TSS-Radio Blog

Things are heating up in the world or Sirius Satellite Radio receivers. There is now a possibility of 2 new portable units being available by the end of 2006. You may already be aware of the Live Portable model sl100tk1 that has been announced and now there is talk of another unit being made by Hummax, which is the company that produced the S50. Only time will tell if either of these units comes to the market, but in the mean time, you can email us at sales@tss-radio.com and we will email you any new info about these units as it becomes available.

While we are on the subject of portable SIRIUS, we have begun carrying headphones by V-Moda as replacements for the stock SIRIUS S50 Headphones. I figured it would be a good idea to give them a listen to see how they compare to the original S50 stock “ear bud” style headphone.

I am not a big fan of traditional ear bud style headphone because they never fit in my ears correctly and fall out while I am walking. When we received the V-Moda headphones, I was immediately drawn to the Bass Freq model due to the rubber in ear style of the ear buds. They have a small silicon ear bud that fits directly in to your ear that I found fit much snugger and more comfortably than the original S50 or for that matter any other ear bud I had ever tried.

I did a head to head with my original S50 headphones listening to some of the songs I had recorded off of SIRIUS. The first thing I noticed was a substantial difference in the stereo imaging of the V-modas and the S50 stock headphones. The Stock S50 headphones sound mono to me. It is very hard to place were an instrument is coming from in the stereo feild. The V-Moda Bass Freq have a nice wide open stereo image that add a more natural dimension to the music.

I found that the Bass Freq headphones had a much cleaner, more natural sound. The S50 Stock headphones sound compressed and have an almost FM radio exaggerated sound where as the bass freq headphones have a much cleaner crisper open sound. The S50 stock headphones sound more superficially loud, but the bass freq really has a much more pleasant clean sound. The big question is “how was the bass?” Considering that V-moda named these “Bass Freq”. Compared to the original S50 headphones that sounded mushy and undefined in the mids and lows, the V-Moda has a nicely defined sound where all frequencies can be heard loud and clear. The bass is tight and natural in the Bass Freqs. I do have to say that these may not satisfy any one who is looking for the kind of head shaking bass that a large, over the ear headphones can supply but they are worlds better sounding the original S50 phones IMHO.

I hope everyone out there had a terrific 4th! The illegal fireworks here in Chicago were like nothing I have ever seen. It sounded like a war was going on…Anyway, I posted a banner on the front page of TSS-Radio.com the other day about the new Sirius Live Portable after seeing Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius flash one at the at the Convergence 2.0 Conference. This has already caused some confusion, and I just wanted to clear it up. We put up this banner to encourage people to email us so that we could keep them informed of new information as it becomes available, not so that people could “pre order” this unit that may or may not be available this year. Unfortunately our website shows any item that is not currently available as some thing that can be pre ordered. This is not the case, although we will order enough of the Live Portable when it does come out so that anyone who has sent us email will be able to get one.

Now, what you really want to know is what do we actually know about this Live Portable unit? Well we know that it may be out AROUND August and that the projects name has been changed from Belagio to Stiletto. Also, we know that the working model number is SL100TK1. That is just about all we got for now, but if you email us, we will let you know more when we do. On another note, if anything on TSS-Radio.com says it is on backorder, say like the Outdoor Home Antenna, you can email us at sales@tss-radio.com and we will email you as soon as we receive more!

As usual, things have been going great here at TSS-Radio. The weather is great and its the time of year for installing that new SIRIUS system in your car or truck!
I have been taking pictures to help everyone out with their install. We have added detail pictures to all of the antennas so that you can now see what the connectors on each one are like. Hopefully this will clear up any confusion about which antenna you need for your receiver. As you may or may not know, there are 2 types of antenna connector. The first type is the Fakra connector which is a square plastic connector and only found on much older receivers like the Kenwood and some OEM SIRIUS car receivers (i.e. Infinity). The other type is a regular SMB which is what the majority of receivers and docking stations have. The SMB can be straight or right angle. I have also added photos to the Truck antenna to make it easier to see what the mounting hardware is like.

