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GREAT reception. Unmatched convenience. I am so glad we bought this accessory for our portable Sirius receiver. GREAT sound.
Fortunately I read online someone had a similar problem and they switched to the magnetic car antenna (it will attach to the boombox). Works fine with my Starmate 4 as a boombox. Again, use the car antenna (provided with whichever receiver you buy) NOT the boombox indoor/outdoor antenna. I did the same and my reception problems were solved (both satellite and terrestrial signals are nearly full on the reception indicator). Very light, looks nice.IMPORTANT HINT: I would recommend you DO NOT use the antenna that comes with the boombox. I did and thought I wasn't going to be able to have Sirius because I got no reception (3 bars on the terrestrial signal, none on the satellite) in my apartment.
I have not tried the 'booster cable' or preamplifiers. Bought as a gift for spouse. Have not tried the car kit though its supposed to be usable out of the box. resent having to buy more stuff - it should work.Otherwise no complaints. It works pretty much as expected; plenty of channels, I tend to stick with a few familiar voices. It is hard to find a good location for the antenna to ensure signal strength.
It sounds good cranked fairly loud, and also sounds good at low volume, which is something that can't be said of the SA10002 XM boombox (I tried that one and returned it the same day - what junk). I have been using this unit with a Sportster 4 for about two weeks now, and this is the one item that has really allowed me to enjoy Sirius at home. These are normally pretty tough locations to get a signal, but as long as I have the antenna somewhere close to a window I can get a signal, even in these tough locations. Enjoy - I hope this helps.
It indicated low batteries pretty quickly, but they had plenty of life left according to my separate battery tester (Radio Shack 22-096 - highly recommended). I have been using "low" batteries for about 8 hours and the batteries still test good. The "power" light turns red, telling you to change the batteries. It works great, but don't believe the battery indicator.
I think the Sirius signal is a little tougher to pick up than the XM signal (I am in the process of switching to Sirius), but this boombox does as good or better than the home kit. I use this unit almost exclusively on batteries. I also have a home kit hooked to my stereo, but this item allows me to bring Sirius to my basement workshop and to my home office. One other thing to note.
The built in subwoofer makes a LOT of difference. My area does have a repeater that allows this to be possible. It even works with an XM antenna.As far as sound goes, it is better than any portable solution that I have found for either service provider.
or is my receiver broken. Supposedly, IF I can select an FM Frequency, I can tune my other home radios to the same frequency and listen to SIRIUS throughout the house. What a nice feature THAT would be.After 4 calls to SIRIUS, 3 emails and a trip to a local electornics store, I can still not get an answer to my question, which IS: does the boombox HAVE FM Transmitter capability. I purchased this item two weeks ago. If anyone on here has a boom box and can answer this question for me I would greatly appreciate it. Yes it lacks an equalizer, but at least the sound is balanced and I do not perceive any distortion when I crank up the volume.My frustration, however, is that I have attached a Starmate-4 receiver and yet I am unable to obtain FM Transmitter information. I have a pretty keen ear for music and was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the sound coming out of this box. It does not appear on the menu, nor does it appear when I press the dedicated FM Transmitter button.
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