I’m thinking about buying a Sirius receiver/car unit/etc… I was wondering: is it possible to to satellite radio on a headset? I would love to listen to the faster paced stations while working out.
As for Sirius specifically, I’m not sure, but I know XM has a portable player meant to be used with headphones, so there’s not any inherent difficulty with the medium.
It depends on the receiver. Some receivers have headphone output with volume control; others only have a LINE OUT.
The bigger problem is reception. Perhaps a 1-story wooden house would be fine, but I live on the first floor of a 2-story apartment building and I can’t get reliable reception, not even with the antenna sitting on the window ledge. Better to use internet streaming (Sirius allows subscribers to stream their music channels).
Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of satellite radio in the first place?
It depends. If, as Garfield basically said, you are willing to pony up $300 for the MyFi receiver, you can use it anywhere the portable antenna can get a signal. If you happen to live in a city with some terrestrial repeaters, you might not even need to catch a satellite. I know XM has repeaters, I do not know if Sirius does. That said, I’d expect a normal receiver to come with only a line out, so for volume control you’d need an in-line volume control, either built into the headphones or chained in. Also, where are you working out and on what? It’s simple to get a small boombox with a line-in and use that. Or you could even get the Delphi boombox designed to fit the SkyFi XM receiver.
XM now also allows streaming of the music channels. In fact, the subscription price is exactly the same, so make any choice based on hardware and programming. As for defeating the purpose of satellite radio, not really. I have a place for the receiver in my bedroom and in my car. I can not easily move the setup without unplugging the dock, moving the antenna, and so on. It would cost me another $100 for another receiver, plus more in subscription fees if I wanted a permanent install in both areas. It would still cost me the price of the dock and another antenna if I wanted to set up a third possible location, unless I wanted to get the boombox, which would then give me more portability but cost me $100. I can, however, with DSL easily stream the music to where the computer is in a different room. If I really wanted to listen to sports or news, I would have to move the receiver or stop using the computer, as you cannot stream those channels.