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Last night my lovely wife and I were sitting at home, I was getting ready to do my bi-weekly Video newscast for DBSTalk.COM.
My wife was looking over my TelePrompter script for the night and noticed that I mentioned in it that the new SkyFi radio and it also mentioned that it was now available. She remembers me hearing me talk about them before and she knew I wanted one.
She asked me "Do you think our Best Buy has them yet?"
I replied back "I'm not sure but I sure would like one!"
She replied back "we can go check, and if they have one one we will get it!"
Quickly we were in my Mercury Mountaineer which is already decked out with all the latest electronics gizmo's, a Sony Plug and Play XM Radio, a Pop Down TV Screen from the roof of my truck, a DVD Player, a Playstation 2, a Nintendo 64, and a nice big red XM Radio Sticker on my rear window of my truck that was sent to me by Keith of XMFAN.COM
Soon we pulled into the Newington, Connecticut Best Buy store. I quickly walked to the satellite radio displays and waited for someone to ask me if I needed help, after a 5 minute wait a clerk walked up, I told him that I am looking for a satellite radio that they did not have on display yet, the clerk interrupted me and said, "are you talking about the SkyFi?"
"Yes!" I exclaimed!
"We got 3 in stock you want one?" he asked. I nodded my head yes, he did tell me that they were all out of the home adapter kits needed to run the Delphi unit, I asked him if he could call the West Hartford store which is only 5 miles away, he quickly got on the phone and asked, yes they had the home unit in stock. He asked them to put on aside for me.
Because this clerk was helpful, we decided to buy the radio from him instead of buying everything from the other store.
Soon we we off to the other Best Buy. When we waled to the satellite radio area there was a clerk walking around holding the Home Adapter in his hands. I told him that he was probably holding it for me, and indeed he was. We quickly paid and we on our way home.
As soon as I got home I plugged in everything and turned the unit on. An animated XM Logo greeted me! I was in heaven! After the logo went away I was listening to the XM Demo Channel, I had signal instantly!
I went into the menu and adjusted the Brightness and Contrast of the Display as it was too bright and actually was distorting the words on the screen. The orange Display looks good, but I wish the color was blue instead of orange.
With that being said I logged onto xmradio.com and activated my receiver, within 10 minutes the unit was fully activated. I quickly tuned through the dial and was happy with the performance.
When you tune using the dial you can see 5 channel names at a time! Also by pressing the Display button you can display the artists playing on the channels and with another press of the display button you can see the song name which is playing on other channels! I was VERY Impressed!
You can also directly tune in channels by typing in the the channel number on the keypad or remote.
When you are listening to a song you by default will see the following by default on your screen.
The Channel Category that the channel belongs to, a 3 Line Signal Meter, the channel name, the artist, and the song title.
By pressing the Display button once you loose the Artist and Title instead a big Channel number is shown.
If you press the Display button again the Artist and song title is scrolled across the display in large letters! I could actually read the display from across the room!
One disappointment that I found is not so much with the radio itself but with XM. It seems as though XM only sends out 20 characters in both the Artists name and Song title. So some song names are cut off. The SkyFi display is an improvement over my Sony Plug and Play units which only show 15 Characters. I understand that other XM radios only show 8 letters from the artist and song names, so the Delphi is the best in displaying the artist and titles. Its just disappointing XM is only sending out limited data.
The sound quality is on par with the Sony Plug and Play, I did not hear any noticeable sound difference between the two.
There is no fan in the SkyFi like the Sony has this is a good thing because a fan after time will get loud and will probably die. The SkyFi does get warm to the touch, but nothing to worry about.
The remote is nice and small, but not flat like the Sony Plug And Play remote. You will not find yourself carrying this remote around.
All the features are well laid out, I like the Signal strength screens, although the geek in me would like to see separate satellite signal indicators for both of XM's Rock and Roll satellites.
The Antenna that comes with the Home Adapter Kit really surprised me! It stands only a half inch talk compacted, but its adjustable so that you can raise the antenna to get the best performance. The gain on the antenna is also very surprising, I was able to get both very good satellite and terrestrial repeater signals in my house. The antenna was located no where near a window, so the fact it was picking up satellite signals as well as repeater signals surprised me. The antenna has mounts on the back so you can permanently mount your antenna (outside if you wish) The antenna only has one connector which is different then the Sony Plug and Play which has 2 antenna connections (one for satellite and one for repeater)
Overall I am impressed with the SkyFi and once the Car Adapter and Boombox become available I will recommend this XM Radio to everyone who is looking for a XM Radio.
Just for those who are wondering I paid $129 for the radio itself and $69.95 for the Home Adapter Kit.
BTW I apologize for the fuzzy pictures, my digital camera does not take good close up pictures.
Thanks for reading and visiting SatRadioTalk.COM! (And thanks to my Wifey for letting me get a SkyFi when we already have 2 other XM Radios!)
