[Recommend On] Portable Satellite Radios

maximumzero · February 2009

My aunt got a new company car a few weeks back that has a Sirius Satellite Radio built-in. This is her first encounter with said radios and as it turns out she really likes it. She'd like to get one that she can carry with her on her walks. She current uses a iPod Nano but asked yesterday if such a thing existed, and if I could recommend one.

Well I do know they exist, but I don't know where to start on recommendations.

Suggestions?

andkore · February 2009

Yeah, it's called the Sirius Stiletto, but for whatever reason, these things are pretty expensive ($247 with shipping from Buy.com). The price seems a bit ridiculous to me, but it seems to be the only option.

maximumzero · February 2009

Really? I could have sworn that there were different brands of the thing. Huh.

andkore · February 2009

Well XM has the Inno, but you said that your aunt uses Sirius... I think you're thinking of car or home tuners. There are more varieties of those. Portable Sirius tuner: just the Stiletto

.

shadydentist · February 2009

Now is not a good time to invest in a portable satellite radio.

andkore · February 2009

Not that I disagree, but would you care to explain that more thoroughly shadydentist?

shadydentist · February 2009

Sorry.

Satellite radio was a great concept when it came out. A little pricey, but it was nice getting to choose easily from a large assortment of channels. These days, though... with the rise of internet radio, and the availability of many excellent music subscription services, the only real advantage satellite radio has left is in car entertainment systems, and even that is slowly fading away as people move towards internet-ready phones and 3G networks begin to offer pretty comprehensive coverage.

Personally, I feel like satellite radio is a dying business. I mean, its open to interpretation, but its no secret that Sirius/XM have been struggling to attract new subscribers and is in very real danger of bankruptcy.

mcdermott · February 2009

I think shady is both exaggerating the "rise" of internet radio and the limited utility of satellite radio, but his conclusion is still correct. Sirius was literally a day away from bankruptcy...last week? Some investor came in and bailed them out, but if that hadn't happened they'd have been going dark.

I'd not hesitate to buy, say, a $50 in-car receiver. But dropping $250 on what could easily become a gimped MP3 player? Pass. Not until they prove their business model works.

Also, the Sirius service has gone from "pretty damn good" to "mediocre at best" in my book. The longer I listen to it the more I realize how shallow their playlists really are, then they axed a couple stations I actually liked while failing to give me anything new (that I liked). Then they axed my free internet radio (I used the 32k stream mostly for listening to talk while at the computer), and told me if I wanted to keep "free" internet radio I had to pay for a year up-front (I'm on month-to-month). After reading the news about their impending bankruptcy, I'm pretty sure this was a ploy to push some receipts forward, but then I can't imagine the 32k streams had that many listeners.

All that said, the Stiletto 10 can be had for $100 refurb from their site. The primary difference between this and the $250 model is a lack of Wi-Fi and MP3/WMA playback...so it only does Sirius playback (it can record satellite stations, though, with seek capability and some other nifty features).

PatboyX · February 2009

XM used to have more than one portable unit but I think those are all out the window now. But I wanted to come and agree with the other two about satellite radio seeming on the way out. Unless Sirius/XM start acting as a single company I don't know how much longer they can last. The price goes up in a week or so and things may get more difficult. I'm pretty sure I am done with them.

I would go with the refurb until (and assuming they last) next fall. It is also worth noting that S/XM have downplayed any development in their units since announcing and getting the merger going. I remember there used to be tons of upcoming models. So, if they do get their act together by the summer there could be some good deals on these units or great new units on the way.

Penny Arcade

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[Recommend On] Portable Satellite Radios

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