The original Delphi Roady (left) and the new Delphi Roady2 (right).

What happens when you take a good product, reduce the size and weight, add more features, and make it sound better than before? If you're talking about XM satellite radio hardware, you get the XM Roady2 plug-and-play satellite radio receiver, by Delphi. The Roady2 is the next generation of the original, wildly popular XM Roady in-car satellite radio tuner. It's not a replacement for the original Roady, just another new option. Can I say that, right out of the box, I loved this new option?

In case you've been living under a rock for the past couple of years, XM Satellite Radio is one of the hottest new technologies available to date. One hundred and twenty digital channels beam down from two geo-stationary satellites, offering a huge variety of music, news, entertainment, talk and most recently, local weather and traffic for 21 markets. All of the music channels are commercial-free, and the sound quality is excellent — far superior to MP3 players with bitrates lower than 128 kbps.

The included XM antenna is ultra-compact and easy to mount.

The Roady2 has to be one of the simplest installs I've ever had to do. It comes with a handy Quick Guide, which is really all you need. I opened the box, and set the tiny antenna onto the roof of my car. Delphi claims that this is the smallest satellite radio antenna available, and I believe it. It is small and lightweight, but still has a strong magnet, so your mounting options are plentiful. I opened my sunroof and slapped it up on the front of my roof. Not a recommended location, but I've had just one dropout in the weeks that I've been using the Roady2. I'll be honest — the signal is so robust in Atlanta that most of the time, the antenna is inside my car, stuck to my garage-door opener, if it's not lying on the passenger seat. The reception is still great, but it should be noted that there are a number of terrestrial repeaters that provide a very strong signal in my area.

Next, I plugged the cigarette lighter power adapter in, connected it to the input on the diminutive receiver, and it immediately powered up. This is actually a selectable feature — you can also set the unit to automatically power on when you start your car. I liked this feature immediately. In the past, when using an FM modulated system, I would start my car, and the radio would come on blasting static from the unused station at some ungodly volume until I found the unit, powered it up, found the FM modulator and powered that up. With the "auto on" option, the Roady2 is broadcasting in just seconds.

The Roady2 comes with a cassette adapter, antenna, cigarette plug adapter, built-in FM modulator, cradle, and 3 removable faceplates.

One of the coolest features of the Roady2 is the built-in FM modulator. With the FM modulator, anyone with a car radio can use the Roady2 to listen to XM on an unused FM frequency. Plus, the fact that the modulator is built into the compact unit makes installing and mounting the Roady2 a breeze. I powered up the unit and found the menu that selects what FM frequency you wish to use. The Roady2 gives you 12 options, including a few frequencies in the higher range of the spectrum. Simply pick a frequency that isn't being used in your area and you'll be all set.

The Roady2 also comes with a cassette adapter that actually will provide a better sound than the FM modulator. If your head unit has an AUX input, use that for the best-sounding connection. Once I was familiar with the built-in modulator, I plugged the line-level output into the AUX input of my head unit, and although the sound through the FM modulator was good, the sound with a direct connection was extremely impressive.

Within about 3 minutes of opening the package, I had sound. Granted, you'll need to call XM to get your radio activated. If you're anything like me, you're making that phone call as the UPS van is driving up to the house. Once activated, it was time to start having fun. BIG fun.

The layout of the Roady2 is very similar to the Roady, but it was new to me. Once I realized that the tuning wheel on the upper right corner handles most of the controls, I was ready to roll. This one control scrolls through menus, channels, options and more. Pressing it in is similar to an "Enter" key on a computer. All other controls are on the front panel, and the connectors are all on the left side.

Besides scrolling through channels, the tuning wheel also lets you enter songs into TuneSelect™. This is one of my favorite features on the Roady2. TuneSelect™ will notify you when a song you've entered is playing on any channel. For example, I was driving down the road and Hoobastank's "The Reason" was playing. Catchy tune that I might want to hear again. I simply pressed in the tuning wheel for about two seconds, and the song is entered into my TuneSelect™ list. Now, whenever that song is playing, on any station, a subtle 'beep' tone is emitted and the display indicates "Song Found" on the top line of the display, and "The Reason" on the second display line. At that point, I have the option of pressing in the tuning wheel, and the Roady2 will switch to whatever channel is playing that song. Or I can just ignore it, and my current channel will continue. I've got the maximum of 20 songs in my list, but I can go through the list from the menu screens and remove any that I don't really care about. If I don't, as I enter a new song, the oldest one on my list will be replaced.

A large, 2-line readout displays channel, song, and artist information.

The power button is on the top left corner of the faceplate. Next is the display button. Hitting this scrolls through the display options. The two-line display can show channel name and number with artist name or song title, or artist name and song title, or artist name and stock ticker — more on that later. Of course, I would love for this to have more lines on the display, but I'm not willing to sacrifice readability, and luckily, neither are the folks at Delphi. I also appreciate having two large lines of information when glancing down to see what's playing while driving.

The memory button can store up to 20 artist and song titles. It just stores the titles so you can retrieve them later — let's say you're driving down the road, both hands on the wheel and you hear a new song and want to write it down, but obviously, you can't. Just hit the memory button and you can retrieve that information when you get home. Or when you find a pencil — whichever comes first. This is just like a portable notepad — not like the Tune Select, which actually finds the song and tells you when it's playing.

