Sirius XM Radio SP5-TK1 Satellite with Car Kit
- Usage: Car Home
- Design: Deck
- Service: SIRIUS
- Compatible Brand: Sirius
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Well priced and Attractive with Lots of Features!
Pros
Good price but with most of the features of the more expensive receivers.
Cons
Takes some time to find the satellite, is not portable.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
I would recommend the Sportster as it has many of the features of the more expensive Stiletto without the price!
If you are looking to subscribe to Sirius satellite radio, I would recommend the Sportster 5 as the receiver to buy. Sirius offers a few different receivers including the Stiletto, the Sportster, the Starmate and the Stratus. The Stiletto is convienent because of its portability but the price of the Stiletto at $329.99 is quite a bit more than the other receivers and over twice as much as the non-sale price of the Sportster at $149.99.
The Sportster, Starmate and Stratus are all dock and play receivers which require being plugged into a port to receive radio. Each one comes complete with the base, antennas, power cord, remote control, instructions and installation books plus two different options to attach the base to your car. Included is the option to affixe the base to your windshield with a sucker cup attachment or you can attach it to one of your car's air vents. The antenna is magnetic and has a long cable so that you can attach it to the outside of your car. You can buy a stereo that will run on batteries or plugged into the wall that holds the receiver so that you can then use the Sportster in your house or take it places.
The Sportster 5 offers more than the Starmate and Stratus without much of an added price. The Sportster has a multi-colour display that you can customize to match the interior lights of your car. The Sportster allows you to pause, rewind and fast forward up to an hour, store 30 of your favorite artists or songs that the receiver will then notify you of when they are playing, program 30 channels so that you can switch to them easily with the buttons at the bottom of the receiver plus a jump button in the middle that you can program for traffic, weather or news. It also will show sports scores at the bottom of your screen while you are on other channels.
Since Sirius has taken over XM radio, a few channels have been combined and Sirius also offers a best of XM package so that you can have channels from both systems. Sirius has lots of different stations to accommodate almost anyone's music and talk radio styles including sports, family stations, classic and current music, comedy and entertainment and the Sportster gives parents the option to lock out channels.
The receiver can be hooked up to your car through a few different ways as well. You can tune the satellite radio to your stereo through the FM transmitter or you can hard wire the radio directly into your stereo so that you don't have to find a radio station. With the FM transmitter you do need to find a FM channel that is not currently in use. If you are travelling long distances you will have to retune the radio onto a new channel when you get to a city where the current channel is in use. In really big cities, it is also sometimes hard to find a station that you can use. If you hard wire it into your stereo you don't have to worry about any of this and get perfect reception.
I really like the Sportster for it ease of use. Right out of the box I was able to hook it up and get music right away and with the dial it is really easy to find the stations you want. One thing that is annoying is that if you have the car running and the radio on and you pull into a gas station or store and turn the engine off but leave the accessory power on, the radio will have to re-locate the satellite. I imagine that this is something that happens with all the receivers but it would be nice if it didn't do this. In our house we currently have two of the Sportster 5 receivers and one of them takes a minute or two to locate satellites when I turn the car on even if the satellite was already located when the car was not on. The other receiver finds the satellite almost immediately so I don't know why it does this.
It's really nice to have the satellite radio if you travel long distances by yourself but if you don`t do that much driving you would want to get a home stereo or satellite radio is not for you. You do have to subscribe to Sirius with monthly or yearly subscriptions or you can get a lifetime subscription. Sirius usually gives you bonus months for each subscription which is nice. I commute 30 minutes each way to school and I have had the radio for a few 6000 km trips and it is great. You can always find music that you like and the comedy and talk radio channels are a refreshing change from regular radio. You won`t lose your radio station by going out of range and you can continue to listen to the stations you like. The Sportster 5 is a good price and if you look, you can often find it on sale.
The Sportster, Starmate and Stratus are all dock and play receivers which require being plugged into a port to receive radio. Each one comes complete with the base, antennas, power cord, remote control, instructions and installation books plus two different options to attach the base to your car. Included is the option to affixe the base to your windshield with a sucker cup attachment or you can attach it to one of your car's air vents. The antenna is magnetic and has a long cable so that you can attach it to the outside of your car. You can buy a stereo that will run on batteries or plugged into the wall that holds the receiver so that you can then use the Sportster in your house or take it places.
The Sportster 5 offers more than the Starmate and Stratus without much of an added price. The Sportster has a multi-colour display that you can customize to match the interior lights of your car. The Sportster allows you to pause, rewind and fast forward up to an hour, store 30 of your favorite artists or songs that the receiver will then notify you of when they are playing, program 30 channels so that you can switch to them easily with the buttons at the bottom of the receiver plus a jump button in the middle that you can program for traffic, weather or news. It also will show sports scores at the bottom of your screen while you are on other channels.
Since Sirius has taken over XM radio, a few channels have been combined and Sirius also offers a best of XM package so that you can have channels from both systems. Sirius has lots of different stations to accommodate almost anyone's music and talk radio styles including sports, family stations, classic and current music, comedy and entertainment and the Sportster gives parents the option to lock out channels.
The receiver can be hooked up to your car through a few different ways as well. You can tune the satellite radio to your stereo through the FM transmitter or you can hard wire the radio directly into your stereo so that you don't have to find a radio station. With the FM transmitter you do need to find a FM channel that is not currently in use. If you are travelling long distances you will have to retune the radio onto a new channel when you get to a city where the current channel is in use. In really big cities, it is also sometimes hard to find a station that you can use. If you hard wire it into your stereo you don't have to worry about any of this and get perfect reception.
I really like the Sportster for it ease of use. Right out of the box I was able to hook it up and get music right away and with the dial it is really easy to find the stations you want. One thing that is annoying is that if you have the car running and the radio on and you pull into a gas station or store and turn the engine off but leave the accessory power on, the radio will have to re-locate the satellite. I imagine that this is something that happens with all the receivers but it would be nice if it didn't do this. In our house we currently have two of the Sportster 5 receivers and one of them takes a minute or two to locate satellites when I turn the car on even if the satellite was already located when the car was not on. The other receiver finds the satellite almost immediately so I don't know why it does this.
It's really nice to have the satellite radio if you travel long distances by yourself but if you don`t do that much driving you would want to get a home stereo or satellite radio is not for you. You do have to subscribe to Sirius with monthly or yearly subscriptions or you can get a lifetime subscription. Sirius usually gives you bonus months for each subscription which is nice. I commute 30 minutes each way to school and I have had the radio for a few 6000 km trips and it is great. You can always find music that you like and the comedy and talk radio channels are a refreshing change from regular radio. You won`t lose your radio station by going out of range and you can continue to listen to the stations you like. The Sportster 5 is a good price and if you look, you can often find it on sale.
