Customer Reviews

Sirius ST2 Starmate Replay Satellite Radio with Car Kit

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I got my Starmate Replay about a month ago. Since then, I only listen to "normal" radio when Howard Stern is on in the mornings. After that, it's Sirius all day long. Come January, I'll be saying goodbye to terrestrial radio.

The good:
The size of the unit makes it a breeze to install. I originally mounted it on my dash in front of my steering wheel where I could see it and access it easily. I used velcro for that install, but it didn't work out as nicely as I wanted. I solved that problem with a vehicle specific dash mount from Crutchfield. Best $35 I spent. The unit is now mounted just to the right of the factory radio and is out of the way, yet still very accessible. The remote is a good size without being too small. The buttons are well placed and it works good without having to point it directly at the unit. That said, I rarely use it. The unit is well within easy reach without taking my eyes off the road.

Bad:
I dont really have anything "bad" to say. The unit does get warm, but that seems to be an industry wide side effect. I keep the brightness and contrast at a minimum and that seems to keep the unit a tad cooler. I do not have a fear that the unit will overheat. It just doesn't get that hot.

Overall I'm very satisfied with this unit. So much so that I just bought another one as a gift.

I want to start out saying that I was leery about buying another Starmate radio, because my original was only a few months old and wouldn't play most of the time.
Well, I am SO glad I ditched it and bought this Starmate Replay. I live in Central New Jersey, and travel to South Jersey all the time. This radio has great reception- much better than the old version. I do not have to change the frequency when I travel into Philadelphia airwaves, and if I do, it can be done on the fly with the touch of a button. You can store up to 5 FM stations in the Replay, so you can switch without taking your eyes off the road.
I also like that I can tap a button and scroll through to see what artists or songs are playing while still listening to a station.
I was forever forgetting to turn the old one off, but this one can be set to turn off after 1 hour of inactivity. It will prompt you with a signal, and you can override it by hitting the main button.
I didn't think I would use the replay option- I thought of it as something guys would like for sports- but I use it all the time- I can run into a store and rewind back a favorite song or even rewind Howard if I miss something or can't believe what someone just said!
All in all, this radio is a great investment- I truly enjoy it.

The screen now has 5 cracks in it and I can't read a thing.

The problem is this...I move the Starmate in between my home car and work almost on a daily basis.

The "stand" and the clip-on car holder are some of the worst designed accessories I have ever seen. The pressure it takes to clip it on and off is absurd. Not to mention the fact that the radio has NO CASE! There should be a hard-shelled case to slip the receiver in and out of.

Overall love the radio, but hate the lack of thought put into protecting it

I have several Sirius Satellite radios, but this one is the best. The contact to the antenna is perfect. The displays are easy to read. The radio is simple to program. There are 30 presets for favorite channels. There is a pause feature that records for upto 45 minutes, and that is a great function.

If you don't have satellite radio you do not know what you are missing. It is cable for your radio. The best invention ever.

I gave this radio to my wife for Xmas as she is a Stern groupie and has a 1 hour commute, boring terrestrial radio couldn't keep her awake so getting this thing was a safety issue. The thing worked fantastic for 4 months and then quit, displaying the " Acquiring Signal" message ad infinitum. I called Sirius to get an RMA, sent it back and we are still waiting for the replacement after 2 weeks. I really think the radio sucummed to the heat these things generate which is an inherent design flaw so I have no confidence in the replacement lasting more than a few months. There is no reason for these radios( all makes and models generate excessive heat ) to get as hot as they do. Also, if you are expecting high fidelity audio out of satelite radio be it Sirius or XM you will be disappointed. Well heck, they need to plow some of their revenues into improving the technology.

Just one thing to add to MrLoofer's review (hope you're reading): You *can* go back to the last channel listend to, just press and hold down the Select button (the one with the Sirius logo on it). I discovered this by accident one day.

If you have a factory original car stereo without a casette deck it will be a lot of work to use the new Starmates. The built-in FM wireless transmitter that allows the Starmate to broadcast on an unused radio frequency is far too weak for use in the car - the static on the unused channel will be intermixed with the Sirius programming. Instead, you must connect a cable to the Starmate's headphone jack and splice it with the car stereo's antenna or auxiliary input.

In June 2006 the FCC determined that the original Starmate generated far too powerful a signal and ordered it toned down. As a Sirius customer since January 2006, I've owned both versions of the Starmate, and the old version is deserving of the rave reviews it has received - I never once experienced any problems with static. However, the old version I had broke and once I replaced it with the new one, static dominated my Sirius programming.

This is my first and only experience with satelite receivers so I can't make too many comparisons.

