XM Radio Featured By CEDIA Exhibitors

DENVER — XM Satellite Radio is expanding its portfolio of home audio products, which will be displayed at multiple booths at the CEDIA Expo, here, this week.

More than a dozen of XM's manufacturing partners are expected to showcase products ranging from minisystems to multi-zone systems that can receive XM's 170 radio channels of music, sports, news, and talk.

This year's show takes place the same month that the satellite radio company is launching the XM Mini-Tuner, a small cartridge that delivers the XM signal to home audio systems that are equipped to receive XM.

The compact XM Mini-Tuner is inserted into a docking station, which is plugged into a port labeled “XM” located at the back of products such as home stereo receivers and DVD players. The XM Mini-Tuner is compatible with all home audio products that accept the XM Connect and Play digital antenna, which is being phased out of production to make way for the XM Mini-Tuner.

At CEDIA one of the products on display that works with the XM Mini-Tuner is the Explorer 1. The product is a tabletop radio from Crosley that boasts retro styling, but contains “space age” components.

The Explorer 1, with a $249 suggested retail, offers AM and FM radio as well as XM, plus an input for MP3 players. It has three speakers and ported bass for superior “out of the box” sound, XM said. The nostalgia-themed product is named for the Explorer I satellite launched by NASA in 1958, which marked the nation's entry in the space race.

Other manufacturers planning to display XM products at CEDIA include Yamaha, Denon, Audiovox, Niles, and Crestron.