Customer Reviews

SIRIUS Stratus 4 Plug-and-Play Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit

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

 

 

Display is easy to read. Setup was very easy. Sound quality is good (not as good as my iPod). Wish it had a "scan" option to autoplay a few seconds from each channel. Well worth the $40 I paid for it on Amazon. Overall I am very happy.

After contacting customer service I learned that the Sirius Customer Service Database has all account passwords available in plain text for CS reps to read and have access to. It is unacceptable that a modern technology company would not safeguard customer passwords from the eyes of employees, making my password vulnerable to theft by an unhappy employee, contractor, hacker or anyone else who could gain access to Sirius CS database records. Too many companies have been forced to disclose the theft of customer data due to human error and Sirius is leaving the door wide open to a future security breach. My warning: If you use Sirius, use a unique username and password during account step to safeguard your identity and confidential account info.

My daughter wanted a new radio for her car but wanted the orange background light / black lettering...well most everything available is blue background light right now. I search the web for awhile before finally finding what I needed on Amazon & it happened to be the last one in stock. I was happy with my find & the order arrived just in time for x-mas. Since I don't use it myself...I am assuming that it works great & she has no problems because she would have told me by now (this is her second satellite radio).
Some radios have so many buttons you'd almost need a user guide to know how to use them!...not this one.
It's a nice looking radio & appears to be very user friendly.
She loves it! Thank you :)

I am a little unhappy with yet another wire in my car for the antenna booster but it is worth it for the clear sound. The radio is easy to use and the display is easy to read

I dont know why these Sirius radios get SOOO hot all of the time. Reception is perfect, price was great. If they stay in business, buy one

First, let me say one thing - the Sirius description of what comes with this radio is misleading. They claim it has an AC adapter. It does not; it has a DC adapter. The difference is that with an AC adapter you can use it in your house... without paying $40 (more than the radio costs) for a "home kit." That is, if you don't have a spare 12V power supply you can splice into a cigarette lighter outlet from Radio Shack.

Second, the sound quality is fairly poor; not terrible, but certainly not what you get from the standard stereos in Chrysler and Dodge cars with Sirius. There's a certain dullness that can't be adjusted out.

The music programming is excellent and far better than XM radio. I can't stand Howard Stern and don't like having to see him plastered over their web site but that's minor. Their customer service people are rude and arrogant.

Reception is less than ideal. I found that in the car, the reception blanks out frequently. At home, with the antenna posted a foot from the window (outside) and away from trees and such, I can usually get two bars and only once or twice a day does it drop out, but it took a lot of experimentation to get there. I can't get more than two bars, generally, and often drop down to one. Extra antennas tend to cost as much as the radio.

I use a hard-wired hookup so the FM transmitter isn't the problem.

Overall -- I'm very disappointed and I understand now why Sirius doesn't have easy comparison charts for its radios or any specifications of frequency range, harmonic distortion, and sensitivity to the antenna.

I purchased this radio along with a Home Installation Kit about a month ago. My main intention was to listen to college/pro football games not carried here on the West Coast.

Use in the car has been excellent with no problems except a short loss of signal while in a tunnel.

However, use at home has been less than stellar. Apparently, the 'satellite' is located in the central US and supplemented by a ground based antenna on the East and West Coast. I have two home kits with one installed in a west facing upstairs window and the other in an east facing upstairs window. Reception is sporadic. In general, the signal is fine for about 1/2 to 1 1/2 hrs and then fades out for about 1/2 hr. Unfortunately, this seems to happen in the 4th quarter of a close game and every day around sundown. I'm happy with the progamming available just don't like the interruptions. If the signal was steady at all locations I would have rated the system at 5 stars.

Bought this unit to replace my Audiovox PNP2 which crapped out after four years of daily use. This unit works fine but lacks features like multi-band presets. My old unit could be programmed to hold 30 stations, this one only 10. Also, can't browse through categories to see which songs are playing on what station. Also dosen't remember any favorites either. The unit works fine, but if I had to do it again, I'd spend more money for a unit with better features.

Reception poor. Even after moving the antenna outside and facing skyward the reception continued to be intermittent. Don't fool yourself thinking you will get good reception using the Home Kit Setup. Finally returned product because of poor reception.

When my Starmate 1 finally burned out after 6 years, I got the Stratus 4 as an upgrade. It is much better looking and easier to use than the old one, and if you already have Sirius, you know that the service itself is fantastic. The only thing that actually seemed worse was the reception. Believe it or not, the old one sounded much better. For what it's worth, I think this is an across-the-board modification to all of their newer radios. I don't think another model would be any different. My solution is that I've stored a few different preset stations, and usually one of them is pretty decent. It's a little annoying, but not enough to want to go without Sirius.

I recently bought this to install in my car. The installation was pretty straightforward. I ultimately returned this product because the display was more primitive than indicated by the product photo.

The product photo for the Stratus 4 currently shows a three-lines of proportionally spaced font, which indicates a "pixel-by-pixel" display. However, the actual Stratus 4 has a cheaper looking "character-by-character" display where all text is monospaced. For reference, check out the following photo of an older model with the same display:
[...]

My advice is to go to one of the big stores and see the Stratus 4 for yourself before purchasing. (And Sirius should stop providing misleading product photos to merchants.)