Home > Consumer Reviews > Audiovox SIRCK1 Sirius Satellite Radio Car Dock with Built-In Wireless FM Transmitter

I would highly advice that if you choose to get Satellite Radio, you should get it professional installed. I'm experimenting, so I went with the cheaper option. It works pretty well.

You should note that you'll have a few wires sticking out everywhere, and it will look kind of cheap, but if you can get over that, it works well. It has a cradle, a mounting bracket that can stick to the dash, and a mini FM transmitter so you can listen to Sirius through your radio. The whole system works quite well and does the job as best as it can. It's easy to and simple to setup, so that should not be a problem. The sound quality is a little weak, but it does the job.

Besides looking kind of cheap, which is not the docking kits fault, there are two main problems. One is that the mount uses screws or adhesive. I'm not going to drill randomly into my car, so I used the adhesive. The adhesive works very well, but I worry that if I ever remove the mount, will it take chunks of my dash with it? I don't know, which would be really scary if I deeply cared for my car. The second problem is that there is no power supply for a wall socket. This means that if you don't fork over another fifty dollars, you'll have to do the setup in your car, while the car is running. This is truly cheap and annoying.

All in all, it works well for those on a budget or those not willing to commit fully to Sirius radio.

I have the Audiovox unit with the FM modulator built in. In theory the FM modulator is supposed to have enough RF transmitting power to get to your car's FM antenna and be received by the radio. However in real world conditions this does not work worth a flip.

In my home town all of the FM slots are already filled and as you drive across town you need to look for an open channel to be able to hear the Audiovox satellite radio. And this also is a problem when I travel across the states.

Previous radios from other manufacturers have had cables with switches. This switch will remove the car's FM antenna from the radio and only the signal from the satellite radio gets into the car's radio. It is a pain for most people to connect this cable and would most likely be a professional install. But it keeps all the other broadcast stations from interfering with the satellite FM signal.

I'm also disappointed by the quality of the sound. The coding scheme seems to leave a lot to be desired. This is really noticed on the spoken word. The unit creates a lot of heat for something so small. The audio level coming out of the unit was too high for my cassette adapter. Even with the audio turned all the way down on the Audiovox it was still distorted on the cassette adapter. It took an aftermarket attenuator to bring the audio level down to a workable level.

I do like the display of the unit. It is rather easy to read and has a couple of scroll modes. And the Sirius customer service unit was very quick to activate my radio. The programming is good. While this radio has it faults I'm sure it will be better in the next generation of radios.

This is a great product for the car. You can use this product two ways. You can broadcast it over a FM station, or if you have an AUX port in your car radio you can connect it to that. If you use the first option, expect to have sound quality issues. Like all FM transmitters, the sound quality is dependant on the strength of the FM station not the unit itself. I personally use the second option, and the sound is excellent.

I didn't use the mounting kit, because I didn't want this permanently mounted to my car.

The SIR-PNP2 Receiver does run hot. This is an issue with the receiver, because it also runs hot with the SIRBB1 Portable Boombox. So far I haven't had any problems.

The Sirius service and channel lineup is great. The only place I have reception problems, is streets surrounded by trees and overpasses.

Some reviewers mentioned interference from local radio Stations.
I plugged supplied audio adapter into the FM output and it radiates enough signal to overcome most local staions. This radio is much superior to XM. I have XM in one vehicle and when sunscription expires I plan on getting a car docking module to replace XM. I am not a audiophile so I don't know all the artist. Sirus broadcast artist name as well as name of song.

I tried the FM output option 1st, however I live near a major city and although it has 4 output stations (yes - only 4) - 88.1, 88.3, 88.5 and 88.7 - there are 2 strong stations near me that are on 88.1 and 88.5 which pretty much made the FM option a "non" option due to lots of interference.

The unit comes with an Aux port hookup, but my stereo is the one that came with the car from the manufacturer (Toyota) and does not have an aux "in". You can get an FM attenuator installed by a professional that acts as a bypass to the FM antenna, but from all the reviews I've read on those - they still won't work as well as a direct hookup (tape or aux port).

I broke down and bought a tape adapter for $15 and now it sounds great!