tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 I am interested in HD radio. I was looking at the attached tuner (with digital out): http://cgi.ebay.com/SANGEAN-HDT-1X-AM-FM-Tuner-w-HD-radio-NIB_W0QQitemZ140164616096QQihZ004QQcategoryZ3282QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem Here is a listing of the HD broadcasts here in Las Vegas: http://www.december.com/places/lv/radiodialhd.html I realize that this is not going to be audiophile quality, but is it decent? I listen to the radio all day at work and would like to upgrade a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txsmoke Posted December 7, 2007 Share Posted December 7, 2007 Yes- I am. I use the Sangean HDT-1X at home and a JVC car receiver. Been very happy. The best part is all of the commercial free stations. If you do a lot of radio listing and have more than a handful of stations that support it, it's worth it. Even AM sounds better. Except for talk, unless the station has the encoding tweaked really well, the voice gets a little harshness- like when a TV reporter calls in from some remote location on his satellite phone. Digital edginess.. But if its tuned well, the improvement is listenability to AM is like night and day. FM in the car can get a little frustrating if it looses lock, but I have some ignition noise on FM that I am sure is affecting the reception, so I am sure that my expreience is going to improve once I get the bugs out of my signal. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leok Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 I have the Sangean HDT-1 and have found it a capable tuner. I have stopped using it because I have a multipath problem where I live and can't find an FM antenna with a reflector bar. I will either find one, or build one. Anyway, the tuner does require a fairly clean and strong signal or the dropouts get annoying real fast. Sound is pretty much a function of a particular station's care in digital encoding. Some stations were impressive. If you meet the signal requirements for stations in which you are interested, the tuner is worth obtaining. By the way, I find that various web radio feeds have sonic capabilities (and source-specific variations) similar to what I found with the Sangean. With my web radio I do use my own external DAC which makes a big difference. The Sangean DAC was OK (my web radio DAC really isn't OK). I don't know if there is a digital out on the Sangean or if you'd want to use it. Leo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwc Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 I'm getting the HDT-1 x this Xmas and running through my MAC DAC. Can't wait. jc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 What is this HD Radio of which you speak? Is it anything like XM or Sirus? I plan on getting a XM receiver for my house. I had it in my truck for a while and it is amazing. What is the difference in quality between XM and HD? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 XM/Sirrus = you pay a subscription to listen to it. HD= Free radio stations with better quality sound. Waiting for my Local NPR station to go to start an ALL music format station, then I will get HD ! Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 XM/Sirrus = you pay a subscription to listen to it. HD= Free radio stations with better quality sound. Waiting for my Local NPR station to go to start an ALL music format station, then I will get HD ! Hope this helps. I don't have enough decent radio station to bother with any tuner at all. Personally I don't mind paying $10 a month for XM radio with no commercials and any genre of music I want to listen to. They also don't just play "hits" which is refreshing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 I'm interested in learning more about this, as well. Are antenna requirements essentially the same as those needed for FM broadcasts? Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 I've been wondering about this, too. Except for advertising for the hardware, I haven't run across any info on digital broadcasting in LR. Of course, Arkansas is not a leader in deployed innovation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 9, 2007 Author Share Posted December 9, 2007 I don't mind the $10 per month for XM, but I keep hearing that the sound quality isn't that good. I am at a desk all day and have music on the entire time. The local channels are OK, but teh commercials are annoying. I was readign that XM also has commericals. Is this true? The HD radio option appears ot be the Sangean with digital out. As far as satellite, I want somehting that I can use in my car (mosy likely with an FM modulator) and use in my office system. The office system will require a digital output. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leok Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 Digital info has been tacked on to FM stations for years. The "HD" version is a recent commercialization of a particular proprietary scheme by which an FM station can add two fair sounding (and I mean that in a positive sense) digital substations to its analog carrier. So the station is 3 stations: the stereo analog original and two additional stereo digitals for which listeners must purchase a receiver with HD capability. There are a few amusing questions raised: like if the original station really made good use of its channel's analog bandwidth and dynamic range would there really be room for two additional ok-bandwidth digital stereo channels? And: was anyone really taking advantage of full analog bandwidth and dynamic range of any station that offered it? But that's history and HD can be very good radio .. in a similar way that web radio can be good radio. It isn't CD, but some of the encodings are quite impressive. Leo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom_E Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 Is HD Radio the same as DAB? Digital Audio Broadcast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 ***OLD Topic Alert*** I like HD Radio, although we only have 3-4 stations, I like to leave mine on National Peoples Radio HD2 for pretty much instant Classical most any time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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