SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit
- Advanced Sirius satellite radio receiver for use in car and home
- Easy-to-read, six-line (2.7-inch multicolor) display simultaneously shows channel name and number, category, artist name, song title, time
- Game Alert prompts you when favorite sports teams play on Sirius
- Instant replay function to pause, rewind, and replay up to 60 minutes of live radio
- 90-day warranty
REPLAY UP TO 60 MIN OF LIVE PROGRAMMING WITH SIRIUS REPLAY(TM) LARGE 6-LINE 2.7″ MULTI-COLOR DISPLAY 15 SELECTABLE BACKLIGHT COLORS & AUTOMATIC BACKLIGHT DIMMER SPORTS ALERT(TM) TRACKS FAVORITE SPORTS TEAMS ALARM CLOCK WITH SNOOZE EASY-TO-USE ROTARY TUNING KNOB UNIVERSAL DOCKING CONNECTOR GUN METAL FINISHAmazon.com Product Description .caption { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica neue, Arial, serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; } ul.indent { list-style: inside disc; text
Rating: 
(out of 85 reviews)
List Price: $ 169.99
Price: $ 124.75
Suction Cup Mount for Sirius XM Radio Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver #253 | US $12.77 End Date: Saturday Jun-02-2012 16:31:56 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $12.77 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit AND Home Kit Bundle
- Advanced Sirius satellite radio receiver for use in car and home
- # # Easy-to-read, six-line (2.7-inch multicolor) display simultaneously shows channel name and number, category, artist name, song title, time
- Game Alert prompts you when favorite sports teams play on Sirius
- # Instant replay function to pause, rewind, and replay up to 60 minutes of live radio
- Bundle includes SUPH1 home kit
Rating: 
(out of 1 reviews)
Price: $ 174.99
Stylish Electronic Digital Travel Home Alarm Car Clock ACS02 | US $10.00 End Date: Friday May-25-2012 2:36:42 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $10.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Question by Highpozt: I have a SL10 Sirius Satellite Radio Receiver and need a signal in my car?
Is there a way to get a signal for the SL10 Serius Satellite Radio Receiver not using the Sirius docking station and car kit. Before I invest any experiences with the Sirius docking station.
Best answer:
Answer by The Cool (RADIO) Man
Nope you have to have the Sirius Stietto car kit in order to get a signal in the car!
What do you think? Answer below!
Related posts:
Review by M.D.C. for SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit
Rating:
OK.
So after all of the hype surrounding satellite radio I decided to “pimp out” my Sebring by adding SIRIUS to it. In order not to look ghetto as well as match my existing deck I decided to pick one of these up and subscribe.
First, I’ll review the device. Then, I’ll review the service. Basically, good news then bad news.
The device itself has a very small form factor which I found very appealing. It comes with a mini dock which essentially powers the device and routes its audio and antenna signal. Know that you’ll be doing quite a bit of wiring if you do this yourself – I would recommend professional installation unless you’re comfortable doing your own car installation stuff. There are 3, possibly 4, wires that you’ll be dealing with:
- The CLA (cigarette lighter adapter)
- The satellite antenna
- The FM antenna extender (only needed if you choose that option)
- The line out (only needed if you choose that option)
Now, if all of these ports were in the back of the dock next to each other this wouldn’t be so bad, but instead they’re on either side. That’s a lot of cables to have hanging out, which is why I recommend professional install if you’re not comfortable. I decided to do it myself and, to get set up with the “basic” quality which is wireless FM (it’s decent, but nothing to write home about) with neat wiring took me about 45 minutes, give or take. That’s including mounting (which I’ll get to in a moment).
SIRIUS recommends using line out/line in if at all possible. Newer decks have this jack, but some older pre-2004 likely do not, or if they do, it’s a proprietary connector that might not work with the Sportster 5. I have the Kenwood MP735U and it works just fine. I found the cable at Circuit City ($24!!!) and it worked like a charm. Took some doing and even more neat wiring, but I did get it to work. I will admit, using the line out spanks the smoke out of the wireless FM or FM modulation options; it’s near CD quality, especially on the Jazz and Classical stations. Again, you can use wireless FM and it will sound “okay”, but line out will give you the absolute best quality possible; you just have to do another cable.
Mounting the unit has a number of options as well – one of which is not available depending on what state you’re in. California, for example, has Draconian laws about vehicles; you can’t have anything stuck to the front windshield. Ironically this is the easiest way to mount the device, as the suction cup works extremely well, and you just attach the device to the metal arm and adjust. If you have this option and don’t mind the device up in the window, I recommend doing this. I have an old Chrysler CD changer indash not being used; a trip to Home Depot for a $.49 angle bracket did the trick – attached it to the dock with a single screw, then slipped the other end into the CD slot and like magic, it’s solid and looks great right underneath the deck. I suppose I could have hard installed it with another screw or two, but I’d rather not.
