Home > Consumer Reviews > Audiovox XR9 XM Satellite Radio Receiver

First, I'd like to comment on XM Radio in general: I love it! I have a rather long drive to work and it's wonderful to listen to music without interruption. It's great not to hear any commercials (I have no idea what the local car dealers etc. are up to now that I'm immune to their ads). Another XM service I use daily is the traffic report. Never having to wait for a local station to broadcast the traffic conditions is very helpful. I'm still learning all the channels and keep finding new ones that I like. Regarding the XR9, I like it alot (although it's my first XM radio receiver so I have nothing to compare it to). It has a nice large display with a few different options as to how information is shown. It also will show sports scores and stock prices and so far has been really easy to program. The blue display is cool looking (although a choice of colors would be nice). I think the text on the display is much nicer than on other XM receivers I looked at. At first I had my XR9 receiver hooked up using the built in wireless transmitter which transmits the stations from the XR9 to the car's radio. DON'T DO THIS. The sound quality using the wireless feature was horrible (it sounded really tinny like bad AM radio) and there was alot of interference from over the air stations (I'd imagine that this would be a problem in most metropolitan areas with alot of on air stations). I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT USING THE WIRELESS FEATURE. After a week, I had the receiver direct wired to my radio and the difference was incredible. Now, the stations come in perfectly clear and sound as good as my FM stations or CD's. Another feature that I'm not in love with is the flat buttons. Since I use this receiver in my car, I find it somewhat difficult to change the stations sometimes because the buttons are flat and don't stick out of the receiver. I find myself sometimes hitting more than one button at a time. The "1" and the "0" are especially tricky to push sometimes since they curve around the side of the receiver. Those few features aside, I don't mean to sound negative about the reciver. It looks great in my car and now that it is hard wired, it sounds fantastic too. I like the display and its viewing options. Also, there are a few other options (like the alarm) available that I haven't yet used which I'm sure will add to my enjoyment of this product.

I have both this model and the competing Roady2. I have to say that though this model has a lot of features, the Roady gets my vote overall. Why?

1. The screen on the Audiovox scratches easily. Really easily. Be warned.
2. The scroll category feature is great! but....for some reason, it's confusing to scroll through the presets. Wants to scroll through one category only (say rock or talk) and then I have to whack a couple of buttons to get to a less-often listened-to station. I have no time to do this while dodging local drivers on THEIR cell phones in their SUV's combing their hair and applying their mascara. It's all I can do to watch out for them, let alone tune this thing. So presets that are easy to use are a must.
3. The unit is about 10 to 15 percent larger than the Roady2 and space is at a premium in my rather small sedan. I have yet to find a good place to mount the thing.


I have to confess I am not yet "au fait" with the instruction manual (what! me read a manual?) and this WOULD of course help, but frankly, the Roady2 is a lot simpler and easy, so it gets my vote over this perfectly fine, very attractive but more complicated unit.

The XR9 is an incredible piece of engineering. At home, the indoor cradle is sitting on top of my Bose Wave radio, and the car installation puts it less than 12 inches from the dash radio, so I chose the wireless option for both locations. The home installation and service sign-up took no longer than 15 minutes...the car installation took a little longer because the antenna and power wires needed to be concealed for a nice clean look. Learning the remote is also a piece of cake, and with 30 preset stations, it's easy to go from music to news to traffic and weather reports.

This is a highly recommended product.

I travel alot and the this product makes me look forward to trips. I eliminated the remote FM interference problem by removing my radio's antenna. I have not listened to a commercial in a year. The product has performed perfectly and the remote compensated for the flat buttons on the unit. This product was very easy to install and the antenna stuck to the dashboard has worked very well. My sanity is worth alot to me and this product is worth the money.

For the price of a few CD's, you can tap into 24-hours of an amazing variety of music. Subscription is about $10 a month... a value worth prepaying to lock in the rate. I use the FM transmitter feature and an adapter at home as well as in my car. It easily moves from car to home radio using the FM transmitter feature. I've found that the sound quality is great... provided you choose the correct FM frequency. That may take some experimenting - and an occasional frequency change if you commute across town. The good news is, frequency changes are just a few button clicks.