In other TSS news, we will be getting the much sought after Home Antenna back in stock. The Home Antenna can be mounted on the outside of your house for a clearer view of the sky. We have also just added a part that will help you get a cleaner looking vehicle Installation is the 12v Power Hardwire Cable. This cable will allow you to have the power for your 12v receiver hardwired to your cars power, NO MORE CIGARETTE LIGHTER ADAPTER!
While we are on the subject of antennas and installation, we would love to see your Sirius Installation! If you live in the Chicago area and have a great Sirius Installation in your vehicle, email me at ross@tss-radio.com. Have a great 4th!

Ross

Good things have been happening here at TSS-Radio. We are finally settling in to our new digs here in the Windy City and things are really falling in to place! Our new space is great and all is well. Hopefully all is well with you also.
There have been a number of new and old items that have been generating many questions. I am going to try to answer the most asked questions right here… Our favorite new item is the new Sportster 4 Receiver, but many have been asking about the release dates for a boombox and homekit. We believe that the home kit will be here in July and the boombox will be here in August. These are only guesstimates, so don’t take our word on this one.

Another frequently asked question is “when will the GM Sirius Connect be released?” This is a part that will allow you to convert your XM ready GM stock headunit to a SIRIUS Satellite receiver. This was supposed to be released last year, and Howard Stern has mentioned that it is available on air a few times recently, but unfortunatelyHoward is wrong and it is has not been released. The release date that we have gotten from SIRIUS is August, but we will keep you informed of any news with this unit.

The other big question is “When will the Outdoor Home Antenna be back in stock?” and we have good news on this one! It will be back in stock next Friday, June 30th!!! Stay tuned for this fabled parts return…

So things are looking good for our favorite Satellite radio provider SIRIUS. They have just announced that they have signed up with Loral Space & Communications Ltd. who built the 3 currently orbitting satellites and the 1 backup satellite, to build 1 more satellite that will be unleashed into space in 2008. That means far better reception for all in the SIRIUS universe!

On another note, Howard Stern fans may have heard a conversation today on the show pertaining to the GM SIRIUS connect (SIR-GM1). Stern and the gang mentioned that they had the unit and that a friend had purchased one at a store. We just wanted to set the record straight by saying that SIRIUS GM Connect is still NOT available. After speaking to the Directed Electronics rep today, the release date has been pushed back again to July. We think that it will really be released closer to August due to the fact that it is not even production yet. In the mean time, we have our own fix for those who cannot wait . Check it out here TSS-RADIO. It is more expensive than the GM SIRIUS Connect, but it will work with some models.

It’s been a while since the last post. It’s been very exhausting the pace of this business but fun as well.

Okay, to the good stuff.

Got two items in and as far as I’m aware we may be the first to carry these two items.

S50 Car Kits. If you need another car kit for your S50 so as to easily move from car to car then this is the answer. Also for those who’ve been waiting forever for the Home Docks and have been using the adapter to play the S50 at Home you may want to get one of these vs. the Home Dock. Also the Home Dock does not have an FM Transmitter and the Car Dock does.

This is the custom Vehicle Installation Kit that works with the Starmate Replay and Streamer GTR. It’s made for a specific kind of vehicle console that has a large DIN space in which to fit the Streamer GTR or Starmate Replay. The kit includes the plastic Vehicle Interface Kit, a hardwire setup, Wired FM Modulator, and Audio Cables for $29.99. Under Brix it is called SIR-GTRV1 for Directed it is STV2 and SDVK1. As of this point as a dealer we still can’t order it from Directed, and it’s likely not to be out for a few weeks. The FM Modulators are a piece that is often on back order from the Factory and because that piece is included in this kit, I can guarantee this item will go in and out of stock in many places quite often. That being said we bought as many as possible from Brix and will likely to sell them all out by the end of the week.