What I can tell you is that the unit is very easy to use and set up. I was able to set it up and use virtually all of its functionality w/o reading the manual. You will need to read the manual to fully understand how to use it.

As most posters have mentioned the unit does get warmer than you would expect. But it hasnt been a problem so far.

My biggest issue is the required wiring...but every mobile unit is going to have this issue.

And the display color and brightness. The display is VERY bright. I have mine on the second to lowest brightness setting and it is still very bright in my car at night. Also the color of the buttons and display are blue while all of the instrument lights in my car are amber. Other units I saw offered the ability to choose either blue or amber...this one dosent so it really stands out in the car.

Overall I have no problems withthe unit and it functions just as expected.

Pros:
Good size - Not too small - not too big.
Easy to understand and navigate menue
Price (considering rebate)
Large display

Cons:
Heat
Display way too bright
Display color not easy on the eyes
Satellite sound quality

The reasons I picked the Starmate Replay was for its compact size, large display, and rewind feature. In a world transformed by tivo, the rewind feature makes life all that much better.

Ever had one of those "what did they just say?" moments? With the startmate reply you can go back and listen to that again. Or if you want to listen to a song just played a second time. Rewind, replay. Nice.

Eventually I'll end up replacing my existing car radio with one that natively supports Sirius. In the meantime, this is a nice easy way to explore the world of satellite radio without spending a whole lot of money.

So things that could make this unit better:
- a button that takes you back to the channel you just switched from. There is a jump button but you have to program it to a specific channel. I'm using mine for weather/traffic.
- Better display dimming. The display is very bright at night. If you dim the display all the way, you lose the ability to change the contrast (it doesn't seem to change). And dim might be ok at night but then it isn't so great in the daytime. I can't expect too much given that this is an add-on unit (ie there's no way for it to know if your headlights are on) but better to not be surprized.

About Satellite radio for those new to the format like me:
- The sound quality isn't very good. The compression is very high. It's higher on talk stations than music stations but even music stations don't sound as good as FM. This is true for both Sirius and XM. You're paying for the wide variety and surety of content, not sound quality.
- Connecting by FM transmitter vs direct connect makes it worse. I don't know if this is specific to the Starmate or in general but you'll want at minimum to get the direct FM connection adapter.

This is my first time writing a product review. Unfortunately, I'm doing this because Sirius customer support has made me so angry I had to share my experience. I am actually on hold with their warranty department as I write this (10 minutes and counting, second call, first wait was 15 minutes and disconnected). I do need to say that I think Sirius has a great product. I did much research (sadly not on their customer service) and trails and concluded they had the best set of stations that fit my likes. However, my first radio broke about 4 months in (this starmate). I went through customer service and they connected me to warranty. The product was still under warranty, however I was mystified that their policy was that I had to pack up ALL my radio components (I had installed the car kit) and send the radio back at my shipping expense. They told me after they receive it they would process and send me a new one. The process could take 4-6 weeks. Well, you probably know you get charged a service fee to receive the satellite signal, and it was unacceptable that I would be charged the service when I had no radio. I had a year contract. I had to complain to get them to freeze my account so I would not loose this 1 to 1.5 months. The crazy thing is I offered to put a new radio on my credit card, have them send me the new one and then take it off my card when they receive my return. They refused to accept this approach.

So here I am on hold again (yes going on 15 minutes now). See, I really like the radio, when it works, and they offered a good deal to add a radio. Yes, yes, fool me twice, I know, but I bought another radio to use in the house (bought this direct from Sirius). Well they shipped me a radio that did not work. Disappointed, but figured since they SENT me a bad radio my experience would be different, they would just send me a new and I would send the defective back. Wrong! They are sending me to the warranty process again. They send me a bad radio and now I have to go through their warranty process. Now I've purchased a lot of things, both online and in brick and mortar and I don't recall a case where I need to go through the warranty process when the product is defective when I receive it.

Again, I love Sirius's product. But I can't see how the company will thrive and grow with customer service like this. I'm glad I only got the year subscription......20 minutes on hold and counting.......

Update 10/13/2006

Feel obligated to provide an update to this saga. Once I finally got connected to warranty, they listened to my situation and said you should talk to returns since we sent you a defective unit, what I expected, why I spent 1+ hour on the phone to get to this conclusion I'll never know. Well when I talked to the right folks, they were great, took care of the situation, gave me an RMA, instructions to send the unit back, credited my account for shipping and gave me a month's credit service since I activated my new radio already. I just received it the other day and things are working okay. Turns out I think they lowered the power on the FM transmitters on this model so this new one is not as effective as my old one, but I'm happy with the outcome. Who knows, maybe me and others got through to them on their customer service issues.....