Yes but you can't forget how convenient it is to fire up a Bluetooth speaker and pair to a mobile device. In MANY cases, it's likely a lot clearer with TONS more variety than an AM/FM radio.
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An editorial on HD radio's fate
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
Yes but you can't forget how convenient it is to fire up a Bluetooth speaker and pair to a mobile device. In MANY cases, it's likely a lot clearer with TONS more variety than an AM/FM radio.
Yeah, not sure about that. I own a few BT speakers that blow the doors off any AM/FM radios I have. But hey, audio quality is subjective.
You'd be surprised how much variety you'll find on an AM/FM radio if you go beyond a handful of stations.
Yeah, not sure about that. I own a few BT speakers that blow the doors off any AM/FM radios I have. But hey, audio quality is subjective.
All in tinny mono. OK.
I know that you can bluetooth a phone to a car stereo with the massive woofers and all, but most bluetooth speakers I've seen used were these things that look like cans and sound tinnier than my FM-AM mini-boombox.
^^^^^ I didn't mean to come off too snarky sounding.... I was going by my own experience. I have friends and acquaintances who use the bluetooth speakers, be it the music cube, music 'can', whatever, and the sound didn't really impress me. Sort of like a single, decent quality computer speaker. Nothing like a Superadio or boombox.
I suppose there are models that are better than the ones I've seen, though.
I suppose there are models that are better than the ones I've seen, though.
True point for sure, but the variety is infinite online allowing the listener total control of what they want to listen to and when.
Total see your point. I have a few Amazon Alexa smart speakers in my home (as well as a BT speaker) that allow you to pair two together for stereo, now that's a game changer IMHO.
So I was in Walmart today and walked by the car audio systems. Not one that I could see had HD tuner. I went to the electronics area and saw record players and vinyl records. Lots of Bluetooth stuff, but only one boombox type radio, one small handheld radio, emergency radio, and a few clock radios. None were HD. What does that say about radio as a whole? It is clear that HD does not sell to the public. Sad but true.
It doesn't say anything about "radio as a whole." HD Radio is a trademarked technology, and any electronics manufacturer that chooses to include it has to pay a royalty to the copyright holder. That has dissuaded almost all of the manufacturers, especially since they're all based in China and HD Radio is mainly a US thing. AM & FM have no royalty payments.
My question is how many people buy outside car stereos today? That may have been a big thing 30 years ago, but today everyone gets the system they want as original equipment. Most of those have HD. I just bought a new car a year ago, and it had HD as standard equipment.
I think US demand is the limitation. The royalty for HD is only part of the cost and it can be passed to the consumer. If there was demand and volume, I don't believe the royalty would be a problem. Personally, I think the demand problem is a combination of listener awareness and availability of HD programming that effectively complements other audio listening options (analog radio, streaming, satellite, etc.). The radio monopoly on audio programming is long gone. Audio programming is here to stay though.
The demand for new radios is essentially non-existent. What consumers want now are devices that can control the home, play videos and music, tale pictures, make phone calls (with video, too) and send text messages as well as offering games and information. They want a newspaper, cable, radio, a CD player, a camera and a bunch of other things all rolled into one.
If the device is audio only, they want it to be able to seek music on demand, change kind of music, give the weather and headlines, locate a restaurant and make phone calls, too. A stand-alone radio is a single function device. It takes up space that a multi-function device could use in the home or at work.
The hope for HD is entirely based on in-car usage. In the meantime, HD serves many licensees a useful purpose in allowing them to have an FM translator, that in all but the largest markets can often be a competitive signal.
The power requirements for the DAC circuit needed to receive and play HD stations is more than any cellphone manufacturer wants to take on. Part of the game in that industry is battery life, and they won't sacrifice any portion of it for HD radio.
One of the big issues of HD from the beginning was the absence of portable devices. The reasoning was the same... extremely poor battery life. I had a discussion in an industry meeting with Strubbe back in 2002; Strubbe was hyping the system and I asked about the timetable for in-home and portable receivers and got an evasive answer. At the time, two-thirds of radio listening was not in the car and iBiquity seemed to have no plan for mass market radios other than those placed in new cars.
I have the Sangean HDR-14 and HDR-16. Battery life hasn't been an issue for me with those two radios. Maybe the older models were worse. The current generation seems ok, at least for the way that I use them.
Yeah, true.
Opinions are like *******, everyone has got them, right?
I used the example of my wife but most "non-radio people" I know have no idea what HD radio is, how it works, or that subchannels even exists -- we're the minority. It's not going to scale in time to be viable or make any real money consider the money it took to convert a lot of these stations to HD.How long did it take for stations to get an ROI on HD installs?
Has there been a bump in ad dollars because of HD?
These are honest questions ... At some point if you're not making additional revenue, why pay to maintain it? I have seen this with a number of stations in my market. As soon as something broke, "some" (not all) are like "fugetabout it" let it stay broken.
When people shop for a new aftermarket car radio do they look for:
1. HD Radio
2. CarPlay and Bluetooth
I've got data from people I know that work in the mobile car audio industry that shows it's option 2. Listen, I know a lot of us radio guys and gals think HD is cool but here we are 10 years later and we're still talking about how to get more people to listen to HD radio. Isn't that a problem? In the last 10 years, the development of online music services and online stations, aggregators, and ways to listen on the go has grown leaps and bounds.
It took 30 years for FM to catch on. Most manufacturers didn't include FM on portables until after the patent ran out in the mid 60s. That's also a problem with HD.
I expect the same thing will happen with HD. But what really hurts HD is that people have lots of alternatives to broadcast. They didn't in the 60s. The other issue is that almost all radios are all made in China, and there is no HD Radio in China. Chinese won't pay royalty for HD.
I just have one question......
If, as virtually everyone is saying, HD has no financial future in commercial radio why then is it still being used? Is there a population of radio GM's so ignorant of the fact that HD has no future or do these same GM's just need losses on their earnings for some unknown reason?
Please don't get me wrong. I love digital radio and listen to it both at home and in my car. It is one of the only places I can listen to my favorite genre so I wish it would succeed.
If, as virtually everyone is saying, HD has no financial future in commercial radio why then is it still being used? Is there a population of radio GM's so ignorant of the fact that HD has no future or do these same GM's just need losses on their earnings for some unknown reason?
Please don't get me wrong. I love digital radio and listen to it both at home and in my car. It is one of the only places I can listen to my favorite genre so I wish it would succeed.
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