Customer Reviews

PIONEER AirWare XM2Go Portable XM Satellite Radio Receiver

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I don't normally submit "product opinions" (I know, shame on me) but this portable XM radio from Pioneer is so good that I felt that I had to. I had been considering getting some kind of a satellite radio for my car for more than 6 months and when I found out that a friend of mine had a Delphi XM unit in his car I knew that the time had come to finally make a move :-)

I was thinking of getting a Delphi MyFi but then discovered that the Pioneer AirWare had recently hit the store shelves. I like the Pioneer brand and also liked the looks (and controls) of the Pioneer unit more than those of the MyFi .. so I picked up an AirWare at the local Circuit City (can get it cheaper elsewhere for sure). I have had it for 3 weeks now and during this time have used it EXTENSIVELY in the car, in my home office and also on business trips. It works great !

I am especially impressed by the effectiveness of the built-in FM transmitter ... I have used a few built-in and external FM transmitters in my time over the past few years but haven't had much luck with them (too much interference from other radio stations). I was pleasantly surprised (and relieved) to discover that the AirWare's transmitter is VERY effective ... I have been driving around the Connecticut/ Westchester County/NYC/Long Island region quite a bit since I got it, without having to switch FM frequencies at all !

The features and sound quality of the unit are great. It is very useful that you can record up to 5 hours of audio (via a "scheduled record" function) that you can then listen to offline when the satellite reception is not up to snuff. Another neat feature is that if you hear a song or artist that you like, you can press a button and from then on whenever that same song or artist is playing on any of the 150+ channels the unit beeps and displays a message so that, if you want, you can press the same button and the unit automatically switches to the relevant channel.

The AirWare comes with everything that you neeed to set it up at home or in a car. When using the AirWare in my car I use the "vent mount" to secure it (in its cradle) to an air vent. I have the antenna magnetically-mounted outside on the front part of the car roof. On some of the more tree-lined roads of Connecticut, satellite reception can sometimes be spotty ... you need to have line-of-sight to the XM satellites which are positioned in the southern sky .. but generally reception is very good. All-in-all I am very happy that I got it ... it is a very, very well designed and executed product ... plus the breadth and quality of the XM programming is great.

In summary I can heartily recommend both the Pioneer AirWare and the XM service !

I've purchased many items from Amazon over the past several years and this is the first time I've been motivated to post a review. I guess the main reason is that the quality of this item is more than I expected. For me it's the perfect size and the design is very attractive. It was easy for this 60 year old to learn and it works flawlessly. The FM transmitter sends a perfect signal to a radio 25 feet away in a different room. I can take it and a portable radio anywhere and it works perfect. It comes with all possible home and auto accessories case, belt clip/table stand etc etc. There is nothing more to buy. The remote turned out to be handy since there are so many choices to make on XM.

I got hooked on XM Satellite Radio via AOL's WinAmp software where several commercial free XM channels are available. Then I signed up for XM's free trial of its online service.

What a marvel. Really well chosen music available 24/7 without commercials or talking (air)heads. (XM also offers sports and news channels, which are of little interest to me.)

(...) It comes with everything you will need. The Airware itself serves as a portable device. A reasonably decent carrying case is provided. Car and home mounts are also included.

The Airware is supposedly capable of transmitting to your FM receiver. I haven't tried it because I prefer cassette adapters. One is included with the kit. So is a cigarette lighter power adapter, an external antenna and a car vent mount. The antenna, power and audio out cables must be connected to the car vent mount before it is installed. The car vent mount installs easily enough, but is a bear to get out. Be very careful when removing it or you may break the mounting brackets. In urban areas, the vent mount may be an invitation to theft, which means quite possibly a broken mounting bracket.

The home mount is a simple cradle and takes only seconds to set up.

The included remote control is very handy and has a pretty decent range.

The unit, taken as a whole, is one heck of a bargain even without the rebate.

I live in a metro area where XM offers terrestrial coverage, so I haven't had to use either the inside or outside external antennas.

The XM service itself is superb. Except for six channels where Clear Channel Communications, an investor, forced them to run commercials, there are nearly 150 more channels that are commercial free. Every taste is accounted for. The programming is outstanding. I've never really noticed what a difference good programming can make because you just don't find really good programming on regular radio stations or in the "elevator" music of stores and offices. The XM programming is clearly done by people who love music for people who love music. It's that good.

There has to be a negative somewhere and there is: XM telephone customer service is awful. Like many others they have outsourced to someplace overseas. They are clearly using a VoIP connection and would be well advised to find a better provider. Their operators are unskilled and although they speak English, it is clearly not their primary language. It took me 45 minutes to accomplish a simple task and most of the time I was asking the representative to speak louder and slower so I could understand what she was saying, Their customer support website is compatible only with Microsoft Internet Explorer, something else that should be corrected.

Overall, the Pioneer Airware is a superlative product and the XM technology is great. Best of all, XM's programming is good almost beyond words.

This is a gadget and a service that is truly a must-have.

Jerry

This is a great radio. You cannot go wrong with Pioneer quality and this radio is no exception. If you want to subscribe to XM radio satellite service this is the perfect receiver to own. It is very durable and sound quality is superb. XM(unlike their competitor Sirius)does not compress their audio, so the music is extremely clean and clear. You also have the option of storing up to 5 hours of music in this radios memory in case you want to play it back later. The only drawback to satellite radio is you will not get a signal 100 percent of the time. If you go into big buildings or you are somehow blocked from the satellite signal, you will experience dropoffs(slight losses in reception). So if you go into stores or office buildings you may experience this. This does not really bother me because most of the time I turn off the radio when I am in stores or offices. With XM you get a great variety of music, news, talk, comedy, childrens programs, and sports all in one place. And it's 100 percent digital. Great display too. 6 lines of info including channel name and number, artist, song, and if you prefer you can add sports scores or stock info. Also many accesories including car kit, transmitter(if you wish to have XM on any home stereo), and dock for recharging and placing you radio safely on a shelf. Everything you need for car, boat, home, or anywhere on the go. This is a wonderful portable radio. Excellent!!

The device itself is great looking and easy to use; but I would like to warn about some installation problems. 1st of all, I was a little sucked in by the too easy installation instructions (they are available on the web). When they tell you the antenna needs a southern exposure in the window, they absolutely mean it. So I guessed wrong about where my window was, so I could not hook it up directly to my dvd/sound system as suggested (partly because the window was all the way across my toddler's playroom!). I was then concerned about having to do some sort of hardwired installation or purchasing a wireless repeater (only one available; expensive); but after much research on the web, I found one person who used the FM frequency feature you would use in the car, but in the house, which isn't mentioned in the instructions. So my radio sits upstairs where it gets excellent reception, and I turn my sound system on to the specified FM frequency, and I'm good to go. Only problem is that I have to go upstairs to change the station, but it works. Also, audiophiles might quibble with the sound quality since it isn't a direct connection, but my dvd system has ways of changing the speakers and other features that make it sound great to me. Actually, any radio in the house will pick it up. I've also gotten great reception in the car, the easiest yet. I don't mind draping wires (I've actually only clipped them up)so I have the car antenna so that I can easily move it to another car (as opposed to tucking wires in weather stripping) So far on walks, I've been getting some dropout but good, but it's cold out so I haven't been out much. I imagine you can't run with it. There is an aftermarket clip-on antenna that you can find on the web for improving reception while walking about (looks dopey though). Some design quibbles: you can't use the protective case while the device is either in it's docking station for the car or house. So you have to take it off constantly; I don't want the radio to become scratched/smushed in my diaper bag so that bugs me. You can lock the keys so it doesn't turn on in a pocket, etc. It is also an extremely tight fit in the home docking station; you have to really push down to seat the connections well. Regarding service, I love the fact XM radio includes an online subscription, but disappointly not all stations are available on the online version. A big plus for this device is the ability to record shows so I can listen at the gym when I have no reception. Also, FYI, I live in suburban Philadelphia in a very tree-filled neighborhood. Hope this helps!

I bought this radio last week and was not initially impressed with the reception in my car. I tried using the radio through the wireless FM transmitter but the service was very patchy. My friend told me to hook up the car antenna, which I did - it was much less complicated then I thought it would be. The reception is much better now! I live in the NYC area, in a high rise building and took the radio to my gym and it worked in there, too. The XM service is great, easy to set up, and the music selection is much better than FM. And there are very few (almost no) commercials! I'm definitely hooked. I used the radio this past weekend to drive from NYC to Vermont and it worked for the whole trip without changing the FM station. The only time it got a little static was when I was driving through the mountains. Because it was a very cold weekend, I put the radio in my bag to take into my house - I didn't want to leave it in the car in such cold weather... the radio actually fell out of my bag into the snow without me noticing and I didn't find it until the next morning. And the radio was fine! Don't try this at home... but the radio was outside, in the snow, in temperatures close to 0 degrees farenheit and it still works good! Very highly recomended....

I received this portable XM radio for Christmas and I love it. I use it in my car to listen to various radio stations. It was very easy to install and I just pop the receiver button on a sticky pad in the front window and I can listen to the same station as I drive across states. Lots of stations to choose from including music, talk and humor stations.

At home, I just put the radio in the bracket that I place in a window (with southern exposure), dial my little portable radio to the correct FM station and listen anywhere in the house. Great at night when I am working on a project.

The big advantage is that you can transfer this unit from car to car to home (or take on a walk around the block). The more permanent XM radios must be installed in a car and are not portable. This XM radio can be taken anywhere with very little installation (plug it in lighter socket and throw the receiver button on dash board).

I was disappointed to know that it requires an external antenna all the time...the portability works only for recorded material..not live !! what a turnoff !!

If you are going XM, I can't imagine going any other way. I was an MP3 fan but received this as a gift. As far as the My XM recorder it'd be nice if you could delete specific tracks from the unit after you record them, skip through tracks instead of skipping tracks altogether, so that there is less junk if you leave it on during a promo or something. The unit is a bit bulky compared to an iPod, but as far as these units go a decent size. The controls are easy to use after a day of playing with it. I still prefer the ability to listen to exactly what I want with MP3s, but I definitely appreciate the variety that this throws in as well. The internal antenna is good when you consider where you are receiving signal. I live in the western burbs of Philadelphia and recieve in my house without the external antenna. However in other nearby locations get hardly any signal. It is a crap-shoot, but with the antenna it is perfect almost anywhere. Very happy with the battery life as well. I did notice a lot more safety information than I've ever received with any other consumer electronics which I thought was a bit wierd. Stuff about lead, radiation, and that they shipped a battery that might explode. Fun stuff.

Pioneer has come up with yet another great radio. Nice size, nice solid feel, unambiguous controls, and a built-in antenna that really works, at least in my very populated area. It's sitting on my desk now, away from any window, and picking up a strong signal from a terrestrial repeater.

What kept me from saying it was worth a full 5 stars is that the radio has a rounded bottom, which keeps it from sitting firmly on my desk. The car cradle also has a rounded bottom, which precludes what would have been a simple mounting procedure on my dashboard.

I bought this model because of its versatility, and it lives up to that. I have used it connected to my home stereo, in the car, at my desk with headphones, and playing through a portable radio. It comes with plenty of accessories for all these uses, and the built-in FM transmitter is very good. The home cradle is nice and presents the radio at a good angle. My quibble with the car mounting options is that they all rely on a vertical mounting surface, all of which in my car are curved and so don't mate with the flat mounting surfaces on the accessories. It looks like I will have to drill a couple of holes in one of the mounting plates and attach it to the dashboard with screws.

The big problem, and it is the problem with all satellite radios, is that it can only receive what XM sends. Most music channels are of less-than-FM quality, missing the top octave or so of the music, and deficient in bass as well. This is the fault of what's sent by XM, not the radio, because the classical channels sound very good indeed, while the spoken word channels are unintelligible at times. This diminished sound quality causes "listener fatigue"--after listening for a while, you feel like your energy is being drained out of your ears, and you just want to shut off the radio and get away from it. Most of the time it sounds like you're listening to internet radio, sometimes like internet radio over a dialup connection circa 1997. I actually felt physical relief when I switched from XM to my little AM radio.

And speaking of internet radio, XM has several channels that are available over the internet only--THEY'RE NOT AVAILABLE TO THE RADIO RECEIVER! This just blows me away. Naturally, it's the distinctive, niche channels that are NOT available to the radio. Many of the channels that are available sound almost the same; it would be a breath of freshness to have the online-only channels available as well. There's too much ordinary stuff on XM--tons of talk channels (some duplicating current AM and FM networks), and soundtracks to cable TV channels. Yuck.

If you are planning to subscribe to XM, I believe the Pioneer is an excellent radio; probably the one that offers the most ways to use it. Right now, though, I expect I will be canceling my XM subscription at the end of the month. Then I'll have to figure out what to do with the radio.

Update from 6 months later: I cancelled my XM subscription after 6 months, not one. They kept degrading their programming, making it sound more like regular FM. I could rarely find anything I liked. Then I bought a Sirius radio and found programming I liked. It's just a real shame that this great radio can't be used for Sirius.