading??? oh well!!!

 

[Roberta]

That is a proper looking antenna, Masmole!!! I knew there had to be one out there that didn't blemish our beautiful cars.

Roberta[][]

 

[masmole]

smoothcoat - 2/19/2005 3:50 PM

Question about the reception...
How is it? can you compare it to the radio? does it cut in and out?? can anyone in the NYC metro area comment on this?
Because i have a Sirius boombox in my house and it cuts in and out all the time. And I am a little disappointed about that. So if the reception in the SLK's is better, and that great,mouse in the hood mount solution works. I might be sold, I would be sold now if it wasn't $800.! I really got it to listen to Howard Stern next year, but in todays NY post paper, there seems to be a question of possible insider trading??? oh well!!!

The reception is flawless so far. I've had it for 2 days now and there has not beeen a single signal interruption or evidence of cutting out from driving in and around the city... and like NYC, Chicago has very tall buildings. Reception for Sirius in cars should be no problem in metropolitan areas thanks to the presence of terrestrial repeaters throughout. There is even a lower portion of columbus drive downtown that goes under for a few hundered yards and it doesn't cut out there either. Since Sirius is based out of NYC, I would think that they've taken even greater measures to provide the best possible signal transmission for its large customer base there. Your dealer is only asking $800 installed? Consider that a great deal. I paid $1200 for mine but I took consolation in the fact that subscription was included for the first year if it installed by an MB dealer.