Customer Reviews

Delphi SA10101 SKYFi2 XM Satellite Radio Receiver and Remote Control

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I was lucky I found the skyfi 2 this past weekend at a local store.The Skyfi 2 is an improvement in the Skyfi 1 in many ways.The Skyfi 2 has better sound and can be played in your existing car and home boombox cradle.From the beginning you will notice the sound is louder on this one than it is on the skyfi 1.I don't have to cut the volume up as loud now on my boombox as I did with my skyfi 1.The Skyfi 2 also comes with a brighter light for viewing during sunny weather.I can actually see this now when the sun is bright in my car I can still read it.The skyfi 2 has a choice of 2 colors.Black on White which is recommended when driving in bright sunlight or White On Black which looks kind of blue and not as bright but you can still adjust the brightness on both colors in the menu screen.This thing is really bright at night unless you lower the brightness.The Skyfi 2 also has a sport and stock ticker.You can see sports scores or stocks scrolling under the artist and song info.I'm hoping Delphi will add weather as well to this.The skyfi 2 is the first reciever to feature extended titles.If you have the scroll on which is in the menu the song will start out at 16 characters but go to 30 something depending on song.Note the scroll for extended titles isn't the same thing as having the artist and song scroll across in big letters.The scroll for extended titles is in the menu you can cut it on or off it just scrolls the longer titles to extended ones.The song artist big letter scroll is in the display mode you can pick between this and other ways to see the song artist info.This makes the reciever look better similar to Sirius reciever.The skyfi 2 also has a unique feature.It has an Fm modulator inside the unit.When you put it in your car cradle it will turn on.You can cut it off in the menu if you want to but this thing has over 6-12 frequencies.It features the lower frequencies 88-89 and the higher ones 106-107.This thing sounds much better than my wired mod in my car.Also this unit features a record feature.You do nothing it automatically records from the time you cut it on.This is a first for an xmreciever.Also you could put 20 favorite stations in the skyfi 1 you can put 30 in this one.Here is a summery of this unit.Also you can view info 4 ways on the reciever.You can still activate it to scroll in big letters if your at a distance.You can have just the song and artist like the skyfi 1 featured,You can have artist,song and stocks or you can choose artist,song and sports.

Pro's
Extended Titles-This is the only xm reciever to feature this but it will eventually be available in newer models too.XM is just starting to get into listing more than 16 characters for artist and song.

Brighter Light for viewing in bright sunlight.It doesn't get washed out.

Stock Tickers and Sports Scores Note you must go into the menu and pick your favorite stocks and sports teams.

Better Sound

Built In Fm Modulator and it lets you choose over 6 frequencies.Also although xm recommends you buy the new car cradle it works fine with the old car cradle.

30 Presets features A,B and C were you can put at least 10 channels on each.

Pause and Record Feature-The Skyfi 2 automatically starts to record when you cut it on.You don't have to do anything not even pause.If you want to hear a song again that you liked real good or missed when you was away from the reciever you can just hit the reverse arrow.It can hold up to 30 minutes of songs.You can also go foward by hitting the foward arrow.If you want to hear live programming what is playing now just hold the foward arrow it will then beep and display live on the top.Note once you cut it off all memory will be lost.When you cut it back on it starts to record again from the first song.This is a great feature to have if your reciever is in the house and you have to go outside for something.When you come back in you can just push the back arrow and go back to the songs.And the recorded songs sound live you can't tell a difference in sound quality.You can also pause the music if you want to.

The Skyfi 2 features a clock.You can either view it in 12 or 24 hr time.

The Skyfi 2 can also alert you when your favorite artist or song is on.For example if your favorite artist on Sunny channel 24 is Percy Faith if your on another channel you will hear a beep when they play Percy Faith.You can put at least 10 favorite artist or songs in.

The Skyfi 2 is lighter than the Skyfi 1.Even thou their the same size the Skyfi 2 isn't as heavy as the Skyfi 1.

The Skyfi 2 comes with a remote.Note the skyfi 1's remote will also work on the skyfi 2 if you want to cut up or down the volume,change channel or put in numbers.The sky 2's remote has additionel keys and different batteries.

Cons
It doesn't feature a variety of colors for your mood like the roady 2 does.

Even thou it says you can pick it up on any Fm radio inside the house you can't.The Fm mod only works on the car cradle.It's not in the menu when it's on the boombox.

The sky 2 remote is heavier and takes 2 aa battaries instead of a long life lithium like the sky 1 remote.Also the sky 2 remote is slightley larger than the sky 1.

The skyfi 2 is worth the extra money.I highley recommend it.
I also recommend the protective satellite radio reciever case which is cheap to keep this in.It will protect the lcd screen from scratches.

Also Xm has an emergency channel on 247 which monitors tornadoes,hurricanes,volcanos,floods,blizzards etc.It came in handy this past summer with the Florida Hurricanes and this Fall with the eruption of Mount Saint Helens.They give evacuation routes,watches,warnings,school and business closings and other info.This is yet another reason to get xm.

