Customer Reviews

Tao xm2go Portable Satellite Radio Receiver with Home and Car Accessory Kits

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have been having a great deal of fun with the Tao xm2go. I even look forward to the daily jog! No more horrible music from broadcast stations. No more listening to my limited library of music. Now I have the largest variety of music, news, and information that one could ever hope for. Reception is great (apparently I'm near a repeater). The unit is a little larger than a pack of smokes. Easy to carry. Don't like the earbuds.....but they do have an inline volume switch. Any other standard headphones will fit it so I'll probably use some others. Nice to have a large disply. The buttons are easy to understand. Each button nicely lights up and is easy to read in the dark. Designed very well. An amazing array of accessories (most any other company would nickle and dime you to death for these). EXCELLENT gift for joggers, bikers, fishermen, gardeners, beach-goers, etc.

The Tap XM2Go is about the best you can get for portable XM. It seems to be much more rugged than the other portables. I expect this to be a long-lived unit. Case looks like it can take some punishment.

The number of accessories included with the Tao XM2Go means that you're not going to be spending more on essentials to get you going. It includes both home and car kits, both of which are very complete. The home kit includes charging cradle, AC adaptor (with an innovative brick that doesn't block unused outlets), XM antenna w/ 25 foot cord, earbuds, a soft case w/ belt-loop, remote control w/ batteries, audio cable, and a snap-on portable stand. The car kit has car power adaptor, car cradle, car antenna, swivel mount, flush mount, vent mount, cell phone mount, cleaning kit, and an alcohol prep pad. I don't think any of the other units come with as complete accessories. This guy is ready to go.

Nice features include built-in FM modulator so you can broadcast to any FM radio, both in the car and at home. This works very well, but a direct connection sounds better. It also can record up to five hours of encoded audio. You can either record instantly (actually starts a couple of seconds after you press the button) or you can schedule a recording. Unfortunately, you have to have the unit turned off to schedule recording. Also, too bad you can't plug in an SD memory card to expand the amount you can record. Oh well, maybe the next model.

The controls and the remote control are easy to use. There are so many features that it takes a little practice but the learning curve isn't too bad. A little trial and error after error gets you through it. The manual could be a bit more descriptive, but it isn't bad considering that it is quite small. The only complaint I have is entering numbers on the unit is cumbersome. The remote control has a much better control layout.

There is no battery charge indication while the unit is charging. Tao claims five hours on a charge. I haven't had it enough to test this. If you use this unit mostly as a base/car unit, that should be plenty. I like the idea of using it outdoors on its batteries w/o an external antenna. My cursory testing shows that this works fairly well as long as the path to the satellite isn't blocked too badly. It would be nice if the unit had "skip protection" for those cases when connection is intermittent.

I rated this guy five stars because it is probably the top of the line. My review of competing units lead me to conclude that the Tao XM2Go was the most rugged and had the best features. If you want an XM radio, this one certainly should fit the bill. It's incredibly adaptable.

I live in New Orleans and FM radio choices became very limited after the hurricane. So after months of audio purgatory I made the plunge and subscribed to XM.

WOW. XM is great and the Tao XM2Go works like a charm.

I connect the Tao to my belt and take it everywhere. I didn't even bother hooking up the car receiver. I just sit the little fellow on my dashboard and use the headphones. Reception is fine. It does lose the signal when you go under power line or an overpass, but it's only out for a fraction of a second.

There are a few minor things about it that I don't like though. 1) It takes a few tries and some maneuvering to attach the Tao to the charging base. Things just don't seem to lineup right. 2) The carrying case covers the LCD display and the control buttons. It would be nice if there were an opening that would allow access to the control panel without pulling it completely out of the case. 3) The head phones are painful 4) Control are stiff and a little difficult to work (especially when driving). I now leave the Tao's remote control in the car and use the remote to change the station.

Also TAO has apparently gotten the message about the battery problems. I purchased mine on March 12, and there was a replacement battery taped to the inside of the box.

Go XM!

Tao xm2go is a great satellite receiver for music lovers. The five hour record feature makes the receiver similar in function to an m3p player. The antenae for the home base allowed reception through an exterior south facing wall. The only drawback is the reception on the unit is spotty without an external antenae.

I bought this as a gift for my boyfriend and then offered to install it. I will cop to being less than gifted in the technology department. Still, some think me an intelligent woman. It took me HOURS to install this in his car. The instructions were so vague I had to figure it out through trial and error. Things got better when I decided to put the antenna at the back of the car and run the wire through the trunk and under the carpet to the bottom of the dash. Also, I followed the advice of another reviewer who said to use the remote for programming the preset buttons. He was so right.

