Delphi MyFi XM2GO Portable XM Satellite Radio Receiver with Home / Car Kits

Definitely buy this product, but buy it from a retailer other than Amazon (such as Best Buy or Circuit City). If you have read several reviews, you may have noticed that this item is not exchangeable/returnable from Amazon. They now offer an extra service plan, but it isn't the same thing.I bought XM Radio because--believe it or not--New York has no widely available adult alternative station. Reception in Brooklyn for the college stations stinks, and anyway college radio is too uneven a format to really listen to a lot.Also, like many young Americans I've lived in many places and come to enjoy a lot of different programming. Some people love TV, some love company, I and a lot of others love the radio. I like NPR, classical, sports talk, BBC talk, radio plays and readings, and music, music, music! I tried three preview subscriptions to both Sirius and XM and chose XM for its World Cup coverage, its early music programming, and its "Lifestyle" channels.XM vs. SIRIUS: Yes, Sirius has Howard, but I don't like mean humor. Both offer similar things. There are several rock channels, such as early classic rock, late classic, alternative rock, college, eclectic; several pop channels, with XM having a 40s channel through 90s, Sirius '50s through 90s but with a bigband/swing channel elsewhere; classical, Christian, techno, rap channels (at least three of each); sports talk; news talk; shock-jock talk (Sirius has Howard, XM has Opie and Anthony--I know, I know, who??). Sirius has the NFL games, XM has baseball. XM also has the World Cup. XM is a big corporation, and the stations have playlists and you hear similar songs every day. I mean, the newest songs get played daily, the classic bands have their catalog rotated through. You don't hear the SAME songs daily, except for the new hits. XM also has minicommercials for itself, 8-10 seconds long, and the DJs read back the songs they've played sometimes. Sirius has a looser feel, more antiestablishment. However, XM has the shows I want: World Cup, early music, classical music appreciation shows, and the three lifestyle channels of eclectic music, plus XMU and two coffeehouse channels (my favorite kind). Sirius has only two. Also, Sirius has no portable radio where you can hear live broadcasting. Basically, go by whatever kind of music you want to get out of it.THE RADIO: I bought this from Amazon and it arrived on Friday afternoon. On Saturday afternoon, it crashed. The flagship review here ("Great product!") claims this is solid-state and therefore can't crash; it is not and it can. Live reception was fine, My XM kept crashing and locking up the whole thing. I purges all settings and "Restored Factory Settings" but nothing.Amazon wouldn't take it back, and the customer service rep who emailed me back didn't seem to understand my question as to why they wouldn't. I called Delphi, was on hold for 45 minutes (on speakerphone while I made dinner). The next morning I called at 8 am and got through in 3 minutes. Very helpful, I was given the address to return it.I get a package a few days later, an obviously used radio with stains on it. I called XM and they even told me who used to own it! I emailed Specmo, the company that apparently Delphi sends its fixit things to, and complained. Without my asking, they get Delphi to produce a truly new radio and send it to me. I called XM and they confirmed it was new.The problem is that XM sells programming, Delphi sells the radio, Amazon sells the radio for Delphi, another company does the warranty...it's guaranteed to cause trouble. Therefore, eliminate the need to send packages and ust buy it from a store.RECEPTION: Is amazing! You literally can stuff this into your pocket or coat and walk the streets and listen. New york has ground repeaters, no way it's the satellite. In buses if you sit near the window and hold it in your lap, it receives. It receives inside some buildings, like the NYPL and certain storefronts. But mostly it will cut out. On exception is if you sit near the front of any restaurant, cafe, pub: it will always work if it's laying on a newspaper (to keep it clean form the tabletop). It receives in East New York and Upper East Side.OTHER: My radio (the third I've tried) gets 8 hours of content stored. The others stored 6-7. I record a channel for five hours at night, then wake up and check if it got any songs I like. Otherwise I record a channel that plays odd music, like XMU, and listen to it in Starbucks. At home on evenings I listen to it as I write or read, and I listen to it on the way to work and returning.This is the best possible recreational electronic, enhancing my lifestyle immeasurably. Some people like cable TV and al that goes wiht it; I like listening to the radio.

As a unit for the car or in the home, the XM2GO is great. I purchased mine for running(2GO) and for the car as an afterthought. It works great in the car. The sound and reception are great. The price for subscription is good. The attachments for the car are substandard, but not severely so.However, the unit is awful if you live in an area with trees or buildings. It has the dumbest antenna that you clip on to boost the signal. It does not work and a run with this thing is maddening.It has the capacity store programing. But, the carrying case is so poorly designed that it shuts off the unit when you put it in the carrier. The carrier itself attaches very poorly and mine fell off while running.If these folks had any conscience they would retro-fit these units once they work out the antenna problem. They should also provide a decent carrier.The unit itself is quite acceptable. The attachments are so poorly thought out that I will be very cautious about purchasing anything made by them.

First let me say that I have only had the MyFi since Christmas (yes, my wife was one ofthe people who actually got one). I waited until now to write a review so that I couldget a good feel for the product. Some other reviewers on this page have laid out some ofmy pluses and minuses, so I may be reaffirming their comments. First, the great-1) The programming. XM has tons of stations. I listen to a wide variety of music, and Iwas able to fill up the 30 available presets rather quickly. One form of music Iparticularily like is techno/trance, and there are 3 channels that play some form of it.Also, there are 3 comedy channels, and on 2 of them they run segments of stand-uproutines from pretty much any comic out there. Very funny. Also, I paid extra for "HighVoltage", which is the "Opie and Anthony" show. In my opinion, well worth the money.Plus, XM has all MLB teams, Big Ten Football, and many other extras. I love theprogramming.2) The actual MyFi package itself is wonderful. It comes with 2 holders - one for thecar, one for the home - which you can plug the antenna, power source, and audio connectorinto so that all you have to do to switch from car to home is pull the MyFi out of oneholder and drop it into another. Very easy, very smart. Plus, you get 3 differentmounting options for your car, headphones, a personal antenna for when you are using itlike a walkman, RCA cable for connection to a home stereo, tape adapter for the car,cigarette lighter adapter, home power adapter, and various cases and clips, plus a remote control. I washonestly amazed at how much comes with this package.3) Ease of use. It took me all of about 10 minutes to figure out how to work the menusand different options on the unit. It is extremely easy to set presets, change displays,change channels, etc.4) Recording. This is a truly innovative feature. I have a digital video recorder, andthis works pretty much the same way. You can set up recording schedules, or you canrecord whatever you are listening to just by hitting the record button. Very cool.Also, you can record up to 5 hours of programming, so if you are indoors (where satellitedoes not work without external antennas) you can listen to the recording. For me, it isgreat because I can record the whole "Opie and Anthony" show and listen to it whenever Ihave some free time.5) This is a small plus, but in this world of huge problems to get anything done, theactivation is very simple. You can log onto XM's website, enter your radio code, coughup some dough, and within about an hour maximum your radio will be active. It took mineabout 7 minutes to be activated (much like a cell phone).Now, for some of the not-so-great features1) First, I have to complain about the audio quality. As another reviewer said, you cantell it is compressed. Hopefully the XM people are working to resolve this issue, but itis sort of frustrating. I have a very high quality Onkyo THX certified receiver, and Ican pick up very subtle audio imperfections. I would say the quality is somewherebetween a tape and a CD. Sometimes it almost seems like it is "wavering". The soundwill be amazing for 1/2 a song, and then it will be like a tape for 1/2 the song. Isuspect this has nothing to do with the MyFi itself, but has everything to do with thestream coming from the satellite. Also, using a tape adapter for the car is prettyfrustrating. I am thinking about having mine hardwired, because using the tape adapterensures that the best sound quality you get will be, well, tape.2) The headphones. What a joke. These could possibly be the worst headphones everunleashed on humanity. They suck. The sound quality is a joke, and they are thein-the-ear style, but they actually cause pain having them in your ears. It is an insultthat they send out this wonderful product with such abominations for headphones. Minehave already found the garbage.3) The recording needs a buffering system, as another reviewer said. It would be niceif it started recording as soon as you tuned into a station, like a DVR, but... I guesswe can't have everything.4) I am also reaffirming another reviewer's comments, but XM or Delphi or whoever needsto make the MyFi able to connect to a computer. I find it amazing that in this day andage we can have such a sophisticated piece of electronics released without the ability toconnect for updates and such. Maybe it is coming.Lastly, there is the issue of reception. I did not include this in the great ornot-so-great categories because it is neither. I live in a suburb of Cleveland, and Ihave had very little reception problems. However, since the stream is coming from asatellite, I do not think that where you live has anything to do with reception. I thinkthat some of the reception issues raised in some reviews may be user error, as opposed tothe radio not working. XM is pretty clear about where to put antennas, and if you followthose guidelines, you should have no problems. Now, that is not to say that theguidelines aren't kinda dumb. They want you to put the home antenna in a south facingwindow with no obstructions to the sky. My stereo is about 45-50 feet from any southfacing window, and the cable on the antenna is only about 25 ft. However, XM is happy toprovide and extension (for a ton of money I assume). I put my antenna in an east facingwindow with a house obstructing the sky, and I have had no reception problems, so takethat for what it's worth. In the car, the antenna cable is more than long enough to runfrom the front of my Tahoe to the back, out the liftgate, onto the roof, and still haveabout 3 extra feet. There is basically no car the antenna can't fit in. It is magnetic,and it stays put. Reception while traveling around was great about 95% of the time.However, just like my GPS, when you are in an area that is obstructed by trees or otherobjects, the reception fades. It is somewhat annoying that the people in charge ofcoming up with this technology couldn't figure out a way for satellites to beam signalsthrough things. This has always irritated me with my GPS. Maybe in the future.I realize this is a long review, but I hope it helped. Overall, I wouldn't trade thisfor any regular radio. I love it, and I believe the technology andsound quality can only get better, and it is pretty good right now.2/10/05 - Update - Well, I have now had the MyFi for about a month and a half now and I have read some of the VERY negative reviews here, and I feel the need to comment.First - Reception: I have had virtually no problems at all. I have used the MyFi in my car, my home, and as a "walkman". The only time I have had reception issues are when I am in my car and there is very heavy cover blocking the sky. I have used the MyFi almost everyday walking around Cleveland State University and I have never even had one single fade-out. I have even been able to go deep into buildings before the signal fades. Now, according to XM and Delphi, the unit will not work when a roof is over your head, but I have proven that very untrue. I have been able to listen to to the MyFi uninterrupted in a classroom with no windows. This may be a fluke, but take it for what it's worth.Second - Audio - I mentioned this in the original review, and there have been many negative reviews about the audio quality. I have noticed, just within the past 2 weeks or so, that the quality has gotten much better. The "wavering" that I talked about is still present, but it is now only there about 25% of the time. I have been very impressed with the sound quality as of late. One reviewer said that talk shows sound like the people are talking into cans attached to a string, and I noticed this as well with "Opie and Anthony". However, both Opie and Anthony have been complaining about this problem, and the problem is coming from the studio that they broadcast from. They routinely complain about this during their program, and I have noticed a better sound lately on their program as well, most likely because O & A had a meeting with the XM engineers.Overall, I would now give this unit 5 stars, whereas I gave it 4 before because of the audio quality. I do not have any complaints at all. Maybe I am unique in my experience, but I just don't get what any of the negative reviewers are complaining about.