Directed Electronics ST2 SIRIUS Radio Receiver with Car Kit
- Usage: Car Home
- Design: Compact
- Service: SIRIUS
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Sirius Replay: Are you Sirius?
Pros
Good sound quality, easy set up
Cons
Programming shortcomings, too many wires, erases memory upon changing channels
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
This radio has good sound quality, but has many more shortcomings making it less than desirable.
I have owned and used the ST2, Sirius receiver for a little over a year now.
When I opened the box, I received the ST2 receiver, 2 mounts (1 indoor, and 1 suction cup) a AC and DC power supply cords, a remote control, and an external antenna. The set up for this receiver was fairly simple, however when I first turned it on, it took several minutes to activate, then downloaded updates before working. I had the expectation of being able to turn it on, and immediately be able to listen, after about 5 minutes of waiting and watching, it began to work.
Mounting this unit in my vehicle provided a unique challenge as the suction cup device has never stuck very well to my windshield, or my wife's windshield. We even went and bound a second vehicle mounting kit as we thought our first one was defective, it wasn't. The second one had the same problems as the first.
Upon using this radio I found that it had options for 30 presets for your "favorite" channels, which definitely comes in handy. I also noticed that this radio has a feature that will allow you to play back a song that you just heard, and will remember this for up to 44 minutes. It will remember it as long as you don't change the channel, if you do, every song it had in its memory will be lost. This does not work like a tape recorder, so don't expect it to.
A nice feature about this radio is that it will alert you if a song, or artist you like is playing on any of its many channels. To program this, you must first be listening to a song by this artist, at which time you can put that name in to memory. If the artist or song is not playing, you will not be able to enter it, this I was disappointed with.
This unit has a LCD (liquid crystal display) that is back lit. The text on the screen is black, and the backlight is blue. At night, even with the backlight turned all the way down, the display is still overwhelming bright, and I would not recommend mounting this on the windshield in front of you, if you intend on using this vehicle when operating your vehicle after dark.
The remote control supplied with this radio is handy, but is very small, and the buttons on it are almost unusable while driving due to their tiny size. In fact the remote is so small, I worry more about breaking it, than I do losing it. The remote also lacks sufficient power to change the radio upon pushing a button. I have often times found myself pushing a button 3 or 4 times before getting the desired action.
When using the radio, you must understand that it does not have a built in battery, so unless this radio is plugged in to a power supply, you will not be able to use it. There is also no built in antenna, so unless you plug it in to an external antenna, again, you will not be able to use it. All the wires (excessively long cords) make for quite the eyesore when it is all set up. Even when I have all the wires neatly bundled with Velcro straps, it's still not a pretty sight, and definitely doesn't look very professional.
The sound quality of this unit is actually quite good. It has a built in FM transmitter, so all you need to do is set the radio's transmitter to an unused FM channel, and then set your car radio to that same channel and you will be in business. I have noticed very few instances where there is any type of interference or static when using this option. The FM transmitter feature allow you to set several presets in the event you need to change transmitter channels for some reason.
This radio is great for entertainment purposes if you are in areas with limited radio reception (mountains) or are looking for listening to radio without all the annoying commercials. Carefully do your research before deciding on a particular satellite radio receiver as this one may not be right for you with all of its shortcomings.
When I opened the box, I received the ST2 receiver, 2 mounts (1 indoor, and 1 suction cup) a AC and DC power supply cords, a remote control, and an external antenna. The set up for this receiver was fairly simple, however when I first turned it on, it took several minutes to activate, then downloaded updates before working. I had the expectation of being able to turn it on, and immediately be able to listen, after about 5 minutes of waiting and watching, it began to work.
Mounting this unit in my vehicle provided a unique challenge as the suction cup device has never stuck very well to my windshield, or my wife's windshield. We even went and bound a second vehicle mounting kit as we thought our first one was defective, it wasn't. The second one had the same problems as the first.
Upon using this radio I found that it had options for 30 presets for your "favorite" channels, which definitely comes in handy. I also noticed that this radio has a feature that will allow you to play back a song that you just heard, and will remember this for up to 44 minutes. It will remember it as long as you don't change the channel, if you do, every song it had in its memory will be lost. This does not work like a tape recorder, so don't expect it to.
A nice feature about this radio is that it will alert you if a song, or artist you like is playing on any of its many channels. To program this, you must first be listening to a song by this artist, at which time you can put that name in to memory. If the artist or song is not playing, you will not be able to enter it, this I was disappointed with.
This unit has a LCD (liquid crystal display) that is back lit. The text on the screen is black, and the backlight is blue. At night, even with the backlight turned all the way down, the display is still overwhelming bright, and I would not recommend mounting this on the windshield in front of you, if you intend on using this vehicle when operating your vehicle after dark.
The remote control supplied with this radio is handy, but is very small, and the buttons on it are almost unusable while driving due to their tiny size. In fact the remote is so small, I worry more about breaking it, than I do losing it. The remote also lacks sufficient power to change the radio upon pushing a button. I have often times found myself pushing a button 3 or 4 times before getting the desired action.
When using the radio, you must understand that it does not have a built in battery, so unless this radio is plugged in to a power supply, you will not be able to use it. There is also no built in antenna, so unless you plug it in to an external antenna, again, you will not be able to use it. All the wires (excessively long cords) make for quite the eyesore when it is all set up. Even when I have all the wires neatly bundled with Velcro straps, it's still not a pretty sight, and definitely doesn't look very professional.
The sound quality of this unit is actually quite good. It has a built in FM transmitter, so all you need to do is set the radio's transmitter to an unused FM channel, and then set your car radio to that same channel and you will be in business. I have noticed very few instances where there is any type of interference or static when using this option. The FM transmitter feature allow you to set several presets in the event you need to change transmitter channels for some reason.
This radio is great for entertainment purposes if you are in areas with limited radio reception (mountains) or are looking for listening to radio without all the annoying commercials. Carefully do your research before deciding on a particular satellite radio receiver as this one may not be right for you with all of its shortcomings.
