I won't clutter up this review with pros and cons on Sirius vs. XM satellite radio service. You can sign up for a 3-day trial of each at their respective websites if you need help making that decision. Instead, I'll assume that you've already gone with Sirius and focus on whether or not the Sportster Replay is the right plug-and-play receiver for your needs.
INSTALLATION
The Sportster Replay is a plug-and-play receiver, which means that you shouldn't need to modify the existing stereo setup in your car or boat to use it. After plugging in the external antenna and the power cord, 99% of users will be ready to roll. I have read reports of a handful of users having trouble getting an adequate signal with this simple install, but I've not personnally experienced this (see more details under "Performance" below). It took me just under an hour to install mine in an SUV, with most of that time spent trying different methods for how best to hide those two cords throughout my interior. The only tools that I needed were a screwdriver and a butter knife. It's almost disappointing to discover how easy it is to disassemble your car's interior into pieces, but it really helps out here!
The antenna itself is a flat magnet about the size of a fifty-cent piece that attaches to your trunk or roof. The kit provides plenty of length; in fact, some car owners may have to find a place to hide the extra bundle of wire, either in the trunk or under the dash. The power cord plugs into your cigarette lighter or any other 12v socket, which becomes the only visible wiring sticking out of the entire install. It's also a bit on the short side, so you may have to get into a little bit of trickery through the glove box or a heating vent depending on your vehicle. I recommend searching the web for tips that others have to share based on their installation experiences.
While the receiver itself is portable, it docks to a cradle which stays in place in your vehicle and has all of the wiring connections. This design is one of the advantages of the Sportster over the comparable Starmate Sirius receiver. The Starmate plugs all cables directly into the receiver, meaning that you have to fumble around with wires whenever you take it with you or get back into your vehicle. The Sportster on the other hand just lifts right out of the dock with no such hassle. The docking cradle that somes with this kit is capable of lots of twisting and bending, so you'll be able to find the right spot on the windshield or dash (if your dash is very smooth) to affix it with a powerful suction cup.
PERFORMANCE
The Sportster delivers good sound and has good antenna reach as well. Remember that satellite radio is digital, so it differs from traditions signals in a couple of ways. First, all of the channels sound "compressed" because that's what all satellite providers must do to get 100+ channels to fit into one signal. Music sounds comparable to existing FM, not CD quality as some erroneously expect. Talk sounds a bit tinny, almost like a phone conversation, but you get used to it quickly. Second, the antenna is line-of-sight since it needs to maintain a direct path to the satellite signal. This means that you can forget about listening to any satellite radio in parking garages, tunnels and other covered structures. I've read about problems with other receivers being unable to reliably pick up good signals in downtown driving, but the Sportster has been very solid for me.
The Sportster Replay uses a wireless FM transmitter in the dock to substitute the Sirius signal for a particular FM channel of your choosing. This is a big improvement over earlier satellite receivers that had to be hard-wired to your stereo (i.e. professionally-installed) or else connected via a mess of wires going to a cassette adapter. I've read other reviews complaining that the wireless transmitter isn't strong enough, but I've not had any such issue. As a matter of fact, the default FM frequency that the unit ships with is an actual station in my area but the Sportster mowed it down with no difficulty. Only when I turned up the classical stations could I hear any hint of interference, so I easily configured it for a frequency that's pure static in my area and it's been rock-solid and very clean sounding ever since.
USE AND FEATURES
The unit's "Replay" capability is like a very limited Tivo for radio. Once you select a channel, it begins stockpiling that content into its 30-minute memory. You can rewind if you'd like to hear a song again or if you missed something said during the news. You can pause in case you get a phone call or have something else to do, e.g. a toll booth. Once you change stations, that memory is erased and the recording begins again. Recorded content is also lost when you power down the unit. If you are interested in true time-shifting of your Sirius content, look into the pricey S50 receiver, which is basically an mp3 player that not only captures but also stores Sirius content for later listening away from your vehicle.
One simple but very useful feature is the "memo" button, which allows you to tag a particular song and store its info for jotting down later. You can store up to 20 of these song and artist combinations, so you'll know who you liked next time you're shopping for music.
