Customer Reviews

SIRIUS Starmate ST1 Plug-and-Play Satellite Radio Receiver

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

 

 

I'm not sure if the problems that I have with this system are unique to it or are shared amongst all satellite radios. Let me begin by saying that it works wonderfully in the car.

I had to install the antenna on the roof of my BMW which was surprisingly easier than expected. I was hoping that I could just toss it on the dash so that I could move the radio between cars, but that made for a very choppy signal.

I also got the home kit, but the signal is EXTREMELY choppy in doors. Maybe I don't have my antenna well positioned, but I don't have many options.

The indoor antenna is very limiting, because it's only about 15 feet long, which means that you've got to position the receiver pretty close to a window (yes, the antenna needs to be facing outside - and needs to be pointed N, S, E, or W depending on where you are in the country.

My recommendation is that his is a good car receiver, but if you're looking for more than that - consider other options.

I bought this as a gift. I tested it out for 3 weeks before I gave it to my boyfriend. I do deliveries for a living and spent many hours listening to it. It seemed to work pretty well. The service is good. A good selection of stations to select from, though they're rather repetitive if you listen a lot. Apparently there's 2 signals it receives -- a land signal and a satellite signal. The adjustable suction cup bracket seemed like it would not work, but actually it was quite effective and did not block my front window view at all.

Anyway, after my boyfriend had it for a week, I put it back in my truck for a long drive to his parents. It didn't connect for a long time .... like for 15 minutes. Usually, it connects in less than a half minute. I gave it back to him and he said that each day after that it took longer and longer to connect, and then it didn't connect at all. I tried it out in my car again, and it completely quit working.

I called the Sirius sevice people and the guy was nice and helpful. He said my account could be suspended for up to 5 months before automatically reactivating. He gave me a techinical number to call to look into getting a replacement or fix, but I haven't decided if I want to continue this. I DO LIKE IT, but I don't love it. $13 a month is tolerable, but $10 would've been better.... If only the darn thing wouldn't have died.

Other things I didn't like about this:

Easily Obstructed Signal -- The signal fades in and out if you drive under a lot of trees. Or under a bridge briefly. If you are in a big city like DC or Baltimore, it works fine. But if you drive on a highway between the two, it relies on the skies above, and any half-blockage will make the signal go in and out, and that's very annoying.

Weak FM Transmitter -- The FM transmitter in this unit works, but not so well. The sound quality is weak, almost AM quality. The "s" sound becomes a "shh" sound. I bought a cassette tape line converter to see if it was the satellite signal or the FM transmitter. The sound quality was much better with the cassette tape converter.

Wires, Wires, Wires -- There's a wire from the Satellite Reciver that usually has to go outside your window. There's a wire that goes from you cigarette lighter to the unit. And then I added the cassette tape converter and ... my God, all this just to hear the radio.

Theft Possibility -- I live in the city. It's not good to leave anything in plain view when you're away from your vehicle. So, with this, one has several options to remove this from sight. None of which is very practical: wrap up all the wires and undock it from the holder (wires get tangled); leave the wires, but undock the holder (antenna is difficult to remove); or never dock it at all (wires stretched from seat to various parts of the car). Plus, since I do deliviers, I have to get in and out of my car A LOT, so I always had to roll up the windows or hide it before I ran inside somewhere.

Heat - This little thing gets super hot if you turn up the backlight. Even turned all the way down it is warm. It was super hot this summer and this added a lot to my already steamy truck.

Small Menu Window - Unless you memorize what each station is actually about, the oddball names to go with each number are hard to know what's what. I suppose once you've heard them all, you'll settle into a pattern of just a few station presets anyway.

Presets and Remote Control - The little buttons on the front are very important, but only partially convenient. It's hard to know which set of pre-sets you're pushing on. There's a tiny A1 or D3 in the top left (arranged A-F for each screen and 1-6 for the bottom buttons). The note/memo feature is just weird. I guess you're supposed to get a bleep whenever Kelly Osbourne is playing on some station somewhere. The remote worked, but only if you point directly at the unit -- day or night, it wasn't the most responsive device. It did not keep my eyes on the road any better than if I were flipping the switch or hitting the buttons.

Again, I liked the service and the sound, but it was a lot of work just to get it all hooked up and sounding good and finding something what I wanted to hear ... and then it died.

I was attracted to this unit by its low price, but I soon realized that you get what you pay for. I went through three of these and each one lasted less than 2 weeks.

The first one worked fine for about a week, then the signal started dropping. I spoke with Sirius customer service and they told me that where I live (Orange County, just south of Los Angeles) I shouldn't be getting any signal drops and that the unit was most likely defective.

I exchanged it for a new one and had it less than 48 hours when the remote control stopped working, so back to the store it went.

The third one I got worked fine for about ten days until it stopped playing music. The artist would appear in the screen, but all I would hear is a loud hiss. I messed with the FM Modulator settings, but nothing worked. I returned it to the store for a refund.

Let me preface this by saying I already own the original PNP radio and that I never thought I would pay for radio. However, once you get it, I don't think you will go back. I also won't get into the whole XM vs. Sirius thing. I'm happy with Sirius and XM users are happy with XM. Who cares? Let's talk product.

This is a fantastic little radio. Compared to my bulky 1st gen model, this would fit in a shirt pocket without much problem. The display is large and easily readible from within your car. The built in FM modulator has plenty of combinations that should allow for at least one good free FM channel to make this operate. If that's not the case, you can use a tape adapter to get the audio.

Here is the problem with all of the "portable" units. They are small enough to be called portable, but they are not durable enough to really be portable. Hence my 4 star review. The biggest issue here is the antenna connector into the unit. Having to unplug and plug this thing in constantly will surely result in a snapped connector or the very, very small pin that is inside the unit breaking altogether. As a matter of fact, my unit displays "Antenna not detected" several times. This is a result of the connector going into the unit. Somehow, between pulling and plugging that piece in, it has lost some connectivity.

This is a review on the Starmate hardware, not the Sirius service (which is awesome).

Does this place have a Quality Assurance department? This thing must have been engineered by Mickey Mouse and put together by Goofy. The car antenna has broken two times because it is poorly made. Move it around too much and the wire will eventually fall apart on the antenna side. The opposite end of the connection is just as pathetic. The pin that the antenna plugs into on the Starmate broke off. This thing is basically a paper weight. And it's not even worthy of that job.

I had a different make/model for my Sirius service that I returned because I thought there were too many pieces to it. I got this because it was compact and I "thought" it would be easier going from the house to the car. If you plan on putting this somewhere and basically never moving it, I guess it would be alright. Don't plan on moving it around too much or it will eventually break. I know this because I was stupid enough to by two of these units. I had the same problems with both of them.

Makers of Starmate: Wise up and make a product that can last. You've got the right idea, but the end result is basically pathetic. This thing was NOT ready for prime time in my opinion.

I just got the Sirius Starmate and have to say that it is a simply amazing product. Similar to TiVo, it just changes everything and you can't go back to commercial radio. The breadth of programming is outstanding - from jazz to jam bands to news. Setting it up took me all of 15 minutes. And when i called to activate - someone answered teh phone (a real person) before the first ring. I think the fact that it has a 24-hour programming loop (compared to XM's 8 hour) also makes the product great. Overall, i can't stop telling friends about it.

My advice: buy a package w/a home kit b/c you'll want that as soon as you start using Sirius - and you might as well save a little money.

This was my first intro to Satelite radio and it hasn't been good. While I love all of the content, it's the access to that content that is the problem. I have this unit with both the car mount and home mounts. In both cases there are problems with signal reception. I don't know if the antennas are just weak, if this is normal for satelite radio or if this unit is just very poorly designed. At first it seems like it has good features for the price and does seem to work fairly well. But I have two problems. Going under ANY hwy overpass or even a small tree will drop the signal and annoy the heck out of you. A simple fix would have been to just put a 5 second signal buffer in the unit to avoid these drops. That is just very poor design. Also, in the home mount, the antenna does not work at all if it is closer than 3 feet to the side of my house. I don't know what's wrong. I have a clear view of the sky, I've tried it all around the house, the instructions say to place it in a window sill but that won't work. I have to extend it out 3 ft. into the yard to get any kind of signal. And I have a wood house - there should be no interference. Second, the unit overheats. When the unit gets hot, it loses the signal. I have found when it gets hot while driving, I can hold the unit in front of the AC vent to cool it and the signal returns. This is just ridiculous usability though. If I do get in an accident while trying to cool this unit I think I will seriously consider going after the manufacturer on this.
There is no reason the thing should be overheating. Even while sitting on the counter in the house it will overheat. The only fix for this I have found is to use the "Auto shutdown" feature and shut it off for 5-10 minutes every hour.

If you are considering Sat. Radio, I do recommend Sirius - I love all the sports and talk shows but I do NOT recommend the Starmate receiver. And I will seriously investigate these issues on any future units.

I work for a satellite radio company I will not name because it is unfair to the company as I'm rating this product, but, I purchased the Starmate understandomg that I was buying a "lower-end" Sirius receiver. The thing is performs all the functions I need it to. Anyone who has complained about signal with this product right out of the box does not have 1 cent of either patience, or time to read their owner's manual. The owner's manual clearly states that the antenna (if for the home)needs to be facing a westernly direction (for east coast customers). And needs to be clear of any over hang (trees, and the like.) I live on the second floor and right out my window is unfortunately a good amount of tree coverage. This is the only reason the unit is not getting 5 stars. The antenna is somewhat short but that is to be expected for someone who needs this to be outside their window on the 2nd story. Suck it up and go buy an extension cord. Many companies sell it. I got a 50 food cord and I live NEAR POWER LINES and getting signal is a snap. The one thing you MIGHT want to thnik about is that this is what is known as a "Private Label" item. It was MADe by another company but Sirius themselves support parts and repairs. Other than that, I love this product.

For the price its a good introduction to Sirius. The interface is easy to use. The sound quality is decent, the signal-to-noise ratio is 75db, the equivalent of FM radio. So don't expect "digital quality". If you drive near any trees or under bridges you will lose the signal. The manual states this also. If you live in an area with a lot of trees, getting a consistent signal will almost be impossible. They claim to have a signal repeater on the ground but it is not very strong. The radio really relies on the satellite signal. You don't have to buy the home dock kit to listen to the radio at home. You can get a 12V 1300ma universal AC adapter at Walmart and save $30.

**Update** This receiver died after a month. The signal gradually grew worse before it died. This is obviously a piece of junk. I would avoid this receiver at all costs. I change my review to ZERO stars

I bought this 6 months ago and it's worked OK for 5 months. Same complaints as others: love the content hate the hardware, trouble maintaining signal, runs hot, FM modulator is weak etc.

In addition about a month ago the unit started turning off and re-starting when I bumped the power cable by accident. This started occasionally -now it's constant w/r I touch the cable or not.

There is an "FM out" jack on the left side, and I looked everywhere for an accessory antenna to help boost the FM signal but no one knew what the heck I was talking about, so I started placing a piece of wire in that jack. That worked great for a while, but now the FM signal has gotten worse to the point where I can't hear it at all -and that's when the unit will stay powered on for more than 2 seconds.

I nearly threw this piece of ---- out the car window the other day I'm so frustrated. The only thing that's kept me from doing so is that I've sent a customer service email to Sirius and am waiting for a response (they promised to respond w/n 24 hours -I'll believe it when I see it). That's another thing - I called Sirius "customer care" and was absolutely unable to get anything other than a computer generated voice -why can't I talk to a person? Even a call center in India would be better.

Overall very satisfied with the selection I've heard when the f---ing unit was working (my favorite channel is disorder 24) but can't believe they'd shoot themselves in the foot by selling this worthless hardware to broadcast their product. Howard better brace himself -if they can't do better he's in for a huge reduction in audience despite the spike in purchases.