Sirius Hardware
Sirius Sportster SP-R1
Mindful of its exclusive contract to broadcast all NFL games, Sirius has given the Sportster SP-R1 some unique features for football fans. For starters, when your favorite team is playing, the Sportster will sound and display an alert and take you directly to the appropriate station (the radio provides alerts for 20 favorite songs and artists, too--or for additional sports teams). And the unit permits you to scroll through scores and text-based play-by-play reports for pro football, baseball, and hockey games, as well as other sports.
I do wish that the Sportster offered more slots for tracking favorite teams and that it had a TiVo-like recording feature, as Delphi's XM SkyFi2 does. But it costs just $100, and it has a big screen and lots of presets, making it a great all-around choice if you're on the Sirius network. Car and home kits are available for $50.
Sirius Sportster Boombox SP-B1
Photograph: Marc SimonThe beauty of Sirius's $100 Sportster Boombox SP-B1 lies in its portability: This add-on for the Sportster tuner weighs only 6 pounds. You can carry the unit around the house, to the beach, or anywhere else (though operating the Boombox away from AC power means fueling it with eight D batteries, which are rated to last for about 8 hours). Setup is easy: Slip your Sportster into a docking slot on the face of the Boombox and then attach the box's 20-foot antenna (which tucks away into a compartment when it's not in use). The Boombox's quartet of speakers yielded full audio; its power (5 watts per channel) is adequate for most situations but seemed a tad weak in noisy settings. The Delphi MyFi is an even more portable unit for personal listening, but the Boombox is a good choice if you plan to share the music.
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