Radios Reviews

I wanted the home antenna system so I could bring my SkyFi2 receiver out of my vehicle and listen to it in the house too. I set up the antenna in a south facing window as per the instructions but soon discovered that this was unnecessary as the high gain antenna picked up the signal right through the roof with no visible or audible degradation of the signal. Now it sits unobtrusively on top of my stereo cabinet obviating the need to route the lead wire through the house to the window. Great! Good-bye commercial radio with all your annoying commercials and mindless, yapping, moronic DJs!

My husband purchased the SKYFi2 for his car. I gave him the home kit for Valentine's Day. We love it and listen to wonderful music and programming now in our den.

The home adapter kit is fantastic! First, it's very easy to install. Second, it doesn't take up much space. Third, it increases the funtionality of the SKYFi2. Finally, it's relatively inexpensive.

I received the SKYFi2 with car adapter kit as a Christmas gift. After having it professionally installed in my car, I became an instant fan of XM Radio. I soon started listening to XM on my home computer via XMRadio Online and then decided to go with the home apapter. XM Radio sounds incredible on my stereo system and there is little to no interference. Just remember...don't let the AC cord and the audio cables touch or you will definitely get interference.

This is the best alarm clock I've ever owned. It is sleek, stylish, and incredibly easy to use. It has two alarms, each of which can be set to buzzer or radio (some alarm clocks automatically make one alarm buzzer and one radio - not cool, options are better). It has an alarm reset button, which turns off the alarm in the morning and keeps it set for the next day, and best of all, it's in an OBVIOUS location - top of the alarm, where you want to hit the thing when it goes off in the morning. The snooze button (though not called that) is also a large button on the top of the clock. The time and alarms are really easy to set on it too, including both forward and backward time setting, so if you overset by a few minutes you can go back. This is a great clock!

The only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is because the picture on Amazon shows a green number display, and it is orange. Even though the orange goes with the warm tones of my bedroom, and the orange is why I bought it (caught that in another review), I dislike the number of instances on Amazon where actual items are not as shown.

The clock looks cool and the front can serve as a mirror. The dual alarm feature is very useful -- I can set two alarms, one for myself and the other for my wife. You also have choice to set the alarms to either beep or radio.

However, the switches on the left side are quite awkward. Whenever I switch them to set alarm or time, my other fingers always accidentally touch the top buttons and active the radio -- sometimes wakes up my wife, not cool :(

I first saw this beautiful little Philips bedroom clock on the bedstand in a brand new Four Seasons Hotel in Whistler, B. C. We liked it so much I went on line upon return home and was surprised to find how inexpensive it was.

It sheds a discrete orangish light which can be set on high or low, has a battery for backup in case of an outage, and is beautifully designed.

As a professional photographer, I find myself going through 5-6 of these cords each year. My equipment is my livelyhood and although it is used often, I am exceptionally careful with all of my gear and do not bang it around or abuse it. I use a stroboframe which makes it necessary to use this cord to raise the flash well above the focal plane of the camera. These cords are very expensive to get just a few months out of them. Eventually, the hot shoe connector will either become loose and the connection will no longer function or the plastic connector will break and your flash unit will fall to the ground. (This has happened twice to me and fortunately I was able to catch the flash unit!)

The cord is indespensible if you need it, but contact Canon USA and ask them to reengineer this cord or expect to replace them every few months.

Other reviewers have complained about the plastic foot on the flash-bracket end cracking or breaking off. The solution is a metal "sacrificial foot" that screws into the 1/4"-20 threads on the bottom. Bogen/Manfrotto 3298 (BO3298) works perfectly. No Amazon vendor carries it as of this date, but you can find it at bhphotovideo.com. Their listing says it's for Nikon, but it works for the Canon Off Camera Shoe Cord 2 as well.

I got this cord mainly for Macro work so that I could use long Macro lenses along with my flash without having to deal with the lens shadow in the picture. It is also very nice to be able to control the direction of the lighting by placing the flash above, below, or beside the subject. Red eye can also be almost entirely reduced by moving the flash further away from the camera body, so this cord is helpful for portrait work. It could be a little longer, but the longer it gets the more difficult it would be to pack it small spaces, so all-in-all I think they did a pretty good job. It works fine, if you want all of your flash's functionally, but don't want it in the hotshoe, this is a good choice.

I really wish I could give this item 5 stars, but the one problem it has (for me) only warrants an average, or 3 star rating. I prefer sleeping in a room as close to pitch-black as I can make it and I don't like sleeping in a sleep mask, they always seem to end-up down around my neck. The display backlight on this unit is bright enough to read by. Even if you completely cover it, the blue light shines through the surrounding plastic body enough to be annoying, at least for me. If they improve the unit and put a brightness control on it, it would definitely rate the 5 stars, but as it is. . .oh well.

