Customer Reviews

XAct XTR1UK Sirius Satellite Receiver with Universal Kit

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Sirius Satellite Radio is an excellent service, with extraordinarily rich and varied content, and therefore worthy of much more than XACT Communications offers in this "universal" kit. This review is ONLY related to XACT's equipment, and NOT to the Sirius service.

I've owned the receiver and kit for three months and I am now in the market for a replacement. Here's why:

1. The keypad interface is the least intuitive of any I've ever encountered. Although I pride myself on being something of a technophile, I must contstantly refer to the user's guide to figure how how to accomplish things with this keypad. You can't even enter a station by number directly! (You must select each of the 3 digits from a displayed list of digits using arrow keys and the enter button). Although the receiver boasts storing 18 "favorites," you can not get to any directly via the keypad; in all cases you must scroll through groupings (A through F) or lists first.

2. The user's guide has a few significant errors, such as how to store favorites channels.

3. The "universal" mount for vehicles comes with one small plastic disk with two-sided tape that adheres to the dashboard. The base unit easily detaches from this disk for use in the home. However, if you want to use it in a second VEHICLE, you need another of these little disks. XACT absolutely refuses to sell the disk alone, and insists that you spend another $50 (!) for another complete kit if you want to move the unit from car to car.

4. The display is too small, and often gets "stuck" with info from prior selections, requiring a reset.

5. Mobile reception is spotty, even in clear, unobstructed areas. I'm in the NYC suburban area, and lose the signal every ten minutes or so when on the road. A friend with an in-dash receiver for Sirius experiences no such problems.

6. In order to power this unit by batteries (for use like a walkman), you must purchase a huge, clunky wrap-around battery kit for $100 (!).

I recommend you definitely consider the Sirius service, but look for an alternative to any XACT hardware.

P.S. Since first writing this review, my XACT unit failed completely due to overheating, which I discovered is a very common problem with XACT equipment. Although the store where I purchased it provided a replacement, I fear the problem recurring after the warrantee has expired.

I bought the unit from a large retailer in Dec 2004, having been "sold" on the premise that the XACT unit had the most functionality for the price and was more portable than other units available - easily transferring from car to home to boombox, etc., if I elected those routes (with additional hardware). I liked the idea of portability and went with the XACT vehicle package.

I agree that the vehicle mounting unit is extremely limited. The actual mount has limited tilt and is cluncky with a screw that fastens to the back of the unit, making mounting and dismounting somewhat difficult. I ended up building my own base for the mount that fits in a cupholder, because the original mount wouldn't fit anywhere else. With my homemade creation, the setup works quite well. I keep my antenna on the dashboard and haven't had a big problem with reception. I even traveled 1200 miles across the county and the reception was fine. Of course, I did have to change FM modulator channels periodically from city to city, but that should be expected.

The unit is very limited overall. Scanning stations is very difficult while driving and I rely on my saved stations nearly exclusively. However, the keypad only gives access to 3 saved stations at a time and this can be annoying. I still haven't figured out the Memo/S-Seek button, even after reading the manual several times, and it seems usless.

Most troubling, in April, I returned to the big retailer where I purchased the unit (in Dec), to buy the home mounting dock. However, the retailer no longer carries XACT products in its stores. It is available on the web, but this is rather unsettling. I purchased the unit as the newest, best product less than 4 months ago and now I can't find it in any stores. I bought the unit for portability and versatility and it's already difficult to find the additional components for it.

In general, the redeeming quality of the XACT unit is that it allows me to listen to Sirius, which is an excellent service. Other than that, XACT offers poor functionality and design. If I were to do it again, I'd get a unit from a more recognizable company and definitely one with a dial.

I have had the unit two weeks and worked hard to make it function as required. First the FM signal to my radio is so weak that there is too much noise, what happen to CD quality?

Due to the FM broadcast issue I had to have it mounted and setup with a hard wire into my system which cost an additional $100.

The screen and functions are managable, but not great. This is a pull over and reset unit, it is way to hard to manage this unit while driving because it is not designed for ease of use and the screen is so small and hard to read.

The unit gets very hot so you have to mount it accordingly. Holding the unit and using the keys is uncomfortable because of the heat, so the remote is a required tool.

The antena had to be on the roof because through a window it did not get enough signal.

Overall I liked the low price and have fixed most of the issues, but would not purchase this unit again if there were any other choice.

With both the interface (as noted above) and mainly with the lack of mounting options. Every other unit I've looked at seems to have lots of options for car mounting, while this unit has one silly ridiculouly priced option that only contemplates bottom mounting. While there are 18 presets only 3 are readily available. The FM quality is spotty but that's an issue I've seen in reviews of most of these type units.

All in all, Sirius service is wonderful but I may well replace this Xact unit with some other option.

