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1st, 2nd, and 3rd impressions .... New update: XM's improved!!!
Pros
Priced right, reliable, small, looks pretty slick, and is easy to install.
Cons
No record, awful remote, setup for presets makes driving and surfing stations very complicated.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
The RoadyXT is a good piece of equipment that's missing a few features. The XM radio service just keeps continuing to improve.
*Note: My original review was entitled "Nice, but not mind-blowing, sort of like the radio service" which appears first below, but I've added 2 important updates at the bottom from 8-30-06 and 10-14-06.
Original Review / First Impressions:
My one-hour-each-way commute has been driving me insane, so my techie husband revealed XM Radio as a potential mind-saver for me. If you think that this service is going to be the end-all, be-all thing that makes you appreciate music in an enlightening way - you have your hopes set too high, just as I did.
First, I'll review the Roady XT, then I'll review my experience with XM.
Originally, I was all set to buy the portable XM2go, but after reading reviews, and hearing from salespeople that they were constantly returned for poor reception when you were not in your car, I decided to save some money and go for the Roady XT.
The Roady:
A nice slice of cool looking equipment that fits nicely just about anywhere. I installed mine onto one of my front air vents, and it looks pretty neat I must say. It took my husband five minutes to install it, while I was inside activating my XM account online (which also took about five minutes). Piece of cake, clear instructions. There is a wire antenna you will have to rig through your car, but this is not a big deal. I'd recommend installing it yourself (after reading the directions) to save yourself from having to pay Circuit City and the like's "installation" fees when all they're going to do is string a wire through your car and follow the step-by-step instructions themselves.
The Roady has a silver exterior, and a great, well-lit screen with large type and different display options. There are a number of great colors to choose from for your display background, and I was very impressed with this feature! You can also choose to display the name of the station you're listening to, the name of the song/artist, etc. There's also a 'memory' feature that 'remembers' your favorite songs - when you hear a song playing that you like, you can hold this button down, and it stores the name of the song - so that the next time that song is playing on any station, it will go to it for you. Pretty neat!
I also bought the remote that was made for it. Although somewhat helpful, some of the time, I've found that it's mostly a piece of junk. It cost me $20. I'm appreciative of the times it does work, but it's frustrating when you're trying to change stations and it's 2 to 5 inches away from the Roady, and it's still not working unless you get it at just the right angle. This has certainly not improved my morning drive frustration.
Neither has the fact that in order to surf through your presets on the Roady, you first must select the 'directory' they're in. You see, the Roady has it's 30 available presets organized into three different categories, A, B, and C. Yes, it is sort of like having FM1, FM2, and FM3 presets that cars normally come with these days, but the difference is that when you're changing stations on a car radio, you're not trying to push teency weency numbers on either the miniscule handheld remote or the tiny face of the Roady XT. To change stations on the XT, you have to take a moment to see the tiny print that says "pre/dir" and push it a few times - not a good idea to try while driving - it's just too small to be able to do it quickly, in my opinion.
I wish they'd made a better remote (that came with it) and numbered the presets up to 30. That way you could just hit 'pre/dir' once, and then punch in the number. As it is now, you may have to hit 'pre/dir' three times just to get to the right directory. I don't know, I found this extremely inconvenient.
The other feature that's missing (it is on other XM devices, though) is a record/pause feature. I'd love to be able to record a talk show that might not be on during the times I'm in my car. But I can't. I also can't pause it if I have to pump gas or whatever. In my opinion, they should have been able to include this feature.
Now, on to the XM service:
I was expecting bells and whistles to go off the first time I scanned through the XM radio stations. I had fantasies of hearing all my favorite songs, whenever I wanted, along with "instant" traffic reports to help me avoid interstate jams.
