Guys, first of all - thank you for this thread and taking the time to write some observations. I never write myself and feel guilty, so this time, having come out of my ordeal with FREE 2nd Day UPS SiriusXM Edge unit with car and vehicle kits to replace my Sirius Sportster 4, I have myself several observations:
1. Sirius is being phased out and will be gone by 2015. They are squeezing it out of the pipeline and the tech department at SiriusXM Corp is very aware of that. This is a done deal. Sirius platform is over. Whatever new Sirius unit you buy - it'll have only old technology and bad codec sound.
2. XM is being replaced with SiriusXM but on XM platform. Thus, everyone with XM is cool. SiriusXM is slightly better for extra channels. Sound difference is immediately better on XM or SiriusXM from Sirius units.
3. Be nice when contacting Sirius, and they WILL HELP. They do want to keep you as a customer - $15 a month is a very solid revenue. They'll go out of their way to ensure the next $45 billing takes place. Don't use them because of this, but work with them. Their email and FB page respond within minutes/hours. I found them to have and conduct excellent communication, and whoever has bad experience probably has bad attitude to begin with. Being nice goes a long way.
My story: after reading this forum, I just wrote a short, polite, well-substantiated email of frustration to their generic support how Sirius sound quality sucks and has gotten worse and I love the service, but consider to quit it and have issues recommending the company to my friends, since the quality sucks. They emailed and CALLED me NEXT DAY! A wonderful lady from NY gave me a day to research new XM units (she warned me that it'll be a "like new" refurbished unit), pick one (I didn't go for Lynx as I don't need the touch screen and felt unethical pushing for the most expensive item for free). I asked for Edge. She said - yes, will send it with a car kit. I said I'll need a house kit too and would love to buy a refurbished discounted one. She said no worries. 48 hours later, for free, at my door were two boxes - with both kits and the Edge in them! The service swap took about 3 minutes over the phone and was free as well. That's it! I have new Edge with both kits for free, switched over for free, and am a forever happy customer, recommending the company left and right.
Customer experience of the decade for me, hands down!
4.
Mounting in cars: GUYS, c'mon - be creative. Here's what I've been doing for years (and that's also why I didn't want Lynx). Buy industrial velcro by Velcro or 3M. Attached the soft side to any flat surface in your car; stick the studded velcro to the bottom of the car dock. Voila! I even travel with a soft velcro - stick it on in friends' and rental cars, and later when it's time to give the car back - just wipe with water or alcohol - and it leaves no marks and no damage. Industrial velcro keeps the unit very secure and even has enough strength and resistance for me to push all the buttons. Five years of velcro mountain and going. Zero footprint, zero damage to the car, super neat and looks great. Lynx's car dock doesn't have a flat bottom - thus I ruled it out right away.
5. Also, Edge seems to be an easier unit to control via simple genre buttons and a nob. Lynx is a beautiful, great unit - so if you're stuck in between and don't care about physical buttons and flat car dock surface - get it. I played with Lynx at Best Buy - it is amazing. No bugs, no nothing. One of top tech products out there. Maybe in a new car I'll consider Lynx a year or two from now. Edge works very nicely too. Sound is definitely not CD quality, but is "good enough" (I produce music and have JBL towers, Tascam monitors, 12 gage wiring, etc. at home, so very picky - Edge sounds good enough for me, GREAT to everyone else).
6. Sirius antennas work great with XM units. I didn't have to rewire my home or car - and both have 100% reception via very old Sirius antennas on the new SIriusXM Edge unit. That's it!
So, the bottom lines:
- XM is better sound than Sirius
- Sirius bye bye by 2015, XM here to stay
- SiriusXM Inc. knows about it and works with customer on it
- be nice, polite, professional when communicating with them, use their FB page for answer within minutes
- Velcro is the best mountain option!
Good luck!
Yuri