Radiosophy HD101 - The ultimate Radio Disney receiver

[Radioman100]

Last night, I bought one of the $99 Radiosophy HD101s at Frys. Though overall, I'm not too impressed with the radio's sound, it does have one unique quality among HD radios - excellent AM reception.

I can pick up every AM in the market with great clarity here in my stick frame house using just the supplied loop antenna. I live nowhere near any of the transmitters.

It's also doing a great job of receiving all the AMs broadcasting in HD. For the last hour, I've been doing something I've never done before - listening to Radio Disney over the air for a significant length of time. It's there and it's solid.

 

[Len14043]

Last night, I bought one of the $99 Radiosophy HD101s at Frys. Though overall, I'm not too impressed with the radio's sound, it does have one unique quality among HD radios - excellent AM reception.

I can pick up every AM in the market with great clarity here in my stick frame house using just the supplied loop antenna. I live nowhere near any of the transmitters.

It's also doing a great job of receiving all the AMs broadcasting in HD. For the last hour, I've been doing something I've never done before - listening to Radio Disney over the air for a significant length of time. It's there and it's solid.

Do you mean the HD-100? I purchased the HD-100 a few months ago for $59.99 with a $40 rebate. The FM section is the best I have seen, but the AM section leaves alot the be desired.

 

[Radioman100]

Do you mean the HD-100? I purchased the HD-100 a few months ago for $59.99 with a $40 rebate. The FM section is the best I have seen, but the AM section leaves alot the be desired.

Looks like the same radio. Interestingly, mine says HD100 on the front and H101 on the back as the model numbers.

 

[SUPERCASTER]

It seems the biggest selling point for the little Radiosophy radio is that you never need new batteries, just use a very long extension cord.

 

[SUPERCASTER]

One of the few things more difficult then making most kids sit still for long and listen in front of a table radio wired to AC power and antennas, would be to convince them to carry the Radiosophy with them to play, biking, sledding, baseball, etc. How long and heavy would the extension cord have to be?

 

[Mike Walker]

My wife asked me what I want for Christmas. I'm a radio-geek, so I usually want a radio. This year I actually can't decide between the Radiosophy for my bedside (I moved my Accurian to the living room, where it's connected to my "main" audio system), or a Kaito KA2100.

The Radiosophy would restore the ability to listen to HD in bed. The Kaito has GREAT analog am and fm reception, great FM stereo, a really nice, room filling sound, good shortwave (I STILL LISTEN, in fact I just bought the '08 edition of "Passport to World Band Radio), and is perfect "lap size". So the Radiosophy will being really good sound on what I listen to mostly...public radio, and classical music on WFDD's (Winston-Salem) HD2. The Kaito will receive EVERYTHING else, and is PORTABLE. If I didn't have any other lap-sized shortwave radios, the choice would be easy. But I do (A BUNCH of 'em...Grundig, Sangean, Eton, Sony, etc.) So I'm undecided. The BEST choice, of course, would be BOTH radios

 

[johneb2johneb2]

Do you mean the HD-100? I purchased the HD-100 a few months ago for $59.99 with a $40 rebate. The FM section is the best I have seen, but the AM section leaves alot the be desired.

Looks like the same radio. Interestingly, mine says HD100 on the front and H101 on the back as the model numbers.

There actually is a difference between the original HD100 and the HD101. The original one had a dark colored (blueish) lcd screen, and lesser output with the earphones jack. The newer one (HD101) has a white colored lcd screen, and better amplifier control for volume and earphone output.
JohnEB

 

[Radioman100]

There actually is a difference between the original HD100 and the HD101. The original one had a dark colored (blueish) lcd screen, and lesser output with the earphones jack. The newer one (HD101) has a white colored lcd screen, and better amplifier control for volume and earphone output.
JohnEB

Interesting! This one has a blueish screen with white lettering, but it also has a very nice headphone output. It will drive a pair of Sony 7506 headphones to earbleed level with nice clarity.

I'm not terribly impressed with sound of the built in speakers, but I'm more impressed than I thought I would be.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

It's also doing a great job of receiving all the AMs broadcasting in HD. For the last hour, I've been doing something I've never done before - listening to Radio Disney over the air for a significant length of time. It's there and it's solid.

You - Radio Disney? Even I quit listening a couple of years ago! My impression was it was a listenable mix of oldies and current top-40, as well as Disney artists.

I'll let you know my own experience with HD in a few weeks. You were right - I have yet to purchase one of the things but one will be under the tree.

Understand - I'm not getting it for HD. The Sangean HDT-1X is a highly rated analog tuner that happens to have HD.

I actually hope in a way it makes a believer out of me. At the very least, I'm going to be able to realistically evaluate the real world scenarios for suburban listeners. Will the technology fly, or will it require vast segments of the audience to become: the dreaded: DX'ers? If it does, HD is is DOOMED. Because most people won't fiddle with antennas.

