Sony’s DRN-XM01H XM Satellite Radio Receiver for the Home!
Written: Aug 04 '02 (Updated Feb 01 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great sound with commercial free stations.
Cons: The price, limit of only 5 preset favorite channels.
The Bottom Line: Better sound quality than the FM stations with several commercial free stations.
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Sony DRN-XM01C Satellite Radio Receiver with Car K... |
Sony offers the DRN-XM01 XM Satellite Radio Receiver in a home version with the letter “H” (DRN-XM01H) at the end of the product number and a car or cassette version with the letter “C” (DRN-XM01C) at the end of the product number.
This review is on the Home system the DRN-XM01H XM Satellite Radio Receiver. You can purchase the Sony’s DRN-XM01CK XM Satellite Radio Receiver Car Accessory Kit to use it with your car.
The Home System Setup
Setting up for home use is fairly simple, first put together the stand and cradle with one screw so the receiver can be placed into it.
In back of the unit you will find the connections. You need to plug in the AC adapter to the unit and an AC outlet. Then on the line out jack run the connections to your home receiver input jacks.
Last is placement of the antenna, it needs to be placed outside facing the southern skies, then it plugs into the back of the DRN-XM01H XM Satellite Radio Receiver with two connections.
The Receiver
The unit is rather small at 4-3/16 inches Wide x 2-5/8 inches in Height x 5-7/8 inches Deep. The Home unit comes with a remote control, antenna, audio cable, AC power adapter and a home cradle stand.
The display is in a nice blue backlight that can be adjusted in brightness. The display has two lines with 16 characters per line to show you information like Time, Date, Artist, Songs and more.
On the top is a Jog Roller that is used to navigate through the 100 channels, in the front is a power button and five buttons to preset in your favorite five stations.
The Remote
The Remote Commander is small with only 12 buttons on it that will control the receiver in the same way you control it manually.
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio requires a subscription of $9.99 a month plus a $14.99 activation fee.
Why pay for something that I can listen to for free now? XM Satellite Radio offers a much clearer and better sound than your FM stations with over 100 channels and 30 of them are completely commercial free.
Listen commercial free to rock, rap, easy listing, country, classical and more without any commercials. There are special channels like the Discovery Channel, CNN, NASCAR broadcasts and more. Some stations play full CDs at a time and some give you recorded concerts.
XM Satellite Radio uses two communications satellites that are located in orbit and terrestrial repeaters in large cities to ensure coverage all over the US. This service is only available in the 48 continental states and not Alaska or Hawaii.
The Cons
The bad points for this are the extra money that you have to pay out to use it for both the Home and the car. Both versions list for a retail price of $299 and the accessory kit to use it for the car or the home is an extra $149. The car kit does include everything you need to use it in your car.
Total cost for the receiver and a kit is $448, I managed to talk a local store owner down to $279 for the DRN-XM01H and buying the kit at the same time for $99 making my price come to $378.
Another thing I didn’t like is that you can only preset five favorite channels.
Then the display, well it works great indoors but when using it in the car the display is hard to see sometimes due to the bright outside.
The last con would be the monthly subscription but $9.99 is a low price for listing to music without any commercials.
The Pros
With the Car kit you can transport the DRN-XM01H from your home to your car and use it for both travel and home.
The sound is much better than FM stations with several commercial free stations.
Overall
Installation is easy, the receiver is easy to use and understand. The main thing is the sound is surprisingly better than your FM stations more like CD quality.
If you listen to the radio a lot, then the Sony DRN-XM01H XM Satellite Radio Receiver is worth checking out.
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Things to know before Buying a New Receiver!
Recommended:
Yes
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