Stiletto 2: Stiletto 100 on Steroids… Really, Really, Good Steroids

Satellite Radio 
When I decided to enter the satellite radio world I did it with the Stiletto 100 for $450. It was new on the scene and I was new on the market hoping to embrace the benefits of satellite radio. I paid a hefty price to be one of the early adopters of satellite radio using a receiver that later sold for one hundred and fifty bucks. Nevertheless, I was impressed as I could get satellite radio that was full of music, talk, comedy, and a variety of other stations that I couldn’t wait to get to, and despite its limitations, I was happy to have commercial-free music stream into my environment.

Unfortunately, much of that streaming was brought in via terrestrial signal, and less so via satellite signal. When relying strictly on satellite signal you must have an unobstructed view of the sky, and that was not always the case in my… case. Quickly I realized that portability was not so portable, reception was not so receptive, and for a monthly fee commercial-free was not so free. 

SATELLITE RADIO 101 
Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the Stiletto 2, I first want to bring satellite radio to light, and perhaps shatter any expectations you may have had of a music-only satellite world. It’s not all bad, but it’s not all good either. 

A WALK IN MEMORY LANE 
In the not-so-distant-past Sirius and XM were competing for market share in the satellite world. I went with Sirius as they had the happenin’ receiver that looked better than anything XM offered at the time. I was sold at almost any price and at almost that price I brought my first Stiletto 100 home for an experience of a lifetime. Feel free to read the review , as there is no sense in reliving history twice. 

During the next two years I found my reception spotty unless I was in or near a large metropolitan area where there was a terrestrial signal repeating that of the Sirius satellite, thus allowing me to listen to my tunes without having a perfect view of the sky (most of the signal, if not all, was transmitted via terrestrial signal –think FM—versus actual satellite). All other times I was either in the car using the car docking station, or at home using the home dock with a bigger fold-out antenna, sent to me as part of a promotion at the time. Signal aside, I bought a lifetime subscription and quickly came to understand that lifetime doesn’t even mean MY lifetime, but the lifetime of the receiver that I was about to throw against a wall if I heard the same song one more time. 

I quickly came to terms that Sirius repeated songs so often that even the newest hits would quickly become oldies on anyone’s list. Mine included. 

So, here we have satellite radio that not only has shoddy reception, but when you do get the music, you get the same music over and over and over again. And then there are the commercials. Yes, there are commercials. Most such commercials are on talk stations, but even on music stations you’ll get promos doing just that: promoting Sirius, or XM. Expect to also hear a station plug, whether it’s a jingle, or the DJ putting in his or her two-cent’s worth. You’ll even have a few stations that are “commercial-free” until breakfast. Something about being THE morning station makes programmers break all the rules to try and become, well, THE morning station. Commercial-free does not mean 100% songs 100% all of the time. Go figure. 

All that established, I have most recently noticed (since the merger of Sirius and XM) that the music is less repetitive, there is more variety, and finally, it’s something I was wishing for since plopping down my first $450. Something I could finally justify spending a monthly fee on. 

STILETTO 2 
Having a good run with the Stiletto 100, I eventually purchased the Stiletto 2, and what a great purchase that turned out to be. All of the Stiletto 100 shortcomings were put on stage once the Stiletto 2 came onto the scene. Not only was it much sleeker, sexier, and cost much, much less than its older and less handsome sibling, but it was everything the Stiletto 100 should have been.

The Stiletto 2 comes with the same standard equipment as the Stiletto 100, with three exceptions: better headphones and an FM Transmitter Antenna. Both came with two sets of headphones, one of which are ear bud headphones, but the second pair is now over the head that goes over the ears, versus the older pair that was also over the head, but went inside the ears. New pair is much more comfortable. The FM Transmitter Antenna plugs into the bottom of the car dock for people who don’t have an AUX jack and are forced to tune into an FM frequency to listen to the Stiletto. This will hopefully help solve the sometimes poor reception when doing it that way, but I have not tried it myself—I have an AUX jack. The third exception is that there is now only one battery versus two. In the Stiletto 100 there was a slim battery with reduced listening time and a larger and more bulky battery for extended listening. This new Stiletto is so sleek that you get only one battery (the slim one) and instead of clipping onto the back of the device it actually goes into the device with a sleek back cover blessed with the Sirius Dog (unofficially named Mongo) logo snapping over top of it.

The device itself is black with rounded edges, nicer menus, fancier fonts, and better designed layout. If the Stiletto 2 is 2007, then by comparison it makes the original Stiletto look like something from 1999. One thing that they do unfortunately have in common is the car antenna that is of such poor quality and thin wire that if you affix it to you trunk and open and close your trunk enough times you may find yourself without a reception as the wires will start to break apart. In my original Stiletto I went through three antennas and looking at this one I can’t see it going much better, but at least I have the experience of what not to do.