The receiver has 3 banks of 10 presets each. It also allows browsing by channel category (rock vs. country vs. talk, etc.) which is nicely-rendered on the big, easy-to-read display. Contrary to what earlier reviews indicated, it is possible to adjust the brightness and/or contrast; however, blue is the only color choice (sorry, amber fans). Also, the shiny cover over the display can make it difficult to see on sunny days as it reflects everything around it. This kit comes with a remote that is actually very handy unless you have a very long reach or manage to mount the dock on your dashboard.
ACCESSORIES
The Sportster is an established model for Sirius, and as a result, there are already many handy accessories available for it. You can immediately purchase a home kit that plugs into your stereo or PC, a boombox for mobile play, or additional car docks if you plan on sharing one receiver across multiple vehicles. This line of accessories is tops among the Sirius receivers because the others are either more limited (the Starmate) or way more expensive (the S50), making the Sportster the best value for a wide range of applications.
CONCLUSION
The Sportster Replay is a dependable Sirius receiver that picks up good signal reception and then blasts it wirelessly to your existing FM tuner. Installation is a no-brainer, mainly just tucking wires under your vehicle's carpet and weatherstripping. It's easy to use with a big, bright display and remote control. There are many available accessories for it, making it a good value if you want to use it in multiple locations. It's the ideal first receiver when you jump into the satellite radio arena.
If you definitely know that you're committed to Sirius and you want true time-shifting of content in an mp3 player, get out your wallet and take a look at the S50. Or, if you absolutely must have a more stylish-looking receiver, consider the Starmate, but you're really getting a lot less convenience for a little bit of savings vs. the Sportster.
PROS
* True plug-and-play makes both installation and everyday use very easy
* Unit is simple to use thanks to the included remote and big, easy-to-read display
* Full line of available accessories make the receiver usable in a multitude of places
CONS
* Rather big and plain, it's not the most stylish-looking unit out there (hello, S50)
* Replay functionality has rather limited usefulness since unit can't be powered on-the-go
So you're thinking about paying for radio? Are you Sirius? Or are you XM? The first thing you need to do when making the decision to take on yet another monthly payment is to figure out which service to order, Sirius or XM. The 2 advantages to XM are that they have a better selection of portable satellite receivers, and it's slightly less expensive at $10 vs. $13 per month. For me, the programming is what makes the biggest difference between the two. Sirius has contracts with most of the major professional sports conglomerates, including NFL, NHL, NBA, College Sports & soon, NASCAR. XM has Baseball and probably some other boring sports like bowling. And while both companies have about 60 channels of music, only Sirius remains commercial free. It's too bad the talk, and sports stations aren't commercial free too. So lets recap: Sirius has commercial free music, tons of sports programming for only $3 additional/month. Plus, Sirius is about to come out with some pretty slick portable devices, and in January 2006, they're adding Howard Stern.
So now that you've come to your senses about which service to get, you now need to decide which receiver to buy. The problem with satellite radio is that they make you pay per device. Not pay per household. So if you want a dedicated satellite car stereo, you pay $13/month. And if you want to pipe that into your house, you have to first buy another receiver, and yes, get charged a second fee! Luckily, the fee is reduced to $6.99 for each additional unit. Being the tightwad that I am, I wanted a portable unit that would plug into my car, but could quickly come out and be plugged into a home base. That brings the useability factor way up, and the monthly bill way down. These types are called the "Plug & Play Portable Units"
At last count, there were 16 Plug & Play Portable units that are Sirius compatible. Only 2 have the "replay" feature. This feature works much like TiVO, in that it constantly records whatever you're listening to. That means you can pause live radio, rewind, or fast forward back to real time. I wasn't sure if this feature would be worth the extra $70 I needed to pony up for it, but after one short week, I can tell you that YES, IT'S WORTH IT! I piped in my first Detroit Lions game last week and while listening, my 2.3 year old son kept interrupting to drag me out to play. I simply hit the pause button and spent the next half hour with him. After he was pacified, I went back in and listened to the game. I fast forwarded through the all the commercials, and in less than 15 minutes, was caught back up to real time. This happened 2 or 3 times during the game, and I never missed a down.
