HD Power Boost at WRKS and WBLS Yields Good Results

[Ai4i]

...an aftermarket car tuner, a disappearing segment of the audio market.

Is there data to support this? When we visit local electronics stores, we still find walls of aftermarket car decks and speakers.
We have to use them because in our line of work, the cheapest radios and speakers (intolerable to us) are installed in the work vehicles.

BTW...we just stumbled across another HD "Power Boost", the name Nautel uses for their assymetric sideband system.
It allows stations with first adjacency issues on one side to run more power in the other sideband.
According to Nautel, HD receivers detect the upper and lower sidebands independantly.
More information is available here.
Hmm, is that Leonard Kahn laughing in the background?

 

[tomservo]

You must have more dedicated auto specials than we do. My last foray into a locally owned store saw exactly three Sony head units for sale, two CD slotted and one flip out DVD (or was it double din? I forget.)

Best Buy around here stocks more models of Kenwood and JVC, but seems to have a bigger marine audio section than car audio these days. Only the big thumpin' speakers seem to be popular anymore.

 

[Savage]

Walk into any BB or similar electronics retailer and ask about how well car audio sales are going - vis-a-vis say, ten or fifteen years ago. Here in Rochester there were probably a dozen major independent car-aftermarket locations a decade ago. There are about four left, and the biggest percentage of sales comes from wheels, truck-bed caps, accessories, radar detectors and lights, not radios.

The old practice of buying a new car with radio-delete and heading to the aftermarket shop to have some snazzy radio and audio system installed, is essentially gone. Car entertainment is integrated into steering wheel controls and communications these days. Most warranties are void if anybody but an authorized dealer hacks into the car electrical system. That's why aftermarket DVD players are also scarce today. Besides you can buy a portable DVD at CVS for $79. At that price every kid in the vehicle can watch his own DVDs individually, and it's still cheaper than having a player installed. Aftermarket audio is for older cars, customs and commuter/workplace beaters.

Looks like Sony is edging towards the exits when it comes to HD. One by one, manufacturers are concluding that HD Radio is a slow-selling headache. I'd bet it accounts for a huge percentage of overall consumer electronics retail returns for any company who markets the receivers.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

I still can't believe that Best Buy has half a dozen HD add-on tuners still selling for $99 each.
I was there yesterday, and wondering who would spend $99 to ADD ON to your existing HD-compatible radio? These 'add-on HD tuners' for the same price WERE a better deal, when you could buy them, but I have NOT seen one in a store in over a year. Why no clearance price I wonder?

You can still buy a JVC HD car RADIO for $179, so why pay $200 for a Sony or Pioneer HD compatible, PLUS plunk another $99 for the HD tuner?

 

[Savage]

Ahh, there's that genius-MBA-derived iBiquity mandatory per-chip license fee again. "Dammit! We're gonna get our confiscatory share of every sale! Even if that means sales of ZERO!"

Proving once again that when you mix an academic-derived profit philosophy with a giant dollop of greed plus executives who possess little understanding of the business they're in, you get....

Um.....

HD Radio. And all of its attendant successes.

Oh: did I mention the whole system is a technical train-wreck besides? :

 

[Carmine5]

Oh: did I mention the whole system is a technical train-wreck besides? :

I think once or twice, but only in passing.

The aftermarket stereo shops in my predominately white neighborhood have all put disappeared. But in the Hispanic part of town they are alive and well. Guys will roll their '67 Impalas into these places, after spending a small fortune on tiny wheels and tires, hydraulic shocks and blinding pearlescent paint jobs, and install equally insane stereo systems in them. The in-dash GPS/DVD/MP3/XM/radio/iPod-connectivity units seem to be the system of choice at the moment.

The biggest issue doesn't seem to be HD Radio but finding strategic locations for all of the speakers and the 100+ watt amp.

 

[Ai4i]

Do any factory systems sound as good as comparably priced aftermarket stuff?
Every expensive factory system ithat we have heard has tended to be base heavy.
We like bright and crisp.

 

[KB1OKL]

Oh: did I mention the whole system is a technical train-wreck besides? :

I think once or twice, but only in passing.

The aftermarket stereo shops in my predominately white neighborhood have all put disappeared. But in the Hispanic part of town they are alive and well. Guys will roll their '67 Impalas into these places, after spending a small fortune on tiny wheels and tires, hydraulic shocks and blinding pearlescent paint jobs, and install equally insane stereo systems in them. The in-dash GPS/DVD/MP3/XM/radio/iPod-connectivity units seem to be the system of choice at the moment.

The biggest issue doesn't seem to be HD Radio but finding strategic locations for all of the speakers and the 100+ watt amp.

100 watts?

This guy has a 23,000 watt (!) stereo in his SUV with four (4) 18" subwoofers, it popped a girl's glass eye out of it's socket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1B-mQlQGFk

 

[Ai4i]

This guy has a 23,000 watt (!) stereo in his SUV with four (4) 18" subwoofers

Sounds like what the ficticious rock band, Disaster Area form Douglas Adaams', Hitchhiker's Guide might have had.

 

[Lee Rust]

Too bad about Sony backing out of HD. I have the table radio, and it's a nice sounding and very sensitive tuner for analog AM & FM. The HD-2 channels drop out regularly though, even though we're only 10 miles from most of the transmitters and the radio is fitted with rabbit ears. (!)

I agree that a lasting benefit of HD is the vast improvement in analog reception by way of the DSP circuits.

 

[Tom Wells]

Too bad about Sony backing out of HD. I have the table radio, and it's a nice sounding and very sensitive tuner for analog AM & FM. The HD-2 channels drop out regularly though, even though we're only 10 miles from most of the transmitters and the radio is fitted with rabbit ears. (!)

I agree that a lasting benefit of HD is the vast improvement in analog reception by way of the DSP circuits.

??? It's not analog AT ALL anymore then.

That's like saying the vast improvement in sobriety has come as a result of consciousness altering drugs.

To me it only shows how poorly "we" understand analog.

 

[DaveBayArea]

??? It's not analog AT ALL anymore then.

Well, technically that's true. But the DSP receivers operate at a much higher sampling rate than consumer-grade digital audio. Let alone compressed HD or MP3 audio. Some quick searching came up with this: http://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/12492.pdf. That device was offered five years ago. All things being equal, these new radios pretty much double the listening range of an analog FM broadcast, and the quality is still better than 95% of the legacy products out there.

Dave B.

 

[nd2023]

Oh: did I mention the whole system is a technical train-wreck besides? :

I think once or twice, but only in passing.

The aftermarket stereo shops in my predominately white neighborhood have all put disappeared. But in the Hispanic part of town they are alive and well. Guys will roll their '67 Impalas into these places, after spending a small fortune on tiny wheels and tires, hydraulic shocks and blinding pearlescent paint jobs, and install equally insane stereo systems in them. The in-dash GPS/DVD/MP3/XM/radio/iPod-connectivity units seem to be the system of choice at the moment.

The biggest issue doesn't seem to be HD Radio but finding strategic locations for all of the speakers and the 100+ watt amp.

100 watts?

This guy has a 23,000 watt (!) stereo in his SUV with four (4) 18" subwoofers, it popped a girl's glass eye out of it's socket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1B-mQlQGFk

Wow, 23000 watts is more power than many radio stations. No one really needs a loud stereo system in their car.