The car docking station is also fancier, and I have yet to try and see if the Stiletto 100 and the Stiletto 2 are interchangeable when it comes to the car dock. Nothing special here aside from a few cosmetic differences. If you’re all about looks then this device has your name written all over it.

Unfortunately I cannot comment on reception without the docking station as I almost never take the stiletto à la carte. If I ever do it’s because I’m probably listening to the saved songs, or Radio Replays, but rarely, if ever, satellite radio itself.

You also get the advantage of adding a microSD card, but unfortunately that requires the removal of the battery, as that’s where it’s located. Such a shame one can’t just slide it in and out from the side of the player. However, I’m getting used to this as my BlackBerry has that same issue. You do have 2 GB of internal memory (same as the Stiletto 100), allowing you for a designated 800 MB of external files, with the remainder being left to your satellite favourites and radio replays. 

One downer, and I say that this is a software issue (it didn’t happen in my original Stiletto 100 before any updates, but has happened a few updates later), is that if you listen to Radio Replays or just a delay of the current stream, you can’t actually add the song that’s playing to your favourites list. It will say that it’s “Added to Wish List”, but I have no clue what that actually means, as it never gets added anywhere and if I go to my Library, where you think such favourites would reside, they are not there. The only time this function works is if I “heart” the song as it’s playing live, or at the very best if it’s playing on delay before the actual song finishes its live stream. Such a disappointment. 

Connecting the Stiletto 2 to the computer is also easy, using the supplied connector. Computer recognizes the device and automatically installs the necessary drivers. Sweet. But, as with the previous unit once songs are copied onto the device you can't copy them back. Your only option is to delete them. I'm guessing that this is to prevent sharing with your friends, because, you know, we're all pirates. So make sure you never move a song to the Stiletto 2 and always leave a copy on your computer.


When 2 is Greater Than 100... 
Yes, it’s not a long review, but when you get everything you expect out of the box and it works (technology limitations aside), what else is there to say? This is a fancier version of the Stiletto 100 which you can read about here . It’s a radio that works so well that the first Stiletto should have been a Beta Release or a Release Candidate at best. It takes the most of what you like and improves on it. It throws in what you love and makes you drool for more and follows suit. I mean, with everything that’s offered the only limitation is the programming, and ever since the Sirius/XM merger I think that limitation has gone the way of a one-speaker-AM-radio. 

UPDATE: 
Usually, when an updated version of a device is released one expects it to bet better than the initial release. Usually, it is. This one is the exception. 

I can now confirm that the Stiletto 100 and the Stiletto 2 house and car docking stations are NOT interchangeable. They look the same, but they must fit ever so slightly different that they dominate form over function. There is a slight workaround, but it’s more of a compromise than a replacement. 


SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE 
Remember when I you couldn’t add replays of your favourite songs to your Favourites List? Well, that hasn’t changed it just got renamed to a “Wish List”. If you were listening to a song you heard in the past and depressed the button with the heart on it (remote) or the scroll wheel with the heart icon below it (unit) you would expect the song to go into your favourites list, or at least somewhere where you could replay the song you heard. Yeah, I’m still waiting on that one. The only time this works is if you’re listening to the stream live, or only a few seconds behind, as when the live stream of the song ends, so does your ability to add it to your Wish List and then it turns into our Good Luck Finding The Song Again List. Should we try the Internet? It seems to have most of the songs on my wish list--FOR FREE! 


DON’T EXPECT TO GET AWAY EASY 
So, you think adding songs to your favourite list is challenging enough when listening past the live stream? Then allow me to throw this monkey wrench into an already annoying situation. And what probably frustrates me more than anything else is that since the initial function had a problem executing it should have been corrected in the Stiletto 2.  Instead, it's a problem that had another one slapped on top of it. So, here's what occasionally happens now:


If I’m listening to a stream, or a replay of one on the Stiletto 2 and I want to add a song to my Wish List I am occasionally challenged by the length of time I want to record my session. See the problem? If I’m trying to record a song I shouldn’t be given an option to capture a session, or a “record until” time. I want that one particular song. That session should be the length of the song I'm trying to capture from start to finish. End of story. There is a separate recording feature from the main menu.  The two shouldn't be confused.

One other glitch I've noticed is that if you're listening to a station and you're in the the screen that displays the artist/song info and depress the back button twice you end up at a blank screen that just reads "Satellite Radio" at the top instead of getting to the home screen, like it should happen.  The first few times I came across this I thought my Stiletto 2 froze or crashed, but all it takes is just another press of the back button or an some other sort of navigation to bypass this empty screen.

Perhaps one day there will be an update to the Stiletto 2, and maybe even a release of a Stiletto 3, but three times is as far as I’m willing to go to try something that should have been right on the first try and corrected on the second, at the very least.