Directed Electronics Sportster Replay Sirius Receiver
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works well with inconsistent satellite reception
Pros
Sirius service, excellent features, good build quality.
Cons
No sound controls, gets hot, long pause on channel change, shared regions for traffic/weather
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
A big gamble on reception and quality. I would never buy a sirius radio built into a car.
Its tough to write a review of just the player without mentioning the Sirius service, this is a brief review of both really.
I decided to purchase a satellite radio because I hate commercials and I need some music in the car and in the office. I decided on Sirius because of the additional content, especially the sports. On a month by month plan Sirius is the same price as XM at $12.95 a month. I decided to purchase the Sportster and the optional home docking station accessory.
Contents
Player
Cradle with suction cup car mount
Power cable
FM cable
Antenna
Remote control
Pack of silica gel
The docking station contents:
Dock
Power cable
Antenna
FM cable
Installation
This was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. All the instructions talk about running cables in your car and mounting the antenna on outside of your vehicle towards the rear of the roof. I simply placed the antenna on the very front of my dash by the air vents and I found I got a great signal, even though my windshield is more vertical than most (Honda Element). I did not install the cradle, I just use the dock loose in the car as I cannot figure out where to mount it. Once I plugged in the power cable and powered the player up it took about 5 mins to update the channels. Once that was complete I tuned the player to a channel for activation and was ready to activate my service.
In my office the docking station was a simple installation. I have the antenna located on a north facing window in central Phoenix, AZ. Sirius has recommend directions for the antenna to face for each region of the united states for optimal reception, for the south west region it must face north or east. Along with a 3 bar signal strength indicator the player has a useful antenna aiming menu option which is more detailed in that it has a 10 bar signal strength indication for both satellite signal and the terrestrial signal. I was very surprised to find out that despite facing north and have my antenna on the window ledge I was getting no satellite signal at all, I was however getting a full strength standard FM signal. I expected to be able to receive the FM signal as Sirius has ground FM repeater stations in major US locations. You can call Sirius customer service give them your ZIP code and they will tell you where your nearest ground station is located. I found that mine was only 2 miles away in downtown Phoenix, you have to be within 15 km of a station to get the FM signal.
Activation
I decided to register on line, that makes the activation fee $10 instead of $15. It took me about 5 mins to register and select my plan. I returned to my car and waited 5 mins and nothing happened. So I called Sirius customer service, I waited less than a minute to get through to someone, they activated the service for me instantly. I initially used the FM modulator connection by tuning my radio to the factory default 88.1 FM on my radio and was very impressed with the sound quality. I didn't even plug the little FM cable ariel into the player either. I now use the direct cable connection method as I have an audio aux jack in my car.
Use
Initial impressions were mostly good. I was happy with the sound quality. I was impressed with the build quality and controls including the screen display. I found it very easy to dock and undock in both the car and home docking stations.
The player has a whole bunch of features including: -
Ability to pause and rewind, set preset favorites etc
Program the player to skip channels you don't like when channel hoping using the rotary knob
Program the player to tune to a channel at a specific time
Game Alert – game notifications and live scores
Jump button – quickly jump between channels, useful for jumping to traffic news and then back to music
Memo button stores song and artist
What I didn't like:-
The amount of time it takes to change channels, it takes 3-5 secs to tune into a channel, this makes channel surfing very annoying.
The suction mount, its too big for me to find a place to put it on my dash, it will easily mount on the windscreen though.
I would be happier if the player was slightly smaller.
I find that the unit gets very hot.
The player does not have any sound controls so I had to get an amplifier and speakers with bass and treble controls for my office.
There is not a weather/traffic channel dedicated to my region alone, it is shared with the San Diego region so I have to listen to traffic for that region too. I understand that is not the case with the XM service.
Not all the channels are commercial free.
Conclusion
Very happy with the player and service so far.
Sirius customer service is excellent, hardly any wait time when calling on every call.
Setup and installation instruction could be more comprehensive
I have not used all the features yet, including the game alert etc I may update this review once I have done that.
