Replacing my 15-year old aftermarket Sirius antenna in 2021
10-04-2021, 04:59 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Replacing my 15-year old aftermarket Sirius antenna in 2021
It is an interesting feeling to be essentially updating a thread in which I once participated 16 years ago.
I had my 2005 E320 CDI in for dealer service (a much longer story that deserves a thread of its own, when it finally plays out), and my dealer's people pressure-washed my
aftermarket satellite radio antenna from the spot on the panorama roof where that same dealer's techs installed it when the car first arrived after my European Delivery trip.
Younger people may not know this, but Sirius and XM Radio used to be 2 companies. They had 2 different satellite constellations, with 2 different frequency allocations for their
satellite and terrestrial transmitters. So antennas for those services were different, tuned differently, and pretty much incompatible. My understanding is that the Sirius antennas had some LNA (low-noise amplifier) circuitry that the XM ones may not have had, embedded with the antenna elements.
If I use "Sirius," I'm referring to technology specifically built for the old Sirius satellite radio constellation and band, and if I use "XM" on its own, I'm referring to that of the old XM Radio. The modern company is
"SiriusXM" and modern receivers may well take advantage of both bands and constellations.
I still have the original, never-installed, Mercedes-Benz Sirius antenna in its original bag, but I wanted something smaller for my satellite radio listening, and didn't want to use
the factory's prime mounting spot in the middle of the trunk lid, as I wanted to reserve that for an amateur radio antenna someday.
Instead, I had the dealer install an American International SIR1-SAF (some people used a Terk SIR-MINI), along with a Terk SIR-SP splitter (used as a combiner in my case).
It has worked pretty well for almost 15 years. The biggest problem with current (2021) use of the 2005-era Mercedes-Benz factory Sirius receivers is that the Sirius data stream with information about active channels is apparently larger than the one for which they were originally designed and sometimes your factory radio will show "Updating Station List" for extended periods of time. That temporarily makes returning impossible, but plays audio the whole time, so it hasn't been all that much of an inconvenience.
So I embarked upon a quest to find a modern replacement, and it looks like one of the only contenders may be the SiriusXM NGVA3, which I found at Crutchfield, and is on its way.
The cable (which is something like 23 feet long!) from the NGVA3, has an SMB connector on the end, so it looks like I'm going to have to use either an SMB-to-FAKRA cable or a single-piece adapter.
I don't currently have an ALC in the antenna circuit, and have really never had any issues.
When I find the right parts, and install it, I will give you an update on how it went, but right now I'm off to diagnose a weird shifter lever/CAN bus problem.
I am hoping to make this all moot very soon and install an Android head unit, but I've been busy.
Best, and thanks for being here all of these years!
P.S. If you have European impact strips installed on your car here in the U.S., be sure to check the original lamp connections. I discovered that some mechanic to which I've taken it over the years had cut off the bulbs and sockets, and the car started throwing alerts about marker lamps. Just a heads-up if you have mods to your car and haven't popped underneath it in a while.
I had my 2005 E320 CDI in for dealer service (a much longer story that deserves a thread of its own, when it finally plays out), and my dealer's people pressure-washed my
aftermarket satellite radio antenna from the spot on the panorama roof where that same dealer's techs installed it when the car first arrived after my European Delivery trip.
Younger people may not know this, but Sirius and XM Radio used to be 2 companies. They had 2 different satellite constellations, with 2 different frequency allocations for their
satellite and terrestrial transmitters. So antennas for those services were different, tuned differently, and pretty much incompatible. My understanding is that the Sirius antennas had some LNA (low-noise amplifier) circuitry that the XM ones may not have had, embedded with the antenna elements.
If I use "Sirius," I'm referring to technology specifically built for the old Sirius satellite radio constellation and band, and if I use "XM" on its own, I'm referring to that of the old XM Radio. The modern company is
"SiriusXM" and modern receivers may well take advantage of both bands and constellations.
I still have the original, never-installed, Mercedes-Benz Sirius antenna in its original bag, but I wanted something smaller for my satellite radio listening, and didn't want to use
the factory's prime mounting spot in the middle of the trunk lid, as I wanted to reserve that for an amateur radio antenna someday.
Instead, I had the dealer install an American International SIR1-SAF (some people used a Terk SIR-MINI), along with a Terk SIR-SP splitter (used as a combiner in my case).
It has worked pretty well for almost 15 years. The biggest problem with current (2021) use of the 2005-era Mercedes-Benz factory Sirius receivers is that the Sirius data stream with information about active channels is apparently larger than the one for which they were originally designed and sometimes your factory radio will show "Updating Station List" for extended periods of time. That temporarily makes returning impossible, but plays audio the whole time, so it hasn't been all that much of an inconvenience.
So I embarked upon a quest to find a modern replacement, and it looks like one of the only contenders may be the SiriusXM NGVA3, which I found at Crutchfield, and is on its way.
The cable (which is something like 23 feet long!) from the NGVA3, has an SMB connector on the end, so it looks like I'm going to have to use either an SMB-to-FAKRA cable or a single-piece adapter.
I don't currently have an ALC in the antenna circuit, and have really never had any issues.
When I find the right parts, and install it, I will give you an update on how it went, but right now I'm off to diagnose a weird shifter lever/CAN bus problem.
I am hoping to make this all moot very soon and install an Android head unit, but I've been busy.
Best, and thanks for being here all of these years!
P.S. If you have European impact strips installed on your car here in the U.S., be sure to check the original lamp connections. I discovered that some mechanic to which I've taken it over the years had cut off the bulbs and sockets, and the car started throwing alerts about marker lamps. Just a heads-up if you have mods to your car and haven't popped underneath it in a while.
10-05-2021, 05:57 PM
#2
Hello pa28pilot !!! I too am compiling all parts to install a fully new stereo system. I’ve seen your posts from a couple years ago regarding the AVIN HU, which I can tell you now has upgraded to Qualcomm Snapdragon, 4G RAM 64G ROM, 8 Core Android 10. I’m a little upset at them after receiving confirmation 2 weeks ago that if I were to install OEM TPMS that their receiver would be able to decode it, so I bought new tires as well as TPMS Sensors and had them installed, tires mounted and balanced, now only to find that it “may” work! My bad for not knowing that the OEM TPMS Sensors are not Reprogrammable, Ouch! Other than that, the guys on AVIN chat have no more information than what is posted on their site, which is a little frustrating. For example, when I asked what DAC is installed to reproduce Hi Res CD’s, the guy sends a pic of the DSP App that’s available for upgrade??
Since I have 9 Channels that will be processed through an Audison Bit Nove>2 Gladen Amps (4x5 channel) coupled with the fact that I ideally would run 3 way component front, 2 Full Range in the rear doors, & Sub, that’s 9 and excludes the Center Channel, but I would like to meddle with trying to use 2 of the 4 channels from the AVIN HU powered (4x45Watts) for the Rear Surrounds and try to use the other 2 Channels to connect to the Center Speaker. That said, the surrounds would be 5” Focals and the Center a “To be purchased” 4 ohm replacement. The “Add-on” AVIN HU DSP seemingly could be used to adjust both the Surrounds and the Center if the center was combined with say the front R&L. But what I don’t know is if the DSP signal would effect sound Low Level output from the RCA’s which would provide signal to the Audison DSP driving the other speakers. If I were to say use the Hi Level Out Speaker wires from the AGW as the signal, then surely the Audison DSP would deprocess & equalize to flat that signal. I’m just not sure about signal it gets from RCA Low Level Out that may be effected by any DSP setting made in the HU itself? And surely the Chat Guy couldn’t answer me that?
I did ask if the un shielded WiFi wire to the motherboard and if the External Speaker not being soldered correctly were fixed in this generation, but alas, no response! I would like to know what you used to power your external mic setup with your previous AVIN HU and would be interested in how you phased it in with the “other” mics you mentioned in a previous post.
Since I have 9 Channels that will be processed through an Audison Bit Nove>2 Gladen Amps (4x5 channel) coupled with the fact that I ideally would run 3 way component front, 2 Full Range in the rear doors, & Sub, that’s 9 and excludes the Center Channel, but I would like to meddle with trying to use 2 of the 4 channels from the AVIN HU powered (4x45Watts) for the Rear Surrounds and try to use the other 2 Channels to connect to the Center Speaker. That said, the surrounds would be 5” Focals and the Center a “To be purchased” 4 ohm replacement. The “Add-on” AVIN HU DSP seemingly could be used to adjust both the Surrounds and the Center if the center was combined with say the front R&L. But what I don’t know is if the DSP signal would effect sound Low Level output from the RCA’s which would provide signal to the Audison DSP driving the other speakers. If I were to say use the Hi Level Out Speaker wires from the AGW as the signal, then surely the Audison DSP would deprocess & equalize to flat that signal. I’m just not sure about signal it gets from RCA Low Level Out that may be effected by any DSP setting made in the HU itself? And surely the Chat Guy couldn’t answer me that?
I did ask if the un shielded WiFi wire to the motherboard and if the External Speaker not being soldered correctly were fixed in this generation, but alas, no response! I would like to know what you used to power your external mic setup with your previous AVIN HU and would be interested in how you phased it in with the “other” mics you mentioned in a previous post.
