• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

NEW HD RADIO MODELS AT RADIO SHACK!

M

Mike Walker

Guest
So much for the theory that Radio Shack is getting out of the "HD Radio business". At Radio Shack in Boone Mall (Boone, NC...not too far from my home) today I spotted two new HD Radios in their new technology area, near the Ipods, earbuds, and mp3 accessories. There's the PolkAudio HDX3, which looks like a steal at 129.99...though I'll probably wait to buy mine until it's on sale for a hundred or so. Then there's a new model from Jensen with an Ipod dock. Both were hooked to a roof antenna. Since the Jensen model is roughly the size and build of a traditional clock radio, I didn't bother to turn it on. But hte PolkAudio model sounded quite nice. Hell, if only the built-in cd player played mp3 files, it could be a potential Bose Wave Machine killer at a fraction of the price. Ok, maybe that's just my perspective. My wife said it was too big, and too ugly to take the place of a Bose.

It's hard to judge sound quality in a mall on a busy Saturday, particularly during the Christmas season. Plus it was freaking SNOWING OUTSIDE, and I was more interested in seeing my first snow of the year. But it (the PolkAudio) seemed to sound quite nice. I note that these models aren't at the Radio Shack web site yet. But if they're available in a small town like Boone (hope of the national champion ASU Mountaineers!), many miles from an HD station, they must be widely available. I wouldn't be surprised if they're at YOUR local "Shack".

A final note, obviously Radio Shack is sensitive to criticism that these radios can't be properly demonstrated in stores. The Boone Radio Shack had an antenna on the roof (of the mall!), but the manager said it was "just one of the round amplified TV antennas. We'll put something better up soon". Cool!
 
Mike Walker said:
A final note, obviously Radio Shack is sensitive to criticism that these radios can't be properly demonstrated in stores. The Boone Radio Shack had an antenna on the roof (of the mall!), but the manager said it was "just one of the round amplified TV antennas. We'll put something better up soon". Cool!
Click to expand...

I wonder if this is Rat Shack's new sales model: clandestine antennas on the roof to con customers into thinking that they actually work? They might want to try a full length beverage aimed at the local IBOC AM station.
 
So when the shack sells you a new radio, they also sell a rooftop antenna
and a rooftop too, if you need one?

I defense of radio I feel the need to say.
For the record my Bose Wave radio sounds pretty dam good.
Hell so does my factory GM radio, with AM/FM CD player that plays MP3’s.
I recently I sold my VW and the radio sounded really good in that.
My Maganvox radio, with bass reflex AM/FMCD & “cassette player” that’s 10 years old still sounds dam good too. Hell I think I paid $50.00
I have a newer Sony FM, CD player that’s 4 years old and that sounds dam good.
Even my $10.00 clock radio with analog tuning and mono speaker sounds dam good.
The only thing that’s missing in all of them is a USB port. I'll have to add one!

Mike I’m having fun with you. You wrote about the snow and I remember the days.
For the past 7 years I’ve lived in FL and haven’t missed the snow once. Before that I lived close to Portsmouth NH.
 
Finally something we agree on, Pocket. I LOVE SNOW! We had a blizzard in western NC in the mid 90s, and haven't had a "typical" winter since...very little snow, contributing to the drought we've suffered for a long time. Knock on wood, things seem to be turning around. We've had lots of rain this fall, and the mountains have already had a couple of pretty good snows (they ended up with up to three inches last night). Nothing but flurries here in the foothills (Wilkes County), but I've got high hopes!

As for trying to sneak one past customers with the roof antenna, I've got to admit that made me laugh. The criticism had been for a long time that stores don't tell customers, particularly in rural areas, that they'll need a good roof antenna. Well not only did this store attempt to provide just that, but they were very forthcoming that it would be required in Boone (a LONG way from any HD stations!) to get HD reception. In fact the manager told me that when he managed the Mount Airy (NC) store, he had a high-gain yagi on the roof, pointed toward Greensboro. A glance at a map of the "Tar Heel State" will show you that Mount Airy listeners are in a much better location than Boone ones for strong radio reception, analog or digital.

Pocket, I know you're a fan of cheap pocket radios. Me, I enjoy radios that do lots of things. I have wanted for a long time a pocket shortwave radio that has good AM and FM stereo reception, and sounds great off a headphone jack, because that's how I'll use it. I've just about settled on the CCrane SWP (yes, I know it's a single-conversion design that will have signal-overload problems in strong-signal areas. But in a "weak signal area" like Wilkes County, I suspect it's status as a "hot rod", particularly on AM, will more than compensate!) I considered the Kaito KA11, but am afraid that the audio may sound "thin" (lacking in bass) through headphones. My Kaito KA1101 sure does (sound "thin").

