Does the R2 have a dedicated satellite radio antenna?

[Sportstick]

Threads like this make me really wonder how so many people can listen to satellite-delivered XM/Sirius radio. The audio compression is SO bad it sounds absolutely horrible to me. Even if 100% free I'd never listen to it ever. I'd rather someone flick my ear every 30 seconds in silence than be forced to listen to the over-compressed XM audio streams. It makes my ears cry.

Is it really just me? For those that listen to it (delivered via sat, not over internet transport) - can you really not hear the lossy digital compression artifacts? Or can you hear them but it just doesn't bother you?

I think much of the answer to your consternation is in your own question. First, about 33 million Sirius XM subscribers are in the U.S., so, yes, many people listen to Sirius XM. But, the fact that you even know what "digital compression artifacts" means enough to use the term and that you have such an extreme response to "make my ears cry" suggests you are in the top single-digit percent of audiophiles that evaluate/prioritize sound to that degree in a motor vehicle. For most buyers, music in a car is to fill the silence and help pass the time. It's not a concert hall or a home theater. Most of my Sirius listening is to Real Jazz, Classic Vinyl, and an assortment of oldies from selected decades. I imagine much of that souce material, itself, was likely not originally recorded to your standards. I think it's fine and enjoy the variety, far beyond what I could ever assemble on my own. I do choose premium sound options to maximize what's possible, but have never been disappointed since I bought 3 lifetime subscriptions almost 30 years ago for whatever 3 cars we have and transfer them to at any point in time, now amortized down to pennies per month and dropping. I'm very happy and would not choose a vehicle that did not allow easy access to Sirius. If that's not "adventurous" enough for some, that's OK. It just makes me like most of the non-forum people who will actually acquire an R2, with the most adventurous activity being a curb at a local mall parking lot.

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[Zoidz]

Threads like this make me really wonder how so many people can listen to satellite-delivered XM/Sirius radio. The audio compression is SO bad it sounds absolutely horrible to me. Even if 100% free I'd never listen to it ever. I'd rather someone flick my ear every 30 seconds in silence than be forced to listen to the over-compressed XM audio streams. It makes my ears cry.

Is it really just me? For those that listen to it (delivered via sat, not over internet transport) - can you really not hear the lossy digital compression artifacts? Or can you hear them but it just doesn't bother you?

Human Sensory Class 101. Different people have different levels of visual, tactile, olfactory and taste acuity. The same goes for hearing. Why is that a surprise to you? That's what makes us all different and not robots.

 

[wolfethomas]

Sat radio is legacy tech. Cloud, or internet, has superseded it as wireless digital data advanced. You will see fewer and fewer new cars with sat radio receivers.

Yes, and sadly like some other "legacy" tech it is still superior to what's replacing it (cell technology in this instance). You can't use cell tech to listen to radio in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, for example. There are many regions where the cell coverage is either spotty or non-existent, and when crossing borders (US to Canada) you cannot continue to listen to SiriusXM without having 2 subscriptions. You can also stream from the app on your phone to your Rivian, but you then have to pay for an international data plan with your provider. Despite that, I still love our R1T!

 

[SwampNut]

Satellite radio was a great solution to a problem that stopped existing 20 some years ago. I was so happy to be rid of that horrid compression noise. I managed to sell my lifetime subscription for a bunch of money.

 

[Sportstick]

Satellite radio was a great solution to a problem that stopped existing 20 some years ago.

How did the problem stop existing?

 

[SwampNut]

Technology progressed to give us myriad ways to carry days or months worth of audio/video totally off grid. I sold my device and subscription when it first became possible to carry high quality audio without the limitation of needing the constant satellite connection.

 

[Sportstick]

Technology progressed to give us myriad ways to carry days or months worth of audio/video totally off grid. I sold my device and subscription when it first became possible to carry high quality audio without the limitation of needing the constant satellite connection.

Ah, I see, thanks for explaining. I have no such collection nor interest in finding and assembling one as I'd never achieve the variety and scope as Sirius has and even if I did, I'd have to engage with my phone every time I get in the car to search for it rather than just start the car and drive with music playing. I try to engage with my phone as little as possible, so for me, the problem Sirius solves otherwise would linger on...probably not my only one.

It is interesting to read that there is some burden of maintaining a satellite connection when I'm in the car. I've never experienced that. What is that about, please?

 

[Zoidz]

Technology progressed to give us myriad ways to carry days or months worth of audio/video totally off grid. I sold my device and subscription when it first became possible to carry high quality audio without the limitation of needing the constant satellite connection.

it still fullfills one need for some of us. I want to listen to live football or baseball when I'm out on my boat or in the car and I have no cell coverage in the "wilderness" of central Pennsylvania, and no AM/FM coverage of the game. Who cares about compression then?

 

[JeffC]

I'm glad someone finally started this thread. The lack of a satellite antenna has been bugging me since I got my R1T in November. Sure, it's not the best sound quality but it offers a service that's very valuable to me. Sometimes I listen to Spotify when I want to choose my own music but sometimes I just want a DJ to play it for me and I think that XM does a much better job at that.

I appreciate that XM streaming offers many more options than the satellite, but for a brand that touts itself as an adventure company and specifically locates their charging points to get you into the wilderness where there is often no cell service it seems asinine that they wouldn't include a satellite antenna.

Despite that, I tried signing up for the streaming service and found not only that it provides nothing I didn't already have (included in my free streaming that comes with every satellite subscription) but worst of all it only works when I am the driver. If my wife drives the car without me, no XM. She would have to buy her own subscription. That is complete BS. So I canceled the service. When I want to listen to XM I just have to do it through BT streaming from my phone. Not as convenient but free and it works for my whole family.

Incidentally, I can say from experience that connect+ is NOT required for XM streaming.

