AudioVox FMDA25 FM Direct Audio Relay Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how well this product works.
I have an 07 Accord so it was a bit of a PITA figuring out how to get to the radio antenna in the dash. If you google around for your car and "remove radio" you will undoubtedly find directions for accessing it. That was the most difficult part and it only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish.
I recently got the Starmate 4 for my car. I had one of the old original Audiovox units from when Sirius was first starting up. It was huge, bulky, I had lost the mount for it, and it got VERY hot when in operation. Almost so hot that you couldn't touch it. Hence I decided to upgrade to a newer model. When I received and installed the Starmate I was surprised to see that the built-in FM modulator was horrible. And when I connected the FM antenna extender it came with, it made the sound WORSE. The static made it almost unlistenable through my radio. I googled around and found that the FCC had stepped in and regulated the amount of power the FM modulators were allowed to emit. So my Audiovox unit was better in that fashion since it was built before the FCC rules were established.
To fix the problem I got this Wired Relay Adapter. Basically you plug your car's antenna into it, then plug the wire into your radio. The other end routes through your dash and goes into your Sirius radio. The reception is 100% clear now. No more static. The downside is that you have to a) remember to turn off the Sirius radio if you want to listen to FM because it kills all of the stations, and b) regardless of whether it is on or off it kills AM reception. I don't often listen to AM and guess I don't have a need now (except for local TV stations).
All in all I am VERY happy with this product. It took a Starmate that sounded worse than an old Audiovox I had, and made it MUCH better in the end. 100% worth the $19.99 for this item if you have the know-how to get into your dash.

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Tired of relying on your FM transmitter to send your Sirius satellite radiosignal to your car stereo? Turn instead to this wired FM adapter, which provides a directconnection to produce a crisper overall sound. Unlike FM transmitters--which oftensuffer from static and interference, as with traditional FM stations--the FM adapter plugsdirectly into the rear of your factory or after-market stereo, thus requiring a bit ofinstallation expertise. But once connected, you can tune to your favorite Sirius channelsin seconds without searching for unused FM frequencies. More importantly, the signalwill be clean and uninterrupted, with no pops or fizzes as you drive from one part of thecity to another. The FM adapter, which works with all Sirius plug 'n' play and personalradios, includes plugs and wires for most installations, although antenna adapters may berequired for select car stereos. It's also backed by a one-year warranty.
What's in the Box Direct FM adapter, plugs and wires, user's manual.

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Philips Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone, AJ3270D Review

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(More customer reviews)Philips AJ3270D has all the functionality I was looking for (dual alarm, iphone charger, iphone speaker, control buttons on top, time synchronization, etc.). The device worked well for a few days, then all of a sudden it went crazy and stopped accepting my iphone. I had to return it.

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Grace Digital GDI-IR2550P Pandora Wi-Fi Internet Radio Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Very happy with this purchase. Works even better than I expected.
Connecting it to my wireless network was a breeze. Well, using a single knob to enter my very long network key into the radio was maybe not quite a breeze, but you only do it once. Other than that it was a breeze.
The radio came with a bunch of chinese radio stations set. That was amusing for about 30 seconds. Cleaning them out and setting up something more to my tastes went quickly. There are way more choices out there than most people will have the time to explore. Fortunately it's easy to quickly find something that you'll like. And with access to Pandora (which requires extra steps (including setting up a free account with Grace Reciva (see below))) you can create stations that are tailored to your tastes.
Creating my free account on Grace Reciva to enable "premium" features was a challenge. The website didn't seem to be working too well when I first tried. Lots of "Oops, something seems to have gone wrong and we are working on it" type of messages. I tried later and it went a lot smoother. Linking my Pandora account to the radio was easy (once Reciva started working). Took less than an hour to get everything set up, with most of that time being waiting for Reciva to get their act together.
The sound of the radio is what you would expect from a radio. It won't thump your chest and shake your house. However if you want that sort of performance you can hook it up to your stereo system or a set of powered speakers with volume limited only by the power of what you hooked up. I hooked up a powered speaker system with a subwoofer that I had laying around from a past computer system. Works great.
Radio has pretty good range, but performance will depend on the quality of your wireless router.
I would recommend this unit to friends and family.

