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Another HD radio - looked like a good deal, but...

D

DaveBayArea

I found this in a web search and was hopeful it might be a decent receiver. It's also the only one I've found that has AM HD. After three returns they gave me my money back:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HDR-650

The remote control was not working in all three radios. After I sent the last one back I found reference to the fact that these may be old stock from 2008. So it's possible that the battery was just dead from shelf life. Not sure. But more important, the radio could only receive one FM station and one AM station. In addition, as soon as you turn the HD receiver on, every other radio in the room goes dead with nothing but static. So it obviously suffers from severe spurious radiation.

Just wanted to pass that along to anyone here who might be thinking about this. It's a great value, but you must have an incredible signal.

Dave B.
 
I just watched a video review on this not too long ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kNgUVrgSjA

These are probably old new stock units so I imagine the remote batteries could be dead. In this video you'll notice the remote was having issues.

The noise from the radio is its power supply. Its a piece of junk switching supply, swap it for a less noisy 12v supply and it sounds like your interference will go away. A non-switching linear power supply, the older denser wall warts, will give you less noise.
 
Look at the brand. It's a Coby radio. I bought a Coby radio 8 years ago and it was a piece of crap. Stations on adjacent channels of equal strength sounded like co-channel interference, whereas a good radio would separate them well. A class B station 40 miles away at 96.5 could be heard at 96.8. And forget about hearing anything if you're near a tower, it will overload.

This radio is sure to flop. If the high quality Sony XDRF1HD flopped because only DXers were buying them, this will definitely flop because not even the DXers will buy this crap.
 
I tend to avoid Coby stuff. That's a horrible switching power supply. They're all Chinese-made pieces of junk. The Sony XDR-F1HD is also Chinese-made, but it is much better quality and will last long.
 
A new battery is the fix to get the remote control working. These seem more picky than usual about the battery voltage being high enough for the remote to work correctly. In fact you can take the old-stock battery that came with the Coby and put it in another product's remote control and it will work fine.
 
Coby products are the worst. Cheap construction and inferior quality. With that name attached, I avoid. I've been burned too many times.
 
NOW you tell me. I just received one, haven't tried it yet.
 
Heres another video where you can see the internals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoA4D6ZBzEM

It uses the TMS320DRI350 which is the same DSP chip thats in the Sangean HDT-1, which explains its ability to decode C-QUAM. This should make a decent tuner for the price if you give it a linear power supply and convert the wire FM antenna to a coax jack.
 
spunker88 said:
Heres another video where you can see the internals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoA4D6ZBzEM

It uses the TMS320DRI350 which is the same DSP chip thats in the Sangean HDT-1, which explains its ability to decode C-QUAM. This should make a decent tuner for the price if you give it a linear power supply and convert the wire FM antenna to a coax jack.
Click to expand...

I will make a comment about the Sony tuner with the supposedly bad AM section - if you take the wire off the little plastic frame and use it to make a single turn on a frame made with yardsticks, the reception is nothing short of amazing! The same should hold true for this Coby, as I've done the same trick with some other AM radios that use these tiny plastic loops.

It sounds like, for the price, you really can't lose. I think I am going to see if I can pick one of these up and do some hacking - there is a ceramic filter in that front end that is calling my name - probably can increase the selectivity quite a bit, provided I can work on the front end without damaging it. I think I see enough room on the plastic case to put a 75 Ohm connector for FM - I suspect the front end is already designed to be matched to 75 Ohms, so all I would have to do would be to connect the ground of the connector to any convenient ground on the circuit board.
 
This is reminiscent of the early days of radio when people had to modify or build their own sets to listen to the radio. To listen to HD radio, apparently all you need to do is become familiar with how to solder SMT components so you can tear into your new radio to add an antenna connector, replace the filters, replace the power supply, etc. HD radio is such a great technology... ;D
 
audioguy said:
This is reminiscent of the early days of radio when people had to modify or build their own sets to listen to the radio.
Click to expand...

When the only other affordable HD Radios on the market are the little FM-only Insignia toys, it's worth doing some tinkering to make the most of what you can get for $35.
 
landtuna said:
If only we had a crystal set equivalent for HD radio. ;D
Click to expand...

Crystal sets are better than HD radios, better range, selectivity is not too hot though but at least what comes in stays in. They sound better too.
 
I think a crystal set equivalent for HD radio would be about the size of a house and use a battery from an electric forklift.
 
ddsparxx said:
I think a crystal set equivalent for HD radio would be about the size of a house and use a battery from an electric forklift.
Click to expand...

And the battery would last about three hours.
 
I bought one of these Coby's after seeing it here. Remote did not work as discussed above - but a new battery fixed that.

Also when I first plugged it in the power supply was in some unstable/flapping state where the radio just kept cycling on/off. I put a meter on the power supply to check it out and it looked ok; plugged it back in and it has been working ever since.

It works ok but the included antennas are not the best. I'm going to try to try the F-Connector mod so I can hook it up a better external FM antenna. For AM I'm not in a great location anyway but on my other radios I can at least pick up a few things weakly - on this one I get nothing but a bit of static even with a Parsec amplified antenna attached (that works very well on my other radios for AM). I may try a different power supply as talked about above.

For me this a fun little project/experiment. The average person would be frustrated which is likely why there is a warehouse of these 2008 models being sold off now.
 
spt87 said:
I bought one of these Coby's after seeing it here. Remote did not work as discussed above - but a new battery fixed that.

Also when I first plugged it in the power supply was in some unstable/flapping state where the radio just kept cycling on/off. I put a meter on the power supply to check it out and it looked ok; plugged it back in and it has been working ever since.

It works ok but the included antennas are not the best. I'm going to try to try the F-Connector mod so I can hook it up a better external FM antenna. For AM I'm not in a great location anyway but on my other radios I can at least pick up a few things weakly - on this one I get nothing but a bit of static even with a Parsec amplified antenna attached (that works very well on my other radios for AM). I may try a different power supply as talked about above.

For me this a fun little project/experiment. The average person would be frustrated which is likely why there is a warehouse of these 2008 models being sold off now.
Click to expand...

Well you had better luck finding one than I did. I just assumed it, too, failed in the marketplace and is no longer available. At that price, it is a sell-off anyway. When existing stock is gone, it is gone.
 
I bought one, and it received nothing. No audio, display lit-up and changed, but not a sound. Back it went and I was out the postage too. Tried a linear power supply too, but no luck - still received nothing.
 
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