SIRIUS Sportster 5 Satellite Radio Receiver with Vehicle Kit

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.

I have had this installed in my truck for about 2 weeks now. The only issue I have had so far is the FM transmitter does not work very well, as other people have stated. I hooked mine up with the FM direct cable and now it's perfect. Sounds quality is perfect with no interference. The direct cable is a must have if you live near any cities. It is very easy to install (I looked up instructions on how to remove my radio on the internet), it took me about 15 minutes to remove my radio, plug in the cord and hook it all back up. You are supppossed to put the antenna on the top of your vehicle, but mine is sitting on my dash and it works just fine.

Features on this radio are great. You have up to 30 presets for channels and you can store your favorite artists or songs and it will alert you when they are playing. The traffic and weather is helpful, but I find that my local traffic is more up to date (Washington D.C.) There does seem to be a lot of commercials on the talk radio channels, but I just change the channel so I don't have to listen to them!

Overall, I am very impressed with my first Sirius radio purchase. It's cooler than my roommates who has a JVC radio with the Sirius interface and it does not have as many options. Also, we got the lifetime subscription for $399 which I think is going to be a great deal in the long run!

I have been a Sirius subscriber for 2 years and I absolutely love the service. For the first 2 years, I owned a Streamer Replay (same model as Sportster Replay except completely black) and I found the overall quality of that unit great. The Sportster 5 is an improvement to an already great series of receivers!

The reception is improved from the Sportster 4 and the Sportster Replay. I have the unit directly connected to my vehicle's audio system and it sounds as close to CD quality sound as possible. The unit has a greater Audio Level output than the Replay, so it is louder and clearer overall.

All of the features, such as Song/Artist Memory and the Pause/FF/Rew functions work well in the car when receiving a call or when your attention is needed away from the radio without missing a beat. The color display options allow you to change the head unit to blend better with your current vehicle setup and is a great change from the standard blue and black look.

The Sportster 5 is versatile as well. I purchased the Universal boombox which I use as a home dock as well as a travel player for picnics or softball games. I can have Sirius anywhere!

I can't seem to find a major fault with this radio. There are always general improvements that can be made such as better reception and clearer audio, but compared to the rest of the receivers that are offered today, this one takes the cake! I highly recommend this as a receiver for those who love satellite radio and want to hear it with the best possible sound quality.

This is my 3rd unit, and the first Sportster as the other 2 are Starmates. The dial is much better than the buttons for forwarding and advancing the stations. The background option matches almost any interior. The sports ticker is excellent and does not take up any memorized slots like it did on the Starmate. I had to tie it into the radio directly to get quality sound. The antenna is much nices as well being more of a silver dollar size and not the square. The only downside is that I had to get a bracketron to install ($20) and the buttons are quite small... other than that, it is excellent !

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.