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Looking around for a table-type HD radio (Hybrid Digital radio)
- Thread starter thezak
- Start date
A word of advice: before you go through the effort to find that radio, check to see how many HD subchannels in your area actually air programming any more. Quite a number of HD2's and HD3's have gone silent over the last year. Unless you want it as a collector's item, or to pull in AM stations over their FM/HD simulcast, there isn't much point in having an HD radio whose only value is pulling in stations that you can already get on more mundane receivers.
I have a Sony XDR-S3HD. This radio is a real "DX machine". It has absolutely superior sensitivity, and has an unbelievable 82 dB adjacent channel selectivity, that's right, adjacent channel selectivity. I read a review years ago that said it uses military grade circuitry, and I can believe it. I use the headphone output on the back to plug it into my sound system, serving as my FM Tuner. Over the years it's the best I have ever used. BTW I have a 6 element FM antenna plugged into a 15 dB signal amplifier. This setup performs.
Sony also made a Tuner only (no speakers) version of this receiver. XDR-F1HD
Sony also made a Tuner only (no speakers) version of this receiver. XDR-F1HD
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Official nitpick. HD does not stand for "hybrid digital". In fact, it doesn't stand for anything; the original developers just thought it sounded cool alongside HDTV.
Read the second paragraph here, and note that you are far from the first person to be misled:
HD Radio - Wikipedia
And here is what ibiquity themselves said:
As for your search, even Crutchfield doesn't have anything like a HD table radio. I've never seen one myself (including the Sony that Tomás recommended).
I have the Sangean HDR-18 and HDT-20.
HDR-18 has a great sound for such a small footprint.
HDT-20 driven with my NAD tuner and PSB speakers sounds excellent, similar to my Rotel tuner.
But really, there's no reason to get a HD tuner specifically for the home. Nearly all HD stations exist somewhere else on the regular FM dial. Most broadcasters have let their HD-2 signals rot or go off the air. Very few HD signals actually sound better than the analog broadcast. WFMT in Chicago is a rare example. Most HD transmissions these days are used to display in-dash advertisements.
HDR-18 has a great sound for such a small footprint.
HDT-20 driven with my NAD tuner and PSB speakers sounds excellent, similar to my Rotel tuner.
But really, there's no reason to get a HD tuner specifically for the home. Nearly all HD stations exist somewhere else on the regular FM dial. Most broadcasters have let their HD-2 signals rot or go off the air. Very few HD signals actually sound better than the analog broadcast. WFMT in Chicago is a rare example. Most HD transmissions these days are used to display in-dash advertisements.
I'll second this -- I picked up a Sony XDR-S3HD on ebay last year for my home office and love it. It's a great tabletop radio whether you use it as a HD receiver or not -- great sound and selectivity. I just looked and still see some good deals on this radio on ebay.
There's also the Sony XDR-S10HDiP that is slightly more common and a bit cheaper on eBay. You can commonly find them listed for under $50. This uses the same tuner as the other Sony XDR receivers but also has a classic iPod dock. The downside of this model is it lacks a headphone/aux output and it doesn't have the nice wood finish that the XDR-S3HD has.
I'm more than a bit skeptical of 82 dB adjacent channel selectivity. Typically, the spec was 2nd adjacent selectivity -- although 82 dB would still be an excellent spec for 2nd adjacent selectivity.
I found this Sony model at our huge outdoor swap meet here in Vegas several years ago. The vendor was asking $50 and I talked him down to $30 by saying it's just a nice looking clock radio. He took the cash! And I totally scored a killer deal on this amazing radio. It sits in my production studio and works perfectly.
I've been thinking about getting one, but I live near stations that use HD and IBOC sidebands pretty much cover every DX frequency, do you think getting a S3HD would still help pulling distant stations in or it would be a waste? Thanks
Rinse and repeat:
HD DOES NOT STAND FOR HYBRID DIGITAL
HD DOES NOT STAND FOR ANYTHING.
Unfortunately, AI picks up this kind of misinformation and propagates it.
HD Radio was originally going to be marketed as "iDAB".
It would be interesting to trace "Hybrid Digital" to its originator, the first person or publication to assign this false meaning to "HD." An overeager publicist for iBiquity, perhaps?
Nah, when HBC (Hispanic Broadcasting) announced its participation in the HD rollout, Struble made a presentation to our managers and corporate officers. He specifically said that "HD" was a "brand" and did not stand for anything.
When I asked what the plan for a rollout of portable radios and home devices, he changed the subject rapidly. We later saw that the battery drain on the DAC circuitry made portable devices not likely to appear; that was the same issue with satellite radio portables.
I bought a "pocket radio" to listen to our 5 HBC channels on Sirius, and it drained the battery before I could do my daily walk from home in Burbank to the Disney "world HQ" and back.
I was also briefly the HBC delegate to the "HD Alliance" which was the group of broadcasters who came up with the terrible "stations between the stations" promotional effort. My concern with that whole group, together, violating all kinds of restrictions on collusion made me withdraw from that effort.
Among my digital radios is a long since discontinued Best Buy/Insignia "table top/portable" which I use in the kitchen. Its performance isn't bad, but I keep it plugged in using its "wall wort", because I soon found as, you mentioned, it will run down a set of AA batteries in just 2 to 3 hours.
Another example of the inefficiency of portable devices that have DAC chips or circuits: when we used to drive from and Glendale, CA, to our home in La Quinta, CA (140 miles) each weekend we'd carry a portable TV that would last for months on a set of batteries. The driver could listen and the passenger would watch so we did not miss the Univision news and other shows we needed to hear for our work.
Then everything went digital, and a single charge lasted less than a single trip's worth of "juice" and even running it off the cigarette lighter plug was tedious. We had about a 10" analog screen, but the digital device was much smaller... and its ability to pick up the signal without dropping was very erratic.
I was thinking about the usefulness of such a device in the event of a quake or fire emergency, when recharging would be impossible and where I'd worry about draining the car battery. For emergencies, all digital TV is far less useful due to the inability to run long enough on disposable batteries and because of the short endurance times of the rechargeable ones.
We decided to buy an array of rechargeable backup batteries for our not-so-smartphones and keep them charged on a wall rack in the garage. At least we will have about 3 to 4 days worth of phone charges... if the cell sites are not out of power themselves.
Well, with some wet firewood and an old blanket, we can send smoke signals.
Again, technology improves over time and what you might have known to be true 20 years ago doesn't apply today.
The Sangean HDR-14 portable is my go-to for my own travel use and as a recommendation to clients. I can easily get 8-10 solid hours from it on 3 rechargeable AA batteries.
The Sangean HDR-14 portable is my go-to for my own travel use and as a recommendation to clients. I can easily get 8-10 solid hours from it on 3 rechargeable AA batteries.
Can confirm. Battery usage is well within normal ranges. I’ve seen the low battery light go on very rarely. This is the case even when HD reception (whether AM or FM) is active.
This is also true for the SG-108 model; the only difference between it and the HDR-14 is that the SG-108’s case is white. If you use the menu option to see the SG-108’s firmware version, it will even tell you it’s an HDR-14.