Pioneer GEX-INNO1 XM Radio Receiver with Home Kit

Good, you are doing research into the Pioneer Inno before spending anywhere from $130.00 to $350.00 (with accessories) for a specialized product designed for a specialized audience.

First let me begin by telling you what the Pioneer Inno XM receiver is not. If you are only looking for a way to play your MP3 collection, this unit is not for you (yes, it plays both MP3 and WMA files, but it is as expensive as an iPod or Zune player with a small fraction of the capacity). If you are looking to copy XM programming to share with others, this unit won't do that (the XM PCR 1000 Satellite Radio for PC did that, but was discontinued for legal reasons in 2004). If you are just seeking a receiver to listen to live XM satellite radio in your car or home, the Inno will do that, but there are other great models starting at less than $50.00.

The beauty (some would say brilliance) of the Inno is it's ability to easily and directly record XM's diverse music, news, sports, and talk audio programming for you to listen to anywhere, anytime.

The Basics
Construction of the unit is solid, but certainly not unbreakable. The Inno comes with a dark grey (or for you lady geeks in a limited edition pink along with a donation by Pioneer to fight breast cancer)case.

The Inno comes as a fully functional XM radio receiver and internal 1 gigabyte internal user memory. The user memory can be partitioned to be used exclusively for XM recordings (50 hours of programming) or half for XM recordings and half (512 mb)for your own music, podcasts, or audiobooks (the latest firmware supports audible.com content). There is no provision for the use of external flash memory cards. The li-ion battery can be replaced by the user (take note iPod) and lasts from five (in XM satellite mode) to 10 (playback mode) hours.

Power up the Inno and you first notice a pleasant 1 1/2 inch color LCD screen that displays channel, artist, and title information along with percent of memory used, battery life, and a tiny time display. The display and button layout rotates with the unit 90 degrees counter-clockwise when the Inno is placed in either the supplied home or optional car dock.

A simple to use, intuitively laid out control pad on the front helps you scroll between all channels, your favorites, and various genres of XM's 170 offerings. Hear a song you like? Press and hold the center XM button ((( ))) at any time during the song and the whole song is downloaded into the memory. The songs you record can be sorted by genre, artist, the channel from which they were recorded, played in random order, or you can create your own playlists. The unit can also be pre-programmed to record by time and channel to build your music collection, catch scheduled programs and special events like concerts and sports. Of minor note, scheduling recordings of a radio show or sporting in advance required the Inno to be docked in its home dock.

On the right side of the unit, there is a power/hold switch and volume control, and on the left is a connection port for using the home docking station, car kit dock, or adapter cable (supplied) to connect directly to the ac power adaptor (supplied) or 12 volt auto adaptor (optional and supplied with the car kit). On the top of the unit is a headphone jack (interestingly 3/32", not the standard 1/8" jack, but other headphones will (somewhat loosely)) fit into which the supplied earbud headphones plug. A RCA connector cable for your home stereo plugs into the home dock.

A full function remote with keypad for easy station access is included If you buy the optional car kit, it comes with a second remote.

Sound Quality
XM advertises "near CD quality audio" for their product, but audiophiles beware: "near" is a very subjective term. XM broadcasts music channels in a digitally compressed format (64kbs aacPlus) similar to that used by Apple's iTunes store. The supplied earbuds and built-in FM modulator (see below) do not do the unit's sound quality justice. When connected to the supplied RCA adaptor cable, the sound quality is, well, near CD audio quality. I found the sound at least equal to FM stereo, but not quite as good as a high bit-rate (i.e. 160kbs+) MP3 file on a quality player such as the iPod or Zune. To conserve satellite bandwidth, high frequencies are cut off at about 14 khz which many audiophiles will notice. Be aware the quality of a limited number of voice channels (e.g. local traffic and weather channels are very compressed using an AMBE codec)and sound like a poorly tuned AM radio. The audio quality of the Inno is certainly superior to that of lower end XM radio units such as the Delphi Roady 2 or Roady XT. The Inno has user adjustable treble and bass controls; however, being an audio geek, I would have prefered a five-band equalizer.

XM channels XM Pops and Fine Tuning are broadcast in 5.1 surround sound audio quality.

Optional Car Kits and the FM Modulator
For use in your vehicle, a (rather expensive) optional car kit (CD-INCAR1) will set you back around $65.00. Because of problems Pioneer encountered with the FCC on early units a built in FM modulator is disabled, except when the unit is placed in the car dock. This means the car dock is essential if you want the Inno to play through your FM stereo. More information on this can be found here: http://www.epinions.com/content_242717986436/show_~allcom

Truly Portable XM Radio?
Is the Inno truly portable? That depends on your definition of portable. The Inno works great for user recorded content just about anywhere. Satellite radio, because it requires a clear path for line of sight transmission from the southern sky, is another matter. The internal antenna usually won't work inside (or even outside if there are heavy clouds or trees blocking Rhythm and/or Blues (XM's two primary satellites)). This shortcoming can be largely remedied by substituting an aftermarket antenna headphone made by Belkin (~$40.00) for the Pioneer supplied earbuds (see http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=263659 for more information).

Final Thoughts
You may have heard XM and Sirius (the other DBS broadcaster in North America are seeking governmental approval to merge and could (if approved) combine similar channels that are available on both services. The future of the merger is unknown, but over the years subscribers could be forced to choose between buying (as yet non-existent)interoperative receivers or receiving a reduced range of content. Maybe a XM/Sirius receiver will be available someday for both services with the ability to record hundreds of hours of content.

If you want to listen to Howard Stern, NBA, or NFL games, then look at Sirius radios. XM does have better audio quality and a broader range of music content in most genres.

If like me, you are addicted to watching TV on your terms (when you want and without having to sit through commercials) with a TIVO or other PVR, this may be just the gadget for you!