Sirius SPR1 Sportster Satellite Radio Receiver
By: Sirius Satellite Radio Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 11
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 On: 2007-04-21
Im not a sales man
But, if i was there would be one thing Id sell SIRIUS Satellite Radio
Why? do you ask simply because This Flawless Device & Service speaks for it self........
Theres Nothing and I mean nothing on Free FM than can come close to this new form of Radio
As far as HD Radio dont trust there promise its the biggest Gimmick since Crystal Pepsi!
With a HUGE line up of Various Music Stations (From Pop,Rock,Country,Hip-Hop,R&B, Dance, Jazz,Classical, Latin,News Formats,Sports,Traffic/Weather, The Best Talk Radio Personalalities on the Planet)
with Howard Stern UNCUT, BTLS, Jay Thomas, FANGORIA Radio, Maxim Radio, Out-Q,Cosmo Radio, Martha Stewart, Lime Radio, Raw Dog Comedy, and other Unique Radio Talent Plus comming soon The Foxx Hole by Jamie Foxx (Spring 07)
You might be thinking to yourself why pay for Radio? (When i can get Both AM & FM for free) 15yrs ago you would have said that very same thing regarding bottled water!
Think about that!
Once you hear a weeks worth of Sirius Programing youll be hooked and never think about going back to old Boring Free FM!
Stop thinking about it and join the Sirius family 11/10!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On: 2007-01-01
I have had this unit for two years without incident. Great seletion of commercial free music channels. I would definitely recommend this receiver to anyone looking for Sirius Radio. Free listening over the internet with you subscription is a great bonus, I listen for hours on end while at work.
I got so sick of driving my girlfriends car without Sirius, that I bought her the XACT model. A second subscription on the same account only runs $6.99 per month.
I always get asked why I pay for radio, when I can get it for free. After listening to it, most people understand why I pay for it. I wont drive without it.
Only complaint is that the face scratches easily, if Sirius made a plastic case for this I would buy it in a second.
I just recently ordered a home dock unit for this and cant wait to listen to it in home.
Oh, and dont leave the remote in the sun. My battery cover melted and I had to heat it up over the stove to get it to fit again.
On: 2006-02-28
I love my Sirius. Better then I evr thought it would be. Love it.
 On: 2005-12-02
I have been an XM subscriber for a year now, and just switched to Sirius because they have NBA, NFL, and NHL. XM has none of these, only baseball. Under XM, I used the Roady. I prefer Sirius at all levels. Heres some details:
SOUND QUALITY
Excellent. Far and away better than I had with my Roady with XM.
CHANNEL CHOICE
Again, excellent. Tons of rock, country, jazz, hip-hop, talk (right-wing, left-wing, centrist), comedy. One of my favorites is that Tony Hawk, the skateboarder, gets the chance to lay down some tracks every week! One complaint I have is that specific games are not always easy to find: the NBA games, for instance, show up on different channels on different days, and when you surf the channel menu it doesnt usually tell you what game you will find when you click on it. You have to just search for the game you want: lame!
SCREEN
Excellent. Bright, easy to see, with a clear display of the channel number, channel name (e.g., ESPN Radio), song presently being played, and artist. For sports, it shows the teams playing, the score, and which quarter it is! MUCH better than the Roady with XM, which does not show all this information.
FEATURES
30 preset stations. An actual dial so you can channel surf. A remote control is included (though I wont need it in my little compact car).
INSTALLATION
Installation is a snap: just attach the antenna to the roof of your car, plug it (and the power from your cigarette lighter) into the unit, and voila! It is ready to go. I have to say, though, that the instructions that came with the installation for the car mounting jack are awful: it took me a half hour to figure out that I could adjust the angle of my receiver just by (forcefully) bending it.
ACTIVATION
Much easier than with XM. Just call, and in five minutes it is up and running! For XM, you had to call, wait up to an hour, enter four specific channels, in order (for god-knows-what-reason) before the stupid thing was activated! What a pain in the butt that was. Sirius is fast and efficient.
