i have gone thru several threads and haven't read the low down on sat radio and fm modulating sounds, pro's and con's.

my 93 has a perfect working original delco bose gold and i would like to have sat radio, leaning toward sirrius. how does the fm modulating sound. in my mind i think it wouldn't sound anywhere close to the sound of the bose cd player.

if the fm modulating really bites, what are some options i have, besides tearing the dash apart. does my head unit have any rca or other type plug in that i can hard wire the sat system too?

i have also seen thru crutchfield that there is a cassette that is wired and plugs into the sat unit. how is the sound quality? sat radio would be cool if i can hear it in it's almost true form, but if i get all the perks of it and the sound is no better then regular fm, then i don't see the plus side of paying the monthly fee's

this is going to be my weekend project since i did the radiator cleaning last weekend.

 

There are a number of threads about the sound of satellite radio and they basically come down to this. A direct connection to you head unit offers the best quality, a cassette adapter is next followed by a hard wired fm modulator. The lowest quality is offered by an external fm modulator.

I've used all of these options and found that even the external fm modulator is of "listenable" quality if you are in an area without many FM stations. We live in the NY Metro region so the signal from an external modulator is often degraded by local stations so I installed a hard wired modulator in my wife's car and noticed a much cleaner signal and better audio quality. The cassette adapter option proved to work very well in another leased car and the sound quality was better than either modulator option.

The hardwired option is the best, since the signal is passed directly to the amp in the head unit, but it can also be the most complex install. I was able to achieve this in my '98 by using two harnesses from PIE, the cor-har, which connects the audio system to a cd changer and their gm10-aux adapter, which converts the cd changer input to a standard auxiliary input with two rca jacks. I'm not sure if this exact setup will work on your '93 but that info will be available here somewhere.

Imo, the easiest way to get started is to purchase a unit, install power and antenna and use the cassette adapter for a while. The sound will be very good and you'll get a chance to fine tune your installation. Once you're satisfied with the installation then add the harnesses and you're all set.

Btw - I'm an XM subscriber and currently have 4 radios. You might want to check out www.xmfan.com and ask what the reception issues are like in your area. XM has a number of terrestrial repeaters in our area so the coverage is rock solid - Sirius does not so that was the deciding factor for me. As far as content goes, you can't go wrong with either service - both blow away commercial FM - but don't expect CD sound from them. Sound quality is generally better than FM but isn't quite up to CD, but the variety of content more than makes up for this.