The menu button is the key to really getting the most out of your Roady2. Press that to enter the options menu, but use the tuning wheel to scroll through and select the options. The first option is the Frequency Select menu. Enter this to choose from 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, 88.7, 88.9, 106.7, 106.9, 107.1, 107.3, 107.5, 107.7, or 107.9. The built-in FM modulator works automatically when there is nothing connected to the audio output. The next menu item selects the color of the screen and buttons. Purple is my favorite color; so purple was my obvious choice. Although in daylight I can't tell what color it is, at night, it's beautiful. You can also control the contrast.

The audio level control lets you fine-tune the balance to the rest of your system. This is not where you control the volume — use your head unit for that. This is just to optimize the level to get a strong signal with minimal distortion.

The next menu item lets you optimize antenna placement. This is primarily to be used with the home kit, when the antenna is going to be placed permanently, but I used it while driving around to check on signal strength. It shows both satellite and terrestrial signals, so you can tell what you're picking up.

The TuneSelect™ menu lets you erase all or some of the songs you've stored on your list. Be careful with this one — it took a while to get some of the songs that are on my list, and it would be really bad to accidentally erase the entire list.


The Roady2 will track up to 20 of your favorite stocks, and display them as a scrolling ticker across the bottom of the screen. It uses "smart technology" to help you enter the letters. Once you enter the first letter, it searches through all valid stocks, and attempts to auto complete the entry by narrowing down the selection of the next letter so that it only displays possible letters. This also eliminates errors, since it only displays valid stocks listed on the NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX. Of course, I set mine to track XMSR.

Another favorite feature of mine is the Direct Tune option. You can determine how you want to tune to different channels. One option is that you are still listening to your current channel and using the tuning wheel to see what's on other channels. Until you press in the tuning wheel, you are listening to your current channel. Or, you can switch this option so that you are actually changing the channels and hearing them as you move the tuning wheel.

The Roady2, as mentioned earlier, has selectable auto on, which powers up the unit when the ignition key is turned, or you can manually power it on each time. You can set a timed auto off, in case your car keeps power going to the cigarette lighter after the ignition is turned off. All settings can be returned to the factory default with the touch of a button.

Besides scrolling through channels with the tuning wheel, you have other options for picking stations. There are three banks of presets, each with 10 memory locations. When the Preset/Direct button is on one of the preset banks (A, B, or C) you can use the numbers on the bottom of the front panel to jump to a channel. To enter a channel, switch to direct entry and enter the number, or use the tuning wheel. Then go to the preset where you want to store that channel, and for three seconds hold down the number key where you want that channel stored. The unit will emit a ?beep', and that channel is now stored.

The category keys let you skip from one category to the next. This lets you quickly move through the large numbers of stations.

My daily commute is very short, so I waited for a weekend to really put the Roady2 through the paces. This week, I had to drive down to the airport. I already had my favorite channels stored in Preset A, so without taking my eyes off the highway, I could jump from channel to channel. Before I headed out, I found the traffic and weather channel for Atlanta, and stored that in a preset. I can't tell you how cool it is to have constant access to traffic updates, instead of waiting for a local radio station to broadcast it. Even better ? I was flying up to a meeting in Boston, and I was able to check the weather and traffic there too. The sound quality of these local reports isn't great, but its usefulness overshadows that, and I knew that my trip would be uneventful. This weather is more convenient than even the Weather Channel, where you have to wait seemingly forever to get to your local forecast. The XM traffic and weather repeat every few minutes, so there is practically no wait whatsoever.

While at first I wasn't sure I liked using the tuning wheel to enter songs into TuneSelect™, or using it to select the song once TuneSelect™ found it, once I was driving around, I had a new found appreciation for it. After my trip to Boston, I decided to track the length of a new bicycling route that I plotted. One part of the route is on a very narrow, winding road that is popular with local cyclists. I knew I had to pay attention while driving it in my car, but I could keep my eyes glued to the road and feel for the tuning wheel in an instant. Anything that helps reduce driver distraction is a plus in my book. Over the thirty-mile course, I didn't have a single dropout, I heard three of my TuneSelect™ tunes, and added two new ones.

The Cambridge Soundworks PlayDock XM powered speaker with the Roady2.

While I use my Roady2 in the car, there are other options available for it, or soon to be available. There is a home kit that is compatible with the original Roady, which provides power and the cables necessary to connect the Roady2 to a home stereo system. Or, you can get the new Cambridge Soundworks boombox that is also compatible with both the original Roady and the Roady2. This is exciting, because the quality of the speakers in this system should be excellent, and it will be the first satellite radio with a rechargeable battery. The Roady2 is small and extremely portable, so being able to use it as a plug-n-play system in your car, home, and boombox makes it even more appealing.

I was already a huge fan of XM Satellite Radio. I listen to it in my home all the time. (Hello, my name is Leslie, and I'm an XM addict?) The Roady2 is so small and lightweight that I can take it wherever I go, and remove it from my car whenever I'm worried about its safety. The whole system is so small that I'll be taking it on every trip that I'll be using a rental car. Now, having the traffic and weather in my car or when I travel is something that I can't see going without. TuneSelect™ makes sure I never miss my favorite songs. The built-in FM modulator makes sure anyone can use the Roady2. I'll bring it along when someone else is driving his car on our next road trip. In other words, I'm not going anywhere without a Roady2.