The Bottom Line: If you are tired of the old radio on FM/AM and never can find the Music/Talk you want,that will work with your existing car radio or in your home.

This is an excellent radio if you have not jumped in the water yet and got satellite radio. The built in wireless FM modulator removes the bulky add-on the old Roady had. The Roady2 is also much smaller in size than the roady... Not that it wasn't already small! The size of the unit is: 3.9 in. W x 2.4 in. H x 0.7 in. D (100 mm x 60 mm x 18 mm) and it weighs only 3.4 oz!

It is portable, it will work with any FM radio, or has the ability to hook into your pc or head unit with a direct connection. There are 12 FM Freqs the radio can broad cast on: 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, 88.7, 88.9, 106.7, 106.9, 107.1, 107.3, 107.5, 107.9 . For best reception pick a frequency that has no broadcast from a local station.

Installation is very simple. You only need the power and antenna connected to the unit along with your existing Fm radio to start receiving the service. More complex installations can including hiding the wiring behind headliners & carpets of the car and adding a direct connection to your car's stereo head unit. The kit comes with a mounting kit that will attach to the dashboard or a vent in the car. The anntena has a magnet and will attach to the metal roof or truck of a car. However installation on my Firebird that is mostly fiberglass, took a bit of double sided tape to keep the magnet down on the trunk.

The antenna for the car is much smaller than the previous ones. It is only about 1 inch square. Reception is great, although in some areas with tall buildings, tunnels and heavy wooded areas may cause a few drop outs. Most large cities do have repeaters on the earth to help eliminate the drop-outs.

The radio has 30 presets in groups of ten. The display has two lines of display , Although Xm currently doesn't send the whole field of the band's name or song if it extends thirteen characters. The displays are: #1, Channel, Channel # and Artist. #2, Channel, Channel # and Song, #3 Artist and Song and #4 is Artist and a Stock ticker that you can program for up to 20 stocks that will scroll across the screen.

You can change the color of the display from Red, Night Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, Sky Blue, or Orange. I have had no problems with reading the display with the sun shining directly on the unit, although I have not tried all the colors, you can not see the color in direct sunlight, but you are still able to read the display.

Another good option is: TuneSelect, it will alert you when a favorite song starts playing on another channel, though you will have to manual tune to the station that it is on. To set this when your favorite song is playing, you put it into memory by holding down the memory key.

While you are listening to one channel, you can scroll through the other channels without changing the channel to see what is playing on the others. You can change this option to change the station as you scroll through the stations. Direct entry of a channel, change it to that channel.

The radio also comes with three face plates to go over the standard silver/metal color that is around the display. I have not used these, but it looks like once you use it will be hard to change them as they have a sticky backside.

Sound quality: There is various options that will effect the sound quality of the radio. Direct connection with radios with auxiliary audio inputs, cassette adapter, FM Modulator and the Built in wireless modulator. A direct connection to your stereo will give you the best sound quality, I can not review this method as I have not done this, but I have heard others claim it gives near cd quality. The unit comes with a tape adapter, and this also improves the sound quality somewhat over the FM modulator. The wireless FM modulator that is built in will give you the quality of a good strong local FM station, perhaps just a bit better. There is another option the offer that is a wired FM modulator that will attach to your radio's antenna jack that gives a bit better sound quality than the wireless modulator. f sound is your thing, go with a direct cable from the Roady2 to your head unit. You can still unplug the roady and take it with you to keep it portable. If ease is your thing, the wireless FM modulator is the best bet, at expense of some sound quality.

I have mostly used the wirless Fm modulator that is built into the Roady, and have been pleased with the sound. I have used the Cassette adapter as well, and the sound is improved ofer the Fm modulator. I would not call it CD-quality, but I would call it much improved over FM quality.

I have had the radio since it came out and have not had any problems. I have moved it from the car to the house.. (it comes with a home kit you can mail-in for)

Rumors report that XM/Delphi will have a portable kits to wear outside and a "boom box" for the Roady2 later this year..

However, the picture in the review shown is not the right radio.

Information about the XM service is:
Sixty-eight channels of music. everything form the decades of the 1940s through the 1990s, Country, Bluegrass, Folk, The top 20 & top 40 hits. The top 20 changes based on votes from the website! There are three Christian stations, many Rock stations from Hits, classics, hard rock, alternative, College, Eclectic, Acoustic, Punk, Hip-hop, rap, Old R&B, Soul, Jazz, Blues, Dance, Disco, Eletronica, Latin music, World music, Reggae, New Age, Classical.

Thirty-Three talk channels.
Many are direct audio feeds from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News. There is the weather channel, Bloomberg, C-span, two sports talk channels, ESPN radio, NASCAR Radio, three comedy channels, MTV & VH1 radio, E! & Discovery, C-Span, ASK! and the America Left & right for political talk channels. And a truckers channel.

There is quite a few traffic& Weather channels as well for many of the major cities in the US.