Well, I definitely have not gotten used to them all yet, or even picked out my favorites (other than the clean comedy one), but overall I was mildly unimpressed. I will come back and add to my review if my opinion changes after a few weeks of use, but for now, I sort of feel 'lost' among all of these strange-sounding stations. There were a few songs I heard that I knew, like on the 80s station, but the best way to explain it is it's like when you buy one of those compilation CDs, like "80s Greatest" or something, and you're all excited but when you get home and play it, you take a closer look and realize you only know one or two of the songs, and all the rest are 'wannabees.'
Also, the "instant" traffic is only available for certain areas, so if you're in a rural area odds are there will be no traffic report for you. I'm in a metro area, but still I'm slightly disappointed with my traffic report, because it focuses on the major big city in my area, so you have to listen to 5 or 6 accident reports for someplace that's two counties away, and then finally they mention like one or two things (but nothing detailed) for my area, even though my county is only slightly less huge and has it's own international airport!! This is not what I consider "instant traffic" - I want something for my county!!
So far I am really enjoying the clean comedy channel (the rough stuff is a little too much for me) and it's almost worth the monthly fee to have a smile on my face in the morning while listening to it. I also am getting into the other talk stations.
The sound quality on the music stations is good. I haven't lost reception yet. However, it's not great crisp quality. Nowhere near CD or high definition radio.
Just a quick troubleshooting tip, there are several different radio frequencies you can have your XM radio come in through. The way it works, is you pick a radio frequency, for example, 88.3, on your real car radio. Once you get the XM unit 'logged in' to that frequency (station), you'll hear XM over your radio speakers. However, if you live in a metropolitan area, there may be a lot of stations on that end of the dial. You'll realize this if while you're listening to XM, you start to hear radio static coming through. All you have to do is reset the FM frequency to a different number, like 88.7 or whatever, to get away from whatever station is intruding on your XM reception.
Overall I think this is a great invention, and I'll definitely stick around to see how it improves, and continues to add additional stations.
I bought my XT for around $70 at Circuit City, and it has a $20 mail-in rebate.
______________________
Update 8-30-06:
I have had the Roady XT and the XM service now for over 4 months. Overall I am pleased. I'm still not blown away, but I do enjoy the variety and the constant music.
We recently took a 14-hour car trip and it was EXTREMELY handy. Instead of having to constantly use our car radio's scan button to find any sort of new radio stations as soon as the old ones dissolved into fuzz, the XM was a lifesaver in that sense, because no matter where we went, we were able to receive signal and listen to music. I particularly enjoy Watercolors (71), Audio Visions (77), and Chrome (83) for long car rides. It's paid for itself 100 times over as far as I'm concerned.
My only real complaint is the awful, back-room, forgotten-for-a-reason songs they insist on playing on the 80s station (8). I love 80s music, but both myself and my husband (another 80s fan) have never heard of the majority of songs they play on that station. The 70s station is almost as bad, too (7). I'm guessing it has something to do with the price of royalties or something for the real hits. If they would tweak their repertoire on those stations, I'd be giving rave reviews all over.
____________________
Update 10-14-06
Is XM reading my reviews? ;o) They have GREATLY improved their 80s station! Now they play real 80s music and almost all of the songs are songs I've actually heard before, and songs that were popular!! The 90s station has also improved, and I think some of the other stations (country, etc.) have also improved toward playing more popular music, which is FANTASTIC. The 70s station still has a ways to go. But I am SO happy with the change in the 80s music. Hopefully they'll keep it up! The majority of the stations no longer sound like a bad compilation CD anymore.
They have also continued to add new stations. I like the new Oprah station, love the Starbucks station, and I am always finding new stations when I have time to flip through the entire band. They're not being added daily or anything; but slowly and surely.
The bad news is that I've been noticing more commercials on certain stations. Wasn't this supposed to be commercial-free?? Commercials for stuff like Travelocity, certain TV programs, and such have been increasing in frequency. And for what comes out to be $15 a month, I'm not liking that! However it is not to the point (yet) that it is totally unacceptable. If it increases more though, then we'll have a problem.
