Cons: Fragile, access to battery compartment, battery life, antenna won't stay in place, volume control.
The Bottom Line: This is the first offering in a truly portable satellite radio system and works well in all it’s modes (car, home, portable). In my opinion, it will not disappoint.
sduncanae's Full Review: Delphi SKYFi SA10000 XM Radio Receiver
This is not a review of satellite radio, but you couldn’t discuss the hardware without a nod to the programming. I was never seriously interested in paying for radio. I was piping MP3s though my home and car audio systems but it was a hassle and even with hundreds of songs, it seemed to repeat frequently. Local FM stations change genre frequently, and AM radio, IMHO, has gone to the dogs. I selected XM radio because I wanted the Delphi hardware. There are plenty of reasons to like the service and if you like music, talk, sports, comedy, movies and theater and more, I think you will too.
On to the real review: the Delphi SKYFi XM Radio Receiver and Audio Component System. With the second-generation chipset used in the receiver (SA10000), $129.99, power consumption is down, and there is no external box that must be mounted under your seat or behind the dash. Indeed, everything but the antenna and power supply are inside the little 2.75 x 4.5 inch silver box. It has a single connector on the bottom which combines antenna, audio and power connections.
The great appeal of this new system is it’s modularity. With optional accessories, you can use it in the car, the house, and even in a portable audio system (“boom box”) by simply lifting the receiver out of it’s cradle and carrying it to the next location – with one subscription. I have all three adaptors and will discuss each and finish up with a review of the receiver itself.
Most folks initially buy these for their cars. Aside from the Sony and this Delphi, most receivers are in-dash models. The Delphi car kit (SA10002), $69.99, includes a cradle, magnetic-mount roof antenna, cigarette lighter adaptor and one of those cassette adaptors to feed audio through your car stereo. The cradle is slim and can be mounted flat against the dash, or on a gimbaled mount with either screws or an adhesive pad. This gives you a wide variety of mounting options. There will be three connections to the cradle, so mount it where wiring can be hidden if possible. The antenna itself is small and unobtrusive but does require you to route a wire from the outside to the inside of the car. The cable is very thin and 20 feet long.
If you use the supplied cassette adaptor, you should get great, hiss-free sound. Anyway, that’s my experience with those things when I had cars with cassette stereos. You may hear the rumble of the tape capstan, but that’s about it. If your car does not have a cassette, what do you do? I had planned to use my iRock wireless FM modulator, which worked great for my MP3 player. But when I connected it to the SKYFi, the sound was “hissy” and awful. I can only suspect the activity going on inside the SKYFi was interfering with it’s operation.
Back to Circuit City, where I purchased the next item, the FM Modulator Kit (SA10003), $49.99, which includes a top-notch modulator with switch selectable frequencies. It also supplies power to the Delphi (eliminating the cigarette lighter plug), and senses when the receiver is on, bypassing the modulator when the receiver is off. It goes inline with your standard car-radio antenna connector, so if you have a VW or other car with non-standard connectors, you will also need adaptors. It’s a shame to run this beautiful clear digital audio through an FM radio, but unless you have a pre-amp input, it’s that or the cassette adaptor. And in my case, it actually sounds very acceptable. By the way, SKYFi antennas are dual-mode in nature. For urban areas where reception may be impeded by buildings or other structures, XM radio has installed “terrestrial repeaters”. You can see the relative signal strength of both signals via a bar graph visible in the receivers setup menu. In my location (Portland, OR) and in my experience, dropouts or variations in signal quality are extremely rare. My only gripe about the modulator is when the car is power-cycled, the radio comes on an empty station while you must switch back on the SKYFi with it’s own power switch.
So now I want it in the house. The Home Adaptor Kit (SA10004) $69.99, provides that function. It has a desktop cradle, AC adaptor, standard RCA-to-mini plug cable, and indoor antenna with 20 foot cable. This part is simply plug and play and needs little explanation except that it works and works well. The AC adaptor gets a little hot for my liking, however.
Now the best part – the portable audio system (SA10001), $99.99. This 18 inch long, 7 inch high unit has a unique, “bow-tie” shape. Both ends are completely covered in a silvery speaker-cloth and the receiver sits in a tilt-out cradle right in the middle. Without the receiver in place, all that is left is a volume control and a headphone jack. Turn it over and remove the bottom cover and the battery compartment is exposed. It takes 6 D cells (which add substantial weight) or you can use the included AC adaptor. Also in the bottom is a place to spool the extra antenna cord. The included antenna (identical to the home unit’s) snaps on the back of the system or can be extended up to 20 feet and can tilt skyward to maximize signal strength. The antenna does not stay in place very well, however, and can fall off the unit if bumped, a minor annoyance.
Sound quality is good to very good. It has a pair of 3.5 inch speakers with nice rolled edges and “whizzer” cones in the middle which are visible when you remove the speaker grills. The unit seems well built, but I have a feeling the speaker cloth could get snagged and torn. My other gripe is the volume control. It has click-detents, but the volume does not adjust reliably with every click. It you use the remote to adjust the volume, however, this is not a problem. Nits aside, the fact that I can take my XM radio service picnicking, camping or anywhere in the Continental US makes this an invaluable accessory.
Now the receiver. A five line display with an adjustable intensity and bright orange glow lets you scroll though the channels with the unique, intuitive tuning wheel. When you press the center button, the station is selected. If you stop scrolling for about 2 seconds, the station is also changed for you automatically. Once on a channel (there are 100 ), it shows the category, station name, artist and song title – up to a certain number of characters. Pressing the “display” button, switches to display the channel number, and pressing it again switches to a scrolling display of the artist and song title with a much larger font. Oddly enough, the number of characters in the scrolling display is limited like the fixed display is!
There are 10 preset buttons along the bottom that double as direct channel entry. With an A-B mode switch, you get a total of 20 presets – not bad. The same mode switch lets you use the preset buttons for direct channel entry. There is also a “memory” button, which saves the song title and artist name (up to 10) for later retrieval. I guess this is so you can hunt down the MP3 or go buy the album. Rounding out the controls are two up-down “category” buttons to quickly go from rock to jazz to country to comedy…well you get the idea, a menu button to access what you can’t do from the front panel, and a power button. My perception of the weak points with the receiver are few. Primarily I worry that the tuning wheel will conk out or I will scratch the large display window. One last word on that... clean the display with a VERY mild cleaner. I was using a laptop LCD cleaner and removed part of the anti-glare coating.
Satellite radio receiver for your car or home; includes wireless remote control Access to XM's 100-plus channels of satellite radio, featuring music, ...More at Amazon Marketplace
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