2009 Audi S5: Satellite Radio has Expired

I don`t own an Ipod, nor the desire.
I do like suprises as well, as you say.
Nonetheless, do think people owning them probably enjoys them.

ptcdawg, agree on the compresson thing. I like XM, but rarely listen to music on it. For music, I bring my old fashioned CDs.

One thing you can do with your iPod and iTunes is to have it load up a random set of songs each time it syncs. I haven't used it in a while, since I haven't reloaded all of my songs into the iTunes Library (400+ CDs in iTunes Library = painful load times and searching).

But even with that, I will still get satellite radio and/or HD Radio (supposed to be available for the 2011 MY as an option) in addition to carrying around my iPod.

On the flip side, the compression and sound quality of satellite radio makes it painful for long trips and trying to find a station with enough of a mix can be difficult. Not to mention: songs in ALAC + B&O = awesome :)

I agree, I like hearing new music and being surprised by what is played on the satellite radio. However, I still never leave home without my Ipod, I bought the music on it for a reason: I love those songs. If you have enough music and set your Ipod to shuffle, then it won't play in the familiar order that you arranged, and you'll eventually hear something that you haven't listened to in a while.

If you have Ipod touch or Iphone, you can download the sirius/xm app to play satellite radio through your Ipod (provided you have wi-fi access.)... two birds with one stone.

@ cr_driver: the Ipod touch is like the coolest thing ever! I showed mine to my grandmother the other day, and now she wants one badly. (she loves gadgets anyway though, she got hooked on nintendo when I brought mine over as a kid)

My colleague's S5 lost his real time traffic when his satellite radio expired, that was unexpected.

Even if I owned an iPod, carrying one around and managing the interface is an unwanted hassle. By the time all automakers sort out the convenience factor, technology will have moved on to something else.

My Jetta TDI came with satellite radio, and I have very willingly renewed my subscription each year. Yes, I have to channel-hop sometimes when none of my eight or ten favorite channels seem to be playing anything I like, but not often. It's a great alternative, given that commercial radio is so pitifully bad these days, and music or news is available at all times.

The sound quality deficiencies don't bother me, very few car interiors are ideal audiophile environments anyway.

Yeah. What's bad is that the trial subscription clarity on my XM never sounded all that great. Like it was in low fidelity audio. Almost did not subscribe, but ended up doing it anyway and, wha-laaa! Full high fidelity stereo!!! Weird, huh? But, seriously, it was noticable. Sadly the reception quality since the Sirius merge has deteriorated considerably (a know Sirius issue compared to the now defunct XM). Oh, well. You still get spoiled by all of the options and have a hard time letting it go when you don't have it!

I'm clearly living in the 1990's because I still listen to FM radio, and while I have an iPod, I don't use it when I drive, only when I walk to/from work/class or work out.

When I finally get a "modern" car, I probably won't know what to do with all the "technology" that's gonna come with it. I mean, my 1996 Saab doesn't even have a CUPHOLDER, let alone real-time traffic on a navigation screen...

if you get stuck in a traffic jam or whatever, you can use the internet or flip to video mode and watch a movie... advantage: IPod.

No matter how much gilding you put on the turd, radio is last-century technology. Satellite radio is not worth the subscription cost to me because there are too few channels that have programming that I would like to listen to--cost/benefit is even worse than cable TV. Finally having got a 160gb iPod, I can have my entire CD collection plus LPs that I have gotten around to digitizing available with lossless compression. If I want to be "surprised" I could use random play, but I prefer to put together playlists that suit my mood and the trip I'm going on. Of course, I'm also the kind of person who prefers to listen to albums all the way through, and doesn't like to listen to selected single cuts, especially when the selection is someone else's taste. I think I've listened to radio in my car a handful of times in the last 35 years--my parents' cars didn't have radios at all; first two cars I bought it was cassettes, third car I installed a CD changer, fourth car had standard CD changer and input for a 60gb iPod, and now the 160gb.

I had an Ipod touch (my 9yr old has commandeered it) I now listen to Pandora on my BB when not listening to sports talk. For long trips I use a Nano.

@appartisan

IIRC, Audi uses SIRIUS for both satellite radio and real-time traffic data. The real-time traffic subscription can probably be purchased separate from a satellite radio subscription, but I would check with Audi and SIRIUS on that.

