I have the Kenwood Excelon DDX-8017 and I have the Sirius antenna and subscribed to Sirius for it! I love the unit, I have the KNA-G510 for the navigational attachment to it, as well as the back up rear camera! I have had both services with external receivers before I purchased the Double Din! I think Sirius is overall better as far major celebrities backing it up, but XM has it killed when it comes to features that work with the unit! I spent probably well over 2000.00 getting it installed and for all the extra gismos and gadgets that go along with it, and I am well happy! (word of advice buy all your stuff separately its a hell of a lot cheaper!) One thing that I have complained about with Sirius at all levels and no one can help me, so that is partly why I am posting this comment is how come with the DDX-8017, and older units, I notice when I hook it up with my Garmin Navigational Unit, that XM has a XM player with it, while Sirius doesn't! Sirius does have a player when it is hooked up with the Sirius Satellite antenna that goes along for this receiver, but their player doesn't have it own spot like the XM player does on the interface! I kinda of think it was preset and built either with the receiver or comes with Garmin KNA-G510 because of the relationship with Garmin! Since I don't have the XM service and I'm subscribed to Sirius, I don't know how it works compared to the Sirius radio! But I'm almost willing to bet money that the XM player built that pops up on the menu of the actual interface acts like the add on receivers that you can by for cars when you don't have satellite radio and allows you to save your favorite songs with this tuner and automatically shows up if your listening to another song, when the Garmin unit is attached! This also means if you have the special Garmin antenna GXM 30 XM Smart Antenna , that you can easily subscribe to XM nav taffic, and have directions sent to the navigational system to guide you in and out of traffic, and when I looked in that category on my DDX-8017 I think XM also sends you weather reports, since I saw an option for weather with nice displays of the current forecasts!! Sirius has yet to make any of these options so that aftermarket models, besides the Alpine SIR-ALP10T, will work with Sirius Nav Traffic! This really pisses me off because they should be trying to make it more available for those people who have aftermarket models such as the DDX-8017 and the new one that will come out in March DDX-8019! XM clearly blows Sirius out of the water when it comes to technological advances and trying to always add new ideas and better their receivers, compared to Sirius! Today Sirius and XM announced they will be merging! Will they combine their 150 or stations each to make one big satellite empire of 300! What name will they use for this big merge! Will this make any of the current Sirius subscribers Kenwood aftermarket factory units work with the Sirius Nav Traffic with the new merge! Will they make one completely new name with this merge! I called Kenwood and tried to get them to send me a brochure of this new DDX-8019 because its got me pumped I'm kinda of wondering it added a special place for Sirius users to have a specific Sirius tuner like the way the XM player that comes on it is! This unit seems like its going to be pretty sweet considering the fact that you have your own USB port which I'm assuming you could put your own pictures for the wall papers of your DDX-8019 unit! I knwo this has hit a lot of questions but Sirius is far behind their aftermarket division, I have a lot of questions that I'm hoping someone can answer because I feel like Sirius is limiting my current DDX-8017 on all the options its fully capable of, now I' almost wishing I had waited for the DDX-8019 that's coming out in March, figures, something newer and better always comes out, kinda of like cell phones! If anyone can answer me on any levels of this long winded post email me at [email protected], I will be greatly appreciated! Especially Xm users who have the XM antenna with the DDX-8017 along with the KNA G510 attachments, does that XM player allow you to save songs while you are listening to other channels? Will this new Kenwood DDX-8019 allow you to put your own pictures up, as wallpaper! Please let me know my email is listed above and would like any answers to these questions! I know their is lots of knowledge to be gained in forums and that is why I am here!
Jon
Jon