Well what can I say, XM has done it again! If you're looking for a receiver which gives you the abilit to pause play, rewind or go forward (all up to 30 minutes) then this is the player for you! You know when you're listening to that one part of a song or news that's important and someone starts talking or the phone rings? Well with this receiver you'll never miss one second as you just hit the pause button and it'll pause the program until you return (just like TiVo or Recorder Box), and you can skip by the commercials (few there are) in playback until you get to the LIVE feed again.

The screen gives you two colors, black letters on white or white letters on black background. My opinion is that I liked the original SkyFi Amber color better than the Black/white or white/black. However many had a problem seeing it in the daylight (I personally did not).

There is a "ticker" at the bottom of the screen. Meaning you can program the receiver to scroll across the bottom of the screen current stock quotes, or sports scores and game times for all major teams and college. Even Golf!

There is clock in the upper right corner which allows regular or military time. All you do is set it to your time zone (Eastern, West, etc.) and if your area follows daylight savings, and then XM Satellites do the rest in adjusting the time! You'll always have the current time beamed down to your radio!

You can set it to broadcast to a nearby FM radio. Meaning you can have this receiver in your bedroom playing, and have it set to a frequency (there are many to choose from) on your FM radio so that you can hear it on your FM radio in the kitchen or other room! This litle box will actually broadcast to an FM radio!

And look at the prices! Amazon's are the lowest around! Look even closer and the this SkyFi2 is ten dollars more than the original SkyFi Amazon has. At these prices I don't see how Amazon makes any profit!

And it keeps going and going with no problems. Meaning, when I first got this from Amazon, the following day I came down with the Flu. I had it playing soft/easy music in my bedroom for well over 48 hours while I layed in bed with the flu. Non stop for over 2 days and at no time did the screen get "hot" and have problems nor did the radio turn itself off from overheating.

Plus you get a nifty remote that's a bit larger and more comfortable in the hand than the original SkyFi. And there's a metal clip you can attach to clip onto your pants/belt. Remote has good range, comes in handy when you don't want to get up to adjust the volume (included) or do just about anything other than menu functions (changing color, ticker, etc.). Two AAA batteries are included with the remote.

What you will need with this (just like the original SkyFi) is with the homekit (to hook to your stereo) or boombox (has antenna, and all). Just make sure when you order them that it's for XM radio as the Sirius Satellite parts will not work with XM.

If you're looking for a XM Receiver with lots of "toys" to play around with, adjusting it to see various things, then this one is for you. You'll spend hours customizing the screen to your exact color, darkness, brightness, contrast, selection of ticker stock quotes or sports teams, etc.

When I first read about Satellite Radio I said to myself "why would anyone pay for something that's free on the radio," but trust me there is a BIG difference! Sond quality is much better, there are little to no commercials (commercials are on the Old Time Radio and Sonic but are few) and you can zero in to listen to the exact type of music you want to. Not listen to your radio for hours upon hours for the genre songs you like. And if talk radio is your thing, especially LIVE shows, then Satellite is what you want. Especially if you live in parts of the country where you have one or no talk stations. XM gives you 5 talk stations. With G Gordon Liddy and Dr. Laura coming in Feb. 2005. And if baseball (Major) is your thing, well XM has an 11 year contract with MLB to carry each and every game starting with spring training to the world series! And with no additional cost to the $9.99 fee!

I bought this unit on-line literally within minutes of hearing about it. TiVo does that to people; you begin to expect to be able to pause or rewind just about anything around you. Now, if it could only pause and fast-forward live people talking...click, click.

This reciever answers that need for satellite radio...almost. Sadly, it does not contain or allow an external hard drive chip to record songs permanently - when your 30 minutes are up or the unit is shut off, the songs stored in memory are gone forever. Also, the forward and reverse buttons can only skip one song at a time - to get to the front or back of the ever changing 30 minute memory, you must push the desired direction button many times to skip through all the songs.

The unit does have a built in FM transmitter, but it only works while installed on the home or auto cradle, NOT the boombox. Since the manual fails to mention this, and it being entirely illogical as to why they would remove this function only for the boombox, I wound up having to find this out from their technical help line.

Until music and electronics manufacturers eventually stumble upon the concept of a magic 'BUY' button, which would record (or instantly download) the song playing to a removable hard drive or chip, along with relevant title and artist info, we are destined to be satisfied for now with small incremental steps in that direction that receivers like this bring. This unit is a rather significant and appreciated step to that end, nonetheless.

Also not published in any of the manuals is a diagnostic mode for the receiver that can be a great aid in aiming the antenna. Briefly, to enter the diagnostic mode:

Make sure your receiver is off.

Press these keys in order: 2 0 7 XM (button in the middle of the wheel on the SkyFi)

Press Display 3 times to cycle through the normal displays to the first Diagnostic screen.

SkyFi Screen 1
SAT1: East Satellite at 85 degrees west longitude.

SAT2: West Satellite at 115 degrees west longitude.

TERR: Terrestrial Repeater signal

DEMOD: A check mark means you have demodulator lock. This means the receiver is locked on the signal from that source.

TDM: A check mark means you are synchronized with the Time Division Multiplexed signal from that source.

