A wonderful little toy for your big toy
Written: Jun 04 '06
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound Quality: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Excellent sound, innovative features, great display options
Cons: Small buttons, lots of wires
The Bottom Line: A wonderful addition to any car. Many innovative features, great sound, excellent display features.
|
|
|
| newsreporter's Full Review: Delphi XM Roady XT XM Radio Receiver |
Since we live in a rural area and I spend a good deal of time traveling in my car, the broadcast choices are very limited. So we decided to purchase a Delphi XM Roady XT satellite radio, which can be used both in the car and the home. After using it for a month, my wife and I are both very pleased with the radio's performance and choices.
The Roady XT is a very small radio about the size of a credit card, and about a quarter inch deep. You have two options for installation, both included with the radio. You can do a permanent installation, in which you stick a docking station to your dashboard, and then pop the radio in whenever you choose. Or you can use a portable station, which clips onto any horizontal air vent. (We've chosen the latter, so we can swap the radio between cars. This is a problem on my wife's minivan, which has vertical vents in the middle of the dash.) You then plug the radio into a power outlet. Next, you attach the antenna. According to the manual, you are supposed to run the antenna wire to the outside of your car and attach it to your roof with its' powerful magnet. We have just tossed the antenna on the dashboard and it works fine, though I'm sure if you want to hide the wires you'll want to install the antenna permanently.
There are two options for tuning the radio. You can use the cassette adapter if your car is still equipped with a cassette player. Or you can tune in an FM station that is not being used in your area, and then tell the Roady which station you've chosen. This works well, but if you are driving a long distance and the station you've chosen starts picking up a signal, you'll have to find another.
Tuning stations is easy. XM includes a channel guide and you can simply punch in the appropriate number. It is much easier (and safer while you're driving) if you simply pre-program your favorite stations. The radio has the ability to store 30 stations. You can also scan stations, during which the radio will stop at each station for five seconds. Or you can shop by category. There is a "jump" feature, which allows you to return to the previous channel. By far the most innovative feature is known as "TuneSelect." Let's say you're a fan of the Beach Boys. If you should hear one of their tunes, simply punch the "memory" button. Then, whenever a Beach Boys song is playing on any other channel, the radio will beep and alert you. You can then switch to that station by hitting "Select." You can save 20 artists or specific songs in your memory by choosing "song" or "artist."
The display offers some real innovations as well. It will show you the channel, the song, the artist, stock quotes, or baseball scores. You simply choose the setting. I've programmed it to give me the scores of certain baseball teams that I follow. It is really nice to listen to one game while having other scores scroll across the screen. It is also nice to hear a song and be able to see the name of the artist in case you don't know.
You can also preview what is being played on other stations without changing stations. For instance, if you're listening to Frank Sinatra on the 60's channel, you can scroll through the other channels and find that Madonna is playing on the 80's channel. If you want to switch, just hit "select."
The only drawback I've found is that the buttons are very small. Since I have big hands and fingers, I sometimes find it hard to hit specific buttons while driving.
By the way, the manual suggests keeping the radio out of extreme heat, so when I'm parked for awhile (I live in the sunbelt) I simply pop the radio out. It fits easily into any pocket.
XM has also made it easy to find your favorite stations. For instance, the 50's are on channel 5, the 60's on channel 6, etc. Country stations are grouped together, as are easy listening, baseball, comedy, etc. By the way, for sports fans, XM has major league baseball, Sirius has NFL football.
Bottom line, this radio has made driving enjoyable again. Since I'm in my 50's I'd often been frustrated by the choices on broadcast radio. Satellite gives me 200 options. And it is truly nice to listen to my hometown Mets broadcast on a New York station.
I purchased the radio from Amazon.com and paid $49. There was a $20 rebate at the time, so the total cost was $29. There are often rebates, so check around before you buy. Also, not that some rebates are not good on products purchased at major chains like Wal-Mart.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 49
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
newsreporter
|
|
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.