Customer Reviews

SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

OK.

So after all of the hype surrounding satellite radio I decided to "pimp out" my Sebring by adding SIRIUS to it. In order not to look ghetto as well as match my existing deck I decided to pick one of these up and subscribe.

First, I'll review the device. Then, I'll review the service. Basically, good news then bad news.

The device itself has a very small form factor which I found very appealing. It comes with a mini dock which essentially powers the device and routes its audio and antenna signal. Know that you'll be doing quite a bit of wiring if you do this yourself - I would recommend professional installation unless you're comfortable doing your own car installation stuff. There are 3, possibly 4, wires that you'll be dealing with:

- The CLA (cigarette lighter adapter)
- The satellite antenna
- The FM antenna extender (only needed if you choose that option)
- The line out (only needed if you choose that option)

Now, if all of these ports were in the back of the dock next to each other this wouldn't be so bad, but instead they're on either side. That's a lot of cables to have hanging out, which is why I recommend professional install if you're not comfortable. I decided to do it myself and, to get set up with the "basic" quality which is wireless FM (it's decent, but nothing to write home about) with neat wiring took me about 45 minutes, give or take. That's including mounting (which I'll get to in a moment).

SIRIUS recommends using line out/line in if at all possible. Newer decks have this jack, but some older pre-2004 likely do not, or if they do, it's a proprietary connector that might not work with the Sportster 5. I have the Kenwood MP735U and it works just fine. I found the cable at Circuit City ($24!!!) and it worked like a charm. Took some doing and even more neat wiring, but I did get it to work. I will admit, using the line out spanks the smoke out of the wireless FM or FM modulation options; it's near CD quality, especially on the Jazz and Classical stations. Again, you can use wireless FM and it will sound "okay", but line out will give you the absolute best quality possible; you just have to do another cable.

Mounting the unit has a number of options as well - one of which is not available depending on what state you're in. California, for example, has Draconian laws about vehicles; you can't have anything stuck to the front windshield. Ironically this is the easiest way to mount the device, as the suction cup works extremely well, and you just attach the device to the metal arm and adjust. If you have this option and don't mind the device up in the window, I recommend doing this. I have an old Chrysler CD changer indash not being used; a trip to Home Depot for a $.49 angle bracket did the trick - attached it to the dock with a single screw, then slipped the other end into the CD slot and like magic, it's solid and looks great right underneath the deck. I suppose I could have hard installed it with another screw or two, but I'd rather not.

All said and done the initial hardware investment came to roughly $200. Keep in mind that SIRIUS has cheaper devices that don't look nearly as good. The downside to the devices is the cigarette lighter adapter. In fact the documentation explicitly forbids a direct power tap. This is so disheartening I can't even describe it. I have to keep unplugging it when I turn the car off so it doesn't suck the battery dry. Why can't you have the option of tapping it into the player's alternate power line so it turns on with the player? I'm absolutely mystified at this oversight.

Now, the service. Oh, this will be fun.

The quality of the audio? Stellar. Never heard anything like it except on digital TV's music channels.

The quality of everything else? Horrid. Where do I begin...

- The activation/customer service phone # has extremely long wait times. it took me a total of 5 hours across 10 different phone calls to reach someone who could help me. Do the math.

- Activation/CS reps are clearly stressed over something. I talked to two who were just blatantly rude; one who had no idea what she was talking about, the other a guy who claimed he'd been "...working at SIRIUS for over 3 years and" knew what he was talking about. Funny - since he had no idea that you can't activate with invoice billing on the website (more on that later).

- SIRIUS and Circuit City have some type of conglomeration going on to force you to call to activate. CC offers a "prepaid subscription card" which is supposed to offset the initial charges (more on that later) to get service. Well that's all good and everything except the card cannot be used on the website even though the website acknowledges the card and its value. It says "cannot be redeemed". An Asst. Manager at CC informed me that calling was the only way to redeem the card. Had I known that, I wouldn't have bought that particular card, but a regular gift card that I could use on the web. Because of the aforementioned long hold times, it was a nightmare to do this simple task. The girl even told me "you should be able to use it on the web" - the other idiot claimed "you're just doing something wrong".

