If you're frustrated with the radio programing in your area (and, seriously, how could you not be these days?), the premise of satellite radio is like a dream come true: dozens of channels playing near-CD-quality music, organized by genre, brimming with vitality, and, best of all, almost uninterrupted.
What's the catch? Well, aside from the monthly subscription fee, you'll need some equipment to pick up the satellite signals. Although both XM and Sirius initially focused on car receivers, devices designed for home and portable use are proliferating. We reeled in four of them — two for each service — to see how easy they make it to navigate and hear what satellite radio has to offer.
SATELLITE RADIO ANYWHERE In most respects, these little “transportable” radios — the XM SKYFi 2 ($130) and Roady 2 ($130) from Delphi , and the Sirius Sportster ($100) and XACT XTR1 Stream Jockey ($100) — are very similar. All four are approximately palm-size and sport LCD screens for channel and program information. Any space not taken up by the screen is occupied by controls, mostly buttons for selecting channel presets. All except the Delphi Roady2 are designed to plug into a home or car mounting device that has jacks for DC power (from a wall-wart AC adapter or a car socket), an antenna input, and a line-level audio output. The Roady2 has these jacks built into its left side. The audio outputs on all four models are standard 1/8 -inch stereo minijacks, so you'll have no problem finding replacement or extension cables. And each radio has a built-in FM modulator that allows it to wirelessly broadcast to any nearby FM tuner, like your car radio.
TUNING IN Satellite radio isn't like an ordinary AM or FM radio that you can put anywhere and expect to receive a signal, however poorly. The antenna must have a clear path to the satellite or to a terrestrial repeater. This isn't a problem outdoors, but the antennas for home installations have to be facing in approximately the direction of the satellite or repeater, at a window or even outdoors. In my northern New Jersey location, the antennas usuallly had to be outdoors to achieve adequate signal strength.
AT THE CONTROLS For all the radios, basic operation was about as easy and intuitive as you could imagine. I was channel surfing within a matter of minutes once I got the antennas set up correctly, without so much as cracking a manual or glancing at a quick-start sheet.
With so many channels available, it's good that each radio displays essential information about what's playing and has a variety of ways to find the programming you want. All of them have multiple display settings that vary screen content and emphasis, but typically what you see is the channel name and number, the artist's name, and the song title. They also have plenty of channel presets and, at minimum, a category-search function that lets you scroll through the channels under a particular genre. And you can check what's playing on other channels without tuning away from the one you're currently listening to — which all by itself is a big advance over conventional analog radio.
Each tuner, except the Roady2, also allows searches by artist or song title. And all, including the Roady2, let you memorize the artist and title for about 20 songs. You can use this information for reference (“What was that song I liked so much?”) or to have the radio alert you when one of those songs is playing on a different channel.
SOUND QUALITY These convenience features are great, but it would be hard to care much if the sound was poor. Not to worry. With these radios hooked up to my home audio system, both Sirius and XM delivered consistently clear and clean sound. Because it's nearly impossible to make the sort of direct comparisons that would allow definitive conclusions, I can only say that music sounded better than typical FM broadcasts and most MP3s I've heard, but I didn't think it was quite up to CD quality.
Before moving on to the differences between the hardware, I have to say that my 11-year-old son is now begging for satellite radio about as much as he did for an iPod and, before that, a PlayStation 2 — which, for the record, is a lot of begging. But on this one, I'm probably more excited than he is.
| Delphi SKYFi2 | ||
| Service | XM |
This update of the original SKYFi tuner has a sleek, modern look and good control layout — on the remote as well as the front panel. A socket on the bottom edge plugs into a mounting cradle. Mounting kits for car and home systems ($70 each) — and boats ($200) — are sold separately and include the appropriate antenna and power supply. The radio can also plug into other devices designed to accept it, like the SKYFi Audio System portable boomboxes ($100 and $200). A new feature called 30-Minute Replay keeps the last half hour of whatever you've been listening to in memory, so you can go back and hear something again or pick up where you left off if you were interrupted. Call it TiVo for the radio. You can also add a ticker for up to 20 stocks that scrolls along the bottom of the display or set it up to scroll sports scores and other types of information instead. Except in a mode that scrolls the song titles, the display isn't fully readable from across a room, but that's the only annoyance I encountered (and one that won't come up at all in a car). Nicely done. |
| Application | home/mobile | |
| Channel presets |
30 | |
| Category search |
yes | |
| Artist/title search |
yes | |
| Previous- channel button |
yes | |
| Parental lock | yes | |
| Remote control |
yes | |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) |
4 5/8 x 3 x 1 3/8 inches | |
| Price | $130 | |
| Sirius Sportster | ||
| Service | Sirius |
