General Asylum: REVIEW: Sanyo Fisher Sirius Satellite Radio CRSR-10 Tuner by KKC

Model:	Sirius Satellite Radio CRSR-10
Category:	Tuner
Suggested Retail Price:	$150
Description:	Satellite tuner w/ built-in car and home adaptability
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by KKC ( A ) on December 02, 2004 at 13:40:06
IP Address: 66.245.92.238

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for the Sirius Satellite Radio CRSR-10

Prior to leaving for family vacation on a 10-hour drive last week, I figured it would be nice to have some varying tunes, and I came across this little gizmo at Wally World. Having tried XM radio before and not particularly liking the fact that one had to get both car and home adapters for the basic tuner, the Sanyo drew me in by the fact that it has both adapters built in, and furthermore communicates to FM radio wirelessly via an unused FM band (more on this below).
So I picked it up and signed on for Sirius via the website, which is pretty easy. They say it takes maybe 5 minutes to get connected, but my wait was more like about 30. No big deal. This will be about all I will say about Sirius, as the review is more about the hardware, which does not seem to have much in the way of reviews, whereas far greater minds than mine have reviewed Sirius just about everywhere.
In addition to the built-in adapters, the Sanyo has, to me, an attractive form factor, with its buttons arranged logically within a circle/square configuration. Switchable face plates are supplied, giving one the choice of silver, blue or black. The display is clear and brightness-adjustable, and scrolls sideways to show the full composer/artist (top line) or track title (lower line).
The car mount took some time to get right, maybe because I was extremely tired and working in the car in relative darkness. It should be easy to move this between cars. It is still a bit awkward to get the tuner off and on to the mount, as the slot has very tight tolerance. A bit of hardware is supplied to create a home mount, which is functional and plain.
As my car radio does not have RCA inputs, I used the FM transmitter to communicate wirelessly with an unused channel on the radio, a process that worked ok but showed its limitations on the open road. When you enter an area where there is FM reception on your hitherto unused channel, it overpowers the Sirius reception, resulting in horrible noise, and you have to reassign the unit to a different channel. Annoying to do every 50 miles or so, and I delegated this task to my 14-yr old, who was in the front seat while mom napped in the rear. I also had her (14 yr old) do a lot of the programming and station-finding, so regret to say I will not comment extensively on this, except to say that she found it quite simple to do. You can assign 10 channels to favorites, scan genres and stations easily, and change stations without too much trouble.
Again, as my car radio is not that hot, I could not tell whether the sound quality was any good, and anyway there was that FM transmitter issue. Still, it was listenable, and we had fun listening to the 60s channel for a while, with much of the conversation between me and teenager revolving around the strange names the bands used in those days. ("Mamas and Papas?!")
So, back home now and caught up with work, I decided to plug the Sanyo into the big rig and see how it does. The connection can be done, again, via FM transmission if you have a tuner, or via single-to-pair RCA cable supplied. I am using the latter, figuring it must be better to hardwire.
The first thing I noticed is the extreme focus... it almost seemed like I had a center channel! This quickly gave way to concern that, oops, this sounds like mono! Now, I am embarrassed to admit this, but after some listening I still cannot tell if what I am hearing is a mono signal or just extremely narrow-stage stereo. While my speakers are about 9 ft apart, the image is no wider than perhaps 4 feet. Not having heard two-speaker mono for MANY years, I simply don't know, so I placed a call to Sanyo support and am awaiting their response. There seems to be nothing in the manual about this, which is fairly basic anyway regarding hookup and hardware, with much of the space given to unit operation and programming.
Another concern, perhaps a bit early to tell, is that the home antenna is very particular and I have not yet found a good spot for it that eliminates dropouts, although truth to tell I have not tried taking it outside, but just to a window.
The sound is pretty clear and listenable, considering what this is and costs, and how it is connected. Certainly better than FM reception in my house (I am in a valley). But it does not sound like stereo and I find myself getting irritable when listening to classical music in the main chair; rock seems ok. But much of my listening to this is going to be while I am at my desk or moving about the house, so stereo reproduction is less significant.
Wish List:
Remote control
Longer wires ( I will look into this for a 50-ft run between my desk and the rig).

Product Weakness: Is it stereo??
Slipping onto car mount is tricky at times, ok at others.
No remote control. Using in a main rig thus makes it difficult to see the playlist and certainly to change it.
Home antenna is picky so far.
Car FM transmitter not the best option for distance driving (this is of course a feature of the general technology and not the hardware itself.)

Product Strengths: Attractive, relatively compact unit, easy to set up.
Well-priced and available at WalMart and Crutchfield.
Car and home adapters all in one package with product.
Overall good sound for the money and reasonably satisfactory.
Overall recommended if you can live with the weaknesses mentioned.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Panasonic XR50 (soon to be 70)
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	none
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	NA
Speakers:	Usher 8871
Cables/Interconnects:	NA
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, 60s rock, jazz
Room Size (LxWxH):	17 x 20 x 16
Room Comments/Treatments:	domestic stuff only
Time Period/Length of Audition:	1 week
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	NA
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner