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who has an S50 and is it any good?
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| who has an S50 and is it any good?
- Click HERE to go to the original thread with graphics
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| frogball |
| anyone got one? would you recommend it? how does it work inside buildings? inside your car? |
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| james_stewart |
| I love it, but others will disagree. It does definately have alot of gremlins, but that's why i bought a 5 year extended warranty |
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| JPL108@S50 |
| well i have one and i think its the best,, i got one so i can tape the show and then listen to it as i walk on the street..I'm a mailman and i listened to stern every day live ..but when he made the switch i had to do it too,as we know the radios that are portable really suck and there is nothin like the s50 for being portable..only bad thing of having it is waiting for extras as they are very hard to get,,home kit extra battery.. |
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| ottoa2000 |
there is a guy on ebay that seems to always have s50 stuff. he seems to sell alot of best buy returns or overstock items.
http://stores.ebay.com/LoyalShop-com-EB-Store
i am thinking about getting an s50, how long does the battery last, how long to recharge, can you listen while it recharges ? |
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| Wags33 |
| Battery can last 3 hrs. You can listen while it recharges in the home dock, car dock or the AC adapter. I've had mine since Dec. and love it. It however does have some gremlins as previously mentioned. Recording...can only record 2 hour shows so you have to set up multiple recordings to capture the whole 5 hour Howard show. The recording setup only allows you to schedule record starts on the 5 minute increments so between 2 scheduled recordings you may loose 5 minutes of the show. Sirius is working on fixing some of the quirks with a firmware update but I haven't seen anything release yet. Over-all, I'm happy with my S50. |
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| HootyMcBoobitty |
A picture is worth a 1000 words, I thought I had the S50 til I saw what it looked like, DOH!!
The Sportster with the car kit can be portable. you just have to be a little inventive. They sell battery chargers that can hold a charge and has a cigarette lighter adapter. Plug in the power cord wrap it all up in a back pack and listen to it on a regular walkman FM radio. This works in study class too and works for anyone near you up to 30 feet away. Bulky? Uncormfortable? Sure is but sometimes the Stern show makes you desperate to hear just a few more minutes. If you can't get the boom box for the Sportster Radio Shack sells a 12 watt power converter with a cigarette lighter socket. Plug it into the wall and use a normal FM radio to hear the signal. The vehicle can work as a transmitter as well and uses a minimum of power, I have run it for 8 hours straight without a problem. :D |
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| nicksgt |
| i fucking hate it |
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| bondoo6 |
| i have it and love it, if it woks for you recording the show and listening to it later its a must have, just set it to record every night at 9 and it turns it self on and records. I have the boombox and sportster also, which is a good product also |
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| walk216 |
| sirius needs a true portable device. |
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| artiefan711 |
after months of debating, i went out and bought an S50 last week. the clincher was the fact that my local best buy store had the home kits in stock as well (FINALLY!)
anyhow, at first its a bit overwhelming, the S50 comes with about 50 different parts and unpackaging it and seeing what you got can be overwhelming. anyhow,once you start to organize everything and fire it up and read the VERY thick manual, you get the hang of it.
simply put, the thing is amazing. its everything i hoped for and more. ive been having so much fun at work "loving" songs and creating a library for myself. its basically like having FREE access to a service like iTunes or something. the songs dont take up much room at all.
i have over 14 hours of Jam On recorded and 14 hours of The Vault and 10 hours of Area 33 as well as about 30 individual songs so far (some as long as 10-15 minutes per song) and i have only filled 14% of the memory on the thing.
so it doesnt get live portable. this is true. but honestly, i couldnt care less. first of all, anyone who knows anything about XM's portables knows that the reception is intermitent at best. people seem to have this misconcieved notion of sitting on a subway or working out in the gym and getting live sirius (or xm) and that is simply just not possible at this point in time.
what you do get with the S50 is essentially an ipod with the ability to program live recordings and save them, instantly save any song you like, and have 20 + hour blocks of your top 3 favorite channels. all in a device thats not much bigger than an ipod nano. i love it. i only wish i wouldve gotten it sooner but thats alright.
the thing has been reported to have bugs and issues. well the firmware has been re-issued twice now and there is a new version coming out this week apparently.
i have mine programed with the latest firmware and have not had one single problem. i have the thing turned on for about 20 hours a day if not more (leave it on overnight to record new music content blocks from my favorite channels)
you may not be getting "live" broadcasts while in a subway or at the gym but you do get a HUGE block of your 3 favorite channels, up to 120+ individual songs, and 512 meg of space for your own mp3s to upload onto it....so really...who even cares that you dont get live broadcasts???
as far as recording stern, i have done it to make sure it works (which it does perfectly) however for me its not really needed because i work in an office all day and can just listen to the west coast feed from 8 am central time till about noon or 12:30 central time and i have the ability to pause it for piss breaks, coffee breaks, meetings, whatever, so i never miss a second of the show.
anyone who is on the fence, DO IT. i was on the fence since before christmas and finally just pulled the trigger with some of my tax returns and i couldnt be happier. |
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| frogball |
Quote: Originally posted by artiefan711
so it doesnt get live portable. |
WAIT A DURN MINUTE YOU RAT BASTARD!!!
you mean you still need an antenna with the fucking thing? i can't listen to the live feed just walking down the street?
ugh! i'm glad i asked...thanks for the info.... |
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| camel_toes |
| how many songs can u upload to the s-50 if it holds 512meg of space? |
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| boombox |
Quote: Originally posted by camel_toes
how many songs can u upload to the s-50 if it holds 512meg of space? |
That depends on the length of each song, but I would guess about 25 hours worth of songs for 512 megs. The S50 has a total of 1 Gig of ram, for about 50 hours worth of songs, half can be used for MP3s, the other half for recording Sirius programming. |
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| flowerfeeder |
The 5 minute spaces issue is my biggest complaint.
