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Best Buy releases first portable HD radio

Note no mention of battery life, although the battery is rechargeable. I also noted this comment by the manufacturer: "The sound quality...is phenomenal"...as if anyone using earbuds will be able to notice the difference between analog and digital.
 
The Cnet testers said the sound quality is good, not great. Garbage in garbage out, if the station signal is overly compressed it will sound no better than a poor internet stream at 28k

The authors pointed out, if you aren't happy with radio as is, then having additional HD2/HD3 won't make you happy.

They gave great praises to WBGO's classic jazz, it sounded rich and full.

To recap, if the station cares a hoot about sound quality and their engineers knows what they're doing HD can sound good. If you stand still, with your arms stretch-out, like a bird in flight, the HD signal will lock on. If you don't like radio with it's endless streams of commercials and promos you won't be happy either way..

Though the price point is nice at $50.00 and it's a nice way to experiment with HD without losing your shirt..
If reminds me of the old FM converters.. with an ipod plugin you've got an HD capable car radio..
 
It might be worth a try just for the sakes of kicks and giggles, given the price tag. I am definitely considering it, being the radio geek that I am. But somehow I doubt it will be a big seller.

However, the most interesting thing about it is that it DOES NOT HAVE AM! It's FM only. Given that it's such an important product for these HD sales slime, you'd think they'd include AM. That they didn't certainly makes room for lots of conjecture about the future of HD on AM - even from Ibiquity's point of view.

Also, I wish the reviewers would have given some consideration to comparing it's sensitivity and selectivity to other comparably priced pocket-sized radios out there. If it's reception characteristics are anything like my Insignia HD/FM/AM/CD rack system, then it'll crash and burn faster than a Molotov cocktail! ::)
 
BRNout said:
Also, I wish the reviewers would have given some consideration to comparing it's sensitivity and selectivity to other comparably priced pocket-sized radios out there. If it's reception characteristics are anything like my Insignia HD/FM/AM/CD rack system, then it'll crash and burn faster than a Molotov cocktail! ::)
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All I will say it will perform like a 50 dollar HD radio and will be of course a waste of 50 bucks. I consider my Sony XDR-F1HD to be a waste of 84.00 and as far as HD radio goes (and we all know how far that is ::)) it performs well. Of course that is like saying I got one of the best performing Yugos made, it is all relative.
 
Hmmm...interesting...no AM, maybe an AM ferrite stick may be too big to fit in the unit. makes me wonder...How high will the battery consumption be? I wonder if Best Buy would end up having trouble selling it? What manufacturer makes this unit? If it performs as well or almost as well as my XDR-F1HD on FM then 50 bucks might be worth it to me.
 
ddsparxx said:
Hmmm...interesting...no AM, maybe an AM ferrite stick may be too big to fit in the unit. makes me wonder...How high will the battery consumption be? I wonder if Best Buy would end up having trouble selling it? What manufacturer makes this unit? If it performs as well or almost as well as my XDR-F1HD on FM then 50 bucks might be worth it to me.
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Insignia makes it, so I have my doubts that it will perform anything like the XDR-F1HD. Follow the links above and you'll find some description of how it comes with a sealed, rechargeable battery that is probably pretty big to give it 10 hours of use time. Which isn't much really. It's still big for a pocket sized radio, but I have a feeling that they have it crammed full with the battery and HD stuff so there was no room for a ferrite bar. But I also have a feeling that they aren't concerned about the AM anyhow. That would be great - any encouragement for AM broadcasters to shut off the buzz makers is fine with me.
 
BRNout said:
Insignia makes it, so...
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Insignia is the Best Buy house brand. There are a variety of OEMs that agree to supply Insignia private-label products, some good. For example, the Insignia DTV converter box was a re-branded version of the LG sold elsewhere.
 
I remember saying a while back if a portable HD radio was ever offered I'd run right out and buy one (this was before all my negative experience with iboc). Now, I just yawn as I read this news, especially given the far better alternatives (pocket-sized SiriusXM radios and MP3 players for example). I also believe they will not function properly and receiving even local stations will be quite a challenge!
 