- Too much personal information required to sign up. Why do you care what type of car I have? All that should be needed is a credit card (if you choose that payment method) and my address/name. If it's for purposes of theft recovery, that's up to me, the buyer, to deal with that. Which I do - in my auto insurance plan.

- Website will authorize your credit card without activating an account for you. That's money you can't touch until they feel like releasing it - which could be 2 weeks.

- Inability to just sign up for an account without giving billing information and/or buying a device. Why can't I just establish the account and then pay for it? Why force me to buy the deck in order to get service established? If I wanted DirecTV and didn't have it, I call them and activate, and then the hardware comes...not the other way around.

- Website forces you to put in a credit card. You can't do invoice billing as an option. Why not? Because they know every customer would just do that and then they would be getting free service for that month grace.

- Website does not allow you to select month-to-month billing as an option, and by default it hides the quarterly and 6-month options (which would obviously be the more popular for newbies like myself).

- Telephone IVR can't hear properly. I tried to activate through the automated system and it just couldn't understand the letters "D", "I", "O", "N". That's it, and I don't know how many times the chick said "sorry?"

- No trial offered (I'm talking about in-car installation). Why can't I just buy a unit from a store that offers returns, activate a 14-day trial period with a credit card, and then return and cancel if I hate it? Because then they'd have high turnover due to buyers remorse (which I had at one point due to the above issues)

- $15 activation fee which is not disclosed on the hardware documentation. You don't find out about this until you go to the website or you talk to an agent. It should be clearly disclosed on the packaging of the device since you'd be forced to pay that fee by activating the device - not at the very last minute when you're putting in your credit card. On top of that, it's blatantly mob-ish of them to charge: an activation fee, a monthly fee, fee for the hardware, etc etc etc. They already get money from the subscription - remove the activation fee already or annualize it across the subscription.



So class, in summary: The customer service is screwed up, and in order to activate properly and get the best billing options, you need to call customer service (which did I mention is screwed up?). DO NOT activate over the web if you're using a gift card. I guarantee you, you will get frustrated.

The quality of the product is top notch. The ability to see who's playing before you select the station is excellent, and the high resolution of this screen makes navigating stations quick and easy. The audio sounds upper class if you're using the line out jack, and setup is not that difficult if you know what you're doing. Once you get past activations you should be smooth. It's just that phase that causes headaches.

I bought this radio for my wife so she could relive the 70's. She is thrilled with it. Since she is not a techno geek- i.e. the controls need to be pretty straightforward, I wanted something that she would feel comfortable using. Otherwise, it would end up gathering dust on a shelf.
The Sportser 5 has the right balance of features and simplicity. She loves the display showing the Band, Title, and year. She also likes the radio display's ability to change colors. I set up the preset buttons for her, but she has the Sirius channel guide and has no problems finding the stations she wants.
I was able to hook up the car kit in just a few minutes. It works great for her. I bought a cassete adapter, which I like better than going through the FM Car Radio.
I also bought the boombox for her so she can use the radio around the house. It is working perfectly both in the car and at home.

This radio is ok, but it seems that you have to warm up the unit before the display will work. I'm not sure the optimal operating temperature, but you would think that they would avoid using liquid crystal display for a unit that's designed to stay in your car. I've found that simply warming up the unit isn't enough, nor is turning it off/on. You have to remove it from the car docking station, then warm it up, then re-attach it to the dock before the color display will function. I suppose in the summer this won't be a problem, but if you live in a climate where the temperature gets below 40 degrees, your display might have this problem. If you take the unit inside with you every night, you can avoid this I guess. I don't have a home dock so I leave mine in the car.

Also, I noticed that this unit doesn't go as low as previous units on the FM transmission scale. My previous unit was set to 87.9 because that is the only station in my area that doesn't have programming. The Sportster 5 only goes as low as 88.1. Now I can't get a clear channel and my truck's in-dash radio has no external auxiliary sound jack, so I'm screwed. I'll need to pay for a professional to wire the unit to my in-dash radio. Take this into account when you calculate the total cost of ownership.

