Electronics : SIRIUS Stiletto 2 Portable Satellite Radio with MP3 Player |
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 The sleek and stylish Stiletto 2 can play both Sirius broadcasts and MP3s. View larger. |
 With its compact design, the Stiletto 2 lets you experience Sirius internet radio on the go. |
 Listen to more than 130 channels of music and programming on the go--in the car, at home, or in the office. |
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Rating:  - * Jilted Stiletto 2 Lover ... I've had it almost a year now. It kept shutting down on it's own, and they sent me a replacement under warranty. I think the on/off switch just wore out, I used the unit nearly every day. So hooray for the warranty. Problem is, the unit and it's firmware (the embedded, onboard operating software) just have so many little tricks and bugs and shortfalls. Over the year, I've learned how to deal with these things, how to reinstall the firmware, how to avoid crashes and how to increase the odds that my planned recordings will work. It's all so damn frustrating. I love what the unit is trying to do, and I love the sirius content, so I NEED this little gadget for my daily life. But, simply put, it is alot of work to live with. I still love it though, but there are times I'ev wanted to whip it under a steamroller. Word to the wise: This is not something that your grandma can operate, it takes a tech saavy youth to maintain and keep this puppy operating. Rating:  - * The best of both worlds ... This is a great portable satellite radio as well as an MP3 player. I love the one button record option and the ability to rewind if listening to a talk show. I waited for quite a while to buy it and read all of the reviews. Some people complained about poor reception but mine works great. I use it while roller blading and driving in the car. Rating: - * Quite happy with it. ... After regular use of my Stiletto 2 for the past month, I have to say I'm quite happy with its performance. I am located in North Dakota, nowhere near a terrestrial repeater, so I have to rely solely on satellite signal. Outdoors with the antenna headphones in use, I get good strong signal any time I've got a clear view of the sky directly above. In cases of heavy cloud cover, signal will sometimes get spotty if I'm under a tree. Concrete or metal overhangs (like at a gas station) will usually kill the signal until I get clear, regardless of sky condition. Using the unit outdoors with just the earbuds is hit and miss. With clear skies, I need to hold the unit upright to maintain signal, and it's more sensitive to obstructions as well. For portable outdoor use, your best bet is to use the antenna headphones, which sound ok as far as I'm concerned and are fairly comfortable. Indoors, I can sometimes get signal if I point the antenna phones out a window, but it's hit and miss. I utilize the wifi feature when indoors, and get great signal and sound quality. Setting up the wifi connection was not difficult. On the down side, the channel selection is reduced when using a wifi connection. I've not done a comprehensive survey, but I believe all the music channels are available. Most (maybe all) of the sports channels, however, are not available over an internet connection and require satellite signal to receive. Additionally, the ability to pause, rewind, and save songs is also unavailable when using the wifi. I have not picked up the home or car kits yet, but intend to do so in the near future. For the time being, I hang the antenna headphones from my rear view mirror and get good signal in the car. I then plug my cassette adapter (yeah, my car is old) into the phone jack and listen through my car stereo. However, I do need to turn the volume on the Stiletto 2 rather high, which means I've got the rather expensive antenna headphones blasted, which concerns me. Battery life estimates seem to be pretty accurate. I get almost right at 5 hours of satellite reception on a full battery charge, right around 10 (I've actually only done 8, but had 20% charge left) when using a wifi, and significantly lower power consumption when playing stored music. Unfortunately, the way the unit is built it is not possible to plug the power adapter and the antenna headphones into the unit at the same time, although you can use the power and the other phone jack at the same time. I'm not entirely sure why the power jack wasn't moved over just a fraction of an inch further left to allow all three jacks to be used simultaneously. The only other minor issue I've seen is the rare time I turn the unit on from "sleep" mode, and it seems to get a bit confused as to how much battery charge it's got. I'll get a "low battery" message, even though it's over 75% charged. Waking it up a second time takes care of the problem. I've only experienced this two or three times thus far, and hope it's not indicative of a future power issue. Setting up service was a bit of a challenge, as I had a difficult time getting the voice recognition software on their phone service to understand me. This surprised me, as I have a very neutral accent. I was using a cell phone, so that may have been a factor. Once I got a living human on the line, setup was a snap. All in all, I'm happy with my Stiletto 2, as well as the Sirius programming with it. I do recommend the product even with its limitations. Rating: - * I knew I'd like this thing... ... I knew I'd like this thing, but I didn't know how much! I use it all the time in the car, mow the lawn connected to wi-fi, listen to the library all the time...it's great. The Altec Lansing antenna headphones sound and work quite well, and the home and vehicle kits are a must. The "patch" antenna on the unit itself doesn't receive satellite well at all. If you're in a city, the terrestrial repeaters are received by the portable very well. Sirius programming is excellent- you just need to get past their customer service first. I highly recommend the Stiletto 2. Rating:  - * Very buggy software limits, ruins the experience. ... I received my Stiletto II about two weeks ago, and I've enjoyed the convenience of listening to Sirius programming on-the-go after recording it in my office during the day. The headphones it comes with are quite nice (metallic wiring). Most of the joy I get out of the device, however, is dashed by the very buggy software that's installed - and that I find myself having to reinstall over and over again - on it. In the last two weeks, I've had to perform an approximately 15-minute "device recovery" using a PC and the provided software to erase everything I've recorded and then reformat the Stiletto II. Thus far I've had to recover because: 1) the device had some kind of issue with an inability to delete recorded programs I no longer needed, freezing and then giving me an "error, plug into computer to recover" message; 2) for no apparent reason other than waking up the device after it had been recording during the afternoon; and 3) the software crashed the first time I attempted to upload mp3's onto it because I foolishly downloaded updated device software when prompted to by the "My Sirius Studio" program (the software you use to upload music and manage the files already on the Stiletto II, provided on a CD-ROM). In fact, I'm typing this as my Stiletto II is recovering after incident #3 ("Recovering / Please wait..." it says). I regret buying this; I had a Sportster 4 that worked just fine. I haven't had to reboot the Stiletto 2 in the last few days (the time between incidents 2 and 3 because, I suspect, I'd been limiting my use to very simple things, like recording and listening to just one station, rather than attempting to upload mp3's or manage what files I had on the device after successive recordings. That means, however, it seems that to avoid future crashes I'll have to avoid enjoying the Stiletto 2 to its fullest advertised capability. I hope in the future other device makers than Sirius/Directed Electronics offer Sirius reception. The Stiletto 2 is just a mess. It's been about 15 minutes already and my Stiletto 2 is now in the "Receiving Software" stage of the software recovery. I'll have to reselect my favorite stations and will have lost all my recordings. Sigh. |
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