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

It's small, it's inexpensive (the price keeps dropping), it works, and I installed it in 10 minutes. It's in my wife's company car, and she loves it.

The sound quality is really quite good for running the output through the FM receiver. And I love being able to listen to XM selections on my computer by virtue of an XM subscription.

If you want, you can also buy a home adapter so that you can play it through your stereo or home theater. But I've heard tell that you have to get the antenna really close to a window to ensure decent reception. It works fine in a car, though.

Me likee.

Usually when I buy something, it typically ends up being much harder to install than I thought and the quality is usually worse than I expected. Interestingly, it had taken me much time to hide the wires. THIS PRODUCT IS GREAT! I was expecting that since I was going to be using the FM transmitter - and not hard wiring it, that it would cut out (like maybe under bridges or on cloudy, rainy days). My wife had one of those things that you hook to an MP3 player that allows it to play through the radio and the quality was terrible. With this product, if you go to the FM frequency locator sight and enter your zip, it sounds excellent. My radio had the "Sure Connect" stuff with it (meaning that in addition to putting the xm radio on the top of your car, that you had to attach it to your FM antenna - which in my case was sticking something to the back window of my new Honda Accord where the FM antenna wires run inside the window).

The sound was way better than I thought it would - sounded like FM just maybe a tad quieter, but when I adjusted the car volume it was perfectly clear. I have driven all around the Kansas City area (metro and rural) - the thing has not cut out once! The XM service is good - I wanted monthly service but I didn't realize that for the first three months that you have to pay for those in advance in addition to an activation fee ($10 online or $15 by phone) thus expect to pay $50 at first (in addition to the cost of your radio). But other than that, I love xm and the Roady XT.

Cool features: memorizes your favorite artists or songs (up to 20), has a ticker option for your favorite sports teams or stocks, changeable colors for the display.

I am so glad my wife bought this for my X-mas gift! I had been on the fence about it but now that I have it I wish I got it sooner. I have yet to mount the antenna permanently in our truck but with it simply sitting on the dash the reception is quite good (it cuts out when under lots of trees but on the open road no problem, once mounted properly any issues will be resolved). I have since purchase the "home kit" & I now can listen to anything I want instead of the 1 or 2 local stations which is all we could get before on our home stereo even with a quality (CCRANE) FM antenna. There are LOTS of channels & shows to listen to so you wont get bored with the content any time soon. Enjoy!

I was cautious about purchasing this XM receiver because it appeared so simple and plain in the photos. Don't let that fool you. It has more functionality than my factory XM unit. I found it easy to install myself. The hardest part is running and concealing the wires for the satellite and transmitter antennas and even that isn't very difficult. The kit is pretty complete. I did not use the direct connect because my older vehicle had no (IPOD) input. The kit also contains a cassette input, which I couldn't use either because my vehicle has no cassette deck. The FM method is pretty foolproof. The input connects to your vehicle antenna. I wish it simply went inline between the cable and radio. An inline connector is available, but is not included with the kit. The XM website links you to a site with suggested empty frequencies for your area, which is very useful. I printed several of them for my frequently traveled areas. It was easy to set up, had great reception and lots of info options. If you have ever installed your own aftermarket radio or add-on player installing it is a cinch. Beware that in traveling between highly populated areas with lots of FM broadcasters finding a blank frequency may be difficult and lead to some interference with the FM input. The best way would be an input jack if you have a newer vehicle. I highly recommend this receiver. I also bought a home kit to use this with my second and third home stereos which are not cable connected. Again reception and installation were great. The range on the remote is somewhat limited, but it works in the car for those who are interested. That option would be great for a motorhome user.

This is my second satellite radio. My first one was stolen out of my car and I got this one because the xm radio website was having a replacement special on them. Here are my thoughts on it:

Pros: I like the multitude of buttons on the device. Its pretty easy to navigate through the channels. I like that the color changes on the display so you can get it to match the color of your displays in your car. I like that it is easily transferable to a home kit. I have had better reception with this radio then my previous one(sportscaster).

Cons: I don't like that you have to buy the remote separately. Thats pretty ridiculous. The standard mounts that come with the device are pretty cheap and worthless. I don't like that you have to use the cradle to hold the player. You cannot plug the power directly into the unit. You have to plug it into a cradle and then the device into the cradle.


Notes and tips on installation:

Since i didn't like the mounting options included with the radio, I purchased a vehicle specific mounting plate (available on the satellite radio superstore - run by xm radio) for ~$35. This has allowed me to have it mounted to the dash much more securely. Then i modified the vent clip mounting option to make the device mount flush to the new bracket. This looks really sharp. I ran the antenna to the outside (roof) of my jeep. The reception has been superb. I am using an open AUX rca jack in the back of my stereo to run the audio into the car. This works really well

I also don't like having the power outlets taken up with plugs and such in my car. Thus i did something about it. I took off the dash board and wired another outlet inside of the dash. I wired this to the cigarette lighter power circuit (i dont smoke and dont ever use it anyway). You can get really nice splicing clips at advanced auto parts or the like to make this really easy. Then i ran a cheap power outlet (from one of those splitters you can get to add more plugs to your car). Then all the wires come out of a small slot and only about an inch of cable is visible for each of the three wires.

I did have a significant amount of hissing and static as was indicated by another review. But this is common for pretty much any cigarette lighter powered electronic device. This is caused by a "Ground Loop". Basically it means that you have some mismatched circuits with different currents and one ground. But fortunately this has an easy fix. For $10 online or $20 at radio shack, you can get a "ground loop isolator." this will prevent the hissing and static. I have absolutely none in my system now. It sounds great.



Overall, this is a pretty good product. I wouldn't pay the msrp of 70 dollars for it, but if you can get a 10 to 20 percent discount then i would recommend it. It certainly will work with out the stuff i did to install mine; however, i feel like mine looks pretty professional and didn't cost me more than 60 dollars in parts.