Tasteful, intelligent control layout and an excellent display make the Sportster a pleasure to use. A socket on the bottom edge plugs into a home or car cradle (each sold separately with appropriate power supply and antenna for $50) or other compatible device, such as the Sportster Boombox ($100). The Sportster's hot feature is called Game Alert. Enter your favorite NFL and NHL teams into memory, and the radio will automatically alert you when they're playing and give you the option of tuning to the appropriate channel. Since Sirius carries every game played, football fans never have to miss out. You can also program the radio to switch to a particular channel at a particular time. |
| Application | home/mobile | |
| Channel presets |
30 | |
| Category search |
yes | |
| Artist/title search |
yes | |
| Previous- channel button |
yes | |
| Parental lock | yes | |
| Remote control |
yes | |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) |
4 5/8 x 3 1/8 x 1 1/2 inches | |
| Price | $100 | |
| Delphi Roady2 | ||
| Service | XM |
Smaller than SKYFi2 and more basic, the Roady2 still delivers the XM goods on the go. It comes with a car antenna and power adapter as well as three mounting adapters. (A boombox option from Cambridge SoundWorks is reviewed on the next page.) Power, antenna, and audio-output jacks are on the radio's left edge. Roady2 shares SKYFi2's stock-ticker feature, allowing you to track prices for up to 20 stocks of your choice on the display, but not the 30-minute replay. Instead of a tuning knob, there's a pressure-sensitive wheel/button at the upper righthand corner. I found it a little fussy to use at first, but given the space constraint, it's a reasonable compromise. Overall, the controls are sensibly laid out and easy to use. |
| Application | mobile | |
| Channel presets |
yes | |
| Category search |
no | |
| Artist/title search |
no | |
| Previous- channel button |
no | |
| Parental lock | no | |
| Remote control |
no | |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) |
3 7/8 x 2 3/8 x 3/4 inches | |
| Price | $130 | |
| XACT XTR1 Stream Jockey | ||
| Service | Sirius |
The only vertically oriented radio in this bunch, the XTR1 looks and feels something like a bulky cellphone. Home, car, and universal mounting kits are available separately ($50 each) and include the respective antennas and power supplies. The radio attaches to the mounts or to other compatible devices like the Stream Jockey boombox via a socket on the bottom edge. It also has a minijack headphone output on its left edge and up/down volume control buttons on the right — a very nice touch. Although the buttons that control everything (no knobs) are laid out well enough, some functions are harder to operate than on the other radios. For example, the 18 channel presets are in 6 banks, and since neither the radio nor the remote has a full numeric keypad, direct channel entry isn't really all that direct. Also, the tuner wouldn't accept commands from the remote if it was too far off-angle. Like the Sportster, the XTR1 has a timer so it can switch to another channel when a program begins. |
| Application | home/mobile | |
| Channel presets |
18 | |
| Category search |
yes | |
| Artist/title search |
yes | |
| Previous- channel button |
no | |
| Parental lock | yes | |
| Remote control |
yes | |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) |
2 5/8 x 4 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches | |
| Price | $100 | |
Except for the XTR1 Stream Jockey, which has a headphone jack, all of these radios are really just tuners that require connection to an audio system of some sort to produce sound. And each of them now can boast at least one boombox-type portable that mates with it to create a complete carry-around system. I tried two of them.
The Cambridge SoundWorks PlayDock XM ($200) for the Delphi Roady2 is a hefty 14 pounds of sound system, including amplifiers for its built-in three-piece speaker system (dual tweeters and a common 5 1/4-inch woofer) and a rechargeable battery that Cambridge says will run the system for up to 10 hours. A handle on the back makes it easy to tote. The Roady2 fits snugly into a rubber "glove" on top and plugs into audio and power leads located there; the antenna attaches directly. Besides the controls on the radio, the PlayDock XM adds volume up/down and mute buttons, plus another that switches a stereo-enhancement mode on and off. This last button had the effect of very modestly widening the perceived stereo image.
Sound from the Roady2/PlayDock XM combination was smooth, clean, and articulate with strong bass. But the added oomph wasn't overbearing, and it actually sounds better when used outdoors where there's no room reinforcement to boost the bottom end.
XACT XS025 portable speakers ($90) for the Stream Jockey tuner.
On the Sirius side, I checked out the XACT XS025 ($90) for the XACT XTR1 Stream Jockey. Though radically different from the PlayDock XM in appearance, the XS025 is similar in concept. An XTR1 slips securely into a rubber-lined receptacle at the front of its central module, and all electrical connections are made from a plug in that sleeve to the socket on the radio's bottom. On top are a rotary volume control/power switch, a headphone minijack, and a reach-through hand grip; a receptacle at the back provides antenna storage. Speaker enclosures with 4-inch full-range drivers protrude from either side. Power is supplied by an external AC adapter or D-cell batteries loaded four-apiece into the backs of the speaker enclosures. (The XS025 is very light without batteries and is still lighter than the PlayDock XM when they're in.) Sound from the boombox was respectably clear and even, though without pretense to any sort of deep bass. The XS025 won't knock your socks off, but it's easy on the ears — and wallet.