It was all worth it. This is such a great product. I was worried about the reception in our semi-rural locale. It is better than I hoped for. I will say that the signal is not strong enough to listen to live with headphones, but who needs that when you can record five hours of programming?

I researched a lot before making this purchase. For the money, I think this is the best and most versatile XM receiver on the market.

I've been chomping at the bit for months to get an XM radio. The main disappointment I had with most receiver units was that they weren't complete: there was always an extra required purchase to make the whole thing work. The Tao XM2Go player takes care of all that. Everything is included in one package: the portable unit, the home kit and the car kit. All you have to do is take it all out of the box, read the instructions and set up your subscription. Voila! You're good to go!

The unit's built-in antenna is good but probably not as powerful as it should be (I get signal dropouts when I take it out on walks) but the car antenna more than makes up for it, giving you strong signal and great sound. The home antenna is also very good and you have your choice of in-line setup or FM transmitter setup.

The unit itself is light and easy to carry, though some will probably argue it's too big, especially if they're used to smaller devices like mp3 players. A belt clip/desktop stand and a protective case are included for carrying. The controls are intuitive and easy to learn. This player has the ability to record up to 5 hours of broadcasts that can be listened to at a later time (very practical when you're stuck in an area with no signal). There's a memory function to help you recall song titles and artists, and you can program your XM2Go to alert you when your favorite tracks/artists are playing on any XM channel.

Overall, it's a great product. The fact that it's all-in-one makes it a great value.

I've had this unit for 6 months and have had great success with it. I use it in my car, home and at work (2 home kits). In the car I do not have a cassette player so I transmit FM. I've seen a lot of complaints about how using satelite radios in this manner gives poor results. I'll admit, there is a drop-off in quality, but it's usually un-noticable unless I get too close to a radio station broadcasting on or close to where I have my XM radio set to. Using it as a portable gives mixed results. If you expect to jog or carry it and listen to live XM broadcasts, you may be disappointed. Since it has the ability to record 5 hours of programming, I usually switch to that mode when I'm carrying it outside or when I take it to the gym. My wife frequently "steals" it out of my car to play in our home... so I'm back today to get another one for her car.

My husband would rather leave home without his AMEX than his Tao XM radio. He even took it on a Bahamas cruise last week, so that he could listen to ESPN while traveling to Nassau and back. It actually worked rather well, until we were closer to the Bahamas!

The car top magnet has even evoked some comments from curious neighbours, primarily envious males. I'd rate it a 5, just because it's brought tears of joy to my husband's face. It's also been one of the few gadgets that's actually delivered beyond his expectations...hmmm hopefully he'd say the same about me!

I purchased this portable satellite receiver after reading many positive reviews. I also have two car XM units that I have had for some time...one is the first Plug & Play and the second is an installed XM. This third unit is a disappointment. I bought it purposely for use outdoors while running. I tried it on a 5 mile run today and as long as I was running south or west, it picked up fine. North and east there was absolutely no signal, leaving me with about 50% blackout during my run--total disappointment. The unit is great if you just want to sit in one place, such as a chair inside your home and point it out the window. But for use outdoors as I intended, it is going to be worthless unless I ante up for the headphones with antenna installed. In addition, I find the buttons very hard to use as the lettering is hard to read in most lights, unless you are using it at night when they light up upon prompting. I also don't like that while scrolling you can't view what is on the the other stations before changing as my mobile XM radio does. I also tried hooking up the antenna to try this out indoors and had to run the antenna wire through my whole house and still couldn't get a signal. I will most likely sell this on Ebay and call it a loss.

I've had the Tao for about three months now, and haven't had many problems with it other than the battery failing prematurely. Another was taped to the box so that was no problem. The internal antenna is not so hot, but few other units have one at all! I have found that if I set it near a window I can usually get audio when I am on the road. The car antenna works fine on the dash--I'd never go outside with it so that's cool. Sound quality is good, but varies a bit: sometimes muffled, sometimes harsh. This is due in some measure to the fact that I listen to lots of 50's-60's-70's music that wasn't recorded so well.
The only part that needs serious revision is the programming interface for recordings. You can only set up two recordings at a time, and not more than a week in advance. How stupid for a station that has so many weekly shows! Why not make it programmable via USB from your computer?