Back to HD Radio. How many people here said that Radio Shack was "getting out of the HD Radio business"? How many said the same thing about Best Buy? Look, this technology has "warts". It requires a REAL antenna to come close to equalizing reception between analog and digital. AM HD causes LOTS of interference, and may well be on it's way out. Yes, internet radio is a VERY viable challenger to HD radio in homes (though not cars, or portables). I have a Revo Blik internet radio, connected to external speakers and a headphone amp (the internal speaker is something only Pocket Radio could appreciate. Sorry ;) But FM HD isn't going away. Get used to that fact, and you won't continue to be surprised when new radios, stations, and dealers pop up. Ho, ho, hope you have a great day!
 
Mike Walker said:
So much for the theory that Radio Shack is getting out of the "HD Radio business". At Radio Shack in Boone Mall (Boone, NC...not too far from my home) today I spotted two new HD Radios in their new technology area, near the Ipods, earbuds, and mp3 accessories. There's the PolkAudio HDX3, which looks like a steal at 129.99...though I'll probably wait to buy mine until it's on sale for a hundred or so. Then there's a new model from Jensen with an Ipod dock. Both were hooked to a roof antenna. Since the Jensen model is roughly the size and build of a traditional clock radio,


Not listed on RadioShack's website
Click to expand...
 
This is encouraging - if we are stuck with this inferior technology like we are stuck with "HD" TV (compression crammed in a 6 MHz channel), then the least the iBiquity folks can do is make sure we have a steady stream of reliable receivers.

I agree they should come with a disclaimer that they need an outdoor antenna. The antennas should be right next to the receivers, and a package deal would be a good idea. Sorry - apartment dwellers and office workers, you are out of luck. Unless you can rig something on an apartment patio.

$129 is NOT a good price for a radio. When I can still get a GE SR-3 from Amazon for $40. And it definitely does not suffer from coverage problems.

Yes - HD sounds good, but NOT on a table radio with pitiful speakers. You do not get "hi fi" out of 3 inch speakers. You do not get "bass" out of 3 inch speakers. It takes a tuner connected to a good system to highlight the good sound.
 
rbrucecarter5, I did a bad job describing the unit if you think it's just a "radio". This is a relatively large shelf system, with built-in cd player, and two nice sounding speakers by a very reputable manufacturer (PolkAudio). And, forgetting HD, 129 is much lower than such systems usually sell for! It's a steal!

A side benefit of such systems is, even if you don't live near an HD station, or your favorite station isn't HD (most stations still aren't!), is that the dsp in many of the best radios DRMATICALLY improves distant reception of analog fm stereo. I would gladly buy something like a Sony XDR-F1HD for analog FM stereo, even if HD didn't exist. Regardless of how we individually feel about HD, the cheap dsp technology that has resulted is bringing truly "super-tuner" (as in very high quality tuner, not the Pioneer brand name) performance to very low price points.

AM Stereo may not have achieved it's goals. But it brought affordable synchronous detection, and sync-selectable sidebands to the general public...something really useful to radio lovers, and dxers (in particular). Ditto the dsp in HD radios. Now if the damn radios were required to come with a "force analog" mode! Sometimes, particularly when stations are excessively multicasting, and/or processing excessively, the analog sounds better. And sometimes (though very rarely at my location) the radio won't lock onto the digital signal, and annoyingly switches back and forth. "Force Analog" would only add cents to the cost, but would be very valuable to many listeners!
 
To quote from Mike Walker:
So much for the theory that Radio Shack is getting out of the "HD Radio business".
Click to expand...
and
Not listed on RadioShack's website
Click to expand...

Neither of the HD radios you mentioned as being carried by the one store you visited (Polk Audio or Jenson) were manufactured for Radio Shack, nor are they labeled with their usual "captive brands".

Perhaps some Radio Shack stores are more independent then others as to the inventory they carry.

The much more numerous Radio Shacks in the Philadelphia area are still fully overstocked with "new" and returned, dust collecting Radio Shack Accurian, and Boston Acoustics HD Radios. I doubt they will be reordering HD radios anytime soon, especially now, with a full blown recession in progress.

Once bitten, twice shy.

Radio Shack, Circuit City, and perhaps Best Buy might be to busy closing stores to bother with HD radio trivia and ordering more stock.
 
I've found LOTS of items in Radio Shack stores that weren't on their website for a while. And I've found items on their website with broken links. And I mean BIG products. Radio Shack does a horrid job of keeping their website up to date. But the radios are out there. If they're IN BOONE (a "factory store", not a "dealership", and yes I realize that dealerships carry some off the wall things not at the big "factory stores"), then I'd bet a month's pay they're also at MANY other stores. The "Shack" manager told me they had JUST gotten them in for the holiday season.