Overall, after 7 months of use, I have no thoughts of canceling the service and like the consistent happy flow it adds to my drive. If they raise prices or continue to increase commercials though, I'd probably ditch it.
As for the Roady XT, it is still running like a champ, and I have successfully overcome the learning curve of the remote.
Original Review / First Impressions:
My one-hour-each-way commute has been driving me insane, so my techie husband revealed XM Radio as a potential mind-saver for me. If you think that this service is going to be the end-all, be-all thing that makes you appreciate music in an enlightening way - you have your hopes set too high, just as I did.
First, I'll review the Roady XT, then I'll review my experience with XM.
Originally, I was all set to buy the portable XM2go, but after reading reviews, and hearing from salespeople that they were constantly returned for poor reception when you were not in your car, I decided to save some money and go for the Roady XT.
The Roady:
A nice slice of cool looking equipment that fits nicely just about anywhere. I installed mine onto one of my front air vents, and it looks pretty neat I must say. It took my husband five minutes to install it, while I was inside activating my XM account online (which also took about five minutes). Piece of cake, clear instructions. There is a wire antenna you will have to rig through your car, but this is not a big deal. I'd recommend installing it yourself (after reading the directions) to save yourself from having to pay Circuit City and the like's "installation" fees when all they're going to do is string a wire through your car and follow the step-by-step instructions themselves.
The Roady has a silver exterior, and a great, well-lit screen with large type and different display options. There are a number of great colors to choose from for your display background, and I was very impressed with this feature! You can also choose to display the name of the station you're listening to, the name of the song/artist, etc. There's also a 'memory' feature that 'remembers' your favorite songs - when you hear a song playing that you like, you can hold this button down, and it stores the name of the song - so that the next time that song is playing on any station, it will go to it for you. Pretty neat!
I also bought the remote that was made for it. Although somewhat helpful, some of the time, I've found that it's mostly a piece of junk. It cost me $20. I'm appreciative of the times it does work, but it's frustrating when you're trying to change stations and it's 2 to 5 inches away from the Roady, and it's still not working unless you get it at just the right angle. This has certainly not improved my morning drive frustration.
Neither has the fact that in order to surf through your presets on the Roady, you first must select the 'directory' they're in. You see, the Roady has it's 30 available presets organized into three different categories, A, B, and C. Yes, it is sort of like having FM1, FM2, and FM3 presets that cars normally come with these days, but the difference is that when you're changing stations on a car radio, you're not trying to push teency weency numbers on either the miniscule handheld remote or the tiny face of the Roady XT. To change stations on the XT, you have to take a moment to see the tiny print that says "pre/dir" and push it a few times - not a good idea to try while driving - it's just too small to be able to do it quickly, in my opinion.
I wish they'd made a better remote (that came with it) and numbered the presets up to 30. That way you could just hit 'pre/dir' once, and then punch in the number. As it is now, you may have to hit 'pre/dir' three times just to get to the right directory. I don't know, I found this extremely inconvenient.
The other feature that's missing (it is on other XM devices, though) is a record/pause feature. I'd love to be able to record a talk show that might not be on during the times I'm in my car. But I can't. I also can't pause it if I have to pump gas or whatever. In my opinion, they should have been able to include this feature.
Now, on to the XM service:
I was expecting bells and whistles to go off the first time I scanned through the XM radio stations. I had fantasies of hearing all my favorite songs, whenever I wanted, along with "instant" traffic reports to help me avoid interstate jams.
Well, I definitely have not gotten used to them all yet, or even picked out my favorites (other than the clean comedy one), but overall I was mildly unimpressed. I will come back and add to my review if my opinion changes after a few weeks of use, but for now, I sort of feel 'lost' among all of these strange-sounding stations. There were a few songs I heard that I knew, like on the 80s station, but the best way to explain it is it's like when you buy one of those compilation CDs, like "80s Greatest" or something, and you're all excited but when you get home and play it, you take a closer look and realize you only know one or two of the songs, and all the rest are 'wannabees.'