For the price level the iLive is pretty good. The sound quality isn't every good at all because there always seems to be a little bit of static in the background whether you're listening to your ipod or the radio. Waking up to any song on your ipod and having the remote control are definetly the pros. If you're looking for great sound quality I'd keep looking, but if you aren't too picky on the sound quality and just want a fairly cheap ipod alarm/player/charger then this is a great choice.

i got one to go with my i pod mini the sound quality is ok if its not to high the alarm and clock that go with it are great! i can listen to my i pod or if im sick of that i can listen to the radio!! and the alarm is loud enough to get me up in the morning its a great produt!! but can be somewhat confusing so keep the directions out till you get used to it

Purchased the S50 about 2 months ago. First the volume button randomly went up and down. Next I dropped it on the road while running and the dislay cracked and is now black. It worked for about a week more then totally died. Technology is way behing XM as they have a portable unit with satellite feed.

Well, as many of the reviewers have warned, stay away from this product. As cool as the concept is, this unit doesn't get near delivering to expectations. The 512MB MP3 capacity is not even worth having and the recording capability is weak at best.

I have also had major problems with the unit. It will lock up or the quality will go down inexplicably to a point where you can't even understand the song. I sent it in for warranty repair and now am being told that it is on national backorder and I will be contacted in two weeks with an update. That is two weeks without a radio, and mind you, they are the manufacturer. You can get it in two days off of Amazon though.

This unit has been a huge disappointment and the home dock is just as bad. No FM modulator capability, etc. Stay away from this expensive unit and get a cheap one. I had an audiovox before and I liked it a lot better. Now I am stuck with this expensive thing...

My el-cheapo MP3 player fizzled and I was in the market to replace it. Going to the gym just does not work without my jam bands.
I chose this because I absolutely DID NOT want an iPod. We receive satellite free via Dish Network and had been toying with subscribing. This seemed like the perfect solution.
We had absolutely no difficulty installing ourselves, in fact, cannot believe people pay to have it installed! I purchased an additional cable for $20 at Best Buy that keeps my signal steady. MP3's are easy to load. I especially love the fact that I can record songs that I hear on the radio--a perk that hopefully the RIAA will not take away from Sirius in court.
Sound quality is great (I have a really nice car stereo). The unit is solid and I have had no trouble at all with it. In fact, I plan on adding a home dock through my stereo, and an additional car dock for our non-commuter car.
I can't wait for our 6 hour drive to the beach!

The Edge 305 has all of the bells and whistles that you would want in a bicycle computer. Each of the functions is relatively easy to use, providing great infomation concerning speed, cadence, heart rate, elevation, ascent, grade, etc. The only draw back is that the battery does not last more than a few hours. This is a negative if you are out on a tour. Two weeks ago I did GRABRAAWR in Wisconsin. This seven day ride covering 430 miles was great, but every night I needed to find an outlet so that I could recharge the battery. This is the only fault that I can find in the Edge 305.

I read a bunch of reviews before buying my Edge. I was prepared for it to not be perfect but went ahead. My impressions are:-

Surprised (for good)
- Following a pre-loaded course is a really useful navigation feature. I recently did a 60 mile loop on unknown roads without stopping once to look at a map (I downloaded the route from motionbased.com and converted it to a CRS using some software I found on the motionbased forum).
- Heart-rate monitor suffers from far less interference than my Polar did. Particularly I found the Polar got thrown by bus power cables overhead and other things. Haven't had an issue with the Edge losing the signal like this.
- I really like the ability to customize the screen to show as little or as much data as you like. Also to have multiple setups you can switch between.
- I was impressed by just how small the unit is.

Bad side
- Software is nowhere near as good as the Polar software for recording training activities. Particularly I could find no way to correct bad data points without going in and editing the XML files from the device. Also the Polar software gives week by week graphs showing aggregate training time in different zones, etc which is not so clear with the Garmin software and non-existent in motionbased (as far as I've found).
- The calorie calculator seems pretty dubious based on feedback I've read elsewhere. I've ignored it.
- Creating new courses / routes is a pain. It's fine if you want to ride a course you've ridden before, using exactly the same directions. For new courses though I had to create a route on GoogleEarth Plus and then convert it to a GPX (using freeware) and then convert it to CRS (using more freeware). The end result was excellent but it took a lot of fiddling. There is also a CRS creator out there but it didn't seem easy to edit / save courses mid-creation with that.

On a side note, make sure you use the speed/cadence sensor. Before I mounted it I tried using just the Edge unit for speed. It's fine until you ride through an area with tall buildings and your speed drops to 0 mph.

All in all I'm impressed.

I admit to being a bit of a tech-junkie and have previously purchased a several HRM and GPS-enabled bicycle computer systems. The Edge 305, which I have owned for three months, is the first one that I felt was worth the investment. It strengths are: user configurable displays, high contrast screen with backlight (last several hours for night riding), user-friendly downloads with fast USB communication/charging, very lightweight (~ 3oz), with secure mount/dismount, very straightforward button/menu system, waterproof (haven't tested this yet).

The 'Training Center' software is excellent, with a full set of graphs and maps, much easier to navigate than e.g. Ciclosport or Cambietta software. Ride histories are downloaded automatically as soon as the USB cable is plugged in. Even better, there's a website (motionbased.com) that one can upload rides and get complete reports, including overlaid Google maps, weather, and lots of statistical information about the ride (HR, speed, grade etc). Note that motionbased.com charges a monthly user fee (currently $8/month). The ride history storage is quite good - in the 'smart' recording mode, a data word is recorded every 10 seconds. There are 13,000 storable points, so it should be possible to record about 36 hours of ride data before a download. This would be handy for multi-day trips when a computer isn't available.