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Sirius SUB-X1 Universal Plug 'n' Play Boombox Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been using Sirius for almost two years. I recently upgraded to the Sporster 5 from the Sportster 1 (unit went bad, no antenna pick up). I had the home dock and boombox for the Sportster 1.
The boombox is very simple. Basic plug and play. Has two 4" woofer for mid and high-low range, two tweeters, and 1 5 1/5" downward firing woofer for a sub. The port for the sub is the front (front middle screen). Clean sound. Decent low end. Compared to the previous boombox, able to maintain a cleaner sound at higher volumes.
It would have been nice to have some kind of treble/bass controls or an equalizer. Not that I would expect Sirius to do it, but an built in AM/FM radio would be nice; MLB fans would appreciate to listen to AM for their local teams.
The signal pick up, it no worse than using the home docking stations. If you have trouble getting a signal in the house with the home dock or where ever, you'll have the same problem with the box. Unfortunately, no matter what you do, if you don't have a clean site for the antenna, then you'll have signal problems.

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Bring your Sirius satellite radio receiver to life with this essential plug 'n' playboombox. Compatible with the Sirius Sportster 3, Sportster 4, Starmate 3, Starmate 4, andStratus receivers, the boombox lets you follow the game or rock out on the patio to anyof Sirius's high-quality digital streams. Simply plug your Sirius receiver into theboombox's universal docking cradle and you're set. Listeners will love the SUB-X1'srich, crisp sound, which employs two tweeters, two midrange drivers, and a powerfulsubwoofer to create a dynamic frequency response of 70 Hz to 20 kHz. The reception isalso topnotch thanks to the included indoor/outdoor antenna, which comes with anattached 19.5-foot cable (the antenna must have a relatively clear view of the Siriussatellite paths to work).
Most importantly, the boombox is fully portable, with a built-in handle for transport anda battery power option (the boombox runs for up to nine hours on eight D-cellbatteries). And you needn't worry about hauling the antenna along in a separate bag,because the SUB-X1 includes a built-in compartment that stores both the antenna andcable. Other details include a 3.5 mm headphone jack for private listening, an ACadapter for indoor use, built-in bass enhancement technology, an auxiliary input forconnecting an iPod, MP3 player, or other audio device, and a docking adapter thatworks with ST and SV series Sirius satellite tuners. The boombox, which measures 19.18by 8.81 by 8 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 7.3 pounds (without batteries), is backedby a one-year warranty.
What's in the Box SUB-X1 universal boombox, AC adapter with 6-foot cord, satellite antenna with 19.5- foot cable, plastic docking adapter, user's manual.

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Sony SRF-HM10 S2 Sports Street-Style FM Radio Walkman Review

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(More customer reviews)As a bicycle commuter I've been looking for quite a while for the ideal radio to use while riding. Seeing Sony's SRF-HM10 recently in the store had me hoping I'd found it, but it turns out I was disappointed again.
My current - and so far - best solution is Sony's SRF-M85V radio with Shure's e2c earbuds. The sound insulation the e2c earbuds provide is simply unmatched by anything else I've seen elsewhere, including the HM10's earbuds, which unfortunately just don't go deep enough to make a tight seal.
But the biggest disappointment of the HM10 is its radio reception that is probably the worst in the line of Sony's S2 sports radios. In most pocket radios the headphone cord doubles as the FM antenna and so I thought that the HM10 must have a more advanced antenna system and/or radio receiver to make up for the lack of a long headphone cord. But this is not the case. This becomes painfully apparent when holding the hand close to the receiver when tuned in to a weak radio station. This alone improves radio reception, so your hand acts as the antenna.
Other than that, the controls are fairly straightforward. Channel preset up-down buttons that double as tuning controls, volume up-down buttons, bass boost and power button with Local and DX setting are fairly easy to learn and discern, since when wearing the radio all controls are behind your head. Wearing the radio seems comfortable, although I didn't try for long periods of time or in a high impact sports activity.
Also, I don't understand why a station scan isn't featured, but this seems to be no different than from the other S2 radios from Sony.
Unlike the description the radio is for FM reception only (no AM, no Weather band, and certainly no TV band) and provides for 15 FM station presets. A nice detail is that if you program fewer than 15 stations into the radio you don't have to cycle through all the unused slots when going from your last to your first station preset.
If it wasn't for the unacceptable reception capabilities and haphazard earbuds, that don't really seal very well, this would be a killer product.
So, unless you only want to listen to the strongest stations in your area, don't waste your money.