SUMMARY
A great deal. Good sound, easy to install, excellent interface, and lots of sweet channels. Compared with XM using the Roady: more (and better) content, easier activation, better display and user interface, and even a better mount for the dash. Though, it is a bit more expensive than the Roady...
On: 2005-11-02
great product, great service, who thought that i would never pay for radio, but the content is worth every penny. Receiver has a nice design and with the home and car kits you only need to pay for one reciever, but you can enjoy satilite radio in both your home and car in seconds. You have two display color choices, amber and a real nice light green. The rolling display is a real nice feature. The Game alert is sent from the heavens. Now you cant have possitives without a few negitives. The reciever has so many options in such a small design that the button are rather small. Unit comes with a tiny credit card size remote, makes it kinda hard to work while driving, most features can be done by remote. Finally the unit does run alittle warmer then other unites Ive had, but not a big deal. I would still highly recomend this unit to anyone. You will love all the features and you will truely love sirius radio.
On: 2004-12-05
This generation of Sirius plug and plays is the first that is competitive with XMs equipment. The Sportster is a nearly the same size as the SkyFi. It does run quite a bit warmer than the SkyFi, but in my 3 months of using the Sporster, the heat hasnt been a problem.
For me, reception is excellent in Kansas. It doesnt drop out under trees or overpasses, as some have reported. At home, I had to stick the antenna outside of a north-facing window to get a signal, but that was fairly easy, and now I dont get any dropouts at home either.
My only complaint about the Sporster is the small remote. The buttons are way too small, and its impossible to use in the dark, since most of the buttons feel the same.
In terms of programming, the main selling point of Sirius is their sports programming. With every game (with each teams feeds) of the NFL, selected games of the NBA and NHL (when they finally play), and football and mens basketball from 26 NCAA teams, including the Longhorns, Cowboys, Sooners, Cornhuskers, and Jayhawks. The have also added every game of the NCAA tournament, as well as live English Primer Soccer.
It can show the scores for all sports on the screen, which is a big plus, with the Sportsters GameZone, which sorts play-by-play by league, and displays the scores from each broadcast at the same time. The sections are: "NFL Zone", "NBA Zone", and "Other Sports", which is used for the college broadcasts.
Their music channels and talk offerings are also strong, with two stations of NPR programming, the entire schedule of Air America, and several original comedy shows on their two comedy stations, including one hosted by Jim Brewer.
The Sporster is a great unit, no matter if youre replacing an old receiver or experiencing Sirius for the first time, you will love it!
On: 2004-11-30
A couple of quick hits on the equipment:
1) Unit is considerably bigger than the Roady2, but the display is bigger and the buttons are easier to use.
2) Jump button is an excellent idea, it switches to traffic right when the report is due to start.
3) Home and Car reception has been excellent in the NYC area, with some dropouts in Manhattan. I use the FM transmitter cable, and have had no problems with it, no small feat in NYC.
4) Had no problem installing into my 2005 Altima. Slapped the antenna onto the roof, ran the wire through the rear door molding, under the passenger seat to the unit. For the home, put the antenna on my windowsill and reception is fine.
5) Three bands of presets. I use seperate bands for music, sports and news.
And on the service:
1) Much stronger music programming than XM, based on the 3-day internet trials I took on both services. I find myself listening to the Spectrum and Sirius Disorder the most. Plenty of offerings for my wife, and a channel for the kids music. The Jazz and Classical offerings are solid.
2) The news and entertainment offerings are basically the same for Sirius and XM.
3) Sirius has a stronger sports package, with the NFL, NCAA, NBA and NHL.
4) XM has an additional fee for premium channels, while Sirius does not.
5) XM charges for internet streams, Sirius does not. It must be noted that Sirius currently only streams its music channels.
On: 2004-11-29
Ive owned a Sportster for about 3 months now. I am happy with the unit and its features, and even happier with Sirius programming.
