Delphi Roady2 SA10085 XM Radio Receiver with Car Kit
- Usage: Car Home
- Design: Compact
- FM Transmitter: Included
- Service: XM
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Convenient and Adaptable, but has some drawbacks
Pros
Fairly easy to move around from car to home to car to home to...
Cons
Ergonomics are iffy, sound quality is disappointing, esp. with the FM modulator
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If you like the XM lineup, the Roady2 will probably meet your needs unless you expect perfect reception and CD-quality sound
I should start by pointing out that this is my first satellite radio, so I don't have anything to compare it to... But I imagine I am in good company as most buyers of this unit are first-time buyers.
I purchased this radio and got the XM subscription almost exclusively to hear Opie and Anthony (a premium channel), but I have ended up using it it for more general purposes as well. In the last two months, I think I've gotten a good handle on the pros and cons of this unit.
Pros:
I use the unit with the FM modulator in the car, and use the "home kit" hardwired into my home theater when at home. It is small enough that it isn't an annoyance to port around, but large enough to have a good-sized screen and room for the various buttons on the faceplate. You can change the screen color to suit your decor or your mood with a couple presses of buttons.
The activation is a snap, and anyone with a passing familiarity with wiring can string this thing in their car or home with little hassle... With the exception of the antenna, which is tricky and may be best left to a professional if you aren't "handy".
The three plugs you need for the home kit (two in the car if you use the FM modulator) are of high enough quality that you probably don't have to worry about breaking it with constant use.
Programming the memory is simple, the tuning knob is nowhere nearly as annoying as some other reviewers have noted, and the menus are easy to navigate.
The included accessories are sufficient, but to get the remote you have to buy the home kit... Which is criminally expensive, IMHO.
There are some annoyances, though.
Cons:
First and foremost, as far as I am concerned, is that the sound quality is not as good as I'd hoped for, either at home or in the car. I primarily listen to the talk channels, and oftentimes there's a grating "tinniness" to voices that takes some getting used to. There doesn't seem to be any relation to specific channels, times of the day, or location, it just kind of comes and goes. Why it does this I can't explain, but this is the second Roady2 that I've had and they've both done it (I returned my first one after a problem with the antenna cord that was more my fault than Delphi's fault). Ironically, MOST music sounds pretty good, MOST of the time, but it is by no means "CD quality". It's better than FM, to be sure, but comparing the over-the-air quality of a music selection to a CD of the same song invariably shows the li'l silver disc to have an obvious edge.
The reception isn't quite what I'd hoped for, either. I have some dropouts when the all-important southern exposure is compromised (that's where the satellite is, for the uninitiated), such as on my recent drive through PA on I-80. This isn't really an issue at home for most people, except for the fact that you may have to wind the indoor antenna cable around the house to get the best reception. I also find that I get no reception when I am alongside many buildings, such as at drive-throughs or at the ATM.
Speaking of reception, if you use the FM modulator, you may find that the channel you chose on your Roady2 (out of approx. 12) gets overpowered by a broadcast signal. I had to change my frequencies a number of times on my recent 700mi car trip as I drove into areas where the selected channel suddenly started locking on the ground-based radio signal in the area. This is not an issue for me when driving around my town as I obviously chose the channel that has the least amount of interference.
Ergonomically, there are a couple of issues. I find the following two items aggravating: 1- If you are on one of the "preset" banks of channels (there are three banks), and you have channels programmed into the slots available, the thumbwheel won't cycle back-and-forth between the presets. In other words, if you are on, say, channel 45 and flick the thumbwheel right, you won't get the next channel in your bank of presets, you'll get channel 46. I guess this keeps you from having to go to "direct" to tune in channel 46, but having to actually hit the next button on the bank of presets is annoying to me. 2- When you dial in a preset channel, it doesn't tell you which preset you are on for more than a few seconds, just the channel number. So, if you are on preset 4, you won't know if the "next" channel in your presets is 5, or 9, or 2, or whatever. I know this is minor, but it bugs me.
Another minor annoyance is that the labels for the buttons aren't backlit, so the buttons above the screen need to be memorized or lit by an outside source to determine their function. And all these buttons are quite small, so forget using this thing with gloves.
Overall, I am reasonably satisfied with the Roady2. I recognize that a small unit must have small buttons, and not everything can be backlit, and the reception can't be perfect everywhere... And I'll tell ya, it sure was nice to drive along on an 11hr car trip and be able to hear all kinds of assorted things without dealing with FM or AM "searches" for channels that have random content. I don't know if my reception issues are endemic to XM or satellite radio in general, or if it's the Roady2, or if it's my individual unit, but the good does outweigh the annoyances I mentioned.