I have about 1500 CD's but all of them have been ripped to a HDD using Apple lossless and then stored in a safe place. I use my iPhone with iTunes for the majority of music listening in the car. Consolidating communication and music into one device means I always have my music with me. I also carry a pair of Bose mobile in-ears which allows for music enjoyment anywhere at anytime I'm not in my car.

Agreed, Sat radio lacks fidelity (too much compression), yet another "digital" transport mechanism that doesn't offer a marked improvement over the analog counterpart, IMO.

Droid + Pandora + Bluetooth for me. I know the sound quality isn't all there, but it gets the job done. Don't need to touch the phone unless I'm changing stations, skip and pause are all I need.

My aftermarket radio has a USB port that I just pop in my flash drive and I 8GB worth of music.

On the Ipod question here is my stance.

Ipod = Apple = Evil.

I'll add that it is sad that some folks think it sounds just fine for music...usually, these folks have never heard real albums or even CD's....their only basis of knowledge is cheap downloads, if not free, poor quality MP3's.....not trying to knock it, but it just doesn't sound the same.

I don't listen to Apples, I eat them.

Yep, sound quality on the sat radio is less than optimum due to compression, the selection however is worth a subscription for me.

@ skyggge: Droid+Pandora+Bluetooth is pretty cool. I can imagine that the sound quality probably leaves a bit to be desired, but a totally wireless music stream from your cell phone is nice.

iPhone + Pandora/Shoutcast

I stream Pandora to my Blackberry Storm II then Bluetooth to my car stereo and love it. I have a lot of channels set up. So, when I use QuickMix, I get a lot of variety and rarely a song I don't enjoy. In fact, since finding Pandora, I have given my 80 gig I-Pod to my son. I have all my MP3's on the Blackberry anyways. I can get the high-quality stream through my Blackberry without glitch.

Three young kids - three iPods. Two 40'ish parents - no iPods.

Prefer the randomness of the radio over an iPod or the 10Gb hard drive in my 2007 G35. Could renew the Satellite radio subscription, but have no need for real time traffic and don't mind AM/FM radio.

At least the G35 has AV inputs for an iPod (though no interface) for the kids if they absolutely must have their music.

I connect my Droid and stream either Pandora or Slacker. Good stuff. I'm sick of everything thats on my iPod.

I have Sirius and only listen to Jason Ellis on radio Faction 28. Everytime I'm on the music channels I never hear anything I like.

My wife listens almost exclusively to her iPhone via the aux input on our Subaru. I have a couple GB of music on my Palm Pre that I feed in sometimes, but like many of the others here, I am a fan of Pandora and listen to that most of the time when driving and during my public transport commutes during the week.

I have an iPod shuffle I won a couple months back that I use when working out. I used to have a 30gb Creative Zen Vision with a Rhapsody To Go subscription. It's basically a rental deal, as long as I pay the monthly fee I can download as much music as I want, well worth the $15/month I paid. The headphone jack died and now I use my Pre and Shuffle.

Iphone is best.

You can listen to Pandora, XM, AOL Radio, NPR, and Itunes on the ipod.

I'm curious as to what kind of sound quality you can get streaming these sound services over an Iphone, etc.....anybody have any idea of the quality of these streams?

+1 hybris.

I like to rip mp3's onto blank CD's so I have a copy for each of our cars and not have to remember to bring yet another thing. My wife must have bought 4 different iterations of the dang iPod. We don't know where any of them are because we change computers and those things become worthless very quickly. iTunes is crap because it's a rip off and too restrictive. FM radio is fun because I like to see what mix of stations different towns have and guess as to what each town might be like.

somehow i don't like XM and left my new car's free subscription not activated at all...

I've streamed Pandora from my iPhone before and I'd say it's no better than 128k MP3. Not exactly sure what sort of CODEC Pandora uses. I just installed the iPod cable in my 2010 Mz6 with the new MID/Display head unit and Bose and the overall fidelity of Apple lossless from my iPhone is good for a factory car system.

An iPod or any portable music device outshines near-monopolistic, corporate satellite radio. Case closed.

The 80GB iPod I got from my second wife was a godsend. No more carrying around CDs, no more being forced to listen to radio stations that didn't play what I like. I don't care that iTunes is restrictive -- nearly all of the music I want has been available, including some obscure classics from my youth. As far as listening to certain songs repeatedly, well, to each his or her own. If I had sat radio, it would only be on the sports talk (as much as I can stomach) or the comedy stations.