 

[jsharper]

I have no such collection nor interest in finding and assembling one as I'd never achieve the variety and scope as Sirius has and even if I did, I'd have to engage with my phone every time I get in the car to search for it rather than just start the car and drive with music playing.

If you ever become interested in alternatives to satellite radio (or terrestrial radio for that matter), know that there are music services available like Youtube Music (and probably Spotify too) that largely address both of your concerns. While they let you be your own DJ and locate/curate exactly the music you want to listen to when you so choose, they also offer myriad options for just letting the algorithms and/or humans build your playlist based on your tastes/mood/listen history/etc. They also support automatically syncing to a local offline cache, so it will decide what to play you, automatically download it to your phone while you are in cell (or wifi range) in the background, and then let it keep playing when you have no service. Lastly, there are numerous people who just get in their car and drive without taking their phone out of their pocket or interacting with it while still enjoying the music playing from their phone through their car automatically. And they generally even let you skip over songs you don't care for with a button on the dash or steering wheel. Of course, Rivian doesn't support Android Auto or CarPlay which surely help make that seamless, but auto play/resume can work with just straight bluetooth too. I've never been in a Rivian so I don't know if it works that seamlessly, but it's definitely a thing in 2026 that people enjoy in general.

 

[SwampNut]

If you ever become interested in alternatives to satellite radio (or terrestrial radio for that matter), know that there are music services available like Youtube Music (and probably Spotify too) that largely address both of your concerns. While they let you be your own DJ and locate/curate exactly the music you want to listen to when you so choose, they also offer myriad options for just letting the algorithms and/or humans build your playlist based on your tastes/mood/listen history/etc. They also support automatically syncing to a local offline cache, so it will decide what to play you, automatically download it to your phone while you are in cell (or wifi range) in the background, and then let it keep playing when you have no service. Lastly, there are numerous people who just get in their car and drive without taking their phone out of their pocket or interacting with it while still enjoying the music playing from their phone through their car automatically. And they generally even let you skip over songs you don't care for with a button on the dash or steering wheel. Of course, Rivian doesn't support Android Auto or CarPlay which surely help make that seamless, but auto play/resume can work with just straight bluetooth too. I've never been in a Rivian so I don't know if it works that seamlessly, but it's definitely a thing in 2026 that people enjoy in general.

Yeah, it’s hilarious how many people here assume so much that isn’t true today. They must have used a Microsoft Zune 20 years ago and assume it’s all the same today. When I get in my Rivian it’s just ready to play what I last listened to. I can say “ hey Siri play the classic rock station” and it just does. Though I suppose for off grid use you do have to do some pre planning. I think I set that up ten years ago and forgot.

But, today I tried to send a fax from the car, and…nothing. I had to drive to the Pony Express office and pay two cents to send the paper.

 

[Sportstick]

Yeah, it’s hilarious how many people here assume so much that isn’t true today. They must have used a Microsoft Zune 20 years ago and assume it’s all the same today. When I get in my Rivian it’s just ready to play what I last listened to. I can say “ hey Siri play the classic rock station” and it just does. Though I suppose for off grid use you do have to do some pre planning. I think I set that up ten years ago and forgot.

But, today I tried to send a fax from the car, and…nothing. I had to drive to the Pony Express office and pay two cents to send the paper.

Funny! Never knew of anything called Zune but the fax was truly nostalgic. BTW, my Sirius lifetime subscriptions are much closer to 30 years old than a mere 20. Since you are clearly more up on this than am I, please "Dick and Jane" this for me....

Start with no Siri. I tried CarPlay out of curiosity but turned it off as it wiped out my navigation screen and silenced the audio whenever my wife picked up her phone for whatever she does as a passenger. I had to re-establish those each time so she had to not touch her phone and that was not pleasant. So, assume none of that. So, what is the source of music selections similar to Sirius's variety...where does it come from if not from me building a library? Where is that Classic Rock Station sourced? Does that same source also have 5 or so jazz channels and all the decades of oldies channels and news channels? Also, is all that free? Thanks for the education!

 

[VandalSibs]

They must have used a Microsoft Zune 20 years ago and assume it’s all the same today.

I loved my ZuneHD, thank you very much!

For real though, the music-listening world has massively changed since then, even if I'm one of those that still buys direct downloads of music, or even CDs & Vinyl (then rips them to my file server). There's a multitude of ways to listen to music anymore...

 

[tivoboy]

It does seem kind of silly for an adventure vehicle to not have any satellite radio capability.. there are so many parts of this land where cellular connects are poor, nonexistent and certainly not reliable. Off piste for sure, and remote - forget about it.. of course satellite to phone does exist, but it’s mostly confined to TEXT and some limited VOICE.

when travelling cross country and remote I love having a satellite radio connection, but for cars that don’t have it onboard it’s easy enough to use a Sirius radio with a remote antenna.. one doesn’t even have to put the tiny quarter sized receiver OUTSIDE the car, usually in the corner of the dash at the base of the front windscreen is sufficient.

Then an AUX in, or BT stream to a headunit and boom bobs ur uncle. Hopefully, Rivian allows a BT stream to a head unit (I’m sure they do)

 

[SwampNut]

I loved my ZuneHD, thank you very much!

Oh yeah, all seven of you guys were really vocal about it, LOL.

For real though, the music-listening world has massively changed since then

I'd say the everything-listening world, including video too. Podcasts, videocasts, there are so many hands-off options. Set up once and forget it. I camp and use the "adventure" part of my Rivian and there's no way I'd burn up everything on my device on a trip. I mean, if nothing else, it's the exact same to be ready to have media on plane trips, or bicycle trips, or hiking, or.....

Wait, now I know who the crazy people are who use the airplane's TV screen with ads and garbage.

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