As for XM itself, it has Opie and Anthony and that's why I'll keep it. If my Roady2 catches fire or gets stolen or whatever, I'll get another. I'm also planning on getting the Cambridge Soundworks XM Playdock boombox so I can lug it around the house or into the garage as appropriate... I already can't live without my XM. :)
I purchased this radio and got the XM subscription almost exclusively to hear Opie and Anthony (a premium channel), but I have ended up using it it for more general purposes as well. In the last two months, I think I've gotten a good handle on the pros and cons of this unit.
Pros:
I use the unit with the FM modulator in the car, and use the "home kit" hardwired into my home theater when at home. It is small enough that it isn't an annoyance to port around, but large enough to have a good-sized screen and room for the various buttons on the faceplate. You can change the screen color to suit your decor or your mood with a couple presses of buttons.
The activation is a snap, and anyone with a passing familiarity with wiring can string this thing in their car or home with little hassle... With the exception of the antenna, which is tricky and may be best left to a professional if you aren't "handy".
The three plugs you need for the home kit (two in the car if you use the FM modulator) are of high enough quality that you probably don't have to worry about breaking it with constant use.
Programming the memory is simple, the tuning knob is nowhere nearly as annoying as some other reviewers have noted, and the menus are easy to navigate.
The included accessories are sufficient, but to get the remote you have to buy the home kit... Which is criminally expensive, IMHO.
There are some annoyances, though.
Cons:
First and foremost, as far as I am concerned, is that the sound quality is not as good as I'd hoped for, either at home or in the car. I primarily listen to the talk channels, and oftentimes there's a grating "tinniness" to voices that takes some getting used to. There doesn't seem to be any relation to specific channels, times of the day, or location, it just kind of comes and goes. Why it does this I can't explain, but this is the second Roady2 that I've had and they've both done it (I returned my first one after a problem with the antenna cord that was more my fault than Delphi's fault). Ironically, MOST music sounds pretty good, MOST of the time, but it is by no means "CD quality". It's better than FM, to be sure, but comparing the over-the-air quality of a music selection to a CD of the same song invariably shows the li'l silver disc to have an obvious edge.
The reception isn't quite what I'd hoped for, either. I have some dropouts when the all-important southern exposure is compromised (that's where the satellite is, for the uninitiated), such as on my recent drive through PA on I-80. This isn't really an issue at home for most people, except for the fact that you may have to wind the indoor antenna cable around the house to get the best reception. I also find that I get no reception when I am alongside many buildings, such as at drive-throughs or at the ATM.
Speaking of reception, if you use the FM modulator, you may find that the channel you chose on your Roady2 (out of approx. 12) gets overpowered by a broadcast signal. I had to change my frequencies a number of times on my recent 700mi car trip as I drove into areas where the selected channel suddenly started locking on the ground-based radio signal in the area. This is not an issue for me when driving around my town as I obviously chose the channel that has the least amount of interference.
Ergonomically, there are a couple of issues. I find the following two items aggravating: 1- If you are on one of the "preset" banks of channels (there are three banks), and you have channels programmed into the slots available, the thumbwheel won't cycle back-and-forth between the presets. In other words, if you are on, say, channel 45 and flick the thumbwheel right, you won't get the next channel in your bank of presets, you'll get channel 46. I guess this keeps you from having to go to "direct" to tune in channel 46, but having to actually hit the next button on the bank of presets is annoying to me. 2- When you dial in a preset channel, it doesn't tell you which preset you are on for more than a few seconds, just the channel number. So, if you are on preset 4, you won't know if the "next" channel in your presets is 5, or 9, or 2, or whatever. I know this is minor, but it bugs me.
Another minor annoyance is that the labels for the buttons aren't backlit, so the buttons above the screen need to be memorized or lit by an outside source to determine their function. And all these buttons are quite small, so forget using this thing with gloves.
Overall, I am reasonably satisfied with the Roady2. I recognize that a small unit must have small buttons, and not everything can be backlit, and the reception can't be perfect everywhere... And I'll tell ya, it sure was nice to drive along on an 11hr car trip and be able to hear all kinds of assorted things without dealing with FM or AM "searches" for channels that have random content. I don't know if my reception issues are endemic to XM or satellite radio in general, or if it's the Roady2, or if it's my individual unit, but the good does outweigh the annoyances I mentioned.
As for XM itself, it has Opie and Anthony and that's why I'll keep it. If my Roady2 catches fire or gets stolen or whatever, I'll get another. I'm also planning on getting the Cambridge Soundworks XM Playdock boombox so I can lug it around the house or into the garage as appropriate... I already can't live without my XM. :)
