Satellite Radio > What Do I Need For My Home?

What Do I Need to Get Satellite Radio in My Home?

Satellite radio can be a great addition to your current line up of home entertainment. The commercial-free format gives you the chance to listen to continuous programming on over a hundred channels throughout your home. Unlike visual home entertainment - TV, videos, DVDs - radio does not require your full attention, allowing you to enjoy other activities at the same time even though it is a part of your home entertainment center.

With satellite radio, you need:

• Equipment that will allow you to access to a specific satellite radio system
• A subscription to a satellite radio service

Each satellite radio system - XM Radio or Sirius - has equipment that is exclusive for their programming for your home entertainment system. Changing to a different system requires purchasing new equipment, so it is important to select the best system to start. See our section on finding out which system is best for you.

For your home, your choice is to either purchase a free-standing system or an integrated system.

Free standing

You can purchase a stand-alone system that comes with everything you need to enjoy commercial-free radio - the receiver and the speakers. This is the simplest configuration, and is useful when you do not have an extensive home entertainment system in place. Using this approach, you can be up and running with satellite radio very quickly. However, the quality of the speakers can be a limitation.

Integrated

If you currently have a home entertainment system with multiple components, you may want to add the capability to receive satellite radio to your system. For this approach, you can purchase a satellite radio receiver that is added to your current component line up, similar to when you added a DVD player. Using your current system will allow you to utilize your investment in your speaker system to achieve the best sound possible. And with many universal remotes, the additional equipment can be integrated into it as well.

Because you are going to be purchasing a subscription to one of the satellite radio services - XM Radio or Sirius - you may want to think about purchasing a system that will allow you to also listen to commercial-free radio in other places, such as your car. "Plug and Play' units, such as the Delphi XM MYFi, Delphi SKYFi and Sirius Sportster, are an extremely popular type of satellite radio receiver.. There are many audio systems available for this format. See our section on what you need to receive satellite radio anywhere.