During the week, the Sportster Replay sits on my desk at work. When customers walk in, or a phone call comes in; I usually prefer to pause the music rather than turn it down. This way, I can focus on the person better. This happens several times a day, so it's not unusual to be behind "real time" by 30+ minutes. The advantage to this is that when a song comes on that I don't care for, rather than turn the station, I simply skip over it! This is also a very handy feature for talk radio. Since I hate commercials, I like to pause when one comes on, I go about my work, I then unpause and skip right over the commercials with a few clicks. The nice thing about Sirius is that they tag the beginning of each song and commercial, so when you hit the forward or rewind buttons, everything is cued up the next item. Much like skipping songs on a CD, the next selection is cued up.
This model also has Game Zone and Game Alert features. So when your favorite sports teams come on, the unit will remind you. If you choose to ignore the game, you can listen to music and have the score updates pop up automatically when someone scores. I'm not sure how NBA will handle this with so much scoring, so it's probably on a timer.
The one bummer (just like TiVO) is that if you change stations, you lose your cached memory. You start over. And no, you can't record on one channel while listening to another. You also can't save the memory or download it. Also, if you were to take it from a home base to the car, it would unplug, and therefore loose the memory. Too bad this unit doesn't have a 9 volt backup battery so transporting the unit would preserve the memory.
Also, included is a "memo" feature. This is handy if you like a song, and want to save the title and artist info. Simply hit memo, and its' saved. This unit will also tell you when one of your saved memo songs is playing on another station. With the touch of a single button, you can switch!
A "Jump" button allows one to save a channel button to quick access stuff like weather or traffic reports. Unfortunately, only the largest cities in the U.S. currently offer traffic and weather reports. Sirius promises smaller cities are coming soon.
I'm not sure if other Sirius devices have any kind of tone control, but this unit does not. Which is unfortunate, since I like to run this directly to my computer speakers, I have no way of adjusting the sound quality. Not that I really need to, as the sound is terrific.
In the car at night, I find the contrast settings are not strong enough. Even with optimizing the settings, the contrast is still weak.
The unit I bought came with a car installation kit. The low profile antenna sits on the roof with a magnet. A very strong window suction cup mount is included, but I elected to drill a couple of holes in my Honda Element and make it a more permanent installation. The unit has a built in FM Transmitter, but I chose to use the Aux out feature since the Element has a standard Aux in on my model. This assures static will never be an issue. So far, I've had nothing but flawless reception. Not a single drop out. Not even on a cloudy day like today. I wish I could rave about the home kit being as good. Reception behind a glass window is not the preferred setup. In my case, it's getting the job done, but I have occasional drop outs in the office, even though the unit and antenna are sitting still.
Overall, this unit combined with the Sirius subscription is a joy to have and operate. It has completely changed (upgraded) my lifestyle. How many things can do that for $13/month? This is one of those products that comes with a bit of regret. Regret for not buying sooner than you did.
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I've had mine for a few days and after reading a lot of the reviews I felt there was a distinct difference between what I got and what many reviews say.
First, it's very stylish, it's just not small compared to some models. I chose this model because I wanted the big clear screen that was easy to see while driving. I wanted to be able to read it at a glance, not have to focus on it while driving. The blue glow isn't as intense as some other models as well, which is good given how big the screen is. It's plenty strong but it doesn't light up your whole car and act as a distraction. I do wish it had other colors available for the backlight but it's a decent shade of blue and I don't consider that a negative.
