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First look at the Sony tabletop

R

R.F. Burns

I had a chance today to see the Sony tabletop HD radio and actually play with it a bit. I saw the radio at a Best Buy in New Jersey. While the sound quality as it was set up didn't compare with the BA Receptor, I was still very tempted to purchase one. The store had attached a single collapsed whip antenna lying horizontaly behind the radio. While I didn't try the AM section, the radio had no problem picking up all of the area FM HD-1, 2 or 3 stations. What struck me about this radio was how quickly the radio switched and locked onto HD mode. It seemed to switch to HD mode much faster than my Boston Acoustics or my Sangean radios. I didn't play with the tone controls so I don't know just what the radio is capable of fidelity wise. Checking out the Best Buy customer comments about this radio the reports are generally favorable when it comes to sound and its HD channels. Not one of the comments complained about weak HD signals disatisfaction over the oevrall sound of the radio.
 
Both our local Best Buy and Target sell this radio. Circuit City and others may too, but I haven't looked. The Best Buy has it connected to an antenna via the rear F connector. I imagine the antenna is outdoors. At Target, the radio has a wire hanging off the rear panel. The radio at Best Buy seems quite decent, picking up a couple of very week translator signals with ease when connected to the outdoor antenna. It was not very impressive at Target with the indoor antenna, but it was at least “average” in analog. It got no HD at either store, but that is no surprise, since there are only two stations in the area, and neither have strong signals, at these locations.

The radio seemed very user friendly and also sounded "nice." It's the kind of thing my mother-in-law would find simple to use. If I were in the market for a $200 table radio, I'd definitely consider this one.
 
I have one and it's awesome! It has great FM reception (of HD and Analog) and pulls in distant stations very nicely (usually in analog). The AM is OK and can get some channels in HD well enough. The audio from the built-in speakers is pretty good though not quite as good as the Boston Receptor (analog version, I had the HD version and returned it because the reception was not up to par, and frankly, the Sony beats it in reception ability). It also has an audio input jack. When connected to an outboard amplifier, it makes quite an awesome tuner for an audio system. All in all, I would recommend it to those wanting a good HD table radio. 8)
 
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