I do have a comment - perhaps people aren't as stupid as they seem. They WILL fiddle with a myriad of video formats and bewildering cables with cryptic names to get their home theaters working. Will they get on the roof to put up an FM antenna to get HD radio? I'd say the jury is out on that one. But perhaps - they have the capability - if motivated.

 

[johneb2johneb2]

There actually is a difference between the original HD100 and the HD101. The original one had a dark colored (blueish) lcd screen, and lesser output with the earphones jack. The newer one (HD101) has a white colored lcd screen, and better amplifier control for volume and earphone output.
JohnEB

Interesting! This one has a blueish screen with white lettering, but it also has a very nice headphone output. It will drive a pair of Sony 7506 headphones to earbleed level with nice clarity.

I'm not terribly impressed with sound of the built in speakers, but I'm more impressed than I thought I would be.

Sorry, but I think I got it backwards on the colors. The HD101 has the blueish screen with white LCD letters, has better earphone & amplifier control than the original one. Sorry for the misinformation. JohnEB

 

[CW]

It's also doing a great job of receiving all the AMs broadcasting in HD. For the last hour, I've been doing something I've never done before - listening to Radio Disney over the air for a significant length of time. It's there and it's solid.

You - Radio Disney? Even I quit listening a couple of years ago! My impression was it was a listenable mix of oldies and current top-40, as well as Disney artists.

I'll let you know my own experience with HD in a few weeks. You were right - I have yet to purchase one of the things but one will be under the tree.

Understand - I'm not getting it for HD. The Sangean HDT-1X is a highly rated analog tuner that happens to have HD.

I actually hope in a way it makes a believer out of me. At the very least, I'm going to be able to realistically evaluate the real world scenarios for suburban listeners. Will the technology fly, or will it require vast segments of the audience to become: the dreaded: DX'ers? If it does, HD is is DOOMED. Because most people won't fiddle with antennas.

I do have a comment - perhaps people aren't as stupid as they seem. They WILL fiddle with a myriad of video formats and bewildering cables with cryptic names to get their home theaters working. Will they get on the roof to put up an FM antenna to get HD radio? I'd say the jury is out on that one. But perhaps - they have the capability - if motivated.

OH Even better...they buy a HD TV, take it home, hook it to their analog cable box, no outside antenna, and leave the picture in 16x9 or zoom aspect.....

I walk into friends who have done this....reset the screen to 4x3, tell them to get an outside antenna and they look at me as if I just killed one of their kids!!!!!!

Me? I have an outside antenna, a CM-7777 amp under it and I get my HDTV over the air...BOY is it nice...I have friends who have BIG HDs at their house who stare at mine and ask "HOW did you get the picture that good?" Radio??? They are lucky to hook the AC power antenna clip to their antenna screw on their systems...much less the AM loop...(I walked into a Best Buy a few days ago..played with a SONY HD model on FM....one HD station less than 7 miles away, it could not pick up at all! Even in analog....pulled the AM loop, put it on the FM input and got full scale on the analog....STILL NADA on the HD...I walked away)

 

[Radioman100]

OH Even better...they buy a HD TV, take it home, hook it to their analog cable box, no outside antenna, and leave the picture in 16x9 or zoom aspect.....

I walk into friends who have done this....reset the screen to 4x3, tell them to get an outside antenna and they look at me as if I just killed one of their kids!!!!!!

Me? I have an outside antenna, a CM-7777 amp under it and I get my HDTV over the air...BOY is it nice...I have friends who have BIG HDs at their house who stare at mine and ask "HOW did you get the picture that good?" Radio??? They are lucky to hook the AC power antenna clip to their antenna screw on their systems...much less the AM loop...(I walked into a Best Buy a few days ago..played with a SONY HD model on FM....one HD station less than 7 miles away, it could not pick up at all! Even in analog....pulled the AM loop, put it on the FM input and got full scale on the analog....STILL NADA on the HD...I walked away)

Owning that radio, I find that very hard to believe. Did you consider that the station may not be transmitting HD or may have it turned off at the moment? Did you try more than one station?

Judging from your posts, I believe you're in the Beaumont area. There's just one HD station operating in Beaumont.

 

[Mike Walker]

Man that's one of my pet peeves (and they make such great pets! Soft, cuddly, but a little messy)...people with HDTVs watching 4:3 material stretched. And they watch in what I think of as "funhouse mirror" mode, apparently not being bothered in the least by geometric distortion that would make any high school math teacher wonder if a child turning in such shapes had suffered a stroke! Picasso would LOVE the way people look when you stretch 4:3 to widescreen!

