Home > Consumer Reviews > Polk Audio XRt12 Reference Home XM Satellite Radio Tuner (Black)

This unit offers excellent sound. The SkyFi unit has very good sound for all that is packed into a small box for less than $100, but the Polk uses high quality analog preamplifier and the heralded Burr Brown DACs that deliver the best analog output available from a satellite radio. If you use the optical connector then the quality of the sound will depend on your DAC and analog stages. The weak link in the satellite radio plug and play units is not the digital compression.

If you are running the audio outputs from a SkyFi into your home stereo this unit will be a very nice upgrade. Assuming you have a mid-high grade system you Will hear a difference. The SkyFi II has a newer digital processor, not yet in the Polk, and so it would deliver a better digital output if it had an optical output, but it is only capable of delivering analog and so the Polk still outperforms by virtue of its superior analog stage. But if I owned a SKyFi II I would wait for a newer version of the Polk. This is 5 Stars based on it's sound quality and oncreeen menu features, but I admit some dissapointment that it does not yet have the latest digital processor already rolled out in less expensive units 7 months ago.

This product has many nice features, and the sound quality is better than FM radio and MP3s (but not quite as good as CD). However, this product does not contain two features that are important to me.

Feature One: Channel Surfing. While watching TV, I like to channel surf by pressing the Next Channel button on the TV's remote control. With one button press, I can jump to the next channel (example: I'm at channel 40, pressing the button sends me to channel 41). The Polk tuner does not have a Next Channel button, instead, you have to press three buttons to move to the next channel. The Polk tuner has some sophisticated features for moving through channels, but lacks basic Channel Surfing.

Feature Two: Headphone Jack. I want to listen to this Tuner with headphones in my bedroom, but I had to buy a Receiver just so that I could use the Receiver's headphone jack.

WHAT WORKS;

Something the typical XM subscriber might not know when they first read about satellite radio is that the signal for the XM systems arrives as a direct line of sight signal AND a terrestrial repeater signal network in larger Metro areas.

We get both.

When I first set this up at the office, the menu for Signal Aiming only showed 2 land signal bars and the satellite showed 0 (zero) signal bars. I thought I would have to drill through the buildings 24 inch brick walls to connect.

Wrong!

It connected to the XM Service without a problem with the land signal alone. The sound quality of this is very good played through a small 5.1 channel home theater I pirated from a residence. The senior partner likes it so much, he is re-discovering the joys of listening to pure music at his fingertips.

We are very happy with this Polk tuner. I will only buy audio systems with a satellite service std/option in the future.

WISH LIST;

I would like to see an option for a larger mini menu display, and perhas one with a bit more legible color text/background on it. A few others have mentioned this. Perhaps Polk will offer other options for this unit over time.

I bought this tuner last year after finding out this receiver had optical and coax digital outputs for SS, expecting great soon to be 5.1 surround sound and entertainment, but was disappointed when I found out XM went to another system (neural sound decoding). This receiver is great for News but you will be diappointed if you decide to hook it up to your home entertainment system for music. You would think anything coming off of a satellite in digital would put you close to the sound of a philharmonic but because of the number of channels XM has and the high compression they use...you would be better off listening to the transmission of your local AM radio statiion. If you are a news/sports junkie, this receiver is for you, if you want cd quality sound....don't waste your time or money. I have recently sold my receiver on E-Bay and am looking at over the air HD reception using the Ibiquity system. If local FM radio stations decide to use more then two sub-channels (after going digital)and thus lower their bit rate, I'm afraid, it too, will sound as poorly as XM and this polk receiver. Polk csr said, Polk does not intend to update or support the XRT-12 with a Neural Sound firmware update, to enable this receiver to function as a 5.1 ss receiver using the backside output of optical digital or coax.

ABOUT NEURAL SOUND:
Neural Audio Corporation, an audio development company specializing in digital signal processing solutions for broadcast and consumer electronics, is the developer of Neural Surround™, a proprietary audio format that embeds the rich envelopment and discrete image detail of surround sound and is 100% compatible with stereo content. Chosen by XM Satellite Radio as the format for their 24/7 XM HD Surround programming, Neural Surround™ will introduce the excitement of surround music to a broad audience. Neural Surround™ is supported by major home theater brands and automotive OEM's and is expected to be available in more than 50% of surround sound receivers starting in Spring '06. Neural Audio Corporation is a privately owned company headquartered in Kirkland, WA.[...].

After all the hype about the Polk XRt12 I was expecting the sound quality from this unit to be nothing short of astonishing. I'm sorry to say that I'm disappointed. While it was a breeze to hook up via optical cable to my Harman/Kardon AVR110 and it was simple to aim the antenna (according to the "antenna aiming signal strength indicator" I had a perfect signal) it has the same quality as my Delphi SkyFi unit that it replaces. I can't hear any difference between the two. Even with side by side comparison (Polk XRt12 vs. Delphi Skyfi) they sound the same. I wouldn't recommend buying this to replace any exisiting home unit. If you already have XM at home, the signal sounds just as good with what you already have. With all the compression involved in beaming the XM signals to earth, there's only so much any device can extract. You simply can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.