Home > Consumer Reviews > Delphi XM Roady XT Satellite Radio Receiver

The Roady XT performs great considering that I now have five accounts with company for me and family members. Once you buy your intital XM Radio the company usually has a free one to get people listening, or a very inexpensive nicer model. I have the free one that I bought after buying this product for a family member for Christmas.
This radio is extremely easy to use, gives great reception, is very small and provides hours of entertainment every where I have gone. Whether I am in the city, in the mountains or driving across the state of California I think XM radio provides an excellent value and is really a device that is going to change your life. Because of all of the programming opitions on XM I have stopped watching TV for the past seven months and just listen to the XM instead, including taking it to work and listening there.
Every single time I take it to work I get questions about how it works, the programing, the sound quality and I always have postive things to say. So much in fact, I bought the XM Direct components and a new car stereo to have the best sound quality available. Worth every dime. One of the great features are the traffic channels that I have personally found to be updated within minutes of some thing happening on the freeway. Very helpful when you are stuck in traffic.
Also, after listening just for a couple of days you realize that the 70's music kicks the crap out of every other decade in American music history. Thanks to the 70's on 7. Siruis can have Stern as long as XM has MLB, and if you are an MLB fan you need this service. XM covers MLB basically 24/7 during the season, but maybe you are tired of MLB, switch over to XM 140 and listen to ESPN radio for a little while. And no more AM lost of signal, and all of that crappy static that free-radio has, who would miss that?
I bought the antenna and the remote control package for indoor use and it works great any where that I put it. Regaurdless of whether the room has windows, if it is in the middle of a huge building or a house some how this little XM radio picks up great reception. I have faced the home antenna straight at a wall, inside an office with no windows in the middle of a building and sure enough, three full bars. They also have great programing. Since they are so many channels to choose from you never get tired of listening. Another strength of the XM radio is that it is exposes you to music and talk shows that you would never hear on free-radio. And for people that have more than one radio you can sign up for radios two thru five for the low-price of $[...] per month. Go on one road trip with your XM and you will be sold, I was and continue to be.

This is the radio I bought as my entry into the satellite radio world and it cost me about $49 at WalMart. The home kit cost me another $50. The radio itself is great, with good features, but the push buttons are just too small for my adult fingertips. This is particularly true of the numbered buttons and can be a big problem on the road. I use the remote control (available only in the home kit) when in the car. I think that the knob you can turn, such as found on other radios, is preferable to having everything depend on pushing buttons. However I realize that some things were sacrificed for small size. Overall, the Roady XT is a good little radio, it fits in my shirt pocket easily for transfer from car to home, and so far is great. The only thing I would change would be to modify the display to have smaller characters and more info...you have to find and push a button to see the song title along with the station name and artist's name. Anyway, in north central Oklahoma, I have one antenna on my dashboard and the other inside on a windowsill, and reception is fine. There are some dropouts, particularly when driving to the north, but I can live with that. An outside antenna would likely get creamed by large hail out here!

I am a stickler for sound quality... Here is a tip...

* Use the cassette tape adapter. (not FM transmitter)
* In the Roady Menu turn the Audio level all the way up to 6.
* Turn the treble on your car radio all the way up.

If you do those three things you'll hardly notice a difference and even if you do... believe me, it's worth it to not have to listen to FM ever again. I was skeptical about the item for at least a year now and then I finally bought it. My stress level has gone so far down since I don't have to listen to the nonsense commercials and talk on FM.

You wont be disappointed!

I've had my Roady XT for about three months- it worked fine for about a week but then I started having problems getting a continuous signal. Finally, the receiver stopped working completely. When you call the poorly trained workers in India or Pakistan or wherever XT hides out at, they all have one script they read asking you irrelevant questions about your radio. If you call again, the next person asks you the same questions over again, as they have no procedure of creating a "case" to review each time you call. They are a complete joke of a company.

I am completely satisfied with the Roady XT, and I have had no problems or issues with it at all. I think there are several important reasons for this. I did a lot of research prior to my purchase and install, and this saved me from having a bad experience.

After doing my research, I decided that I didn't want to do the install myself, didn't want to use the enclosed FM modulator, didn't want to attach the receiver onto an air vent or have it flopping around on one of those hideous suction cups, didn't want to plug it in to the cigarette-lighter jack and have wires hanging out all over the place, etc.

I had my unit professionally installed with the optional FM Direct Connect, which would solve most if not all reception problems.

The install at a big box electronics retailer along with the FM Direct Connect cost $100, and has been worth every penny. I drive all over the place, and have great reception in all areas because of the FM Direct Connect. And there are no wires dangling. I couldn't be more pleased.