Sirius' nifty new home satellite radio tuner

That blurry thing under the display is the SR-H2000.

(Credit: Sirius XM)

I went to Sirius XM's New York City headquarters on Wednesday to see what's new. They showed a bunch of docking units and the like, but the only new product that got my juices flowing was a new home tuner, the sleek-looking SR-H2000.

You might think a brand new Sirius tuner (not a table radio) intended to be used with a stereo or home theater system would also offer access to all XM channels, but that's not the case. Sirius subscribers can add "The Best of XM" package for a small upcharge on their monthly bill.

The SR-H2000 includes a wired 12-volt IR input, a menu-selected RS232 control, and an F-type antenna connector. By adding a SIRIUSConnect Tuner or Home Dock, the SR-H2000 can play two different channels simultaneously in separate rooms.

The SR-H2000 features a video output that can be used to display the user interface and programming information on your TV. The included rackmount hardware allows the SR-H2000 to be mounted flush with the front of a rack. You can pause and replay up to 44 minutes of live satellite radio.

No one at Sirius mentioned sound quality, and why would they? It's pretty miserable and I doubt the SR-H2000 will improve my opinion of Sirius' sound.

The new SR-H2000 will be available in the fall primarily through custom installers and specialty retailers for a suggested retail price of $349.

[qualheim]

I don't really understand what is supposed to be so incredible about this unit? It seems overpriced and the features seem pretty mediocre to me.

[nate2551]

So Sirius and XM merged and are one, yet when you subscribe to Sirius you don't have access to XM programming and when you subscribe to XM you don't have access to Sirius programming? ***.

[soundman45]

It will be interesting to see what kind of marketing program they have for a product such as this. I may be wrong but It really doesn't look that exciting, especially for the price.

[MadLyb]

If I don't like the quality of XM/Sirius audio in my car, why would I put this in my home system where the lack of background noise makes the failure even more obvious?

Also, why would you buy equipment that still can't handle both networks?

Finally, I already get a subset of XM from DirecTV.

Fail, fail, fail.

[DaveOCP]

Let me see if I have this straight. I can pay $350, plus a monthly fee, for access to a hundred or so mediocre stations with crappy sound quality, and I have to like what's playing because there's no controls other than a tuning knob.

Or, I can turn on Last.fm, and create one of I dont know, hundreds of thousands of possible stations? A million? If I'm tired of a song I can skip it, or ban it if I never want to hear it again. Surely this kind of technology most cost hundreds of dollars a month. Oh wait.. it's free. Satellite radio is a joke that should've died before it even began.