# Slacker as a "Sirius" substitute for SiriusXM?



## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

As mentioned before, I recently Wooted a 25 station 8Gig "Slacker" WiFi radio. After using it for a couple of days, I have become convinced that if I were a music only listener on XM that the Slacker would be a great substiute. I can load any of 25 radio "stations" that they program and listen to any of them at any time. They claim that the free subscription is advertising supported with 2 ads per hour. I have yet to hear an ad after many hours of listening (while working on rebuilding a house here). Anyway, so far I am very impressed. My only two complaints are that I have a problem hooking it up to the computer and it takes a couple of minutes for it to fire up when turned on. The first isn't really a problem since I can "reload" my station by WiFi. I don't think there's a cure for the second problem. So far, so good.

http://www.slacker.com/


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## bdowell (Mar 4, 2003)

I bought the same unit several weeks ago and have enjoyed using it with a few minor issues.

I set up a custom station, got it fairly well configured for my tastes, but unfortunately there's still a few artists that Slacker doesn't have available for me to add. They're in their rotation on their canned stations, but not available yet for adding to custom stations. They seem to be willing to hear the suggestions and requests, but seem a little slow acting upon them.

Otherwise, my only real concern would be the same as a co-worker: the battery life on the first generation 8GB units isn't the greatest. It's not horrible, but it'd be nice if it went more than the 8 - 9 hours that it seems to top out at.


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## Galaxie6411 (Aug 26, 2007)

As for certain groups I found a great function that I now LOVE. You can customize a station so type in the name of the band you want and they will give you that band and related ones. The related bands are very impressive IMO. I have one station entitled Live, they added groups such as Everclear, SoundGarden, CandleBox, Pearl Jam etc etc, which is exactly the type of music I wanted. I did the same with stations labeled Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Marilyn Manson, Beatles etc etc and they all came out great.

I also agree if I didn't listen to so much talk on the XM I would just go with the Slacker and dump the XM.


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## WERA689 (Oct 15, 2006)

But what about mobile use? I find that I listen to my XM more in my car or on my motorcycle than in the house. Is there any way to use this in a mobile application?


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## Galaxie6411 (Aug 26, 2007)

Yes they have an FM transmitter, much like some of the Ipod transmitters.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

WERA689 said:


> But what about mobile use? I find that I listen to my XM more in my car or on my motorcycle than in the house. Is there any way to use this in a mobile application?


It acts just like an IPod in a mobile situation. All the stations are stored inside the unit and modified by WiFi when you are in a Wifi area. I used mine at the house I am redoing all day today, on one "station", and didn't hear a repeat or a commercial. So far I am VERY impressed (still).


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I haven't tried any custom stations yet, been too busy with other things.
These are the stations I have programmed at this time:

1.Alternative
2. Adult Alternative
3. Singer Songwriter
4. Indie
5. Party Alternative
6. 80's 90's & Today
7. Oldies
8. '60s Hits
9. '70s Hits
10. '80s Hits
11. Smooth Jazz (non vocal)
12. Smooth Jazz
13. Jazz
14. Classic Rock
15. Party Rock
16. '70s Rock
17. '60s Rock
18. Southern Rock
19. Jam Bands
20. Progressive Rock
21. Rock Hits
22. Rock
23. '80s Rock
24. '90s Rock
25. Folk Rock

I just entered these rather quickly, and I am sure I will do some fine tuning in the next few days. I spent the whole day today though on Singer Songwriter and haven't even tried most of the channels I entered.

Time for you other Slackers to list your "stations".


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## pigskins (Sep 8, 2007)

Welcome aboard, slackers!! Happy you could join the rest of us happy former satellite subscribers who are saving a lot of scratch!


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## jazzyd971fm (Sep 1, 2007)

I'm not sure about the mobile units, but the software version that I use has about 3 to 4 commercials per hour. Other than that, its a great player !!!!! Love that smooth jazz on Sundays !!!!!


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## Galaxie6411 (Aug 26, 2007)

My power was out for 2 hours tonite, it was nice to be able to listen to the Slacker to pass some of the time. I have found it may play the "hearted" songs a little too much though.


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## dpd146 (Oct 1, 2005)

I'm not willing to give up my Sirius but this is an interesting product. I saw where it is compatible with the iTouch. My question is why would I buy their player when for only a little more $ I can get the iTouch with double the storage and use the free plug-in (plus won't be a paperweight if slacker goes away)? 

Is anyone using Slacker with iTouch or iPhone? If so, is there a difference using the plug-in versus their player?


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## WERA689 (Oct 15, 2006)

I've gotta admit, I love the online service!!! Good variety, and so far, better sound quality than XM's on-line service too.

Thanks for the heads up there, Richard! I'm gonna keep an eye on this...


