Belkin XM Audio System

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Two products in one
Reviewer: Janet from Arizona on Jul 1, 2006
178 out of 254 found this review helpful

I just purchased this XM audio system, and so far I like it quite a bit. I was planning on buying a home docking kit, but I came upon this item and decided that it would be much more useful ... of course though, for twice the price.
The positives:
*It looks nice.
*The internal antenna works great. I have used it all over the house, and outside, and did not need to break out the external antenna that it came with.
*You can take this unit anywhere.
Negatives:
*The remote included with the unit is not nearly as functional as the regular XT remote. I think Belkin should have paid more attention to the remote and done a better job.
*It is awkward to carry. I read that it was ergonomically designed. I would have preferred the handle to be straight up. However,this is really not a big deal. The less than par remote is far more bothersome. The plus is that the regular XT remote will work with the unit.
Would I suggest this item: Yes. It is not confined to your house, and although you don't get to play it out of your home theater speakers, it gets decent sound with decent volume.

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Typical XM reception issues
Reviewer: XM Fan from Georgia on Jul 26, 2008
0 out of 0 found this review helpful

Contrary to other reviews, if you are in a building you'd better be able to put the antenna (built in or external) in a south-facing window or you won't get a signal. Features and sound quality of this radio are very good.

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Best way to maximize use of an XM receiver
Reviewer: Martin from Arleta, California 91331 on Jul 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Satellite radio is a new thing for me. Let's see if I got this straight.

You buy a license to a single, numbered pocket receiver, then you stick it into things so that you can hear it. Right?

The (SM Express) receiver comes with a 'car adapter' that goes into your cassette player (?) and has several different extension antenna adapters and a cigarette lighter power cord. If you don't have a cassette player you have to buy some other stuff.

Then when you go into the house you would need to load your satellite receiver into
a 'home adapter' kit so that you can plug it into ac power, plug the audio output adapters into your home stereo inputs, and stretch an antenna wire around the room.

That sounds like a lot of work just to listen to the radio.

So buy a Belkin XM Boom Box. It's simple, it sounds great, it's portable, plugs directly into ac power or can be run with 8'C 'cells, and best of all, has a built in antenna.

I can't over emphasize 'simple'. It has volume control only and headphoneout. That's it. The tone is excellent and tone controls are unnecessary. The station tuning controls are all a function of the receiver.

You can play the XM radio through your home stereo system by using the headphone jack on the Belkin Boom Box.All that is required is a stereo mini plug to stereo phono plug adapter, then plug right into a line input on your stereo. It sounds great!

Running the output through a stereo recorder produces excellent recordings, also.

And if you need more antenna,you can still plug an extension into a jack on the back.

The Belkin XM Boom Box puts all of the wires, danglies and adapters into one easy to use pick-up-and-go radio. I highly recommend buying it.

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