Other than those two issues, I'm pretty happy with the unit so far. Hopefully it won't break after about 2 years of ownership like my last Sirius receiver.

Update 11/19/08:
After my song notifications started acting up, I sent my reciever back to Sirius Warranty Support, they sent me 4 different radios (each time I sent back) before I got one that seems to work ok. This one doesn't have the problem with the cold. I also spent about $50 to get the parts I needed to hard-wire the radio to my truck antenea. It works great now.

I upgraded from a smaller siruis radio to this sportster5. This model is perfect for subscribers who don't have built-in satelite radios or a satelite-ready unit.

I gave it five stars for the multi color and big display, and easy to use.
THe variety of chanels is great.

Customer service are always bad, but there is a way to get around them as I'll mention later.


You need an FM radio in your car to play this radio, or a cassette player with a casstte adapter (sold separetley).

I use it through my car FM radio using the built-in FM transmitter that works fine on highways and bad in city.

I don't like the FM direct adapter, it needs profissional instalation and hard to move it between cars. I like to switch between satelite chanels and local ones and the adapter kills the FM antena unless you turn off the sporster.

if you have an auxilary input in your car radio, it is the best way to listen to this unit. the cassette adapter is not bad also.

the satelite radio is a good experience and i'm very satesfied with the reception, I need it as I'm always traveling hudred of miles every day for work.

I advice new subscribers to AVOID buying the blue cards ( prepaid cards) they save you few dollars and waste your time and they don't work as they should when activating online. you end up calling customer service and giving your credit card number. customer service are bad any way so do your job online.

here are some steps to enjoy sporster5
1. open the box.
2. read the manual carefuly.
3. instal the unit in the car.
4. turn on both the unit and your car FM radio.
5. park your car in open air. Get the free chanel (national weather). Now the unit works but you need to subscribe to get the rest of the chanels.
6. Run into the house and subscribe online using a credit card ( not a check card/ debit card). As I said, avoid those Sirius PREPAID CARDS.
7. run back to the car to enjoy.

I purchased the Sportster 5 about a month ago and it's the first sat radio I've owned. Out of the box, it comes with everything you need to install in your car. It's a breeze to install yourself for most people, unless you've never installed anything in your car before. If worse comes to worse, ask someone you know for help before you pay $50 to get it done. Don't use the FM transmitter if you can help it though - I've heard and read a lot of horror stories about them. My head unit didn't have a AUX input, but it did have a CD disk changer input in the back of the unit. I just purchased a cable that takes that disk changer input and converts it to an AUX input, for a direct connection. It works amazingly well.

Navigation is straight forward. There are some cool features like a thin profile, 15 different color combonations and a small remote control that's actually more useful than you might think because it allows friends or picky wives and/or girlfriends to change the channel without reaching across you. There's also Sports alert that will notify you when one of your favorite teams are playing (selectable in a menu) and the score will display even when you're listening to a music channel. You can store favorite artists and/or songs and the radio will alert you when a song or artist from your list is playing anyhere and anytime. The radio will also store 30 channel presets. There's also a function where you can pause and rewind music you've listened to up to 45 minutes, then fast forward.

Some complaints that I have are I wish the remote had a backlight. I also with there was a "previous channel" button. The antenna is also finicky sometimes when you drive under a bridge in traffic or through a McDonalds drive-thru, but it's bearable and a necessary evil. It doesn't always lose the signal, but I thought it's worth mentioning. The radio wouldn't be worth anything without the service, and I have to say that Sirius is excellent to say the least. It's worth every penny and I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone.

This is my second Sirius Satellite radio; my first is a Stratus 4. This radio is incredible! The display is large and clear, and the 30 presets are more than I'll ever need.

Probably my favorite option on this radio is the "memo," which allows me to save up to 30 songs or artists. When my favorites play anywhere on the dial, a little beep lets me know on what channel, and gives me an option to go to the song in a single click. I haven't really used the record option yet. I like the little remote, as well. it makes for really easy switching between channels.