The receiver has a built in FM broadcast modulator that did not function well. You can remedy the situation by plugging in a headset in the upper left corner and hang the headset wire from your rearview mirror. This acts as an added transmitting antenna.
The search function is understood by Albert Einstein, and the presets are limiting. On the positive side, It does store many channels on band A-F most easily accessed by using the remote. The channels are generally crisp and clean. The Sirius stations offer a great variety. All-in-all, I'm happy with what I got for the price of the unit.

I agree with the other negative reviews being posted about the Xact hardware. I had real reception problems. I found it difficult to use. You have to pull over to change the FM receiver constantly and if you happen to be driving down a street with trees - it would lose the signal. And, now, after only owning it for 3 months the unit has ceased functioning - completely - for no reason. I paid $150 for it and it's brand new and broken. I LOVE Sirius. The drive without it today was depressing. I will buy a new unit, but never purchase an Xact product again...

I got this receiver and boombox as a christmas gift. I can not receive reception in my house (possably from being built in the 40's and is all true plaster walls) in the car it works pretty good. hard to read display at times, unit gets hot when on, at times the FM transmitter dosent send a strong signal. as with all FM transmitters, some sound quality is lost in the transmission, but not too bad. I use the supplied antenna for the satalite inside my car on the dash. I didnt see the need in running wires for a unit that can move from car to car with ease.

on another note, if my wife and I are driving somewhere in seperate cars, she can tune in my satallite on her radio, if she is following or even infront of me. At times, you will pick up another persons broadcast, if you are tuned to the same FM channel, and they will pick yours up (has happened several times). I mean that you will be listing to your station, then all of a sudden you are picking up something else, but the receiver still says that you are on your channel.

My main gripes with this unit would be that it gets hot, hard to read display if it gets hot, or is in the sun, and is a bit bulky. I couldent find anywhere to mount the supplied mount, and I ended up buying a kuda mount for my car.

On the positive side. Many station presets, good clarity, nice sound from the boombox, fairly simple operation. I am now on the hunt for some sort of device that will make this unit portable, or maybe a whole new set up that is a bit smaller.

I am going on my 3rd radio since November 3rd, 2005. I could not get anywhere with XACT so I went to the Better Business Bureau and a few days later I got a call from some customer service chick who had an attitude. I had to pay to send the radio back, when the replacement came guess what?....It was broken, no audio. I went back to the BBB and today I got a call from XACT and they won't refund my money but they want to send me an XTR2. Why would I want another crappy radio?
Please anyone reading this take these reviews to heart get a radio directly through Sirius.com or a company with a good return/relpacement policy. You have your radio replaced in no time with Sirius. XACT will just keep sending you broken ones.
As soon as I get my replacement I'm selling it and getting one through Sirius. If for some reason you do get through this and they want to replace it make sure you tell them to send you a shipping lable. You should not have to pay for something that they made terrible in the first place.

I wish I had read reviews about this equipment before buying it, but when I signed up for Sirius, this was the main equipment for sale. It has worked OK up until last week when I was driving along listening and starting smelling plastic burning and the unit stopped working. Earlier, my cigarette lighter/power plug in the front of my car stopped working altogether which I now realize is due to the XACT car charger having somehow destroyed the cigarette lighter/power plug; I checked to see if the fuse had just blown, but the fuse is fine and now I can't even get my cell phone charger to work in the cigarette lighter/power plug. The XACT receiver unit heats up tremendously and will sometimes "freeze up" during a broadcast so that I have to turn it off and then on again to "reboot" the receiver so that I can keep listening to Sirius. The car charger always got hot, but it wasn't until it actually destroyed my cigarette lighter/power plug that I realize the XACT car charger is a hazard to using in your car. I have a Subaru Forester with the cigarette lighter/power plug up front and a second power plug in the back, so after the front cigarette lighter/power plug stopped working, I plugged the XACT car charger into the back power plug and that is where the XACT car charger actually fried itself. Fortunately, it didn't also destroy that second power plug in the back of my Subaru. So, now the XACT car charger does not work at all and it has an obvious burnt plastic smell to it. I guess I'll have to contact XACT to get the car charger replaced on warranty. I also bought the XACT Boom Box that this receiver plugs into and that works great. Its also good that the XACT Receiver unit didn't fry when the XACT car charger did because at least I can listen to Sirius at home on my XACT Boom Box. I don't know if I want to risk using this piece of equipment in my car again, because it is already going to cost me to have that cigarette lighter/power plug repaired that the XACT car charger destroyed. Thank goodness that this XACT car charger did not cause an electrical fire; at least it burnt itself out before causing any further damage. The bottom line on this review is I would recommend against the
XACT equipment. Since I bought the XACT car/home kit and the Boom Box, I'll keep using it and contact XACT to replace the car charger, but I can't recommend this product to anyone with good conscious on my part.

this unit is not worth the plastic it was assembled with. for some unknown reason it plays for about an hour then "acquiring signal" kicks in. turn it on and off, leave it off. nothing. I called Sirius. they claim it's not their service but sounds like a defect. I'll be returning this piece of sh-t soon as I get hold of customer service where i purchased it. avoid XACT products