Polk Audio XRt12 Reference Home XM Satellite Radio Tuner (Black)
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If you are an XM CHANNELS subscriber, your tuner should be able to tune only to those channels. XM and Sirius, as you may or may not know, merged, which caused both companies to have a lineup of channels on In XM, the best channels of Sirius are mixed with the best of the non-duplicated channel lineups. Both Sirius radios and some of the XM radios have the possibility of a la carte subscriptions, and each of them has It does not have newer features nor can it reach the higher channels as it is an old Polk tuner. Currently, my tuner is showing a high of 236, but I'm expecting a low of 239.
Selected User Reviews For Polk Audio XRt12 Reference Home XM Satellite Radio Tuner (Black)
This review is for the Polk XRt reference digital receiver from XM. A) model, its algorithms do not reflect the state of the art available from portables. A little background * I do not regard myself as an audiophile, but I do possess a decent pair of ears. For me, Polk XRt is the best at masking compression artifacts, but does not do so well with the compression filter. There is a great deal of jitter on discussion channels, but a bit less so on Among the channels, I perceive the classical channel to have better channel quality, most likely because they use instruments rather than voices. Details
Since I bought the Delphi SkyFi3 4 months ago, I have hooked it up to a receiver with analog input. It was the frequent lockup that was my only complaint about the DELPHI, which is described under the relevant review section. As it turned out, the Delphi sounded quite good, if not excellent. It seems to me that they are masking the compression artifacts with a little less fidelity, as I said I am not an expert. However, I am satisfied with it's performance. Compared with FM radio, it sounds like it's about the same. Aside from the lock up problem and since I only listen to XM at home, I thought it would make more sense to upgrade to that. It was not a new upgrade, however. There is no denying that the Polk clearly reveals compression artifacts which can be heard mostly on the It's quite annoying at first, but I'm hoping it will be easier to adjust to over time (I have it for two Due to the destruction of the Delphi cradle and the distaste of returning items that work, I have chosen to stick with the Polk for now (well at least it looks very cool) though I would not recommend it to anyone else. (The Delphi certainly has better algorithms). The portables generally have newer and usually better algorithms. Adding a Supplement Also, I purchased a receiver with a digital input in order to use the POLK. Analog input also exhibits distortion, despite the fact that both digital and analog signals do. Note the following Clarity might be an issue for some audiophiles with the Delphi. Although this is very likely to be the case, I am more interested in not seeing every detail in the compression artifacts than in having the output clear.
Everything seems to be working fine.
It is an excellent product, it works perfectly The setup and use of the system is simple. If the XM Radio people say the antenna must be installed outside the house or on the SW side of the house, don't listen to them. To start with, try it on top of your TV or on the unit itself for a while You should be able to get a decent signal somewhere. In the event that that does not work, do what they suggest and worry about drilling holes, running cables, and getting an external I have my antenna positioned on top of my TV in the entertainment center and I get an excellent signal from it.
The unit did not come with a manual or remote control, so I had to guess what to do to get it working.
This week, I purchased a lightly used PolkAudio XRt12 XM receiver with a $25 off coupon. It is the only XM tuner I know of that provides digital output via Toslink optical and coax cable. In my opinion, opting for either analog or optical out results in a fuller and more immersive sound. I would say that my Roady 2 sounds somewhat flat compared to my Roady 3. It gives information about the current channel and song when I use the video out TV feature Despite the unit's near impossible readability, the display is rather clunky and outdated but informative, especially since it is somewhat clunky/dated. I find that scrolling is unadjustable and cannot be disabled, which is very This remote feels like a throwback to the 1970s, but the functionality is fine. This is an old SkyFi XM receiver with a Crestron control and TV display atop. When you open it up, you'll see a power supply, display buttons, and the main board. It is generally the same as the old SkyFi XM receiver. most important addition and reason I was interested in this unit - no matter how old it is - is that it contains a BurrBrown digital/analog converter. S/PDIF is transmitted via a CS8405, which is connected to a coaxial driver and a Toslink transmitter chip. Presented here is a BurrBrown PCM1742, which functions as a digital/analog converter. There is an Anpec APA4558 Dual Op Amp at the analog stage. An OpAmp like this was commonly used as an analog stage in Through the use of a SPCA718 MPEG decoder, ram, and firmware from a Winbond flash drive and a SPCA711 YCrCb to analog NTSC/PAL conversion, the TV functions. In the past, Sunplus chipsets were an affordable way for TVs to generate graphic and video It uses a metal can, as do the Skyfi, Roady, etc. Inside the metal can is a STA450 source decoder that is responsible for demultiplexing the data stream, decrypting, and decoding audio. In addition to older Sony, Pioneer, and Alpine receivers, the STA450 is found in other brands as well. A digital/analog converter or a digital audio transmitter receives the digital audio output from the STA450 source decoder. Those Delphi receivers that contained a metal can had very poor digital/analog converters, and all had analog buffers that were unreliable. There is a significant difference in sound quality between older BurrBrown converter receivers and their modern counterparts. What makes me think this Polk unit is still worth a purchase 12 years after it was manufactured? The XRt12 is by far the best value for money, as it includes an STA450 with S/PDIF output, so it produces better sound quality than any other receiver available. Except if you brew your own XM receiver with S/PDIF output and connect it to a good receiver or to an S/PDIF DAC, the XRt12 offers the best Sirius/XM audio quality at the moment.
THINGS THAT WORK One thing that the average XM subscriber may not know when they first start reading about satellite radio is that the signal for XM systems arrives as a direct line of sight signal AND as a repeater signal network in large cities. The best of both worlds is here for us. When I first set this up at the office, there were only 2 land signal bars and 0 (zero) satellite signal bars in the menu for Signal Aiming. My initial thought was that I would have to drill through the buildings' 24 inch brick walls in order to connect.
Wrong! The XM service in this case worked with just the land signal alone after being connected to the cellular network. I played this through a small 5 and found the sound quality to be excellent. From a residence, I pirated a single channel home theater. So far, the senior partner likes it so much that he has re-installed it He enjoys the pure joy of listening to music without any interruptions. Polk's tuner has been very reliable and we are satisfied with it. In the future, I will only purchase audio systems with a satellite service built-in or an option. Please find attached our WISH It would be nice to see a mini-menu option with a larger display, and perhaps one with a more legible color background and text. There have been a few other mentions of It's possible that Polk will offer other options for this unit down the road.
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