New xm home radio....

John*F · 02-14-2006, 02:25 PM

I was just wondering if anyone knows if there will be a new "digital" home unit. I have been looking at the polk xrt10 for quite some time now, but seen alot of people unhappy with it so i decided to hold out until a new version gets released with perhaps better quality and features. I am currently using the delphi skyfi2 which sounds terrible. I would appreciate any help. Thanks

Ronald Epstein · 02-14-2006, 02:36 PM

John,

Was wondering what you have heard as far as
people being "unhappy with it."

I own the Polk unit and love it! The only
thing I could say I am unhappy about is that
it has limited title display (as opposed to
the SkyFi2). My polk is now 2 years old so I
am not sure if they upgraded the displays recently.

You know, you could get your SkyFi2 modified
for a optical output.

John*F · 02-14-2006, 03:23 PM

The reviews on crutchfield.com were pretty bad. I also know thats the first digital unit that offered ditital outputs and i like the playback features on the skyfi. If i would have to pick out of the two options i have(modify skyfi or buy a polk), i would choose the polk since it looks great,its not really that expensive, and has the on screen display.

Ronald Epstein · 02-15-2006, 05:49 AM

I just went over to Crutchfield to read the reviews.

I not quite sure what people expect from satellite
radio. It seems they want CD-quality audio, or
that which matches the music channels their cable
company offers.

No matter what device you use, you will not get
quality of music that matches either of those two
mediums.

Let's face it -- satellite radio music is compressed.
What you get is audio that matches MP3 quality.

Now, with that in mind...

I have used the Delphi SkyFi and SkyFi2 with standard
RCA outputs. I have also modified my SkyFi unit for
optical output and have bought the Polk XRT unit (also
with optical output). In my opinion, the music quality
coming out of the optical output is noticeably better
than the RCA output. Is it there a significant
difference? No. You still are dealing with the
compressed music that no matter what you do, it will
never match the quality of CD.

I have always said that satellite radio is the perfect
medium for the car and for a small boombox setup in the
home. Both setups should include a subwoofer. In those
environments, satellite radio sounds VERY good. The
problems begin once you attempt to hook it up to an
expensive home theater setup which will immediately
bring out the flaws in the sound source.

It's a real shame that ultimately, this is as good
as satellite radio gets. The format is more about
the amount of channels/entertainment it can offer
rather than sound quality. I had always hoped for
high-definition audio, but there just isn't enough
available bandwidth. Besides, that would open so
many lawsuits from the record companies concerned
about members downloading high-quality audio from
a source with no commercials.

John*F · 02-15-2006, 04:53 PM

Those are really good points, thanks.

I just went ahead and purchased the polk unit since its the best out there and i do use my skyfi2 on an everyday basis. I also seen xm is on directv now. I dont have directv and probably never will, but i think it may have slightly beter (if any) beter audio quality. Anyways i think its more convenient to have the seperate component or tuner.

**HTF Ads**

Ronald Epstein · 02-15-2006, 06:19 PM

John,

Do me a favor.

When you get the Polk hooked up....

I am interested to see if the more recent models
have extendeded title display like your SkyFi2.

Please let me know.

Regards

LewB · 02-16-2006, 08:49 AM

FWIW...
Another happy Polk XM home radio owner here.

John*F · 02-20-2006, 01:50 PM

Extended title display?? Do you mean whenever i press display, it toggles through "Station's name, Artist's name, then song titles". Because yea it does do that. The only feature it doesnt have is whenever i press right or left it toggles through categories/genres instead of playing the songs it stores in the memory automatically so you can pause and playback, which isnt that hard to deal with. I guess im happy with the purchase all together. It looks great and sound quality is probably just as i expected (adequate), even with a better optical cable. Its sad to know thats the best it can get, but hey at least i know i got the most out of my xm.

Ronald Epstein · 02-20-2006, 04:13 PM

John,

No.

This may be difficult to explain since you
never had the older XM devices.

You own the SKYFi2 right?

The song title/artist display on the SkyFi 2 is much
longer (holds more characters) than my Polk unit.

You see, the SKyFi2 is a new design with updated
display capable of showing more text LEFT TO RIGHT
than the older display of the Polk.

I guess the question is, do you notice text of
songs with more text being cut off because of
limited display space? The Polk should be
noticeably worse than the SkyFi2. If it is not,
they updated the displays on the newer Polk models.

John*F · 02-20-2006, 05:44 PM

Ronald,

I think i understand your question now. I have noticed that the max length/number of characters on both the skyfi2 and the polk is 16 on each artists and songs. I believe that is a limit on all xm radios as of right now.