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## tigerwillow1 (Jan 26, 2009)

I dropped Sirius after the post-merger music channel destruction. Slacker isn't a substitute, it's an upgrade, with way better playlists and no stupid DJs.


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## WERA689 (Oct 15, 2006)

The more I listen to the web based Slacker, the more impressed I am with the sound quality! It has dynamics, which XM has not for quite some time; it has extended frequency response, which XM never had; it has superior separation to anything I've heard from XM; and the noise floor is well below audibility, which XM's dynamic compression also impacts. This could well be my way out of XM's price increases, if I can sell my Polk XM tuner and Alpine XM ready package!

Thanks again, Rich! Slacker is really impressive!


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## dpd146 (Oct 1, 2005)

Richard King said:


> It acts just like an IPod in a mobile situation. All the stations are stored inside the unit and modified by WiFi when you are in a Wifi area.


How much is stored (length of time)?


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Going to try this out thanks for posting it. Too bad they only support RIM and I Phone at the moment. a Winmo application would be awesome.


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## itguy05 (Oct 24, 2007)

WERA689 said:


> The more I listen to the web based Slacker, the more impressed I am with the sound quality! It has dynamics, which XM has not for quite some time; it has extended frequency response, which XM never had; it has superior separation to anything I've heard from XM; and the noise floor is well below audibility, which XM's dynamic compression also impacts. This could well be my way out of XM's price increases, if I can sell my Polk XM tuner and Alpine XM ready package!
> 
> Thanks again, Rich! Slacker is really impressive!


I've got both XM, Sirius and Slacker on my iPhone. Of them, Sirius and Slacker sound 1000x better than XM. Like you said, XM is flat and lifeless while Sirius and Slacker just sound better.

I've done comparisons on XM and Sirius over the same inputs in the same car (mine) and every time, Sirius sounds much better. Slacker through the iPhone and into the car also sounds great!


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> My question is why would I buy their player when for only a little more $ I can get the iTouch with double the storage and use the free plug-in


I bought the Slacker because I found it for $49 on Woot (first Gen unit). If not for Woot I wouldn't own it, simply because I wouldn't have looked at it seriously. I think I'm going to cancel XM for a long enough period to pay for the Slacker (4 months). After that time I may be back to XM if I find that I miss the talk channels (and Underground Garage) enough. The problem is that in Vero Beach through most of the day I only receive one AM station (for talk programming).


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

dpd146 said:


> How much is stored (length of time)?


I wish I could tell you. I have my 25 stations loaded and spent all of yesterday (about 7 hours) listening to one station with no repeats that I noticed. It would be interesting to find this out if anyone here knows.


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## Dolly (Jan 30, 2007)

Richard King said:


> I bought the Slacker because I found it for $49 on Woot (first Gen unit). If not for Woot I wouldn't own it, simply because I wouldn't have looked at it seriously. I think I'm going to cancel XM for a long enough period to pay for the Slacker (4 months). After that time I may be back to XM if I find that I miss the talk channels (and Underground Garage) enough. The problem is that in Vero Beach through most of the day I only receive one AM station (for talk programming).


Mr. King Little Stevie and I will miss you at the Underground Garage  Since I don't have a PC I couldn't use a Slacker even if I wanted to.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> Mr. King Little Stevie and I will miss you at the Underground Garage


I haven't made the call yet, but, just think of all the extra room you and Stevie will have without me hangin' out there.  Then again, Stevie doesn't really take up that much room..


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## jazzyd971fm (Sep 1, 2007)

Richard King said:


> I wish I could tell you. I have my 25 stations loaded and spent all of yesterday (about 7 hours) listening to one station with no repeats that I noticed. It would be interesting to find this out if anyone here knows.


The longest I've listened on a particular day has been about 14 hrs & I heard no repeats  While I've been listening, I tagged my favorites & heard no repeats on any day !!!


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Have any of you Slackers had your "radio" lock up and be totally unresponsive??? Mine currently is locked and I can't turn it off or go to a "station". This has happened several times before and it normally resets itself, but now it won't do anything. It also freezes when updating certain channels (Jam Bands). This is getting very frustrating. I have a first gen unit and have found no way to get at the battery to "reboot" it. It appears there is no way to open the unit.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Well, after fiddling for about 15 minutes it went to the "starting up" page after holding the power button down for a few minutes. I'm still not pleased with the way this thing is acting (although I love it once it gets started).


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## Galaxie6411 (Aug 26, 2007)

One of the threads on woot when the 8 gig was up for sale last, might be a month ago now, a guy had a list of how to reboot and then update the firmware. It is a rather involved list of buttons to hit or I'd remember and tell you how to do it. This was not during a wootoff so it may have been on selloutwoot I just can't remember for sure now.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Thanks Galaxie, I updated the version this morning after doing a bit of research. It seems to be doing better today, although I haven't done a full refresh of all my channels. To get the new software version I had to delete all stations except one then, when I did an update on WiFi it updated the one station and the software.