Forget Radio Shack. There are new HD models in MANY places. Best Buy has a new Insignia component tuner (obviously made by Sangean, but with a tuning knob). They sell them in Hickory, NC...north of Charlotte, with great reception of all the Charlotte FM signals, as well as decent reception from Greensboro/Winston Salem to the east, and Asheville, Greenville, and Spartanburg to the west.
 
It's very nice that HD radio always works perfectly in your neighborhood. I'm very happy for you.
Unfortunately, not elsewhere.
 
I never said, nor did I intend to imply, that it "always works perfectly in my neighborhood". AM HD doesn't freaking work at all from this distance! And FM HD requires an outdoor antenna.

However, from Hickory (two counties away from where I live, and with STRONG signals from Charlotte and "The Triad" (Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High Point), it works with much simpler antennas. THAT was my point, And again, I'm talking about stationary listening. I still have absolutely zero experience with HD in a car. Just wanted to clarify. Please don't put words in my mouth. Neither analog, NOR digital "always work perfectly in my neighborhood", nor in anyone elses, I suspect!
 
In my experience, HD radio works much better in the car than it does in the house. From my location near Cincinnati, all the local HD stations can be received in my house with a whip antenna, but it is difficult and next to impossible to receive out-of-market FM HD stations from Dayton. In the car, most of the Dayton HD stations are receivable. I hope the Dayton stations will be receivable in the house if the FCC approves 10% injection.
 
But overall, things are looking bleak for HD Radio this Xmas season.

Today, three catalog inserts dropped out of my Sunday paper and into my lap; from Radio Shack, Circuit City and Best Buy.

Only Radio Shack showed a Jensen dockable HD Radio. The other two retailers showed no HD Radio products at all - not even HD-R "ready" products. They did, however, advertise table-top internet radios (from Logitech and Grace/Pandora) and, of course, plenty of satellite radio products.

You can 'happy talk' HD Radio all you want but it's at the retail level where the rubber meets the road and, so far, HD Radio has been mostly a no show.

C5
 
Anyone looking for HD Radio to be the next "hot new item", rising quickly like the Iphone misses the point that, since the initial surge in the 20s, that has NEVER happened to broadcast technology. Which is a good thing. Who believes the Iphone will still be hot, or even made, in a decade? Slow and steady wins the race. FM took FIVE DECADES to reach audience parity with AM (from it's introduction in the 30s to the early 80s). Forty-five years after the introduction of FM stereo, I'd wager that the majority of FM listening is still on mono (on table radios with a single speaker, or blended to mono on car stereos, or home units with a T antenna tossed behind the equipment rack). But there's light at the end of the tunnel, and it's NOT a train. The stations with the largest audiences are already HD. And the shelves are full of radios, tuners, receivers, and car stereos that are so affordably priced that HD is in effect a "freebie". The first thing people will hear of HD is when the "HD" light glows, and they discover "new stations", and better sound. THAT is how broadcast technology wins...people slowly replace existing radios or tvs with new ones which have the latest technology "in there". It's how FM stereo eventually won a place in our our consciousness. Ditto color tv (another slow boomer...AT LEAST three decades from introduction to general acceptance). This same pattern can be seen in digital tv. It's how broadcast technology ALWAYS goes.
 
Len14043 said:
Fortunately, those big yagis won't be necessary after the FCC approves the 10 db increase for FM.
Click to expand...

Actually if the FCC is stupid enough to grant the increase, those big Yagis will need rotators to cut down on the huge increase in adjacent channel interference. ;D
 
Mike is an opstamist. I don't see HD offering anything even worth listening too at this point. WOGL Hd2 is a 70's format. That's not even a nitch format for WOGL Hd2. Why not put Real Oldies on there instead?
WYSP HD2 is KYW. How is that honestly better?
I just don't see it. I don't see it at all. How is one to advertise this technology when there a, isn't personality, b, its camersial free. (Camersial free on an HD2 does not make sense. How is any radio company who is supported by advertising dollar going to keep these Hd2's running with zero camersial load? NO PPM/Diary measurement to see who is listening to what? and those stations that I mentioned, not having what I would termb nitch formats.
Those that had FM radio's in the 60's, back when AM's were transmitting the same programming on there sister FM, was it really worth it?
Was the programming any diferent at all?
Did the FM side have stereo , and the AM not? Did arbatron measure the FM stations as well as the AM to see what people were listening too, what format was working in which markit, etc? I'm not agenst the technology, I just have a lot of questions, which I think are valid.
John
Bensalem, PA

John
Bensalem, PA
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom