Customer Reviews

Sirius One SV1 Satellite Radio with Car Kit

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

A friend of mine gave me an Amazon Gift Certificate for Christmas and I used it to buy this little Sirius radio. Though other radios have more bells and whistles I am very happy with this one.

First of all, price-wise it cannot be beat. It includes everything you need to use it in your car (mounting bracket, power cable that plugs into the car lighter, antenna, remote control). At this time there doesn't seem to be a home kit for it. That was not a deal breaker for me since I was planning to really only listen to it in the car anyway. Plus, when you joing Sirius you can listen to all the music channels online.

Though this is a simple unit, it does include some nice features. There are presets that work great. You can set the display to show the channel you are on or have it scroll to tell you the artist and title of the song that is playing.

It has a built-in transmitter that transmits over the car's FM radio on an unused channel. This has worked great for me and I think the sound is very good. I did need to change the FM channel it was transmitting to (easy to change and you can have up to five presets for this as well) once or twice but once I found a truly open station it was crystal clear. It should be noted that I live in LA which is a very crowded radio market. Still I was able to find a clear FM slot to tune the Sirius radio's transmitter to. If you are not in a major market that should not be a problem at all, and really wasn't that big of a deal for me here in LA.

I think it is a sharp little unit and very solid. I am happy with it and if you are looking for a nice, low price unit this is a great choice. I am also very happy with the Sirius service. The music channels are great and I enjoy the sports and talk radio.

First off, this thing is $30 right off the rack. It's not like you buying a Marantz here, so stay real in your expectations. I have it in my car and it works fine. I had many of the same station bleeding problems others have, but they tell you right in the packaging that just using the FM transmitter is the worst way to use it. What I think everyone who has problems with it needs is a part sold through Sirius called an FM Direct adapter. I got one at Circuit City for $20. Since I'm not too mechanically inclined, I went ahead and let Circuit City install it, too, for $59. It now works perfectly. They mounted it on the windshield of my car (where you might have a parking sticker)and it has maybe an inch or two of wiring exposed. I'm not shilling for Circuit City. Go where you like or do it yourself, but the installers there suggested this simple solution and it now works great. And yeah, okay, I paid for the install so technically it was more than 20 bucks, but you get the idea. Oh, by the way, it can be hard to read on a bright day....I'll agree with that.

Nice and small (about the size of a pack of cigarettes) and comes with everything you need to install yourself. Sound quality via the FM transmitter is decent, though far from being outstanding. The unit does get quite warm which I've heard is normal. Reception (in Los Angeles)has been excellent. Price is right as well, a welcome compromise from having to shell out well over a hundred bucks for an in-dash unit. The best part: being able to once again listen to Howard in the morning.

Great little thing - can't really beat the price. Yes, on some of the units the presets are not kept when you turn it off and it reverts back to 184 when you turn it back on. Before going thru with the return & exchange hassle please try this: Unplug and put back all cables going to the unit; go in your account at the Sirius website and in the "Services" section click on your ESN. Once you are in "Service Details" click "Re-Send Activation Signal". Make sure the unit reads "Updating". When it is finished you should be able to keep your presets and the last station before turn off. It really did work for me, hopefully it will for you too :) Good luck!

I have had this unit for over a year. I like the remote control- very easy to use. It was easy to install, and sticks with suction cups to my windshield. I have no problems with the sound. I love Sirius radio- there are so many stations that I enjoy listening to. I have been exposed to so much new music through them.

However, I cannot read the screen in daylight. I can read it fine at night. It was a very inexpensive unit (maybe free?), but absolutely not worth getting! I would gladly pay the $99 for the back-lit unit, just so I can tell what song is playing. It is useless for channel surfing- I just end up punching in the channel numbers for my favorite stations, hoping to land on a good song.

I highly recommend subscribing to Sirius- there is something for everyone.

Do not buy this unit!!

This unit missed getting 5 stars from me because, as others here have noted, the blue LED display is difficult to see during the daytime, and the audio sounds a bit hollow. Other than that, and especially at Amazon's price, the unit is a great bargain for receiving commercial-free satellite radio.

Although the SV1 has a built-in FM transmitter, I decided to purchase the Sirius FM modulator at the same time I purchased the SV1. I've used stand-alone FM transmitters with other audio devices and have been less than satisfied with result, especially on a long road trip when you frequently have to search for an open frequency. Anyway, the FM modulator eliminates the frustration of having to retune the radio and transmitter frequencies.

The "hollow" audio I mentioned might be due to the FM modulator, but the bottom line is that when listening to Sirius radio mixed in with the usual road noise inside a vehicle, you can't really notice the hollow audio unless the vehicle is stopped or traveling very slowly.

If you do mostly local driving, you probably should see if the SV1's built-in FM transmitter gives you solid audio thru your FM radio before shelling out about 20 bucks for the FM modulator.

I ran into a bit of a hitch when I first tried activating the SV1 and registering with Sirius. I went online intending to sign up for the monthly plan -- $12.95/mo. But, when I got to the pages for payment plan selection, that option wasn't there. I ended up having to call Sirius and talked with a live person to get the SV1 activated and to get on the monthly plan. (She verified the option wasn't showing up online -- it should be fixed by the time this review is posted.)

I wanted the monthly plan intending to pay the fee only during the 3 or 4 months during the year that we take a road trip of any significant length. The Sirius rep informed me it might not work out the way I intended. In case you haven't read the fine print, there's a $15 activation fee in addition to whatever payment program you sign up for. In my case, should I cancel after a month or two, then some months later request my unit be turned on again, there "might" be another activation fee imposed. Apparently there's no hard rule on this, so it might be possible to talk one's way out of it.

I'd like to add my thanks to "nafta90" for his comment on getting Sirius to send an activation signal. My SV1 was turned off when I was talking with the Sirius rep., so Alexander's suggestion was exactly what I needed later after went to the car and turned on the satellite radio. As I understand it, Sirius does send out an activation signal every few hours to all registered receivers. In case your receiver needs to be activated or reactivated, going online to your account as Alexander explains shrinks what might be a multi-hour wait to just a few minutes.

Finally, just a few sentences about do-it-yourself installation. The enclosed directions are adequate, and if you've messed around a bit with electronics, just doing a basic hookup is relatively easy. If you want to hide most of the wires, you need to be willing to crawl around a bit, lay upside down, and stick you hand into unknown places behind the dashboard.

I bought this with low expectations. Others had said it was hard to read, and that the FM transmitter was no good. Well, the thing works great and the FM transmitter worked like a charm in my VW, but the screen is REALLY hard to read. Blue is just not a good color to try to see during the day.. At night it is great -- doesn't match the VW blue guages exactly but looks good.

The satellite radio itself and the FM transmitter sounded great. The unit does get a little hot, but I had it in a very enclosed area.

I didn't think I'd care than it was a one line display, but it really does hinder you from "channel surfing" -- you have to repeatedly switch between showing CHANNEL NAME, ARTIST, and SONG or you can have it scroll.

Overall, I still like this radio best out of Sirius' lineup -- it is small, fits great it my little cubby below the radio, and works well. I just wish it was easier to read during the day. Setting presets for FM, and setting your favorite stations makes it easy to still use it during the day, just realize the limitations!

PRESETS!!! - Hope that got your attention if your presets don't work and your radio defaults back to 184 every time you turn it on. I took the advice of one of the reviewers, Alexander Adamov. Although my radio was already activated and picked up all channels, it too defaulted to 184 and the presets didn't hold. I went on line to my account as Alexander suggested and reactivated my radio. It was not until a couple of hours later that it began updating. My screen was reading "5%, 10%, etc.", and,by the way, this did not happen during my original activation. After that it has been fine...the radio comes back on to the station I had previously listened to, and the presets work now. Thank you Alexander for your input. Hope this helps with some of you who have been having the same problem. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because, as other reveiwers have mentioned, you can't read the screen when the sun is shining.

I've been looking at satellite radios for quite some time, debating on which model would suit me best as my first satellite radio receiver. When I saw this model and its price, it got my attention. Compared to other more expensive models, I just couldn't see spending a hundred dollars or so for features I don't really need. I just want sometime to listen to on the road or at home.

I've had this radio for a couple of days now and I'll have to say that I'm quite surprised. The single line display scrolls titles like on Winamp. It can be flipped when mounted on the visor. The antenna is pretty good; I used it both indoors in my upper story apartment and was amazed that I was able to get a signal. In the car, I put the antenna on my dash and it worked well enough on the road. The FM transmitter seemed capable enough to get a strong signal to my FM antenna. In fact, when I turned off the receiver, I noticed that there was a radio station playing on the same frequency. I don't live in a big city with powerful kilowatt FM transmitters, so your mileage may vary (so to speak). If needed, an FM modulator relay could be bought to ensure a strong signal gets to your car's radio. This radio has an audio line out plug, which provides good quality audio. I'm having a blast tuning through all the Sirius channels!

Oh, and the interface takes some getting used to. There is a "Menu" key that exists only on the remote (but holding down the Select button on the reciever will achieve the same function). The remote is a decent size (compared to some of the more expensive models). Once you get used to the interface, though, it becomes much easier to get what you want done. I love the blue LED screen, it makes the unit seem more upscale than it is. The unit does get quite warm to the touch, but the visor clip gives about 1/2" separation between the radio and the visor so ventilation shouldn't be a problem if the packaged mounting parts are used.

I ordered the Sirius One from Amazon after looking at competing (mostly XM satellite service) radios. The Sirius One is a lot more solidly built than the other units I see on sale for $75 or less. It has solid-feeling controls and was easy to set up.

Other reviewers have commented that the sound quality is imperfect (definitely not as good as cd - or even a strong FM signal.) I would agree - my suspicion is that this may be a limitation of the Sirius satellite radio service more than this particular unit. For this reason I've given 4 stars.