By the way, I heard a repeat today, "Dead Skunk" by Loudon Wainwright III. :lol:


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

So much for the software update. I haven't been able to get all the stations to update at any time yet. I feel like an unpaid beta tester. This thing is a GREAT idea that is not ready for prime time (yet).


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

This thing has me so frustrated I am about to throw it against the wall. It is a useless piece of crap. It locks up everytime I turn it on now. I did two software updates and no change. Totally worthless. I messed with it for over an hour yesterday just to get it producing sound. I never know if when using the scroll key if it will respond immediately or if it will take over 5 minutes to respond. I sent a message to Slacker yesterday, but no response yet. When it locks up I can't even turn it off, all I can do is reboot which brings it up and locks it up again. Removing the battery does the same. Plugging the battery back in results in another lockup. Making it USB unfriendly was a HUGE mistake. I'm not going to change the address of my router just to be able to use the USB connection!! I don't know from one day to the next if it will work at all. I am going to TRY to get my money back for this piece of crap from Slacker. I have no desire to screw around with another unit. DO NOT BUY THIS THING!!!!


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## WERA689 (Oct 15, 2006)

This is a G1, isn't it Richard?


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## philslc (Dec 2, 2006)

Richard King said:


> As mentioned before, I recently Wooted a 25 station 8Gig "Slacker" WiFi radio. After using it for a couple of days, I have become convinced that if I were a music only listener on XM that the Slacker would be a great substiute. I can load any of 25 radio "stations" that they program and listen to any of them at any time. They claim that the free subscription is advertising supported with 2 ads per hour. I have yet to hear an ad after many hours of listening (while working on rebuilding a house here). Anyway, so far I am very impressed. My only two complaints are that I have a problem hooking it up to the computer and it takes a couple of minutes for it to fire up when turned on. The first isn't really a problem since I can "reload" my station by WiFi. I don't think there's a cure for the second problem. So far, so good.
> 
> http://www.slacker.com/


I use the Slacker service on my Blackberry phone. It's less expensive than XM was and I have more control over the content. 

PhilB


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

WERA689 said:


> This is a G1, isn't it Richard?


Yes, it is. I have been busy with other things and just now got back to emailing them. I hope they find a solution, becuase this thing is just too frustrating the way it is "working" now. :barf:


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## Dolly (Jan 30, 2007)

Richard King said:


> Yes, it is. I have been busy with other things and just now got back to emailing them. I hope they find a solution, becuase this thing is just too frustrating the way it is "working" now. :barf:


All that glitters isn't gold--Little Stevie and I are still happy at the Underground Garage :sunsmile:


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## WERA689 (Oct 15, 2006)

Richard King said:


> Yes, it is. I have been busy with other things and just now got back to emailing them. I hope they find a solution, becuase this thing is just too frustrating the way it is "working" now. :barf:


I've already found their online chat to be very effective...you might want to try that option if possible. Having issues here getting a G2 to connect via wi-fi. Warranty exchange is already underway, within one day.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Every time I look at the online "support" feature it is "offline". I've tried it and no one responds. My unit is locked up again this morning and is a boat anchor. I don't own a boat, but I guess I could wedge it under the door and use it as a doorstop.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

They're sending me an RMA to exchange the unit.


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

At least you're getting it replaced, Richard... that's a good thing! 

I have to thank you for pointing this service out; I wasn't even aware of it. I loaded the app on my iPhone and computers. I listen in the office for most of the day too when talk radio has sufficiently annoyed me. 

Oh, and the quality of the audio on the iPhone app as compared to the Pandora app is 500% better! I don't know what Pandora does to their streams, but it's so bit starved and tinny it's almost unbearable. Slacker isn't perfect but boy does it sound a whole lot better.


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## tfederov (Nov 18, 2005)

I love my iPhone app. I've had a few issues lately with it locking up (the app, not the phone), but other than that I totally enjoy this more than Pandora. As others have mentioned, the sound quality is awesome over EDGE, 3G and Wi-Fi.

I'm thinking about upgrading to Slacker Plus but I don't know how that translates to the iPhone app.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

tcusta00 said:


> At least you're getting it replaced, Richard... that's a good thing!
> 
> I have to thank you for pointing this service out; I wasn't even aware of it. I loaded the app on my iPhone and computers. I listen in the office for most of the day too when talk radio has sufficiently annoyed me. .


Glad you're enjoying it.  It's funny, but I heard of the service ages ago and had seriously (Siriusly?) considered it back then, but I had XM and didn't see the need to spend the $$$ on the receiver. When Woot put it in a Wootoff I had no more reason to wait. When I get mine back I'm going to cancel XM for at least 5 months which will pay for the Slacker "radio".