Second I feel that the sound quality is just fine. Talk radio is a bit tinny sounding, but you get used to it and it's not BAD. I think they compress that much more than the music to save space because the music quality isn't as effected. I haven't noticed any difference between a very clear radio station and the Sirius, so as far as I'm concerned the quality is just fine. This isn't a CD or max quality MP3, it might be digital but it's compressed digital. If you want perfect sound quality pop a CD into your $10,000 stereo system, if you want a huge selection of listening content this is perfect. In the car I play it through the FM transmitter that's built in. For those who were confused about the fm out, that's where you plug in the little pigtail antennae that's included. That is the FM transmitter's antennae and if you didn't use it you probably got less than stellar sound quality in your car. I use an almost entirely static station and have no issues at all, quality is better than I can hear in my car while driving ('98 Volvo in good shape). If you turn it up really loud my speakers and amp give out before the Sirius quality so that's not an issue in normal use. In terms of FM broadcast power, I'm impressed. Today I had the unit upstairs on the far side of the house from the driveway playing through the computer (no fm antennae connected on the home dock) and when I turned the car to aux to pump up my bike tires I was amazed to hear the sirius clear and solid. I had to do a double check that the head unit was still on the blank station. So, if you can't get a clean signal in your car you're on the wrong station, this puppy puts out a very strong signal.
I didn't have much trouble getting the home antennae setup, nor the car, but positioning is an issue for the home one. You might need the cord extenders or even a 3rd part model. After some playing around I have 3 bars almost constantly though, despite a less than ideal location. In the car I get a full strength signal almost all the time and have yet to see less than two bars. I've got it mounted just above the passenger side door. I have a feeling that folks who have issues with the car reception are trying to hide it by mounting it under the hood or something, or maybe the hardware's changed.
For the XM/Sirius debate I feel it just comes down to your taste in music. I used the free online listening trials to get a feel for the music playlists and the talk shows available and decided Sirius suited me better. Your mileage may very. I really liked some of the XM radios and feel they have a better variety available. Their tendancy to have multiple backlight colors is nice, though the screen clarity was often less than wonderful, particularly while it was scrolling.
I love mine, and am very happy I spent the money. The Sportster Replay isn't the smallest or cheapest but it's a quality piece of equipment that combines easy use, easy visibility and plenty of features and options. It's part of the sportster line, which sirius pushes for accessories like the boomboxes so you aren't limited in the future. My advice is to check out the various radios in stores and get a feel for the hardware while you check out the online listening trials to decide which company is for you.
Read Best Reviews of Sirius SP-TK2 Sportster Replay Satellite Radio with Car Kit Here
We are already hooked on SIRIUS, as we had a unit installed in my wife's car in mid 2004.
I bought this unit for me for the following reasons:
1. no hard wiring necessary just plug into lighter
2. you do not need to permanently mount the docking base onto your dash or console just stick to windshield with provided suction cup gadget
3. no need to mount the antenna on the roof, which eliminates dealing with fishing wires around the headliner, etc. the antenna works fairly well just laying on the dash
4. all the above give me the opportunity to move the unit between the 2 vehicles I drive, without having to invest in any extra docking stations
5. when you already have a SIRIUS account, the subscription cost for additional units, is discounted to only $7 per month
6. there is currently a $50 rebate, bringing the net cost down to only $99
I was so pleased with my radio, I bought another one for our 20 year old son. He is in the USMC and often travels from NC to PA. He also loves this new toy.
only downsides:
1. antenna may slide around on dash when making sharp turns (our son cured this with velcro)
2. being on top of dash & attached to windshield, may bother some folks
3. loses reception more often than our original (which has a permanently mounted antenna on the roof). In my opinion, the flexibility and lack of installation costs makes up for this.
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Have been using this radio for 5 months and have been generally satisfied with all the important stuff: sound quality, functionality, and ease of installation. However, you'll find the suction cupped docking station laying on your dash about once a week. This can't be good for the wiring/connections on the back of the unit. I, too, have had issues with poor reception due to a loose connection on the back of the docking station. Had to put a piece of tape on the back to hold the connector in place. Another issue, if you care about how the radio looks, is that after only 5 months of use, seven of the ten lights behind the tuning buttons have burned out. At night it makes the radio look like a big gap-toothed grin.
All in all, a decent value at the rebated/discounted price of $99..but expect some idiosyncrasies like the ones described above.
Update 1 year later: My FIOS BBU is beeping again, indicating that the backup battery is not holding a charge. This battery lasted less than a year but only has a 90-day warranty, so I'll be looking elsewhere for a replacement.
