Pretty simple questions, I'm just looking for opinions.

Question 1: Which satellite radio would you say is "the best"? I was looking at kenwood. I want sirius by the way.

Question 2: Is downshifting necessary? Another evo owner told me it could damage something long term.

I'd appreciate your opinions Thanks.

 

1. Pioneer, Alpine, and Kenwood are all pretty good
2. If you are in fifth gong 60, and slow to 10 miles per hour without downshifting you aren't going to get much farther

 

What is downshifting to you? I'm suspecting you mean rev-matching on downshifts, but not really sure.

 

Yeah rev matching. When your slowing down, I guess he was matching his speed with a gear. Hope that makes sense.

 

I have a Alpine 9847 which is sat-ready.Alpine has since offered the 9856.I got the Sirius sat-receiver from Best Buy for $99.I feel the music selection on Sirius is better than XM.I made this decision by listening to the free trial offered from the sites. Having Howard Stern doesn't hurt either.

 

Question 1, I don't know, I listen to AM talk radio.

Question 2, What would you damage long term? Did this EVO owner go into specifics? Pardon me, but sounds like he has his head up his a**. Do this yourself: Try matching revs while downshifting, then try not doing that. See what feels better on the car. There is no reason why you cannot learn to match the revs. I am extremely far from the best driver out there, but I learned really fast how to match the revs on my car. It's all about getting a feel on how your car performs, and then getting comfortable with that. Let us know how that all works out.

 

I did a little bit of research on sat radio before I bought into it several years back. The short of it is this, Sirius uses 3 satellites running in a geosynchronous orbit that from the earth looks like a figure 8. Two of the satellites are over the northern hemisphere at any given time. Because of their unique orbit, they appear to have a higher altitude than XM's geostationary (one over the east coast, and one over the west coast, they are named Rock and Roll by the way) satellites. Higher altitude means a better receive angle from the sky, which helps lessen the possibility of cut outs due to mountains, skyscrapers etc. Both networks provide repeaters in larger cities, which helps in tunnels etc (In Seattle and Portland, my Sirius didn't cut out in tunnels and some parking garages also).

Now that I've totally teched myself out for today, and probably made some people go WTF...

I had Sirius for 2 years, and had been very happy with their service. I used a Kenwood KDC-X979 deck, with the Kenwood Sirius receiver. I sold the car, and let the equipment go with it. I just recently bought another Kenwood (the KDC-X990 with the built in acceleration and cornering gyros.. that is awesome in an Evo BTW) and will be getting the Kenwood Sirius receiver here soon. I have travelled all over for work, even into Canada (where both providers say they may not work) and I never had any service issues. I know of a friend who also travelled into Mexico with Sirius, and had it most of the time, with the exception of some really high mountainous areas.

Both services provide a web broadcast demo if you are concerned about content, just visit their site. After you have a subscription, both also provide you with a webstream that you can use to listen to from your PC. I used to love that when I worked in a cubicle. The only time it was a problem was when I listened to rap stations, as Sirius doesn't censor the lyrics.

IMHO, if you like Kenwood, buy a deck from them and buy the Kenwood Sirius receiver. You will be very pleased. It seems to me that their stations are laid out easier to understand than XM and have better content. Plus, they've signed some major names to their network. Unless you're totally into Oprah Winfrey, who just signed a multi million dollar contract with XM to have her own 24 hour "Oprah and Friends" channel. Then your choice is obvious.....

 

LOVE my XM unit...i'm sure i'd be happy with serious 2...

I down shift all day

 

Question 2, What would you damage long term? Did this EVO owner go into specifics? Pardon me, but sounds like he has his head up his a**. Do this yourself: Try matching revs while downshifting, then try not doing that. See what feels better on the car. There is no reason why you cannot learn to match the revs. I am extremely far from the best driver out there, but I learned really fast how to match the revs on my car. It's all about getting a feel on how your car performs, and then getting comfortable with that. Let us know how that all works out.

I just read my original post and realized I should have been alittle more clear. The person in question is my ex, so your right, his head is up his a** lol, but anyway, he said NOT downshifting could damage something long-term. Is that true? He wasn't very specific. I know he use to make downshifting seem like the hardest thing on earth.
But is it neccesary? If I come to a complete stop in 4th, will that hurt anything?

And thanks for your help everyone I think I'll get the kenwood kdc-mp732 I seen at Best Buy yesterday.

 

OK let me clear some things up about downshifting.

When coming to a stop on a residential street or something where you are going like 30 to 0 then no it is not necessary. Simply step on your clutch put it in neutral and then brake. Then when it is your turn go into first again.

When coming to a stop from HIGHER SPEEDS like a freeway offramp then rev matching it is useful IF you do it properly, but it is not necessary. If you do it improperly and the car feels like it is jerking then you either need to practice. So basically if you continue to do it wrong then you are hurting the tranny more than if you just put it in neutral and braked. But if you do it properly you will have more control while decelerating and it will be of no harm to the transmission.

When on the freeway in 5th lets say. And you need to PASS SOMEONE, and you are at too low an RPM in 5th gear and want more power to pass, then basically while your foot is on the clutch and your hand is moving from 5th to 4th blip the throttle while your foot is on the clutch. This will raise the revs and then you release the clutch while the shifter is in 4th and if done properly there will be no jerky motion and you would be at the same speed, but higher revs in 4th and will be much easier to pass someone.

Hope that helps.

But for the most part revmatch downshifting is not necessary by 95% of the drivers on the street. I use it on the track and for passing and offramps. And the occasional twisty road. Other than that I would try and practice on a very low traffic 45mph street. 4th to 3rd is usually the easiest to accomplish because its a very natural movement for your right hand without mis-shifting. So 4th to 3rd is a good shift to start with.

 

Thank you jdm. Just what I needed to know.

Thanks everyone

 

Clutch and flywheel wear are accelerated if you don't rev match when you donwshift. It won't hurt the transmission at all.

 

^^ Driveline shock? Guess what that huge jerk you get when you downshift without rev-matching is.

 

There's much less shock on the drivetrain when downshifting compared to upshifting.

If you really think it's going to damage the transmission think about how many people have broken a transmission from downshifting, compared to how many people have broken the transmission from upshifting.

 

Not the transmission but the entire driveline itself i.e. TC. Going from 6000rpm to 4000rpm suddenly would involve less shock than the other way around. Kinda like getting punched by a weenie compared to some huge barbell eating guy. You could always revmatch when you downshift to help with the shock. Revmatching = less shock.