Shoot. I went and got the new Insignia.
I just had to see what was new with the 4.00.14 software, and see if I could
finally find one that wasn't prone to intermod and overload. The result? It's mostly an improvement, but has one NEW major drawback.
The basic functions of the radio are the same, obviously. The radio itself feels different than my existing one with version 3.00.00 software; the buttons and volume rocker feel sturdy and the unit itself feels more solid. I think the older model, which people here have suggested may be (one of many) a defective unit, had flimsy buttons that often picked the wrong option (seek >> often activated the menu, for example.)
The display features the same maddening blue-on-blue color combination, but side by side and with the same contrast settings, the newer unit looks a little better. Darker, and not as washed out.
Now, to the differences:
- The software version screen data now appears to include a manufacture date embedded in the numbers. Mine says April 28, 2010 10:25.
- As mentioned in another thread, the retail box now shows the same mystery code as on the serial number label on the radio. This one is 10F22, the model with 3.00.00 software shows 9L24. Also in store were a few models (including a returned unit) with 10Exx.
- Button response is now much snappier and so far, no missed pressed or wrong selections.
- Station seek is now over 2x fast as the previous model. It's still not lightning fast, but it's fast enough to not be annoying.
- HD decode is also a little quicker. The previous model was around 6 seconds to decode a strong signal. This model is about 4.5 to 5.
- The signal strength meter now behaves different. It continues to function when decoding RDS, unlike the previous model. For HD stations, it no longer represents data buffering, instead continuing to show the analog signal strength.
- When showing RDS R-Text, the background is no longer light blue, but dark blue, making the text easier to read.
- RDS decode is a LOT slower, and buggy. See below.
- Seek is not as sensitive as before and tends to skip weaker signals.
PROS: This unit does
not have a problem with overload or intermod. After hooking it up in the Best Buy parking lot in east Memphis, the first station that stopped seek was one in Blytheville, AR (about 60 miles north). There was no mishmash of stations or noise, instead it was actually pretty clear. That was impressive. From that RF-dense area, it locked on to several well-out-of-market signals and quickly decoded every Memphis HD station, including the two class A's on short sticks further in town.
The battery seemed to charge quicker than the old model, although it did suffer quite a bit of self-noise when on and charging at the same time.
HD decode is a little quicker, but the real improvement seems to be on how it handles dropouts. The previous model would seemingly fall into a black hole, and take another 6 seconds to get audio back, with every dropout. No so with this unit. While listening to an HD-2 subchannel, there were a few glitches and gurgles when it struggled but minor dropouts recovered much quicker, sometimes in less than a second. Personally, I prefer to hear the digital go to pot before muting, especially if it's just a few milliseconds of lost data. It keep the interruptions from being too annoying, most of the time.
The station seek is over 2x fast as the other model. It was glacial in pace.
CONS: The RDS feature, which was not implemented well in the previous model, is now even more screwed up
! It's almost totally useless, in fact. When moving, I got one station out of 10 known RDS-enabled stations to show up on the display. The rest either didn't register at all, or would display for a second then cut off. As far as I can tell, there is some bug associated with the PS (station name). If the PS is static (as it is supposed to be) the radio decodes no problem. But if it isn't static, as 99% aren't these days, it throws it for a loop. Some stations didn't register at all (no symbol on the screen), some would flash the PS up for a second, then go back to the default screen, and a few decoded properly. Whatever it is, it's irrelevant to signal strength. I stood within eyesight of one station and got nothing, but here in my home I get full decode of another.
The RDS R-Text and PS fields do not remain on screen if the signal is lost or interrupted, as with the previous model.
The seek feature, although 2x faster, skips over weaker signals now. At first I thought the radio itself was more deaf, but it isn't. A side-by-side comparison had them getting the same thing, but the old model is much more sensitive on seek.
The signal strength meter no longer acts as a visual buffer representation when decoding HD signals. The previous model, when a HD signal is found, resets the meter to the lowest bar, then builds up as the buffer fills/data decodes. This was handy for peaking the signal for optimum reception. The current model just continues showing analog signal strength as far as I can tell, which does not always correspond to HD.
CONCLUSION: Overall, it's a better performing radio than the previous model, but that may be because the previous model has some major deficiencies that are unique to the batch I tried out. The analog performance is every bit as good as I've read others have experienced on here and the HD decoding seems to be on par or better, too. Unfortunately, the wonky RDS implementation leaves a lot to be desired. While addressing the problems of the previous software version, they've introduced a major new one that is equally annoying.
Just to add, I let the radio charge as I took the scenic way home. After I'd driven about 100 miles I fired the unit back up and got right in the middle of a minor skip session, logging several stations from west and northcentral Alabama, including WYDE-HD (text but no audio). A few Tuscaloosa, Columbus, MS and Monroe, LA signals were booming in, as well. So I didn't get to really see how it did out in my neck of the woods, out in the country. Some of our "semi-locals" were getting hammered.