Also, how do I get the new Howard channel logos/voice tags?! Those should update automatically. |
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| nicksgt |
Quote: Originally posted by flowerfeeder
The 5 minute spaces issue is my biggest complaint.
Also, how do I get the new Howard channel logos/voice tags?! Those should update automatically. |
i started a seperate thread about this and really wasnt able to get an answer after two pages |
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| flowerfeeder |
I know.
I'm hoping that the update that is supposed to come out this week takes care of both issues. |
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| Douchebag_AZ |
| The S50 is pretty cool, definately don't buy it if you don't plan on using all the features, I just barely started using the MP3 playlist feature and I have about 100 songs downloaded on it so far .. It's pretty cool .. Those motherfuckers just need to make more S50 Home Docks!!!!!!!!!! |
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| jippetto |
| My friend just received his from Crutchfield. I had to wait forever, but I must admit, I love the s50 more than ever with the home kit. Good luck with your decision |
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| Beverachi |
Quote: Originally posted by nicksgt
i fucking hate it |
Great...I'll buy yours... How much do you want for it? |
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| p8ntslinger |
| I got mine last week. So far I like it. I think I will like it more with newer firmware. I was recording off the car kit,but my homekit just came today so I will see how that goes. I am weary of it after hearing other peoples problems. But for now I am happy with it. Plus the prices dropped some. I got mine for $241 shipped, and sent in for the rebate. |
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| nicksgt |
Quote: Originally posted by Beverachi
Great...I'll buy yours... How much do you want for it? |
oh no im on mission to force myself to like it now
but i really wish i would have just purchased a cheaper model that would have gone into a boombox |
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| camel_toes |
Quote: Originally posted by p8ntslinger
I got mine last week. So far I like it. I think I will like it more with newer firmware. I was recording off the car kit,but my homekit just came today so I will see how that goes. I am weary of it after hearing other peoples problems. But for now I am happy with it. Plus the prices dropped some. I got mine for $241 shipped, and sent in for the rebate. |
where did you buy yours from?
and thanks boombox for the info |
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| p8ntslinger |
| I won mine on ebay. From user hifiaudionline they have some buy now ones for $250 plus $20 shipping. But if you watch their regular auctions you can get them cheaper. Plus they give you a actual store recepit and rebate form (Not sure of the current rebates) Quick shipping as well. |
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| f-robin |
Quote: Originally posted by flowerfeeder
The 5 minute spaces issue is my biggest complaint.
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You don't have to do the 5 minute gap between recordings. You can use the remote to type in 1 or 2 minutes, instead of the 5 minute increment. But I don't even do that. I have 3 scheduled recording, back to back, no gap. I lose 30 seconds between each recording. That's it. It works flawlessly every night. I don't have the home dock though, I bought an AC/DC adapter and hook up the car dock in my house. |
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| Beverachi |
Quote: Originally posted by f-robin
You don't have to do the 5 minute gap between recordings. You can use the remote to type in 1 or 2 minutes, instead of the 5 minute increment. But I don't even do that. I have 3 scheduled recording, back to back, no gap. I lose 30 seconds between each recording. That's it. It works flawlessly every night. I don't have the home dock though, I bought an AC/DC adapter and hook up the car dock in my house. |
Exxactly. I set the record function for 9-11, 11-1, 1-3 M-F and record it in my car during the workday. Go out at 3pm for a break, grab it and then listen for the next couple of hours and on the drive home.
I love the s50.
I just got the home dock and tried it out real quick and it worked great as well. I have to run the wires thru the ceiling to get to a wondow from the domputer room, but that project will be done this weekend... |
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| flowerfeeder |
The home dock will not kick on to record the second and third block if you do not leave a 5 minute space.
It won't even work with a 2 or 3 minute space. |
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| Beverachi |
Quote: Originally posted by flowerfeeder
The home dock will not kick on to record the second and third block if you do not leave a 5 minute space.
It won't even work with a 2 or 3 minute space. |
Ahhh, did not realize that, flow...thanks for the tip. I record in the car each day so the home dock is just for night and weekend playbacks...
Good info to share... |
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| salinpac |
| I have the S50 and once you get the home dock it is perfect. I am able to record Howard the antenna works perfectly. It is a very sharp looking radio that impresses everyone, well worth the money. I don't really care for it being totally portable becasue I only listen to the radio at work and in the car. Best radio I had a XM2Go when it came out and it was to bulky and wasn't that great looking not to mention the Xm content wasn't that great. |
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| Wags33 |
Yeah I think the home dock acts differently than the car doc when the record settings are used. Beverachi or Flowerfeeder if you find you can get the home doc to work with out 5 minute gaps between records...let us know the trick. I did realize I could use the remote to cut the gaps between records down to the minute but when I did that....it did not kick off the 2nd and 3rd records.
Another thing I found...when you stick your S50 in the home dock it powers up automatically by default. If you use the remote to shutdown the unit before it fully initializes...(ie. you don't let it fully power up to the point where it reaches your reception of a channel)....the record sessions you have set up do not kick off that next day. It appears to work fine when you allow the unit to fully power up and initialize itself before shutting the unit down. Just another lesson learned for all you S50 owners. |
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