My 05 LS430 does not have Sat radio. Was this available when it was new?
Anybody know if it is possible to add it now so it would work thru the head unit?
Cost???

 

Yes, most popular is probably Vais. My guess, close to $300 for everything. Some have used Grom Audio and Isimple which are in the $150 dollar range. Use the search functions and you will find a lot of opinions. I have the Vais in my '02 UL and am very pleased. Go to their websites for the accurate cost and other information.

 

Yes, the 05 had a dealer installed option for SiriusXM satellite radio that works through the head unit. The antenna sits on the trunk lid and attaches to a module that plugs into the amplifier.

 

I added iSimple I purchased on Amazon with a Sirius/XM module (you need both parts). I also picked up a flat "puck" type antenna as recommended in a 2 year old post here which mounted easily under the 3rd brake light on the rear deck. Very easy to install. There is a great post with pictures and a step-by-step but it's a fairly easy plug and play. It was around $150

 

Then what's the antenna on the roof?

 

LexusLink.

 

Sirius/XM can now be streamed through smartphone apps available on Google Play and iTunes. Get a VAIS or similar hardwired or Bluetooth aux-in and stream it from the Internet if you really want SiriusXM. We've let the free trials of SiriusXM expire on all our vehicles due to poor sound quality and content. One you have an aux-in, you can virtually emulate the latest Lexus Enform by using the free iBolt Dock'n Drive smartphone app and creating customized phone screens. This may sound complicated but it is very easy.

 

Hi Jim, Traditional satellite reception is quite dependent upon satellite antenna location. How is the reception of satellite radio streamed over a phone app? Is it better than traditional satellite with terrestrial repeaters because it's through cell towers?

 

We've never found the sound quality of SiriusXM to be much different than AM radio regardless of whether we were travelling near our home (mainly in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa) in our own vehicles which came from the factory with SiriusXM or in rental cars in other areas of the U.S. I particularly remember my wife and I driving in the Hyde Park NY area a few years back in a rental car trying to listen to SirusXM with the audio stopping and "buffering" displaying on the radio screen so often that we gave up trying to listen.

As a "public service" to you guys, I registered this morning to use the SiriusXM app on my Samsung S5 Android phone. I was surprised that it let me register and reset my password since the 3-month SiriusXM trial period on my Toyota Sienna Limited expired in July, 2014. I then did a little streaming from the Comedy, Jackson Brown and Tom Petty channels but only using ear buds connected to my phone. Sound quality was excellent - no garbled or fuzzy audio or audio stoppage due to buffering like I've experienced when listening to SiriusXM via satellite and land-based repeaters. Sound quality of the audio from the SiriusXM phone app was as good as Pandora which I subscribe to and stream from a lot. I'm sure that audio from the SiriusXM phone app would sound great streaming via Bluetooth to the 10-speaker JBL system in my Sienna - I'll try that tonight.

OK, regardless of how wonderful sound quality from the SiriusXM phone app is, I'm still not very interested in the content. Like I said, I subscribe to Pandora (to eliminate the advertisements) and it fulfills most of my music needs. (I also have my personal music collection on my phone.) When we travel, we often stream radio stations from the Tunein phone app. There are over 100,000 radio stations on the Tunein service including almost all the many stations here in the Kansas City metro area. My wife wants to listen to her favorite local radio programs when we are out of town so we stream those when we are in our own vehicles, in rental cars or in hotel rooms where we stream from Tunein running on an Android tablet computer that has built-in speakers that can be cranked up to fairly high volumes.

Dang, I love the Internet and how the cell phone system has become robust enough to stream high quality audio - at least as long as you are near major highways. Satellite radio would never have happened if that technology had existed back then.

Edit: I just now actually read the confirmation email from SiriusXM which says that I have a 30 day trial of "SiriusXM Internet Radio (1 Month - Promo)"