All said and done the initial hardware investment came to roughly $200. Keep in mind that SIRIUS has cheaper devices that don’t look nearly as good. The downside to the devices is the cigarette lighter adapter. In fact the documentation explicitly forbids a direct power tap. This is so disheartening I can’t even describe it. I have to keep unplugging it when I turn the car off so it doesn’t suck the battery dry. Why can’t you have the option of tapping it into the player’s alternate power line so it turns on with the player? I’m absolutely mystified at this oversight.
Now, the service. Oh, this will be fun.
The quality of the audio? Stellar. Never heard anything like it except on digital TV’s music channels.
The quality of everything else? Horrid. Where do I begin…
- The activation/customer service phone # has extremely long wait times. it took me a total of 5 hours across 10 different phone calls to reach someone who could help me. Do the math.
- Activation/CS reps are clearly stressed over something. I talked to two who were just blatantly rude; one who had no idea what she was talking about, the other a guy who claimed he’d been “…working at SIRIUS for over 3 years and” knew what he was talking about. Funny – since he had no idea that you can’t activate with invoice billing on the website (more on that later).
- SIRIUS and Circuit City have some type of conglomeration going on to force you to call to activate. CC offers a “prepaid subscription card” which is supposed to offset the initial charges (more on that later) to get service. Well that’s all good and everything except the card cannot be used on the website even though the website acknowledges the card and its value. It says “cannot be redeemed”. An Asst. Manager at CC informed me that calling was the only way to redeem the card. Had I known that, I wouldn’t have bought that particular card, but a regular gift card that I could use on the web. Because of the aforementioned long hold times, it was a nightmare to do this simple task. The girl even told me “you should be able to use it on the web” – the other idiot claimed “you’re just doing something wrong”.
- Too much personal information required to sign up. Why do you care what type of car I have? All that should be needed is a credit card (if you choose that payment method) and my address/name. If it’s for purposes of theft recovery, that’s up to me, the buyer, to deal with that. Which I do – in my auto insurance plan.
- Website will authorize your credit card without activating an account for you. That’s money you can’t touch until they feel like releasing it – which could be 2 weeks.
- Inability to just sign up for an account without giving billing information and/or buying a device. Why can’t I just establish the account and then pay for it? Why force me to buy the deck in order to get service established? If I wanted DirecTV and didn’t have it, I call them and activate, and then the hardware comes…not the other way around.
- Website forces you to put in a credit card. You can’t do invoice billing as an option. Why not? Because they know every customer would just do that and then they would be getting free service for that month grace.
- Website does not allow you to select month-to-month billing as an option, and by default it hides the quarterly and 6-month options (which would obviously be the more popular for newbies like myself).
- Telephone IVR can’t hear properly. I tried to activate through the automated system and it just couldn’t understand the letters “D”, “I”, “O”, “N”. That’s it, and I don’t know how many times the chick said “sorry?”
- No trial offered (I’m talking about in-car installation). Why can’t I just buy a unit from a store that offers returns, activate a 14-day trial period with a credit card, and then return and cancel if I hate it? Because then they’d have high turnover due to buyers remorse (which I had at one point due to the above issues)
- $15 activation fee which is not disclosed on the hardware documentation. You don’t find out about this until you go to the website or you talk to an agent. It should be clearly disclosed on the packaging of the device since you’d be forced to pay that fee by activating the device – not at the very last minute when you’re putting in your credit card. On top of that, it’s blatantly mob-ish of them to charge: an activation fee, a monthly fee, fee for the hardware, etc etc etc. They already get money from the subscription – remove the activation fee already or annualize it across the subscription.
So class, in summary: The customer service is screwed up, and in order to activate properly and get the best billing options, you need to call customer service (which did I mention is screwed up?). DO NOT activate over the web if you’re using a gift card. I guarantee you, you will get frustrated.
The quality of the product is top notch. The ability to see who’s playing before you select the station is excellent, and the high resolution of this screen makes navigating stations quick and easy. The audio sounds upper class if you’re using the line out jack, and setup is not that difficult if you know what you’re doing. Once you get past activations you should be smooth. It’s just that phase that causes headaches.
Review by Tony Wheeler for SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit
Rating:
I bought this radio for my wife so she could relive the 70′s. She is thrilled with it. Since she is not a techno geek- i.e. the controls need to be pretty straightforward, I wanted something that she would feel comfortable using. Otherwise, it would end up gathering dust on a shelf.
The Sportser 5 has the right balance of features and simplicity. She loves the display showing the Band, Title, and year. She also likes the radio display’s ability to change colors. I set up the preset buttons for her, but she has the Sirius channel guide and has no problems finding the stations she wants.