BER %: Percentage Bit Error Rate. This is the percentage of received data bits in error. For satellite this value should be less than 3% for error free audio. For terrestrial, it should be below 6%.

AGC: Automatic Gain Control Level. This is an indication of the amount of internal gain needed to recover the signal. The more negative, the higher the signal being received.

SkyFi Screen 2
BER: Raw Bit Error Rate. This is the number of received data bits in error. This value divided by the maximum number of errors in a measurement interval is the BER % on Screen 1. Max number for SAT1 and SAT2 is 5440. Max for TERR is 6800.

AGC: Same as on Screen 1.

C/N: Signal to Noise Ratio measured as Carrier Power divided by Noise Power. For SATs, this value needs to be greater than 7. It does not apply for TERR. This is a good satellite antenna pointing indicator.

RSBK and RSBY: Reed Solomon Block and Byte Errors. They should be 0.

I have the SKYFI2 hooked up to my home stereo and am impressed with how easy it was to get it working. While the sound isn't CD quality I wasn't expecting it to be. It's on a par with FM but the music choices are 1000x better. XM has great music channels and I haven't listened to the radio at home since I bought this. I like the display and the artist and song titles. The remote works great and the FM modulation works well even in the crowded Washington DC airwaves. If you're interested in XM you can't go wrong with the SKYFI2.

I ordered the radio specifically to use for a road trip to Phoenix which has in the past required three changes of radio stations and the playing of two CDs to travel through a 'no airwaves' zone. What a pleasure to listen to quality radio for the entire 450 miles.
The vehicle hook-up was very easy, and I just placed the antenna on the dashboard near the front window and had absolutely no interferance. Moving the setup from car to car has been extremely easy - so if you travel a lot, you can set it up in a rental car in minutes and never miss a beat.

So, I had to install an external FM Modulator on my SkiFi-1, because my Mercedes-Benz doesnt allow easy hardwiring of the SkiFi-1 unit. MB basically doesnt like you messing with their German Engineering.

Tired of crappy (and expensive!) external FM Modulators, I went ahead and upgraded to the SkiFi2. Worth EVERY PENNY. Frankly, the top of the line Radio Shack Monster Cable FM Modulator is around $50 bucks, and I picked up this SkiFi2 used on Amazon for less than that.

The FM Modulator is almost silent as far as in-line interference, and the sound is practically crystal clear (at least good enough to be heard well over the big, fat performance tires). That alone makes it a good buy in my mind.

Plus, the programming options on the SkiFi2 (extra station presets, 30 minute record options) are gravy.

I went ahead and kept my SkiFi-1 for use at home, in the Delphi Boombox, but for persons in need of a mobile XM radio solution, Delphi SkiFi2 is money.

I purchased the SkyFi2 with an included vehicle kit after seeing an ad in a department store mailer. I have heard XM programming at the salon where I get my hair cut and have been impressed with the music selection and sound quality, so I didn't feel much hesitation in subscribing, and I think the price is well worth it just to avoid the endless morning drive chit-chat and commercials. My only concern was how difficult it might be to connect. I had absolutely no trouble, either with the vehicle kit or with the boombox I also purchased. I've only had the SkyFi2 for a couple of days and haven't used many of the features such as the stock scroller, but even so I'm very happy with my first satellite radio experience, and can't wait to travel with it.

I purchased this system about 1 month ago and its amazing if you are a frequent traveler.

Excellent audio quality, good reception with satellite, a ton of presets and variable settings for displaying songs, artist being played.

Stores about 30 minutes of audio if you pause the system.

Its changed the way I listen to music and news (I mostly listen to news). As an example I traveled to southern TX and for the entire week could listen to my normal 'at home' stations thanks to XM Radio.

Buy XM - will completely change your listening habits.

I purchased the XM Delphi and I drove to Florida and it made the trip so enjoyable, I can't wait to drive back. That is in a month. It is great. Highly recomend to any person who drives for a living as I do and for those who enjoy good music and great varity of other stuff. Can't say enough. Going to get the Radio attachment for my home in Florida.

I've subscribed to XM for the past 18 months and have been pretty much pleased with the service. The only downside with the service and its playlist of 2 million songs, is that there aren't 2 million good songs out there, so there's a lot of junk amidst the good stuff. Think of the LP collection you had as a kid ... most albums had only two or three really stand-out songs. Well, on XM you'll hear the other 10 to 12 songs as well, for better or worse.

Amazon recently offered the SKYFi2 for free after rebate, so I decided to upgrade to the new receiver (although I did end up having to buy a new vehicle kit, as recommended).

The upgrade is worth it. The sound quality is superior, the reception is superior, and the screen is much easier to read, particularly during the day.

My only disappointment is the 30-minute rewind / pause feature, and it's probably more a misunderstanding on my part than a fault with the equipment. It only records the channel you've actually been listening to, so if you are channel surfing and come across a song you like, you can't rewind to the beginning of that song. I guess it's a useful feature if you were listening to a song you like and, say, a cell phone call interrupted you.

Other than that, the SkyFi2 and XM radio are a breathe of fresh air for anyone who spends a lot of time on the road. Goodbye, Clear Channel, and your 16 minutes of commercials per hour!