Unlike many, many other customers here, I've had nothing but pleasant experiences with customer service in the two or three times I've had to contact them. I might just be lucky in that regard. Or, it could be that the customer service is improving--who knows?

The connections are easy; I use the direct connection through my car's tape deck. I understand that there may be many problems with the FM option. The sound is clear, and the volume control via the remote is very useful. The only real complaint I have is that, without the remote, it takes several steps to adjust the volume on the radio itself. I wish that were easier. But that's a small issue, really.

I love Sirius, even though I'm not a Stern fan. Radio Margaritaville, Springsteen, the Dead, all have dedicated channels, and terrestrial radio has far, far too many commercials for my tastes any more. There's plenty of national news and talk from all over the political spectrum, and some good stations for more obscure classical rock music, as well. I really am enjoying my subscription.

Perhaps I just got a bad receiver, but I've had problems with this receiver since about a month after purchase.

It's never remembered my presets. It frequently gets stuck/hung up while updating channels, which was usually fixed by Sirius sending a reset signal to my receiver; however, this fix failed most recently, and the radio has been unusable for about a month now. It also started taking 15-30 seconds to start playing audio after start up saying it was "Acquiring Signal". Finally, very weak FM signal unless you have the direct connect or whatever its called. I've heard Sirius sent out a product notice about this issue and perhaps its been fixed in newer versions.

Please note that the during all of this, the satellite receiver continually indicated full signal, so I don't think it was a problem with bad install or bad signal.

I run out of patience dealing with Sirius's customer service system, so I guess I'll just buy a new receiver. The strange this is: I'll probably buy this one again in hopes I just got a faulty unit.

I have been a Sirius subscriber for 2 years and I absolutely love the service. For the first 2 years, I owned a Streamer Replay (same model as Sportster Replay except completely black) and I found the overall quality of that unit great. The Sportster 5 is an improvement to an already great series of receivers!

The reception is improved from the Sportster 4 and the Sportster Replay. I have the unit directly connected to my vehicle's audio system and it sounds as close to CD quality sound as possible. The unit has a greater Audio Level output than the Replay, so it is louder and clearer overall.

All of the features, such as Song/Artist Memory and the Pause/FF/Rew functions work well in the car when receiving a call or when your attention is needed away from the radio without missing a beat. The color display options allow you to change the head unit to blend better with your current vehicle setup and is a great change from the standard blue and black look.

The Sportster 5 is versatile as well. I purchased the Universal boombox which I use as a home dock as well as a travel player for picnics or softball games. I can have Sirius anywhere!

I can't seem to find a major fault with this radio. There are always general improvements that can be made such as better reception and clearer audio, but compared to the rest of the receivers that are offered today, this one takes the cake! I highly recommend this as a receiver for those who love satellite radio and want to hear it with the best possible sound quality.

This is my 3rd unit, and the first Sportster as the other 2 are Starmates. The dial is much better than the buttons for forwarding and advancing the stations. The background option matches almost any interior. The sports ticker is excellent and does not take up any memorized slots like it did on the Starmate. I had to tie it into the radio directly to get quality sound. The antenna is much nices as well being more of a silver dollar size and not the square. The only downside is that I had to get a bracketron to install ($20) and the buttons are quite small... other than that, it is excellent !

I travel a lot in my car, so I bit the bullet and got Sirius. I looked at all the receivers available and narrowed it down to the Starmate 5 and the Sportster 5. I ultimately decided on the Sportster because frankly it looked the coolest.

This thing has so many bells and whistles that I'm still getting used to it. For me it was the best choice. I love the display, the number of presettings, the way it will track your favorite sports teams. Overall a great buy.

Some people have talked about the installation. I read a lot of these reviews before buying this receiver and followed everyone's advice and had it professionally installed. (Cost: $60, Headaches; 0)

My only complaint is the remote... it's to small. One of the reasons I bought this unit is because of the remote. While driving it's easier to use a remote than to mess with the display. But it's super small which makes it difficult to use at times. It would have also been more helpful if it was lighted for night time driving.

Overall a great receiver.