I paid $50 for an SRF-A1, and that was in 1980's dollars. But - it contained both AM and FM, had outstanding performance on both bands, and had stereo on AM that actually worked for 290 miles daytime, and over 1000 at night. FM performance was excellent as well, stations up to 70 or 80 miles coming in without a problem using nothing but the headphone wire.

I seriously doubt the Best Buy model will match the performance of my SRF-A1, which I still use all these years later, AM sounds great in mono even without C-Quam, much better than HD AM anyway. No compression artifacts.
 
I bought one tonight, and with the enclosed earbuds, got WHTZ & WCBS-FM in HD. Sound quality depends on each station, but its not a bad radio. Very small, and the display is full color and very bright. Analog reception is great for a portable - was getting WLEV & WCTO sitting in my buddies tv room here in Monmouth County NJ, along with WSTW.

HD reception is tricky - only got WXPN, WNUW & WYSP to lock. But its worth the 50 bucks.
 
BRNout said:
Insignia makes it, so I have my doubts that it will perform anything like the XDR-F1HD.
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I have maybe a half dozen Insignia LCD TVs, all in smaller sizes, that are in areas like kitchens and such... they work well, never had a bad one, and a couple have been running for three years or more very reliably. I have actually had worse ecperience on picture quality, reliability, etc. from the big brand names.

But I also have a feeling that they aren't concerned about the AM anyhow. That would be great - any encouragement for AM broadcasters to shut off the buzz makers is fine with me.
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I have the feeling they realized the market for this kind of radio is not the typical AM listener. So the added cost of putting in AM, even if it was less than a dollar, was not warranted. That is the same decision Microsoft made in poutting only FM on the Zune... just like some of the Sansa and other MP3 players that have radios.

What this will encourage is a faster move of the viable content still on AM to an FM station.
 
DavidEduardo said:
What this will encourage is a faster move of the viable content still on AM to an FM station.
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Seerms to me it's more likely that if HD keeps pushing, all the viable content on both AM and FM is going to end up on the internet.
 
Amen to that. The most likely reasons why there's no AM in the Insignia - (a), no room for a ferrite bar antenna, and (b) the processor will induce noise preventing either analog or digital reception.
 
Savage said:
Amen to that. The most likely reasons why there's no AM in the Insignia - (a), no room for a ferrite bar antenna, and (b) the processor will induce noise preventing either analog or digital reception.
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Mr. Savage, as usual I think you've hit the nail on the head here. And given (a) and (b), the designers probably sighed and said "no great loss" because they think that their radio will skew younger than the average AM listener. They may be wrong about that one - that's what Toyota thought when they came out with Scion and now the average buyer is in his 40s!
 
Savage said:
FMQB turns thumbs-down on the Insignia:

http://fmqb.com/goout.asp?u=http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/07/13/reviewing-the-hd-radio-portable/

No AM, no iTunes tagging, short battery life, not great sensitivity, no album art - just a basic (if "bright") display. It's not gonna compare favorably with other portable devices. Consumers picking it up will say, 50 bucks for an FM Radio? Nah.

A SWINNNGGG. And a miss.
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Interesting comments below the article too! One of them says that you have to buy the USB charger! If that's true, it's a deal killer. I was under the impression that it's included though. I've read some decent reviews on this thing's reception capabilities - where it's at least OK.

The no AM thing is what distinguishes this (to me) as a potential toy as opposed to an actual radio that I would enjoy bringing around with me. The iTunes tagging is of no importance to me whatsoever; I couldn't care less if it has this or not. If I'm that interested in iTunes, I'll be listening to an iPod and not a radio.

As for the general consumer at large, you're right: there's nothing compelling here. I still neither see nor hear any real demand on the part of the public for HD Radios. It is still a niche item - and a very small niche at that.
 
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