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Sony DFJ041 Walkman Portable All-in-one Skip-Free CD Player / Digital FM Radio Tuner with Remote Control, Earbud Headphones, 40 preset FM stations, Digital Mega Bass Sound, AVLS & CD-R/RW Playback + Additional Vertical in-the-ear Headphones - with ** BONUS ** Philips Car Charger, Tape Cassette Adapter & Batteries Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I pick up semi trucks around the country and drive them back to Dallas so I listen to books on cd. Some of these trucks are used and the cd players cannot be trusted. This cd player is very good and I have even dropped it once and it is still great.

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iLuv iHD171 HD Radio with iTunes Tagging for iPod, iPhone, and iPhone 3G/3G S Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Overall:
HD Radio: 1/5
iPod / iPhone integration: 3/5
Build: 2/5
Clock / Alarm: 0/5
Sound Quality: 2/5
I was drawn to this item because it has great features. HD Radio and iPhone dock in one package is a really good idea. Ever since I've discovered HD Radio (in my car), normal radio sounds inadequate. After researching online for a few weeks, I bought HD171 and received it yesterday. Let's look at various aspects of this device.
What's in the package
- Radio (HD 171)
- AM antenna
- FM antenna wire
- remote control
- 3 dock adapters for different ipods (or iphone)
- manual, warranty, etc.
HD Radio:
Since HD Radio was a big requirement for me, this is the first feature I tried out. After plugging everything in, I tuned into my favorite radio station. The sound was acceptable but I didn't see the HD logo come on. After waiting for 5 minutes I started moving the FM antenna wire around to get a better signal. I finally found a good position near the window. After 15 seconds of linking, I finally heard the HD goodness. But that didn't last very long. The signal kept losing. So I relocated the radio next to an open window. HD signal was much strong and I was able to listen to HD-2 channels too but the signal would always drop after a few minutes. There were just way too many drops and cuts for me to enjoy the music. It might perform better with an amplified antenna but given that I live in middle of a city, I expect the radio to work without add-ons (I had no issues with reception in my car).
iPod / iPhone Integration:
After being disappointed with the HD Radio, I tried the iPod dock with my iPhone. Everything worked well there. I was able to listen to the songs stored on the phone as well as those played by apps like Pandora and AOL Radio just fine. The iTunes tagging feature also works well but once you tag a song playing on radio it takes about 30-40 seconds for transferring it to iPhone.
Sound Quality:
I have been using Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere with my iPhone and had been fairly happy with the sound considering the form factor. I expected more from HD171. The max sound level is 35 and it does get loud for a medium sized room but there isn't much clarity. It really does sound like low end radios rather than something $150-$200 range. The bass is lacking lows, and Highs and Mids are both off.
Clock / Alarm:
I liked the fact that this device can sync time with iPhone. I noticed that it did so the moment I docked my iPhone. After a few hours I noticed that the time was stuck and the display kept flashing the message "Time Sync". After removing the iPhone, the time started incrementing. By the night, the time showed as "38:04" (!). I'm not sure why it did so or what that means. Re-docking my iPhone corrected the time but it still wouldn't increment. Due to this, the alarm clock wouldn't function either. I was able to set the alarm but it never went off.
Build and Looks:
It is a bit heavy but that's probably due to the speakers. Mostly plastic construction and feels cheap in certain portions. Doesn't have the chic look that's associated with Apple products and related accessories. There are two knobs on the front, volume and tuning. They feel flimsy and I was worried they would wear quite fast. The LCD display is amply lit and the dimmer has 4 levels and a way to turn it off. Buttons on the top panel are a bit stiff and don't always register when pressed.
Remote Control:
It's nice to have a remote control. It is IR so it needs a line of sight and it didn't work beyond 7ft. It has buttons for: power, mute, source selection, presets, memory, sleep, play, next, prev, volume, snooze/dimmer.
Control Panel:
The controls on the radio have all the buttons you'd need. But there is a flaw. You cannot move between HD channels of the same station. The tuner jumps to the next frequency. The only way to achieve this is using the remote control (next/prev buttons).
Documentation:
The documentation is quite poor and does not even talk about HD Radio. The Troubleshooting section is dismal.
Final words:
I had great hopes from this device but considering all the issues, I'm sending it back to Amazon. I hope to see a better attempt in future at HD Radio and iPhone integration.

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