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Man that's one of my pet peeves (and they make such great pets! Soft, cuddly, but a little messy)...people with HDTVs watching 4:3 material stretched. And they watch in what I think of as "funhouse mirror" mode, apparently not being bothered in the least by geometric distortion that would make any high school math teacher wonder if a child turning in such shapes had suffered a stroke! Picasso would LOVE the way people look when you stretch 4:3 to widescreen!

Watching my daughter's TV shows - all I can say is it makes hot girls into fat girls. The only girl who still looks good is Victoria Justice.

My relatives with the 4:3 stretched to 16:9 simply say they are scared of burning in the screen.

 

[amfmhd]

Which Radio Disney market are you listening to?

 

[Chuck]

Man that's one of my pet peeves (and they make such great pets! Soft, cuddly, but a little messy)...people with HDTVs watching 4:3 material stretched. And they watch in what I think of as "funhouse mirror" mode, apparently not being bothered in the least by geometric distortion that would make any high school math teacher wonder if a child turning in such shapes had suffered a stroke! Picasso would LOVE the way people look when you stretch 4:3 to widescreen!

The funny thing is this is nothing new. When I was in high school, I had a part time job at the local TV repair shop. This was in the early to mid 1960's when color TV was just beginning to take off. I can't tell you how many homes I visited where the customer had adjusted the TV so the grass was blue, the sky was green and faces were over-saturated purple. What's worse was they actually liked it that way.

I once had a lady call my boss and complain that I'd adjusted her set so it "didn't make all of those pretty colors." When I’d left her home, it was making very nice color. I'd simply turned down the "color" knob from its maximum position to something resembling normal, and turned the tint control so flesh tones on people's faces resembled someone that you might meet on Planet Earth. The Boss ended up making a return service call, where he readjusted it so the people looked like Martians and she was happy.

What people do with HDTV's or other consumer electronics is the same as it has always been. You can be reasonably sure that they won’t read the instructions or that they will not go much past getting the device to power on. In fact, I can't even get some of my own family members to go to Home Depot and buy $50 worth of antennas and mast to connect to their new HDTV's. I've even offered to do it for them, but I'm met with indifference. They think it looks fine just the way it is. Like the lady with the poorly adjusted color TV, nothing has changed.

Most purchasers of consumer electronics simply don't "get it." When you are asking people to adopt new radios or TV's, it isn't very realistic to think that the mainstream purchaser will go to any extra effort to make something work properly.

 

[Mike Walker]

Hey Chuck, I'm just glad they quit putting graphic equalizers (which were the fad for a long time) on myst consumer electronics. They were nearly always used to make the sound worse, in really strange ways!

 

[CW]

OH Even better...they buy a HD TV, take it home, hook it to their analog cable box, no outside antenna, and leave the picture in 16x9 or zoom aspect.....

I walk into friends who have done this....reset the screen to 4x3, tell them to get an outside antenna and they look at me as if I just killed one of their kids!!!!!!

Me? I have an outside antenna, a CM-7777 amp under it and I get my HDTV over the air...BOY is it nice...I have friends who have BIG HDs at their house who stare at mine and ask "HOW did you get the picture that good?" Radio??? They are lucky to hook the AC power antenna clip to their antenna screw on their systems...much less the AM loop...(I walked into a Best Buy a few days ago..played with a SONY HD model on FM....one HD station less than 7 miles away, it could not pick up at all! Even in analog....pulled the AM loop, put it on the FM input and got full scale on the analog....STILL NADA on the HD...I walked away)

Owning that radio, I find that very hard to believe. Did you consider that the station may not be transmitting HD or may have it turned off at the moment? Did you try more than one station?

Judging from your posts, I believe you're in the Beaumont area. There's just one HD station operating in Beaumont.

The Best Buy I was at is in Beaumont.....91.3 KVLU is running HD (1 and 2)....103.7 JACK FM (Tower is west of Beaumont) is also running HD....neither were decoded (analogs were full scale)....IIRC also 98.5 and 107.9 are now HD iirc (I need to check with Mike Todd to verify) Same pitiful story..I have yet to see that Sony work in HD at any store I have been in.

 

[Mike Walker]

The Sony worked at the Best Buy in Hickory NC a few weeks ago, decoding all the Charlotte HD stations (towers mostly, I'm guessing, 30-40 miles away). I've heard others speak of how the Sony decoded HD under (lousy) showroom conditions when other radios didn't. Hmmm.

 

[vsa]

The Sony worked at the Best Buy in Hickory NC a few weeks ago, decoding all the Charlotte HD stations (towers mostly, I'm guessing, 30-40 miles away). I've heard others speak of how the Sony decoded HD under (lousy) showroom conditions when other radios didn't. Hmmm.

I've read that the Sony HD has a cooling fan built-in that can be very loud and bothersome if you keep it at your bedside and listen at low volumes. Can anyone confirm this?