This unit is smaller than past portable units and features the latest chipset that offers many new features. You also have the ability to switch the unit between green and amber illumination (you can even mix the two). And an RF modulator is built into the Sportster so that you can easily listen to it on car or other FM radios.
The unit offers the ability to select your favorite NFL team and be reminded whenever your team is playing a game--thus the name "Sportster"(all NFL games are broadcast on Sirius). This unit was a great choice even though I dont like listening to sports games.
This unit offers 30 presets spread over three "bands." Having this many presets is important when you have a service offering 65 completely commercial-free music channels and over 50 talk, news, sports and entertainment channels.
You can also use the 10 preset buttons to directly enter a channel number if you first press the jog/dial button. Navigating channels is further simplified by a "Category" button that allows you to scroll through the different categories of programming (Pop, Rock, Country, News, Talk/Entertainment, etc.).
It also features a new "jump" button. With this button you can jump back and forth from whatever channel you are listening to to the traffic and weather channel for your area. Sirius currently offers 10 channels of continually-updated traffic and weather that cover 20 of the largest metropolitan areas. When I press the jump button for San Diego traffic, this unit automatically waits to switch me to the S.D./L.A. traffic channel until it begins San Diego information (the channel switches between San Diego and L.A. information every 4 minutes). If your city is not covered, you can assign another channel (like CNN) to the jump button.
If you are listening to your favorite song, or a program you really enjoy (like "Car Talk" on the NPR channels), you can just press the "Memo" button and if your Sportster is on, a beep and on-screen message will tell you whenever your song or program is playing. You can store 20 songs and/or programs this way.
There are some technical issues with the Sportster. Ive spoken to several tech reps, and it seems some of these problems were due to the early car cradles for this unit (car cradles allow installation of the Sportster in your car and feature a "line out" jack for direct connection with head units offering auxillary inputs). I had to swap mine out a few times to get one that would work.
One problem that hasnt been solved seems to be common to all Sirius receivers using the new chipset. Sometimes the unit will play at a slower speed (like a 45 record played at 33 speed) when you turn it on. This is always resolved by turning the unit off and on again, and it happens very infrequently.
I chose to buy a 4-year, over-the-counter-swap service agreement with my Sportster, and I highly recommend a service contract to anybody who buys a Sportster (or any other portable satellite receiver).
I do experience signal loss while driving around town. I lose the satellite signal (which is line-of-sight) about every sixth time I drive under a bridge or overpass. The addition of more ground repeaters, which amplify the signal on the ground, will solve this problem over time.
Sirius is currently only officially available in the continental U.S. due to licensing issues. But I have driven over 1,000 miles south from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas (at the tip of the Baja Peninsuala in Mexico) with excellent reception throughout both trips.
A home kit, boombox and additional car kits are available so that you can listen to your Sportster virtually anywhere. Of course, with either you will need an unobstructed location for the antenna. The most difficult part of setting up your Sportster is running the antenna cable to the unit. Though the cable is very small, you do have to find a path for it, and this can be particularly difficult in a car where the antenna must be outside and the radio inside (some people do locate the antenna on the dash, but results seem mixed--external mounting is much preferred). The car antenna included with the Sportster car kit is magnetic (the magnet is very strong).
Sirius satellite radio is as valuable as cable TV. Once you have it, you wont want to do without it. And this Sportster unit allows you to take full advantage of the vast programming Sirius offers. I would have given 5 stars if it werent for the ongoing (infrequent) technical issue. But with the service contract, I know Ill always be able to switch to any redesigned unit.
On: 2004-11-22
Great music with very little interuptions. You can hear every NFL game and many college games. You can set alerts so you will never miss a game. Their is a small delay but acceptable delay in the scoring updates. No problems with reception except when in tunnels or under bridges. You can listen over the internet which is an added plus when at work.
