I’ve been playing a bit with the XM radio I got for Christmas. I can’t decide how I feel about it yet. Here are my thoughts…
The tuner that I have is the Delphi SkiFi2. It’s big two special features are integrated FM modulation (allowing you to broadcast the XM channel to be picked up by your car radio) and 30-minute replay features.
One of my big problems with the SkiFi2 is the knob. In the store, it felt a lot more solid. I must have been playing with the old model. This new one is really lightweight and occasionally skips channels. But the problem with the knob is more than just the mechanics.
The tuning knob also has this weird delay. Any other car audio knob does what you tell it to do on the first click. So, for example, if you are on a station and you click the knob to the right once, it instantly changes the station. On the SkiFi2, that’s not so. It’s not due to the satellite lag or menu delay, either. It’s because the software in the module is designed incorrectly. When you turn the knob on the SkiFi2, it displays the menu but doesn’t change the channel. It should change the channel on the first click. It sounds minor, but I’m telling you - if you are forced to tune this way, you’ll hate it.
Another issue is the mounting of the device. I trie dto use the clips in the car adapter to hook it to one of my radiator vents, but that ain’t happening. The clip was too narrow and snapped in half when I tried it. I don’t really have any hard points in my car that would be convenient to mount the adhesive stand to, so that’s not working for me. Right now, the tuner sits in my CD tray in front of the gear shift. It’s out of the way, but I have to move around to see the screen, which doesn’t seem safe in traffic.
Audio coverage isn’t bad. I can live with the momentary blackouts under bridges and behind tall buildings. I’ll have to try it in the city to see if there is a terrestrial signal there to pick up. If not, the radio probably won’t work there at all because the satellite antenna is very sensitive. Driving under 30 mph below a short train underpass will cause the audio to cut out entirely for a half second.
I’m not sure about the audio quality, either. I think it might be the nature of the compressed stream, but the vocal range seems muddled. It could also be that I’m using the FM transmitter rather than a direct connection. Still, when I have any signal at all, I have the best sound that I can get from the receiver. No more losing the signal near banks like with FM. (What is that all about anyway?)
And finally, the programming. XM offers quite a few stations that I will enjoy. I’m still sampling all of them to see what is going to get programmed into the preset buttons. I have already programmed Squizz, Bluesville (the reason I got XM instead of Sirius), BPM, and CNN Headline News into the buttons. Most of the other stuff I will listen to is close to these stations. But the real issue with programming is whether I can stand the not-song content.
One of the attractive features of satellite radio is not having to put up with endless beer and car ads with a few tunes inbetween. Well, you get 100% pure music on most stations with no ads. You also don’t get breakers.
I’m sure I’ve complained before about how local station Y-100 says “Y-100” about 130 times in an hour. It’s in all of their little between-song breakers. Well XM has so little of that it’s disturbing. Really.
I know that this a personal issue because I shouldn’t expect to hear breakers. But it’s like I need them since I’ve been hearing them for so long. This phenomenon is very strange.
Try listening to satellite radio for a while, and see if you can stand the endless songs without breakers after having listened to disjointed commercial radio and all of its interstitial noise.
