The Sony portable XM receiver was the first plug-and-play model to be offered and it was revolutionary at the time. As the first, it broke down the barrier between car and home radio systems. Unfortunately, the user interface leaves something to be desired. It is perfectly controllable using the remote but the receiver itself lacks a numeric keypad. Such a simple omission and yet so glaringly obvious in light of the Delphi SKYFi. Other than this omission, the Sony portable is a wonderful radio. You will find its’ reception is as good as other XM radios and it does have some nice curves. It reminds me of good, or bad depending on your stance, 1950’s science-fiction. It always seems poised to rocket off into the distance on some great adventure - which of course it is… the XM Satellite Radio adventure. The Sony line includes a home and car kit for all your connectivity needs but lacks the Delphi SKYFi’s FM modulator option and there is no boombox available for the Sony portable XM receiver. While this radio is no longer listed on the official XM Radio website, it is still available in the channel.

Price: $50.00 - $199.99
Use: Car/Home
System: XM Satellite Radio

Features

* Worst possible portable display but it was the first to market
* The remote allows full control (Home Kit)
* Browse by category or channel
* Receiver stores up to 20 channel presets in two banks
* Eight levels of contrast on display

In the Box

Receiver and manuals.

Overview

Cheap! You simply can’t beat the price. My position on this radio is get it while you can. You can’t beat the price and it represents a great introduction to XM Satellite Radio. It can be purchased for as little as $129.00 online for the receiver with a home kit. While this unit represents last year’s technology it is a wonderful bargain in terms of price. Sure, it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that the latest radio have like TuneSelect but it plays the music just the same.

The radio gets a three star rating due to its’ more primitive interface. The receiver itself lacks a numeric keypad but the remote in the home kit does have a numeric keypad and you will use the remote most of the time with this receiver. Another reason for the lower rating is the display - two lines. Today’s radios offer four and sometimes six lines of display space but Sony does manage to get all the important information on the display. The display is functional offering eight levels of contrast and it is backlit and blue. You may have noticed that the receiver alone does not ship with a remote like the Delphi units. The remotes (car and home are different) ship in the car and home kits.

Available Kits and Accessories

The Sony Portable XM receiver is commonly bundled in either a home or car kit and is rarely seen for sale alone these days.

Home Kit - the home kit is available for $129.99 and includes a home dock, a power supply, an antenna, and a mini-stereo to twin RCA output cable for connection to standard RCA input sources. For connection to most computer soundcards, you can purchase a mini-stereo to mini-stereo cable from Radio Shack and the like.

Car Kit - the car kit is available for $129.99 and includes a car dock, a mini remote, a power lighter adapter, a small magnetic-mount car antenna, and an audio cassette adapter. You mount your receiver somewhere convenient and then power it using a cigarette lighter adapter. You will need to mount a magnetic antenna and the satellite signal is delivered to your radio using a cassette adaptor so your car radio will need a cassette player. If you don’t have a car radio with a cassette player, you can purchase the FM Modulator option described below if you can find it. Good luck on finding it.

FM Modulator - rumored to exist but I can’t find it for sale anywhere!

50 ft. Cable Extension - this cable extension retails for $64.99 and connects to your home antenna and extends it to provide more cable for those tricky interior installations. Typically, you will be able to get a three-bar signal in the interior of your home and will not require the antenna to be placed in a window. Office installations commonly require window antenna placement. Home installations rarely do.

This is Part 7 in a continuing series where I look at the current state of satellite radio technology, satellite radio services, and satellite radio hardware.