Also, the "instant" traffic is only available for certain areas, so if you're in a rural area odds are there will be no traffic report for you. I'm in a metro area, but still I'm slightly disappointed with my traffic report, because it focuses on the major big city in my area, so you have to listen to 5 or 6 accident reports for someplace that's two counties away, and then finally they mention like one or two things (but nothing detailed) for my area, even though my county is only slightly less huge and has it's own international airport!! This is not what I consider "instant traffic" - I want something for my county!!
So far I am really enjoying the clean comedy channel (the rough stuff is a little too much for me) and it's almost worth the monthly fee to have a smile on my face in the morning while listening to it. I also am getting into the other talk stations.
The sound quality on the music stations is good. I haven't lost reception yet. However, it's not great crisp quality. Nowhere near CD or high definition radio.
Just a quick troubleshooting tip, there are several different radio frequencies you can have your XM radio come in through. The way it works, is you pick a radio frequency, for example, 88.3, on your real car radio. Once you get the XM unit 'logged in' to that frequency (station), you'll hear XM over your radio speakers. However, if you live in a metropolitan area, there may be a lot of stations on that end of the dial. You'll realize this if while you're listening to XM, you start to hear radio static coming through. All you have to do is reset the FM frequency to a different number, like 88.7 or whatever, to get away from whatever station is intruding on your XM reception.
Overall I think this is a great invention, and I'll definitely stick around to see how it improves, and continues to add additional stations.
I bought my XT for around $70 at Circuit City, and it has a $20 mail-in rebate.
______________________
Update 8-30-06:
I have had the Roady XT and the XM service now for over 4 months. Overall I am pleased. I'm still not blown away, but I do enjoy the variety and the constant music.
We recently took a 14-hour car trip and it was EXTREMELY handy. Instead of having to constantly use our car radio's scan button to find any sort of new radio stations as soon as the old ones dissolved into fuzz, the XM was a lifesaver in that sense, because no matter where we went, we were able to receive signal and listen to music. I particularly enjoy Watercolors (71), Audio Visions (77), and Chrome (83) for long car rides. It's paid for itself 100 times over as far as I'm concerned.
My only real complaint is the awful, back-room, forgotten-for-a-reason songs they insist on playing on the 80s station (8). I love 80s music, but both myself and my husband (another 80s fan) have never heard of the majority of songs they play on that station. The 70s station is almost as bad, too (7). I'm guessing it has something to do with the price of royalties or something for the real hits. If they would tweak their repertoire on those stations, I'd be giving rave reviews all over.
____________________
Update 10-14-06
Is XM reading my reviews? ;o) They have GREATLY improved their 80s station! Now they play real 80s music and almost all of the songs are songs I've actually heard before, and songs that were popular!! The 90s station has also improved, and I think some of the other stations (country, etc.) have also improved toward playing more popular music, which is FANTASTIC. The 70s station still has a ways to go. But I am SO happy with the change in the 80s music. Hopefully they'll keep it up! The majority of the stations no longer sound like a bad compilation CD anymore.
They have also continued to add new stations. I like the new Oprah station, love the Starbucks station, and I am always finding new stations when I have time to flip through the entire band. They're not being added daily or anything; but slowly and surely.
The bad news is that I've been noticing more commercials on certain stations. Wasn't this supposed to be commercial-free?? Commercials for stuff like Travelocity, certain TV programs, and such have been increasing in frequency. And for what comes out to be $15 a month, I'm not liking that! However it is not to the point (yet) that it is totally unacceptable. If it increases more though, then we'll have a problem.
Overall, after 7 months of use, I have no thoughts of canceling the service and like the consistent happy flow it adds to my drive. If they raise prices or continue to increase commercials though, I'd probably ditch it.
As for the Roady XT, it is still running like a champ, and I have successfully overcome the learning curve of the remote.
