I just replaced the Delphi Skyfi in my home theater system with the Polk XRt12. The Polk is connected via TOSLINK to a Rotel RSP1068 Pre/Pro. A Rotel RMB1075 powers B&W 805 speakers. Video-wise, the Polk's composite output goes through the Rotel 1068, with monitor output to the TV.
I haven't listened to it long enough to really get a feel for the audio quality, and my comments on that will be posted later. This response deals with the Polk's interface and convenience features.
Pros
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It's a significant step up from the Skyfi to get the Polk's video display on a TV screen. Being able to see channel title, music category, artist and title are one of the real advantages of the XM format. Now, I can actually see the numbers of the channels I'm changing to while I'm seated in the sweet spot, unlike on the Skyfi. I was able to see Artist/Title information before on the Skyfi, since it scrolled across the Skyfi's LED disply in a fairly large font. But there is no comparison with the TV output, where I can see all the information, all the time. (The Polk's remote allows you to toggle the composite video display completely off if you like, but I don't believe there is a way to turn off the Polk's 1.25" x 2.25" blue LED display.)
- Having a choice between RCA/analog, Coax/digital or Optical (TOSLINK)/digital is an advantage, so you can choose whether to use the onboard Burr-Brown DACs or an outboard converter as Drewfidelity mentions, above. I haven't decided whether I like the onboard DACs or my Rotel 1068 better..
- Just listening to the preview channel (channel 1), the audio is better, in that the high-frequency noise and harshness the Skyfi had is gone. (I'm still waiting for the channels to download as I write this.)
- The ability to preview channels other than what's playing, and see the song and artist before switching to a different channel, is a nice feature. This is another feature that is only truly enabled if you have a TV screen hooked up to the Polk, since it would be hard to read this information on the 4-line LED display from across the room.
Cons
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I'm ambivalent about whether the Polk's non-audio feature set is worth the price of the upgrade from the Skyfi.
- The remote interface (not the control, but the unit's response to remote control) is the same as Skyfi's. In fact, this product apparently has Skyfi guts hidden inside it, since all interface controls and displays are EXACTLY the same. Both the Polk and the Skyfi have the same remote protocol and can share controllers if you desire. Unfortunately, universal remotes like my Rotel RR1050 can't express all of the commands for these two units. For example, the numbered inputs will work, but only for the first digit in a repeating sequence. I can't enter "110" to get to XM's classical station, or "112" to get to Vox! or "44" to get to Fred. I also can only go up or down one channel at a time. All repeating commands have this limitation, when using the universal remote. The hope of fixing this problem was one of the reasons I upgraded from the Skyfi, but since this unit apparently has the Skyfi controller hidden inside, it didn't help. (I've had to partially work around it by using the special "Repeat command" buttons on the Rotel RR1050, of which there are only 5. The bottom line on this is that the workaround is not fully functional, so I'll be unable to get rid of the Polk's remote.)
- The Polk has a "memory" feature which will allow you to save Title and Artist information for up to 10 songs. If you hear something you like, and want to remember it so you can go buy the album, push the memory button. This would be a nice feature, except that it's only available by pushing a button on the Polk's front panel. There is no button for this feature on the remote. I find this to be a major limitation in the Polk's feature set, since viewing and capturing the metadata from the XM signal is a real advantage of the XM format. But if a product gives me this capability and doesn't give me a way to conveniently use the feature without jumping up from my chair, it's very frustrating.
- The Polk also does not have the heft, nor finish, that one associates with reference-class components. Not that I expected it to be for $299, but the marketing is misleading.
- The onboard Burr-Brown DACs don't help if you're using digital output. That's obvious to the folks on this site I'd expect, but since it's a key part of Polk's marketing, I thought I'd point that out.
- This is nitpicky, but I wish the video display would automatically toggle off after a few seconds. The Polk displays the system mode, channel number and title, the category, the composer (in the case of classical), and the song title in full display mode. After a few seconds of no user input, it shifts to a sequence of mode, channel, composer, title in order to prevent screen burn-in. I would rather it just blank out entirely, then briefly show full information again, whenever the song changes. (As mentioned above, you can turn the display completely off using the remote, but you have to turn it back on again if you want to see who composed the piece you're hearing.)
Summary
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In summary, getting full XM information disply on my TV screen is a significant advantage of this product over the Delphi Skyfi. However, I'm disappointed in several other features, particularly the remote control protocol and the non-remotable song memory. It's also a real disppointment to pay triple the money that I paid for the Skyfi, and for a component marketed as a "reference" product, and then find it's got the same old Skyfi guts inside.
However, if I were buying again without having bought the Skyfi first, I would still get this Polk as my home XM tuner if I couldn't wait for something better to come along. In terms of bang-for-the-buck, it's a value at $299, as long as you have already committed the 7-to-9 bucks for the XM service. (It's $7 if you're adding a 2nd tuner.) There currently isn't anything else available in a home audio form factor, that has a decent DAC and/or true digital output. (There is a TuneSuite from Audio Design which is a 4-tuner chassis with an XM option, and an XM Tuner from Crestron, but these are both distributed audio components primarily, not home audio components.) Also, the Polk's integration with a video system makes using the informational content of the XM format much more enjoyable.
Emotionally, I find myself feeling slightly overpromised and underdelivered. I counter that by reminding myself that this unit has Burr-Brown DACs (which I might not use), and true digital output, which I will be using. And then I remind myself that it only cost $299 and conclude that, for the money, it's probably worth it for the video capabilities it has. Hopefully I'll find that the audio is so good that my emotional "net-net" is unequivocably positive.
I'll submit my feedback on the audio later...