Update
The radio never gets a signal on my wife's return commute from work every Sunday (the only day she works). Even in city like Phoenix Sirius has this amazing lack of coverage !!
I decided to purchase a satellite radio because I hate commercials and I need some music in the car and in the office. I decided on Sirius because of the additional content, especially the sports. On a month by month plan Sirius is the same price as XM at $12.95 a month. I decided to purchase the Sportster and the optional home docking station accessory.
Contents
Player
Cradle with suction cup car mount
Power cable
FM cable
Antenna
Remote control
Pack of silica gel
The docking station contents:
Dock
Power cable
Antenna
FM cable
Installation
This was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. All the instructions talk about running cables in your car and mounting the antenna on outside of your vehicle towards the rear of the roof. I simply placed the antenna on the very front of my dash by the air vents and I found I got a great signal, even though my windshield is more vertical than most (Honda Element). I did not install the cradle, I just use the dock loose in the car as I cannot figure out where to mount it. Once I plugged in the power cable and powered the player up it took about 5 mins to update the channels. Once that was complete I tuned the player to a channel for activation and was ready to activate my service.
In my office the docking station was a simple installation. I have the antenna located on a north facing window in central Phoenix, AZ. Sirius has recommend directions for the antenna to face for each region of the united states for optimal reception, for the south west region it must face north or east. Along with a 3 bar signal strength indicator the player has a useful antenna aiming menu option which is more detailed in that it has a 10 bar signal strength indication for both satellite signal and the terrestrial signal. I was very surprised to find out that despite facing north and have my antenna on the window ledge I was getting no satellite signal at all, I was however getting a full strength standard FM signal. I expected to be able to receive the FM signal as Sirius has ground FM repeater stations in major US locations. You can call Sirius customer service give them your ZIP code and they will tell you where your nearest ground station is located. I found that mine was only 2 miles away in downtown Phoenix, you have to be within 15 km of a station to get the FM signal.
Activation
I decided to register on line, that makes the activation fee $10 instead of $15. It took me about 5 mins to register and select my plan. I returned to my car and waited 5 mins and nothing happened. So I called Sirius customer service, I waited less than a minute to get through to someone, they activated the service for me instantly. I initially used the FM modulator connection by tuning my radio to the factory default 88.1 FM on my radio and was very impressed with the sound quality. I didn't even plug the little FM cable ariel into the player either. I now use the direct cable connection method as I have an audio aux jack in my car.
Use
Initial impressions were mostly good. I was happy with the sound quality. I was impressed with the build quality and controls including the screen display. I found it very easy to dock and undock in both the car and home docking stations.
The player has a whole bunch of features including: -
Ability to pause and rewind, set preset favorites etc
Program the player to skip channels you don't like when channel hoping using the rotary knob
Program the player to tune to a channel at a specific time
Game Alert – game notifications and live scores
Jump button – quickly jump between channels, useful for jumping to traffic news and then back to music
Memo button stores song and artist
What I didn't like:-
The amount of time it takes to change channels, it takes 3-5 secs to tune into a channel, this makes channel surfing very annoying.
The suction mount, its too big for me to find a place to put it on my dash, it will easily mount on the windscreen though.
I would be happier if the player was slightly smaller.
I find that the unit gets very hot.
The player does not have any sound controls so I had to get an amplifier and speakers with bass and treble controls for my office.
There is not a weather/traffic channel dedicated to my region alone, it is shared with the San Diego region so I have to listen to traffic for that region too. I understand that is not the case with the XM service.
Not all the channels are commercial free.
Conclusion
Very happy with the player and service so far.
Sirius customer service is excellent, hardly any wait time when calling on every call.
Setup and installation instruction could be more comprehensive
I have not used all the features yet, including the game alert etc I may update this review once I have done that.
Update
The radio never gets a signal on my wife's return commute from work every Sunday (the only day she works). Even in city like Phoenix Sirius has this amazing lack of coverage !!