Nothing is perfect in life. Here are the issues I have found so far with the Edge.

1. The battery life is close to 9 hours, definitely not the advertised 12 hours. I completed a 200K brevet last weekend, which took 9:10 with stops (the Edge was left on). About 20 minutes before the end I got a 'low battery' warning' but it kept running to the end. Note that I don't have a cadence unit, which probably decreases the battery life. The Edge was fully charged before the ride.

2. The 'grade' display is useless. It bounces around +/- 5% on hills. I think the unit is sampling too fast - Garmin will likely fix this in a firmware update soon.

3. The map display is simply a track history, and does not display actual map information (roads, towns, etc). It's handy for out-and-back rides, since you can see approaching turns on the return trip, but it would be terrific if one could load map data. (Note that positions are recorded and the route is displayed on a 'real' map after download to the 'Training center' or motionbased.com software.)

4. Although there are two bike mounts included, they are at different orientations (90 degs apart) so if you have 2 bikes with the same setup, you'll have to buy another mount ($15).

I looked forward to getting this product, but I was unable to get it to work.
First, I had trouble getting a signal, even after much frustrating effort, even with an unobstructed view of the southern sky.
Then, I couldn't get the machine to stay on, it kept shutting down.

I would be willing to try another one.

I bring this with me to camp, and have had it since 2002. It has put up with the abuse of other campers, counslers, dust on it, sand being kicked into it, and it still works great.

The XM service itself is great (mainly because I can listen to all of my baseball games), and the subscription fee is only good if you are into that kind of pay style.

As for the sound of the boombox, it's defintley not AMAZING, but is way above average, maybe B+ to A- range. If you live ina place with bad satlleite reception inside for whatever reason, you may need a more powerful antenna, longer cord, etc... Mine does cut out once in a while but it is only mildly disracting as it goes right back after a few seconds of blank sound.

All in all this is a great little boombox that keeps your new SkyFi2 sexy and sleek and provides great sound too. Highly reccomend and would give to anyone looking to give their XM a lot of wear.

Does this have a Macintosh pre-amp? No. Does it have superb sound ala Klipsch speakers? No again. Does it have the heft and quality of a B&O unit? You kidding?

So what does it have? An inexpensive way of hearing satellite radio that will please anyone who knows what a $100 or so will buy in today's market. Sure, it's built mostly in China, but delivers good to better-than-average sound in a 150-200 sq.ft. room;; well-thought-out details, like built-in,self-storing antenna; a place to sorta clip your antenna nodule; HD 1500 mamp transformer. Plus a poor excuse for a carrying handle.

Someone out there can make a little bit of change by offering an insert for the present handle hole, whose surround simply tortures your fingers, rather than caressing them. I doubt it will improve the poor balance, though.

If you plan on permanently installing receiver, read no further. If you will be removing receiver occasionally, insert 8 or so cuetips behind cradle plate - otherwise it's the devil's business removing it once it's installed.

I sent this radio to my very hard-to-please brother for his 65th birthday and he loves it! That's enough for me! I'll be getting one for myself now & keeping it in mind for other hard-to-please friends.

When I first got it I played it for about one hour a day to see how long the original charge would last. It finally went dead five days later. A short crank of maybe 20 seconds gave it about an hours worth of charge and playing time. A three minute crank and it was back up to playing for four to five days. I couldn't be happier with it. I get every station that any other radio in my area gets and the built in flashlight is very intense. It's worth every dime I paid.

I am very pleased with the radio. It is easy to crank, the reception is clear and it runs longer that the stated time on a minutes worth of cranking. Also, it is lightweight and the carrying case is a plus. And I love the color!

I used it for a few days before sending it back. Too much static. Once I found a good, clear station, I would drive and the station would get full of static. Definatly needs more signal strength. Worked crystal clear when i went through a tunnel. =)

I bought this for my girlfriend because on a recent road trip, her ipod could only be played via her iTrip. The iTrip took battery power and gave you only one choice of a radio broadcast station. The iTrip Auto not only gives you a broadcast choice, it seems to broadcast better, thus much clearer music. Using the dock connector instead of the headphone jack also allows you to control the volume of the music solely from the radio controls in the car. On top of it all, it charges her ipod while she drives. She loves it and I would highly recommend it.

This device works exactly as advertised: it charges your iPod and broadcasts the audio on an FM frequency at low power. If you have no other way to use your iPod in your car (cassette adapter, line in, etc) this is a good choice, especially at Amazon's price. The sound quality isn't fabulous, but it's as good as normal FM reception.

However, you need to be aware that this product works inconsistently between cars. I've had good luck with the iTrip in some cars (mostly American made rental cars), but couldn't get it to work in some other cars (like my Infiniti). Before you buy, I suggest that you take a look at the Griffin Technology web site to see if other users have gotten this to work in your car.