I visited the local Tweeter outlet in the NW Chicago suburbs, near where I work. This location is one mile from the towers of 50kw WBBM AM780 and WGN AM 720. WSCR AM 670 at 50kw is another 2 miles south. I expected the Receptor to be larger, but it sounded larger than its size. It could only receive one FM, in analog, from a station about 8 miles distant, after I extended the rat tail straight up. The salesperson was not aware dipoles are available.
I've never heard a radio so deaf on FM.
On the AM, the bandwidth is unacceptable in analog. That is, it sounds like radio under a down comforter. I searched in vain for tone controls, or even ONE tone control....no such luck.
The sensitivity on AM must be low, because instead of hearing EMI-RFI noises from the store environment, the radio is strangely quiet on unoccupied frequencies. On WGN analog-only, the radio sounds muffled. On WSCR and WBBM, the muffled audio gives way to a granular , sparkly, chunky audio that sounds just like a class b amplifier which has crossover distortion at the zero-v crossing. At least the time delay and blend was correct on both stations.
This cannot be what ibiquity wants me to beleive is an improvement, or FM-like.
All the voices sound gravel-like, as though the speaker should be clearing their throat.
The other strong IBOC signals in the area AM 620 Milwaukee, AM 1390 Chicago, and AM 1690, could only barely be detected, so there was no chance of locking digital.
And I still don't know what the FM sounds like, because NO HD-FM signals were receivable.
It's usually no problem to pick up at least 5-6 stations, even in a retail steel-n-brick building. Normally, the noise knocks out AM reception in a store, but the FM works.
I asked if many had sold.. The man responded that only a very few had been sold.
You'd have to have a lot of faith to beleive that this radio would work better at home than it did in the store.
Definitely Deaf.
If this radio had a motto, it would be "Eh?"
I've never heard a radio so deaf on FM.
On the AM, the bandwidth is unacceptable in analog. That is, it sounds like radio under a down comforter. I searched in vain for tone controls, or even ONE tone control....no such luck.
The sensitivity on AM must be low, because instead of hearing EMI-RFI noises from the store environment, the radio is strangely quiet on unoccupied frequencies. On WGN analog-only, the radio sounds muffled. On WSCR and WBBM, the muffled audio gives way to a granular , sparkly, chunky audio that sounds just like a class b amplifier which has crossover distortion at the zero-v crossing. At least the time delay and blend was correct on both stations.
This cannot be what ibiquity wants me to beleive is an improvement, or FM-like.
All the voices sound gravel-like, as though the speaker should be clearing their throat.
The other strong IBOC signals in the area AM 620 Milwaukee, AM 1390 Chicago, and AM 1690, could only barely be detected, so there was no chance of locking digital.
And I still don't know what the FM sounds like, because NO HD-FM signals were receivable.
It's usually no problem to pick up at least 5-6 stations, even in a retail steel-n-brick building. Normally, the noise knocks out AM reception in a store, but the FM works.
I asked if many had sold.. The man responded that only a very few had been sold.
You'd have to have a lot of faith to beleive that this radio would work better at home than it did in the store.
Definitely Deaf.
If this radio had a motto, it would be "Eh?"
I had the same experience in Best Buy (they actually had one, but it was stuck all the way in the back, with the AM/FM alarm clocks and boom-boxes), with the long-wire antenna (but, IBOCRocks never believed me) - the analog boom-boxes and clock radios were booming away ! I bet, that the few that have sold, most have been returned. HD Radio is doomed, and THAT is very entertaining !