Pioneer GEX-XMP3 Portable XM Satellite Radio Receiver w/ Home Kit

Received my radio on Wednesday of this week and was absolutely elated with it. It was smaller than I had imagined it would be, and I got a great deal on XM service for the year. I spent Wednesday and Thursday listening to music, and had a blast with the guy just sitting at my desk or talking the dogs for a walk. Then, Friday evening, I decided to hook up the home kit to my stereo. I hooked up the antenna and the line out into my receiver, but noticed there was a horrible buzz coming over the line. I adjusted the cable into the XMP3, noticing it was a bit loose and not plugged all the way in, upon doing this I noticed no more buzz, but no sound either. I grabbed my headphones, undocked it, and... sure enough, no sound through the headphones either. I've spent the last hour trying to fix it, but have had no luck resetting the default settings, trying to flash the firmware, taking out the battery and reseating it on and off of the cradle. It's too late to call XM or Pioneer tonight, but I'm really ticked off. Two days, and I can't use the radio at all. It still boots up, it still works fine, you just can't hear anything out of either the line out or the headphone jack. This is a completely worthless product and I will be returning it promptly.

A few more things of note:

The battery life is far less than 6 hours of live music. If not plugged in, I'm lucky to get through 3 hours. Second, the backlight never turns off. It dims, but it is always on. This is a complete waste of batteries and it should definitely give you an option to blank the screen if you don't need to see it.

Reception is a mixed bag. I actually got it great in doors, but it would cut out for no reason in the car or outside in seemingly open areas. It's not bad, but it isn't perfect either

Sound quality is decent, but I don't blame the radio for this. More or less, I just think XM is over compressed at times. It probably just seems a bit worse through headphones where everything is amplified.

Overall this is a great looking and very nice to carry around unit, but the trouble people have with it is no lie or exaggeration... Two days, and mine is no longer functioning. I see no reason this product should be on the market. Yes, I should have listened to the bad reviews here, I've learned my lesson. I'm shocked at the quality of this device and will definitely be giving Pioneer an ear full in the morning.

I bought my Pioneer XMP3 from Best Buy one year ago. It stopped working after about 4 months for unknown reasons, but I took it back to Best Buy with the receipt. They told me Pioneer did not service these units and instead authorized Best Buy to exchange it. Thus, I got a new unit from Best Buy at no extra cost, and it works very well in both the car docking and the home docking. It does not work well at the office because I have an office with a window facing the north rather than the necessary south direction. It also did not work as advertised outdoors at first. I expected it to work well out doors for jogging and biking as advertised, but the built-in antenna is not sufficient. There is an optional sports arm band leather carry case and optional head set antenna. Once I bought those options, it now works great while jogging or biking. Pioneer should include the antenna head set with the receiver since they present it as fully portable. Nevertheless, I now fully enjoy it. I paid a much lower price a year ago than it now sells for. I am not sure the current price of between $180 to $200 with only home docking and without car kit is worth it. I bought it a year ago for about $150 and it was on special including the home kit and also the car kit at no extra cost.

If you just need a dock and play to transport from car to home, you can do better with another unit such as the Audiovox XM Xpress RCi (XDRCV1), but if you want a satellite radio to use for jogging or biking, the Pioneer XMP3 with the optional headset antenna and sports arm band leather carry case is your best bet!!! I love it!

This is my second unit. The first one was so bad that I thought it was defective. The replacement one has the same bugs. The battery failed, after a few months of use.

1) Powering on the unit, takes 1 minute and 30 seconds.
2) If you place the XMP3 in the charging cradle it automatically powers on. Hence, you have wait for 1.5
minutes, to turn it off. A fast windows machine, boots quicker.
3) Battery life will barely get you through a 30 minute jog.
4) Buggy playback, on auto recorded shows. The song plays for a few seconds, then it will go back to the
beginning, and finally back to the original spot. It does this for every 4th song.
5) When the battery goes below 1/3, it will cycle on and off repeatedly.
6) Sometimes pressing the volume keys, will cause the unit to go into the 1.5 minute power up sequence,
again.
7) Poor integration with sync software. To schedule a program, you are forced to go back and forth between
the XM webpage and the XM2go software. Scheduling manually on the player is easier with the XM webpage
open.
8) Auto recording do not always work.
9) Spotty, clear day, outdoor reception. This would not be a big deal because you can record show right?
Wrong see 4, 7, 8.
10) This is a ding on the XM broadcast. I like Electronica, that gives me 3 XM stations. These three
stations, play the same dozen songs, over and over again. Pandora has 21 Electronica stations and has a
much larger song rotation.
11) Any of the above positive reviews are from Pioneer shills.

I am dropping my XM service and moving to an ipod with podcast.

First one I received was defective, but Pioneer replaced it at no charge. Great concept, but have trouble with the reception outside with trees or tall buildings disrupting the signal, and inside concrete buildings the signal is nonexistent. Can plan ahead and record music or programs for the time you know you will be inside.

I have an original Pioneer Inno that I love, but it is over 5 years old...so I decided to buy the new MP3, it sounds like a great idea, not only can I record my shows, listen to my XM and now add all my MP3s to one player, sounds like a great idea huh? Pioneer really screwed up making this product. Wanna record a show? Better make sure you check it every day or else it wont record your show...never had that problem on my old Inno. The FM transmitter is HORRIBLE! You now have to add 2 antennas one to the roof and one to your car antenna, and if the signal needs to be switched to another station? Then be prepared to pull over as you have to search for the folder, scroll through 2 separate screens then find a station....never had that problem on the old Inno. Wanna go from live XM to recorded XM? Well time to scroll AGAIN because it doesnt go back and forth from recorded content to live and stay in the same spot where you left your recorded content like the old Inno...just do yourself a huge favor and buy an old Inno if you can find one. I cant wait to toss this piece of crap out the window.