Santa got me the Sportster 4 from Sirius for Christmas and i intalled it today.

http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/serv...5&oldParentID=

I hooked up the FM transmitter and tuned into an unused station and the sound quality sucks. Its powered by the 12 volt currently. The Sirius doesnt play very crisp and i get some static. I called them, tried other frequencies and still the same thing. It sounds like an IPOD does playing it through the 12volt...

Whats causing this? Its suppoce to be a plug and play?? The local stations play 10x more clear and crisp as the Sirius does now and i know it should play better. With my 2005 with the 6disk CD changer with MP3 is there an auxillary jack on the back that i can direct wire it? Will that make it sound better?

(temporary FM adapter)



(temporary set up...dont mind the dust and i know theres no signal in the garage)

 

Tons of threads on this.. but in a nutshell you have two options.

#1 - PIE adapter utilizes the AUX input
#2 - Hard-wired FM Modulator Cable.. can be bought at Best Buy or Circuit City. This utilizes a station like the modulator, but its over a cable instead of over the air. This is what I use, and its crystal clear.

 

Thanks, as i was reading up on this before i posted it. Just didnt exactly find my answer.

So does the factory hu have an AUX input then? Explain the #2...isnt that what i have in the first picture? Or is there a different modulator that you can use thats better?

 

Hmm..looks as if ill be getting a PIE adapter. Xmas just got expensive for me

Wheres a good place to get one? Its late, im tired and dont feel like looking

 

Ebay. I scored mine for a buy it now price of like 60 bucks.

 

It can't get signal through all of that dust I'd say.

 

I got mine here:

http://enfigcarstereo.com/shopsite_s...FRD04_AUX.html

The price was just right and came with instructions.

 

I highly recommend this unit - Ford XM5-FRD04. Someone else recommended it in another thread. Anyway I got it here http://www.tss-radio.com/ford-xm5frd04-p-3775.html.

This one not only allows you to use the Aux button on your radio it also provides power to the 5 volt units like the Sportster 4. So you don't need to use the power adapter and here is the cool part: the Sat radio unit comes on when I start the truck and when I turn off the truck the Sat radio stays on until I open the door, just like the radio.

Makes for a very clean installation and operation. Unit is very easy to install. I tapped into the cigarette lighter to get the constant 12 volt supply that it needs. Other than that it's plug and play.

As far as sound goes, in my opinion anyway, there is no comparison. My sounded like .... well not good with the FM transmitter. It's a little pricey but worth it to me.

 

Ok so ive been calling everyone to figure this out and still nothing.

So if i add the P.I.E adapter to my factory head unit, what do i get rid of? Is the FM extender cable no longer needed?

Michigunman...how does that work with the factory head unit since i dont have anything plugged into the head unit?

 

You no longer need the FM extender with the PIE, the audio coming out of the Sirius goes directly into the PIE and then into the radio. All the PIE does is add AV ports to the stock radio.

 

Correct you don't need an FM extender cable with the PIE. You will be connecting the audio out of the sat radio to the PIE with an audio cable that comes with the PIE. There is no FM transmission used for this, in fact you can turn the FM transmitter on sat radio off.

You just plug the cable from the PIE into the head unit and the other end of the cable will have nothing plugged into just like your head unit did.

With the PIE you will get a power cable and an audio cable that will connect to your Sportser4 along with the antena. You will not need the cig lighter/power adapter (you can use that if you want to move the radio to another vehicle temporarily).

You will need to connect the power input wires of the PIE to a constant 12 volt source.

Hope that makes sense. Let me know if any other questions.

Now that I typed this I see Hankmobile also answered your question.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. Sirius credited me 20 bucks to buy a Hard-wired FM Modulator Cable.....

So i called best buy and asked them if they carried it..and the guy said hes never heard of such a thing? WTF?? Good lord.

Should i just try to find a FM Modulator Cable and hard wire it and see if that does the trick before getting the PIE Adapter? The Sirius guy said i need the FM extender cable with the FM Modulator cable but that makes NO sense. Its funny how i can talk to 10 differnt people and get 11 different answers.

Thats why i turned to you guys, its greatly appreciated

 

OK, the part is actually called an "FM Direct Adapter" if that is what you are referring to and I'm sure it is as it's a $19.99 part from Sirius. The guy at Best Buy is full of it, here it is http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1158319078975, althought it's 10 bucks more than on the Sirius website, same part number http://shop.sirius.com/edealinv/serv...dParentID=7872. You don't need anything else. That basically gets you a hardwire connection to the antenna input jack of your radio. You are still using the FM transmitter in the Sirius radio and still competing with other over the air signals that your truck antenna is receiving. It would help if you are actually picking up interference between your radio and the antenna on your truck. SInce they are giving it to you free it couldn't hurt to try it. It would be a little easier to install but you are still going to have pull the radio to do it, which isn't that big of a deal.

The PIE gives you a direct baseband audio input to your radio. So not only does it eliminate any possibility of over the air interference it eliminates the modulation/demodulation process that the FM transmitter mode adds which adds distortion to the signal - whether that is noticeable, well that varies by user. For me I didn't like the static that I always had in the background with the FM transmitter. Plus the power option on the PIE I bought is really slick.

Personal choice whether it is worth the extra money or not. Hope this helps and doesn't confuse matters more.

 

that goofy thing on the dash just looks bad you could have gotten a sirius ready headunit and all the sirius stuff you need for less than $250 and you would not have a sound issue.

 

Yes i could have, but i want to keep my factory HU since i have the MP3 and six disk CD changer and it looks factory. If i was to change it out i would be getting a touchscreen dvd based navigation system and i dont have the cash for that.

michigunman ....

Youve been great help! come over to Iowa and ill buy you a beer sometime