I was able to hook up the car kit in just a few minutes. It works great for her. I bought a cassete adapter, which I like better than going through the FM Car Radio.
I also bought the boombox for her so she can use the radio around the house. It is working perfectly both in the car and at home.
Review by A. Stagg for SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit
Rating:
I upgraded to the Sportster 5 from the SIRIUS ST4-TK1 Starmate 4 Plug-and-Play Satellite Radio Receiver with Car Kit. I have to say the new Sportster 5 is the best radio they have released and far superior to the Starmate 4.
Sound quality is comparable between the two units. I choose not to use the FM modulator. I’m in the DC area and there are far too many strong radio stations. Plus, using the auxiliary jack provides all-around better audio quality.
The big improvement for this generation is the color display added to this very thin radio. Very nice looking and customizable for basic text and background colors. Text is clear and the screen provides plenty of information on the 6-line display. Makes a huge difference on legibility. The multi-color display also allows Sirius to display more text information without appearing to clutter the screen as much.
One of the innovations I particularly like is the “game-ticker” feature that has been added in addition to “game alert”. The ticker places the score for your favorite game on the main display of the Sportster in color, regardless of whether you are tuned to the sports channel or not. So, you can monitor your game scores while listening to music.
On the downside it would be nice if you could choose a greater variety of display colors and different background images. Also, the menu and memory buttons are a bit cramped around the tuning knob and need to be spread out. But, this is a distinct improvement over previous models.
Note: Current radios are selling from various vendors for less than $160 w/o a rebate.
Review by L. Hardy for SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit
Rating:
This radio is ok, but it seems that you have to warm up the unit before the display will work. I’m not sure the optimal operating temperature, but you would think that they would avoid using liquid crystal display for a unit that’s designed to stay in your car. I’ve found that simply warming up the unit isn’t enough, nor is turning it off/on. You have to remove it from the car docking station, then warm it up, then re-attach it to the dock before the color display will function. I suppose in the summer this won’t be a problem, but if you live in a climate where the temperature gets below 40 degrees, your display might have this problem. If you take the unit inside with you every night, you can avoid this I guess. I don’t have a home dock so I leave mine in the car.
Also, I noticed that this unit doesn’t go as low as previous units on the FM transmission scale. My previous unit was set to 87.9 because that is the only station in my area that doesn’t have programming. The Sportster 5 only goes as low as 88.1. Now I can’t get a clear channel and my truck’s in-dash radio has no external auxiliary sound jack, so I’m screwed. I’ll need to pay for a professional to wire the unit to my in-dash radio. Take this into account when you calculate the total cost of ownership.
Other than those two issues, I’m pretty happy with the unit so far. Hopefully it won’t break after about 2 years of ownership like my last Sirius receiver.
Update 11/19/08:
After my song notifications started acting up, I sent my reciever back to Sirius Warranty Support, they sent me 4 different radios (each time I sent back) before I got one that seems to work ok. This one doesn’t have the problem with the cold. I also spent about $50 to get the parts I needed to hard-wire the radio to my truck antenea. It works great now.
Review by Alganis for SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit
Rating:
I upgraded from a smaller siruis radio to this sportster5. This model is perfect for subscribers who don’t have built-in satelite radios or a satelite-ready unit.
I gave it five stars for the multi color and big display, and easy to use.
THe variety of chanels is great.
Customer service are always bad, but there is a way to get around them as I’ll mention later.
You need an FM radio in your car to play this radio, or a cassette player with a casstte adapter (sold separetley).
I use it through my car FM radio using the built-in FM transmitter that works fine on highways and bad in city.
I don’t like the FM direct adapter, it needs profissional instalation and hard to move it between cars. I like to switch between satelite chanels and local ones and the adapter kills the FM antena unless you turn off the sporster.
if you have an auxilary input in your car radio, it is the best way to listen to this unit. the cassette adapter is not bad also.
the satelite radio is a good experience and i’m very satesfied with the reception, I need it as I’m always traveling hudred of miles every day for work.
I advice new subscribers to AVOID buying the blue cards ( prepaid cards) they save you few dollars and waste your time and they don’t work as they should when activating online. you end up calling customer service and giving your credit card number. customer service are bad any way so do your job online.
here are some steps to enjoy sporster5
1. open the box.
2. read the manual carefuly.
3. instal the unit in the car.
4. turn on both the unit and your car FM radio.
5. park your car in open air. Get the free chanel (national weather). Now the unit works but you need to subscribe to get the rest of the chanels.
6. Run into the house and subscribe online using a credit card ( not a check card/ debit card). As I said, avoid those Sirius PREPAID CARDS.
7. run back to the car to enjoy.