Why not 5 stars:
The adhesive did not stick what so ever. I had to screw the unit to the dashboard. If you do not have a radio that accepts AUX inputs you will need to attach another small wire, that was not mentioned in the instruction manual, but is included in the box.
 On: 2004-11-17
I would rate this 5-stars except for the antenna.
Quick hits on the radio and Sirius programming package - both are great. My concern is with the antenna that came with the unit. I used to have an XM Roady2 and switched to Sirius for the college and NFL packages. Also the music choices on Sirius are a ton better.
My big problem is the signal, or lack of, I get far too often with the Sportster. The signal strength I got from XM is far better than I am getting from the Sportster. If I am under any obstacle, even small ones like leafless tress, my Sirius signal drops, if not altogether goes out. Even in broad clear areas, my antenna seems to need to have its front pointed to the SSW, or else it will lose signal if pointed elsewhere. Needless to say, when driving this is an issue. This was not the case with the XM Roady2, which gave me a strong signal no matter where I was, and using it in the same exact way I am using the Sportster.
I have purchased the SIR-MINI antenna, in hopes that this will fix it (I read good reviews on how peoples signals improved with it). If not, I will have to be calling Sirius to figure this out.
On: 2004-11-16
I would rate this 5-stars except for the antenna.
Quick hits on the radio and Sirius programming package - both are great. My concern is with the antenna that came with the unit. I used to have an XM Roady2 and switched to Sirius for the college and NFL packages. Also the music choices on Sirius are a ton better.
My big problem is the signal, or lack of, I get far too often with the Sportster. The signal strength I got from XM is far better than I am getting from the Sportster. If I am under any obstacle, even small ones like leafless tress, my Sirius signal drops, if not altogether goes out. Even in broad clear areas, my antenna seems to need to have its front pointed to the SSW, or else it will lose signal if pointed elsewhere. Needless to say, when driving this is an issue. This was not the case with the XM Roady2, which gave me a strong signal no matter where I was, and using it in the same exact way I am using the Sportster.
I have purchased the SIR-MINI antenna, in hopes that this will fix it (I read good reviews on how peoples signals improved with it). If not, I will have to be calling Sirius to figure this out.
On: 2004-10-16
I really have enjoyed this radio.Being a ham operator,i have for many years listened to stations from around the world such as the BBC and Radio Netherlands.But many have stopped shortwave broadcasts to the USA.Now i can listen to all of them here 24 hours a day!!The news content is the main reason i purchased the radio.Cable t.v. costs way too much and i cannot use a satellite dish as my apartment faces the north.$12.00 is so cheap in comparison.I have hooked mine up to a computer sub-woofer stereo system in my bedroom.Sound is incredible with no interference or FM drift .Occasionally though the satellites change their orbit just a bit(even though they are supposed to be geo-stationary)and the signal disappears.So i have positioned the antenna around the room to discern where my options are for reception.If you place the antenna outside facing east or close to that,the signal will be excellent.Since Sirius uses 3 satellites,the odds of not receiving a signal are nil.The radio is very user friendly that an 8 year old can use it with no manual.The music assortment is splendid offering anything one desires.I listen to classical and even though there are only 3 classical channels,it is nice to hear what they choose to play.(although they do play a lot of the warhorses:Beethoven,Mozart,etc.).I have 3000 cds of classical so this really does not concern me but others will really enjoy the "no commercials" aspect of the music channels.My wife likes the Classic radio programs channel and i look forward to the NHL broadcasts.
Sirius offers a better lineup in my opinion(for me)and even though it is a little more expensive per month,three satellites as opposed to one give me a little more confidence in continued service.I drove to Seattle from Portland with the car kit in place and never had a dead spot!!Listened to anything i wanted without having to change the channel when the signal faded as with FM.
I have the car kit,home docking kit,and plan on buying the boombox when it is available.Buy this radio and you will enjoy it!!BTW,when the radio gets warm,it is normal.The heat sink inside is distributing the heat well and with the display always on it is a good thing that it does not use batteries as it would eat them fast.
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