Last Christmas I bought Brandi Sirius Satellite Radio from Crutchfield. I bought the Starmate Replay ST2 receiver. It was the cheapest one I could find and it’s been fine. I also bought the home kit and a Terk 50 ft extension kit. We’ve got excellent reception at home now. I ran the cable through the floor to the crawl space, out a vent in the foundation, up a downspout, and up to the roof peak.

We also determined that the FM transmission capability of the receiver was shoddy. We bought a Sony car stereo with an auxiliary input on the front. While there, we had Circuit City hide the cords for the Sirius antenna , power cable, and auxiliary input cable, as well as an iPod power cable behind the dash. It looks pretty clean, but it wasn’t cheap.

The final outlay came out something like this:

• Starmate Replay ST2: $70.00 (after $30 mail-in rebate)
• Sirius STH2 home kit: $39.99
• 50 ft extension: $30.00
• Sony CDXGT510: $104.99
• Installation and wiring: $80 including wired power port, wiring harness, Sirius power cable, iPod power cable
• Monthly Sirius Subscription: $12.95

Pretty expensive. Don’t buy a satellite radio thinking that’s all you’ll need. After the initial investment for a car receiver it start to make sense that you’ll want the home kit. If you get the home kit you’ll probably need the extension to mount the antenna somewhere you can get a clean signal. Then you realize that you really need to plug the receiver in because the FM transmitter is weak. Then you’ll have all these crazy wires everywhere. The next thing you know you’ll have sunk a couple of hundred dollars into it.

All in all, we really like it. We almost never listen to local radio anymore. I do listen to WUNC, our local NPR station when I’m alone. We usually have one of the jazz or 80’s mix stations on when we’re home. In the car, it seems the iPod is more popular than satellite radio, except on long trips. Satellite radio really shines on the road. After spending a little time with radio without commercials, it’s pretty annoying to listen to regular radio. Really annoying. The selection is good, too. I especially like the BBC World News and other talk stations. Brandi seems pleased with the electronica selection.  I understand she uses it as background sound at work, too, via access to the online stream.

It’s especially nice to have the auxiliary input on the front of the stereo. When I drive to work I usually park about a half mile from campus and listen to This American Life or Science Friday on my Zen Nano Plus while I walk. Then, when I get to the car, I just plug the Zen in and continue listening in the car while I drive back to Durham. I recently asked Brandi if she wanted to continue our Sirius subscription and she did so I assume she thinks it’s worth the $13/month.