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Reception is less than ideal. They claim it has an AC adapter. The music programming is excellent and far better than XM radio. It does not; it has a DC adapter. I can't get more than two bars, generally, and often drop down to one.
Their customer service people are rude and arrogant. without paying $40 (more than the radio costs) for a "home kit." That is, if you don't have a spare 12V power supply you can splice into a cigarette lighter outlet from Radio Shack. I can't stand Howard Stern and don't like having to see him plastered over their web site but that's minor. At home, with the antenna posted a foot from the window (outside) and away from trees and such, I can usually get two bars and only once or twice a day does it drop out, but it took a lot of experimentation to get there. I found that in the car, the reception blanks out frequently.
There's a certain dullness that can't be adjusted out. First, let me say one thing - the Sirius description of what comes with this radio is misleading. Second, the sound quality is fairly poor; not terrible, but certainly not what you get from the standard stereos in Chrysler and Dodge cars with Sirius. Extra antennas tend to cost as much as the radio. The difference is that with an AC adapter you can use it in your house.
I use a hard-wired hookup so the FM transmitter isn't the problem.Overall -- I'm very disappointed and I understand now why Sirius doesn't have easy comparison charts for its radios or any specifications of frequency range, harmonic distortion, and sensitivity to the antenna.
I have two home kits with one installed in a west facing upstairs window and the other in an east facing upstairs window. Unfortunately, this seems to happen in the 4th quarter of a close game and every day around sundown.
Reception is sporadic. In general, the signal is fine for about 1/2 to 1 1/2 hrs and then fades out for about 1/2 hr.
I purchased this radio along with a Home Installation Kit about a month ago. I'm happy with the progamming available just don't like the interruptions.
My main intention was to listen to college/pro football games not carried here on the West Coast.Use in the car has been excellent with no problems except a short loss of signal while in a tunnel.However, use at home has been less than stellar. Apparently, the 'satellite' is located in the central US and supplemented by a ground based antenna on the East and West Coast.
If the signal was steady at all locations I would have rated the system at 5 stars.
My old unit could be programmed to hold 30 stations, this one only 10. Also, can't browse through categories to see which songs are playing on what station. Also dosen't remember any favorites either. Bought this unit to replace my Audiovox PNP2 which crapped out after four years of daily use. This unit works fine but lacks features like multi-band presets. The unit works fine, but if I had to do it again, I'd spend more money for a unit with better features.
Even after moving the antenna outside and facing skyward the reception continued to be intermittent. Don't fool yourself thinking you will get good reception using the Home Kit Setup. Reception poor. Finally returned product because of poor reception.
For what it's worth, I think this is an across-the-board modification to all of their newer radios. Believe it or not, the old one sounded much better. I don't think another model would be any different. When my Starmate 1 finally burned out after 6 years, I got the Stratus 4 as an upgrade. The only thing that actually seemed worse was the reception. My solution is that I've stored a few different preset stations, and usually one of them is pretty decent. It is much better looking and easier to use than the old one, and if you already have Sirius, you know that the service itself is fantastic. It's a little annoying, but not enough to want to go without Sirius.
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