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(More customer reviews)Sirius satellite should be considered a great complement to your audio system, whether in home or car. It should not be considered an end all to music selection. It will not replace CDs, mp3s or typical over the air radio. Once this expectation is established, it's good to see Sirius as a decent addition to those who love music.
First off, how much does it cost? You'll need a receiver, then a docking system for the home or office. Then there is a setup fee. So you're looking at a little under $200 to get started. Quite a huge investment for just checking out a new type of radio. I would advise getting Sirius professional installed in your car, unless you don't mind wire flaying around when you drive while looking at a tacking do it yourself setup. Also, if you want both home and office, you'll have to buy a boombox. This can run to about $350 total. Quite pricey, especially when it doesn't include any monthly fees.
Secondly, how about the reception? It's surprisingly well in my car, but does suffer some dark spots when you go under a tunnel or when travelling through a tree line street. However, I was unable to get any signal in neither my home nor my office, so don't automatically assume that it will work at your home. The only consolation is that if you sign up for Sirius, you get monthly web access.
Thirdly, how about the playlist? The best way to describe Sirius's playlist is probably a lot breadth, but not quite a lot of depth. For music, unless you love every type of music available, you'll actually only have about 10 music stations to listen to. For example, all Classical, Latin, Electronic, Jazz, Children and Love stations are absolutely useless to me as this not my type of music. In terms of sports, it's got the NFL, NBA, and if ever, NHL. The best game for radio, baseball, is with XM satellite, which is a huge bummer. Many of the news stations and entertainment stations are just audio replays of audio stations, so it's got commercials and aren't altogether suited for radio. For example, you'll hear, "take a look at this replay". Well, I can't look, it's radio. All in all, the talk and music is the equivalent of doubling the FM and AM radio stations of a big city. You'll still listen to your normal stations, but the number of stations will be expanded.
Fourthly, how about the receiver itself? It's pretty good. The display is huge. You get to see the band or song name before switching to a different station. I love that. It can store 20 songs, which, when one of the songs comes up, the receiver will beep and give you the option of changing to that station. The only small problems were that sometimes the stored songs didn't come up, and the turn wheel will lacks a grip, which is annoying when driving.
Fifthly, what were some of the major problems of Satellite radio? Besides the high cost for the equipment, the fact that they charge an activation fee was annoying. I'm willing to pay a monthly fee, do I need to add another fee to that? Secondly, the nickel and diming continues with the fact that the receiver contains no basic antenna nor power supply. You must buy a docking kit no matter what. I bought a car docking kit, but it only had a power supply for the cigarette lighter, which meant that all setup has to be done outdoors, in the car, with the car running. I couldn't even test it to see if it would work indoors, so I had to buy a boombox to test, only to find out it didn't work, and then return the boombox. A cheap home AC/DC power supply included in the docking kit would have saved me hours without costing me fifty dollars for the other docking system. Also, the customer service is not that great. The people on phone are nice, but you have to endure the navigation system along with a large self-serving tirade about how well Sirius radio is before you can get to the menu. In order to get stream player access, you have to e-mail them for the password, but no one bothered to reply to my e-mail, so I had to call them again. When the company won't give you the password for the free web access, and won't reply when you follow the website instructions, it gets annoying. Another thing is the repetitiveness and limiting factors of the playlist. Some of the bands I'm interested in, Carbon Leaf, the Streets, Perfect Circle, Tool - groups that I thought should appear for paid radio, are not really there. However, Ashlee Simpson, Maroon 5 and Leonard Skynard are pretty much on 24/7. Not quite the original playlists I was hoping to get.
Finally, what were some of the things that surprised me? First off, it's still cool. To be free of Clear Channel's chokehold on music radio is great. The web access is free. XM charges you about four dollars a month, making it more expensive monthly if you use web access. If you get Dish Network, the music stations are there already to listen through over your television. If you don't get Dish Network, you can get a free preview via the web for three days. Nice. Finally, I've become acquainted with many bands that I would not have known or just barely remember. It's nice to hear Traffic, Public Enemy, Guns and Roses, Flogging Molly, N.W.A., etc.
So, all in all, it's a nice complement, but it's no magic musical panacea.
Pros:
Song preview
20 Memory Storage
Large display
Free online access after signing up
Free 3-day online preview
Cons:
Nickel and diming
Very repetitive song list
Entertainment and News is Just a Replay of Television
Customer Service is lacking
Signal cannot be received in many places.
Minimum Setup Cost ~ 200 dollars
Optimal Setup Cost ~ 350 dollars
Monthly Cost ~ 13 dollars
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Audiovox SIR-PNP2 Sirius Satellite Radio ReceiverListen to the future of radio today with the plug-and-play Audiovox SIR-PNP2 Sirius satellite radio receiver. The SIR-PNP2 decodes the incoming Sirius digital-quality radio program information from over 100 music, news, and sports channels and delivers an audio signal to your radio or other audio output equipment. It's easily transportable, and enables you to listen to satellite radio programs in your home or car.
The SIR-PNP2 lets you enter your desired channel stream number directly, or search for programming by scrolling through the category list. You can program up to 30 presets of your favorite streams, as well as search by stream, artist name, song title, or category. You can also store up to 20 artist/song title combinations, and the SIR-PNP2 can search the incoming Sirius signal and alert you if it matches the artist/song title stored in memory. The Look Ahead feature allows you to stay on and listen to the current radio stream while browsing other streams to see what's playing. Time-based functions include an alarm, sleep timer, and program alert that allows the SIR-PNP2 to switch to a preprogrammed stream at a selected time.
The SIR-PNP2 has a 6-line amber monochrome display featuring artist name and song title. Two information bands at the top and bottom of the display show stream channel number and name, signal strength, clock, and category name. The multiline display can be configured into a larger display that will scroll artist, title, stream name, and number. It has a 10-level brightness/contrast control, and an autodimming feature that adjusts brightness control for day and night driving conditions.
The SIR-PNP2 Sirius satellite receiver must be used with one of the following adapter kits:
Audiovox SIRHK1 home kit
Audiovox SIRCK1 vehicle kit (with wireless FM transmitter)
Audiovox SIRCK2 vehicle kit (without wireless FM transmitter)
Sirius satellite radio is a subscription service that provides up to 100 channels of programming, from digital-quality music to news, talk, and sports. It is available only in the lower 48 states--not available in Alaska, Hawaii, or U.S. territories.
What's in the Box Audiovox SIR-PNP2 Sirius satellite receiver shuttle unit, remote control (P/N1363539), and 2 AA batteries.
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