> Oh, and the quality of the audio on the iPhone app as compared to the Pandora app is 500% better! I don't know what Pandora does to their streams, but it's so bit starved and tinny it's almost unbearable. Slacker isn't perfect but boy does it sound a whole lot better.


I haven't heard the Pandora app, but from your description I would guess that they are compressing the audio (not digitally compressing) to the point that there is no headroom left and therefore, no dynamic range.


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

Richard King said:


> I haven't heard the Pandora app, but from your description I would guess that they are compressing the audio (not digitally compressing) to the point that there is no headroom left and therefore, no dynamic range.


What I don't understand is why they're doing it. If Slacker can stream over 3G and Wifi with decent quality why can't Pandora do the same? 

I guess Slacker just has better geeks. :lol:


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## tfederov (Nov 18, 2005)

tcusta00 said:


> What I don't understand is why they're doing it. If Slacker can stream over 3G and Wifi with decent quality why can't Pandora do the same?
> 
> I guess Slacker just has better geeks. :lol:


I thought I read somewhere that Pandora sounded better over wi-fi but I could be totally wrong.


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## pigskins (Sep 8, 2007)

FYI, The Slacker G2 25 station unit is on sale this week at my local Best Buy. YMMV.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

It appears that Slacker lost my unit that I sent back to them. I have a tracking number showing it delivered (along with a name of the person who signed for it) and they claim that they never received it. If they don't find it or send me another one I really wouldn't feel comfortable doing business with them again.

I sent it to them on Mar 14 by Fed Ex. They received it on Mar 23. I sent the an email requesting status on Mar 27. They responded on Mar 30 that they never received it.

Per the tracking number, "The package was delivered on Mar 23 and signed by ******." I responed to their Mar 30 email on Mar 30, informing of the delivery and the name of the person who signed for it. I asked for a status again on Apr 2. So far there has been no other response from Slacker. What a bunch of slackers.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Slacker doesn't respond to my emails asking if they found my unit. I have made 3 requests as to whether they have found it and have had NO response to any of them. I have now posted the same on their forums. We shall see if I get a response there or if they simply delete my post.


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## Dolly (Jan 30, 2007)

Richard King said:


> Slacker doesn't respond to my emails asking if they found my unit. I have made 3 requests as to whether they have found it and have had NO response to any of them. I have now posted the same on their forums. We shall see if I get a response there or if they simply delete my post.


Poor Mr. King  It sounds like you have come around full circle--Sirius XM can be very slow responding to e-mails! I do hope things work out for you, but remember Little Stevie and I are still at the Underground Garage


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Slacker tells me today that my replacement will ship to me in a couple of days. I have o idea if they found the one that I sent them though.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

Very interesting concept. The offline listening is particular interesting. 

I use pandora every now and then on my PC (sounds good on the PC...never tried it on my ipod though). But offline listening would be awesome!

Too bad you cannot do offline with the iPod App. I realize they probably cant store that much local data, still it would be cool.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I often listen to the on line Slacker feed while sitting at the computer. There are many stations that have been designed as a substitute for the XM staions that I have listened to in the past, including one called "Garageland" which has a playlist that is designed around "Underground Garage". I suspect you could find just about any XM station pretty much duplicated on Slacker. Each of these stations can be uploaded to the portable device (if your device works properly).


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

My Slacker is back!!! It seems to be downloading just fine. I'll probably not work with it until tomorrow, once it is fully loaded. Once I am convinced that it will work properly I'll probably sign up to create my own "radio station".


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Well, the decision has been made. Slacker is a great sub for the XM music channels. The new unit has been working flawlessly for several days now and I am VERY impressed with it. I even created my own radio station, "Minnesota Music" that can be listened to here: http://www.slacker.com/?sid=stations/1315431/1236904269 I was successful in uploading the station to my player (along with 24 other staions). I also succeeded in doing a WIFI download of my stations from a restaurant in Cocoa Beach during lunch today. The download was actually faster at the restaurant than it has been at home. Glad I got this contraption. Now, if XM comes out with their Talk Radio only package I may jump back only for that. Currently playing "Liar Liar" by the Castaways on that fab station, "Minnesota Music".


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## TJStaar (Aug 1, 2006)

I'm glad you stuck with it. I too had problems at first and had to exchange my first player. They are a small company and are experiencing some growing pains, but the service is awesome and I have found them to be excellent to deal with and very responsive to my needs.

I left XM in mid-March after 3+ years, and I don't regret it at all. I do hope, for their sake, that they can turn things around and recapture what they once were. In the meantime, I'll be slackin'.

Todd


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Have you (or any other Slackers here) created any custom stations yet? If so, post a link.


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## TJStaar (Aug 1, 2006)

I've created a couple, and so has my buddy. I'll see if I can get them posted here. I also found some on the Slacker forum that I'm using that are meant to approximate former XM stations.


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