# Which XM radio for an elderly person



## hackwriter (Dec 27, 2005)

I am looking to buy an XM receiver for my 78-year-old mother, who does not want a steep learning curve. She has a Bose Wave system that she wants to play it through. 

According to the Bose documentation, you can play an audio device through the Wave system using either a male-to-male 3.5mm (1/8") stereo cable or a Dual RCA male to 3.5 mm (1/8") male stereo cable.

Can anyone recommend the easiest-to-use XM receiver to play through this WAVE system? My guess is that she is likely to listen to no more than 8 channels at most.

Thanks.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Welcome to DBSTalk, Hackwriter :hi:

I would say the Delphi SkyFi 2. None of the XM Plug and Play receivers are too terribly difficult to learn. The Delphi Roady XT is the cheapest XM receiver, but for dedicated home use I think the SkyFi 2 would be the best option. Plus the display is nice and big.

For just about any plug and play receiver in the Satellite Radio world the home kit is a separate purchase from the receiver, although you can find equipment bundles. The home kit has a 1/8 mini plug output and comes with a 1/8 mini plug -> RCA L+R cable, you could use a regular 1/8 cable if you wish. 

If you want complete simplicity, all new plug and play receivers have built in wireless FM modulators. All you would have to do is set a frequency (88.1-88.9 FM or 106.7-107.9 FM) using the menu on the SkyFi 2 and then tune the Bose to that station. If you do that make sure to chose an unassigned frequency in your area and don’t chose a frequency that could suffer from bleedovers from neighboring frequencies or other radio markets for that matter. Hardwired will always give you the best sound so if you are able to use cables I would recommend that, although the latest round of products do have a noticeable improvement in sound quality when listening via the FM modulator over previous receivers. I have mine connected with the cable to my home theater receiver, but have the FM modulator set to 107.9. This way I can listen to XM to fall asleep to on my clock radio.

I love the Delphi XM products and have owned 4 out of the 6 XM receivers they put out excellent build quality all around. Audiovox also now has 2 XM receivers out, but I have no experience with them. But my Sirius receivers an Audiovox and I have no problem with it other then its old and needs to be replaced with something more modern. 

The SkyFi 2 can pause, rewind and skip back live radio. After having either a DishDVR or TiVo for the past 4 years now, these functions are an absolute must for me. It’s fairly simple to use, but if you want to show them to your mother you can, or just pretend like they don’t exist. There’s also the presets. You can preset channels like you can on an FM car radio. If in Preset mode each numerical button can be a preset, so you can program 10 favorite channels. This way there’s no channel numbers to remember. There are three favorites bands, A,B &C, so you can have up to 30 if she wishes.

Good luck!


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## hackwriter (Dec 27, 2005)

Thank you, Steve. The SkyFi is exactly the model I was looking at, because Air America Radio has a special deal on it through 12/31.

Is there a way I could buy this for her, activate her account, configure the presets, test it out by plugging it into my own Bose Wave system, and then send it to her? She is in NC, I am in NJ. The more plug-and-play I could make it for her, the better.

Thanks again.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Sure you could do that. All you would need is her credit card #, if she plains on paying by CC, inorder to activate it. 

In the thread below this one about Deals on XM, there is a link to the XM Online Store with a promo code for employees of XM retailers. If you have no issues with it and want to take the risk you can get the SkyFi 2 and home kit completely free if you agree to pay 3 months up front ($38something) and then keep it active for 6 months total. If interested read the thread and reread the terms of use and if your comfortable with breaking them and the slight possibility you may get charged full retail, it’s up to you.


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## delphi96 (Dec 25, 2005)

hackwriter said:


> I am looking to buy an XM receiver for my 78-year-old mother, who does not want a steep learning curve. She has a Bose Wave system that she wants to play it through.
> 
> According to the Bose documentation, you can play an audio device through the Wave system using either a male-to-male 3.5mm (1/8") stereo cable or a Dual RCA male to 3.5 mm (1/8") male stereo cable.
> 
> ...


I would also recommend the original SkiFi which was and may still be available for free after rebate.

I have set up two such systems for elderly people with both around 80 years old, one being my mother. In both situations I installed it on top of their living room TVs into one of the spare inputs so all they have to do is hit their input button while watching TV to hear the radio. Both of their TVs are new and both have excellent stereo sound quality, certainly good enough for them.

Two things I'd recommned doing is to tell her to leave the SkiFi on all the time (it uses very little electricity) as that would be one less thing to worry about turning on and off and to block through the radio itlself channels that she is not likely to use so that she can scrool through only the channels she wants without having to worry about presets and so forth.

By the way, they both love their satellite radio and the music they can now get. My mother rarely buys CDs anymore and she has quite a large selection.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

If she's got any visual problems, the SkyFi2 is MUCH more legible than the original SkyFi - the display is a better contrast and it has a much wider viewing angle.

The only problem I could see with a SkyFi2 is if she doesn't know about the pause/requind/fast-forward features and accidentally hits one of those buttons. A brief demonstration should do the trick.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Why would you recommend the original SkyFi? Granted it was a great reciever for it's time, but the improvement in sound quality that the SkyFi 2 offers is worth the price alone plus as Djlong said it's eaiser to read the display. Provided you can find it anywhere besides FleBay, considering the deals on the SkyFi 2, if you pay over $10 for the original you're getting ripped off.


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