SIRIUS Stiletto SL100 Portable Satellite Radio Receiver
by Sirius Satellite Radio
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List Price: Our Price: $189.99 You Save: $210.00 (53%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Car Audio or Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SIRIUS Stiletto SL100 Portable Satellite Radio Receiver
Customer Review: Pretty good product, some drawbacks
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoy using my sirius radio. There are frequent places along the lakefront where I cannot get consistent reception (I use it during my AM jogs) however, these are very short. The earphones with the built in antenna are large and the earbuds can be uncomfortable. However your ability to record songs from the radio and play them back is an absolutely great feature. Your battery life is also greatly extended when using the playback feature instead of the radio. You get two batteries a larger battery and a slim battery. It does not come with a belt clip or other device to make it easy to carry. If you put in in your pocket or other running belt the dial is very sensitive to touch and your can end up stopping or changing the channel easily. There is a belt clip available but I have not bought it yet so I cannot comment on how well that device works. Another feature I like is if you are listening to one station you can use you dial to see the other channels and the song they are currently playing is also listed. You know before changing it if you want to listen to the song or not. The recording feature couldn't be any easier. I once started recording a song deleted the portion I had recorded (intentionally) and then changed my mind again. I hit the record button and the entire song was recorded despite erasing the first half of the song earlier. This will not work if you are changing streams and record a song from another stream once it is half over (tried this and it didn't work). Overall I love it. It is great to constantly have new music to listen to and if you are bored you can change channels. You can't get new music with your iPod if you are not at the computer and on iTunes. Not as light or compact as the iPod nano or shuffle (I own both of these as well) but once we have a couple more options for carrying it around during workouts it will be even better.Customer Review: Could not be happier!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought a StilettoSL100 several weeks ago, along with the home kit and I have since bought a vehicle kit. I mainly got it for travel, as I fly quite a bit and am on the road a lot and stuck in rental cars without satellite radio. So far, I could not be happier as it does exactly what I bought it for. Let me preface that though, as I have not even tried the silly looking head set with the built in antenna but instead have used it at home with the the home kit and speakers and now in a jeep with the vehicle kit.
The home kit took about 10 minutes to set up and get a good 2 to 3 bar signal pointed out of a window at home. I have recorded about 40 hours of material off of my favorite stations for times when I will either not be in the house or jeep with an antenna. I bought a good quality set of head phones to use with it as I do not like ear buds. When I travel, I will record additional material so I will have plenty of stations to listen to....so what if it is a few days old, it is music I like!
The car kit was a breeze to install, the hardest part was hiding the wires and it works as well or better than the factory installed units in my other vehicles...by the way...this is the 4th Sirius receiver I have now.
I have not installed any of the software onto my computer as I can record everything I want over the air. I have read a number of negative reviews, and all I can say is that for my purposes this unit is perfect, far better than an I Pod and easy to use at home or in a vehicle. I will try out the antenna head set at some point and let you all know. I think what it boils down to is if you understands the pros and cons of something and use it based on that you will not be disappointed.
Customer Review: Portable Live Satellite Radio??? STILLetto Not There!
Summary: 2 Stars
I commute to NYC from NJ by train and really missed Howard live in the morning. I live about an hour outside of the city-- in Middletown, NJ a suburb of New York and couldn't wait for Sirius to release their portable unit- the Stiletto. So I got it for Christmas... tried it around my home... it only worked in certain spots -- my expectations diminished. Then I tried it on the train this week...The only time I could get a sustainable signal was when I was about 5 miles outside of Manhattan. Then it was great. I was only able to listen for about ten minutes out of my hour ride. The signal really has to be enhanced for the rest of the metropolitan area.
The Headphones are what give the Stiletto its name-- you feel like there are two high heels jammed in your head. Cheap design and construction. The sound easily leaks out of them. Didn't anyone try wearing them for ten minutes? Maybe the technicians couldn't get their own signal either.
I have read other reviews by folks who say "it's new technology" "give it a chance" or "it's the same for all things new and will improve with time." And others who say it's "Great!" (they must be salesman or Sirius employees). Well, I disagree. First. it has to WORK and then you can make it better. The Stilletto does not at all do what it is supposed to yet. This was clearly rushed and released for the holidays. The price for everything is outrageous for the quality of the product and what it doesn't do. I wished I had purchased the slightly cheaper portable S50 unit that is portable but not live. I would have been better able to manage my own expectations.
Shame on Sirius.
Mark
Customer Review: Fantastic product!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I commute for 1 hour each way per day and used to used my Rio MP3 player to listen to music on the road.
I bought the stilletto 100, car dock and had it connected with the RF tuner for car. I download podcasts at home and add them to the stilletto using windows media player at home before I hit the road. I then listen to mp3s or satellite radio through my car stereo through a pre set channel.
I like the fact that the Stilletto records in the background while I listen to my mp3's. It can also act like a TIVO allowing you to pause live radio or if you like the song, click the heart and it will record the whole song (even if you are halfway through).
I would not recommend getting this if you intend to just use the headphones to listen to satellite radio. They are useless and more like a torture device. If you accept the fact you will need a docking station or car dock then you wil not be disappointed.
As for the programming I actually would prbably prefer XM for music. However the Stilletto is perfect for me. I am even holding off buying a new car as I do not want to give up my stilletto and the portablity aspects of it.
There are people in teh office that have docks and listent o satellite radio at work but I am happy to listen to my mp3s plus the hours of music that the Stilletto has already recorded from my selected music channel.
If you are planning to buy then keep your eyes on the Sirius/XM merger. This product would be unable to play XM radio whereas no doubt there will be never products that can. No doubt the price of this will fall further in the future to make it more enticing.
Hope this helps
Customer Review: Memory options limited
Summary: 3 Stars
Although the Stiletto is billed as having 2 gig of memory, your ability to fully utilize that total is somewhat limited. For example, only 800 mb can be used for downloaded MP3/WMA files. The rest of the memory is restricted to material you record from actual Sirius broadcasts.
Individual songs that you may want to save can total no more than ten hours. Once you max out that ten hour limit, the Stiletto will automatically erase the oldest songs you have saved. There is no way to permanently "lock" those songs as there is with XM's Pioneer Inno. And as with the Inno, you are not likely to have a smooth break at the beginning or end of songs. That can be quite annoying.
Another 100 hours of memory is dedicated to material you record in blocks. For example, if you like Nina Blackwood's countdowns on the 80's channel, you can set the unit to come on automatically at 9 AM Saturday and record channel 8 for three hours.
The Stiletto does "fit" the new universal SUPV1 docking station. It will power up and receive a signal from your roof mounted satellite antenna. You can even change channels and save songs. The problem is, however, you can't actually LISTEN to it. the SUPV1 will not activate the FM modulator. And since the headphone jack is on the bottom of the Stiletto and thus blocked by the dock, you can't run a line out from the unit and listen some other way. Go figure.
As to the complaints about the reception, well, it's a SATELLITE radio. If you are not in a metropolitan area serviced by ground repeaters, line-of-sight will be an issue for you. However, that is not a problem with the Stiletto itself; it's true of all satellite radios.