Take your XM Satellite Radio Subscription Anywhere with the Delphi SA10001 Audio System
Written: May 16 '04 (Updated May 17 '04)
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Pros: Very portable, good sound quality
Cons: Battery life, limited features
The Bottom Line: Delphi's component XM equipment is a worthy and flexible option for XM subscribers. This audio system lives up to its billing.
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| nc10's Full Review: Delphi SKYFi SA10001 |
The SKYFi Audio System is the "boom box" component of Delphi's SKYFi XM radio component system, built around their Delphi XM SKYFi Radio receiver. Delphi describes their SKYFi receiver as an add-on tuner that allows you to listen to XM's programming through your regular car radio, home stereo, or powered speakers. Since each XM receiver is tied to a $10/month fee for access to over 100 channels of satellite broadcast radio programming, it behooves owners to find a way to use one single XM tuner in their car, home, at work, or at play.
To allow XM subscribers to use their subscription everywhere, they developed a modular tuner that when combined with adapters sold separately, could be plugged into their car, home stereo, or powered speaker sets. For automobiles, Delphi offers a car mounting kit with cassette adapter and optional FM modulator. For home use, Delphi offers a home adapter kit to connect the tuner to your stereo, or, this "boombox", a set of powered speakers designed to work with the SKYFi tuner.
The SKYFi Audio System is basically a boombox style set of powered speakers, attractively designed with an unconventional slight bow tie shape. The system is 18 3/4" wide, 7" high, and 5 5/16" deep. The 4" diameter double cone speakers are located on each side of the boom box. Between the speaker is a spring loaded mounting receptacle for the tuner (the boombox is useless without the tuner and XM subscription, which is sold separately). Inserting the tuner/receiver only takes a second. Pushing on it once causes it to swing out, allowing you to move the tuner to your car adapter. The speaker panels are silver and removable, with other colors an add-on option. A convenient carrying handle is built into the case.
Either a 12V power adapter or six "D" batteries can be used to power these speakers. The power adapter is included. Also include is the XM antenna, connected with a 20' cord to the SKYFi system. The anntenna is small, essentially a 3" X 3" square receiver, attached by hinge to a similarly sized flat base. The battery comparment also includes a storage area for unused antenna cable.
Installation/Setup
Setup is straightforward. Key steps are:
1. Plug in the 12V power adapter
2. Plug the XM tuner into the audio system.
3. Plug the antenna cable into the audio system. Decide where you will locate the antenna. Delphi recommends that you place the antenna near a south facing window or outdoors. Though I typically keep my antenna in a west facing window ledge, I routinely move the radio and antenna around my home (in southern Louisiana), and find that it works anywhere in our home, and that being near is window is not important. (In the manual, Delphi states In some cases, it will be possible to receive XM's signal through standard home walls or a roof.) If I move the antenna, the radio does lose reception until I place the antenna in a new location, and it takes a few seconds for the XM signal reception receive. The XM tuner does include a "antenna aiming" graphic to help you locate and position your antenna for the best reception, but I've not found the need to use this.
4. If you're buying a tuner at the same time you buy the audio system, you'll need to buy an XM subscription, which runs $10/month at www.xmradio.com. 2-5 year subscriptions are available with 17% to 25% discounts. I signed up for a 2 year subscription, which provides 2 years of service for $200.00. If you already have a tuner and subscription, you'll be able to start listening to XM radio on the audio system.
Battery vs AC Power
I've only used one set of batteries with this unit, and they provided 6-8 hours of service. Given the cost of the six "D" alkaline batteries, I don't plan to use battery power very often. The 120V AC to 12V DC adapter has a 8' cable, and is about 2" wide, 2" high, and 3" long, big enough to require two slots on most power strips. I can hear no difference in sound quality or volume when switching from battery to AC power. The XM SKYFi tuner has a optional "auto" shutdown that will turn off the radio after 1, 2, or 3 hours, saving either your "D" cell batteries, or even your car battery when you move your tuner to the car.
Sound
The audio system features a single control knob, volume. The only other feature is a headphone jack. No line in or out jacks to hook this boombox up to stereo or cd player are present. On/Off, channel controls, display settings, preset controls are all on the Radio receiver module. Volume can be adjusted in 30 increments. I keep the SKYFi audio system setting about 4' away near my computer desk. Volume settings less than 10 are barely audible. A setting of 15 is comfortable, loud enough to hear over the background noice of the fans in my computer, but soft enough not to reach other rooms. At a setting of 30, I hear no distortion, and the sound is clear 3 rooms away (about 50`) in my home. The sound is not nearly as loud as a good stereo system, inadequate to supply music at a noisy dance party for example.
Frequency response is 70 to 22khz. As you might guess, bass response is not one of this system's strong point, but combined with the 11 step bass adjustment in the SKYFi tuner, I don't feel its a weaknes. Bass response is adequate for a portable player, and highs and mid range frequencies sound full and accurate, not disappointing at all for a boombox in this price range. Headphones also work well with this system, though none are included.
XM Satellites broadcast radio signals that contain compressed digital data, using a compression scheme called CT-aacPlus, an improved version of AAC (Advanced Audio Coding). XM claims double blind tests have shown that AACX encoding scheme provides improved sound quality over competing encoding schemes, and CT-aacPlus further improves on AAC. To my untrained ears, I find the sound quality of XM radio to be similar to the best FM radio, no static with quality that sounds similar to mp3 files with bit rates in the 64-96kbps range, not cd quality but close. I do occasionally hear digital artifacts, sound will stop for a second, or I can hear a high pitched squeak, or the sound will appear muffled for a second. Sometimes I can listen for an hour to two and not hear anything like this, other times every few minutes, but in general, these artifacts are rare.
I do have one problem with the audio system, the audio control knob acts as if it has a short in it. Two thirds of the time when I turn the knob to the right the volume goes up as expected, but at other times nothing happens or the volume goes down. I don't find this much of a problem, controlling the Audio system with the remote, which is included with the SKYFi receiver, works perfectly.
The SKYFi Listening Experience
I don't intend to write a full review of the 2003 SKYFi's service or tuner/receiver in this review of the add on audio system, but I do like the service. If the local radio stations are only playing political talk radio shows, its great to find a financial show, sports show, or other choice to listen to. The numerous commercial free music channels and traffic channels for many large cities, and the consistent nationwide service will ensure many subscribers keep renewing. The LED tuner display is terrific, the large scrolling display is big enough to be seen from 10' away, and identifies the source material, be it music, a talk show, newsbyte, or other item. When I first heard of SKYFi radio I couldn't imaging paying for radio service, but now I doubt I'll ever let it drop.
Support, documentation and other comments
The manual included is only a few pages but its more than adequate, there's not much to say about powered speakers. FAQ's, email support, and other information are available at the website (http://shopdelphi.com/products/consumers/skyfi/skyfi_radio/). In addition, there are helpful forums at 3rd party websites, such as those at www.clubxm.com. The SKYFi Audio System comes with a 1 year warranty.
The SKYFi audio system seems somewhat expensive to me, after all, its not much more than a set of powered speakers. Perhaps the technology required to build the satellite antenna is more expensive than it looks. I wish this unit included a set of inputs and outputs to make the unit even more versatile. But at the street price of about $90, the convenience and more than adequate quality of this system makes a good choice if you want to be able to use your XM tuner in more than one place.
Delphi XM Systems
http://shopdelphi.com/products/consumers/skyfi/skyfi_radio/
XM Radio service
http://www.xmradio.com
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 89
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