The Jensen 525i HD Table radio and I-pod docking unit for $149.99 and a Gigaware AM/FM HD radio and I-pod docking station for $129.99. The store also had an Accurian on sale for $69.37. All of which begged the question: Are we there yet? I thought Radio Shack had given up on HD radio sales.
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Seen today at Radio Shack in Davis, CA.
- Thread starter RadioStarOne
- Start date
I wrote a review of the Jensen HD table radio on this board back in December. $149.99 for audio quality roughly equivalent of a $15 GPX radio-cassette you'd buy at Rite-Aid. And even if it sounded WONDERful - who's gonna plunk down 1.5 C-notes in this economy for a RADIO?? Inquiring minds want to know.
Were these HD units returns? I'd be willing to bet the Accurian is open-box clearance, especially at that price.
It was last summer when I visited a local RS and was told the company was going "catalog-only" with Accurian HD Radios - which I took to mean, when the current production is sold, there won't be any more.
Haven't seen one on display since.
Were these HD units returns? I'd be willing to bet the Accurian is open-box clearance, especially at that price.
It was last summer when I visited a local RS and was told the company was going "catalog-only" with Accurian HD Radios - which I took to mean, when the current production is sold, there won't be any more.
Haven't seen one on display since.
BTW - idle curiosity moved me to visit the RS website and its link for the Jensen 525i. A total of eight customer ratings and comments were posted. Quoting three of them:
"Stay away" (one * out of 5) - unreliable, no, would not recommend to a friend
"Ugly and couldn't pick up HD signals" (one *) - unreliable, would not recommend
"Technical problems" (one *) - unreliable, would not recommend
There were a couple "conditional" okay ratings and one that was suspiciously gushing about the thing being "a great value." (Right. $150 for a radio and iPod docker. Sure. GREAT value. :
)
I note from my personal experience that the 525i couldn't pick up ANYTHING in HD digital mode, even though it appeared to be attached to a store master antenna.
"Stay away" (one * out of 5) - unreliable, no, would not recommend to a friend
"Ugly and couldn't pick up HD signals" (one *) - unreliable, would not recommend
"Technical problems" (one *) - unreliable, would not recommend
There were a couple "conditional" okay ratings and one that was suspiciously gushing about the thing being "a great value." (Right. $150 for a radio and iPod docker. Sure. GREAT value. :
)I note from my personal experience that the 525i couldn't pick up ANYTHING in HD digital mode, even though it appeared to be attached to a store master antenna.
I haven't picked up a Jensen myself, but I have noticed that at the Canandaigua, NY Radio Shack they have the Jensen's line-in port connected to a Sirius satellite radio to play the Sirius content instead of local radio. I asked if maybe they should hook up an antenna so consumers could actually experience an HD Radio signal...see if it works for them...and they refused. Punks. I've been buying lots of stuff and then returning it just to make their lives a little more difficult.
I wonder if they'll keep that obnoxiousness up when Sirius goes bankrupt and can't afford to spiff RS for all the satradios they sell.
I wonder if they'll keep that obnoxiousness up when Sirius goes bankrupt and can't afford to spiff RS for all the satradios they sell.
With Canandaigua being roughly 35 air miles distant from Rochester's HD transmitting sites, I would wager the Jensen won't pick up any HD signals there anyway. That's why that RS has a direct audio source connected. At least that way you can make that cheesy little thing make some noise.
Please note I couldn't get it to pick up HD in Rochester within ten miles of the local transmitters. It's a safe bet that HD would be a no-show in Canandaigua on that radio.
Please note I couldn't get it to pick up HD in Rochester within ten miles of the local transmitters. It's a safe bet that HD would be a no-show in Canandaigua on that radio.
I'll take that bet. WVOR broadcasts in HD and is barely three miles from that Radio Shack, and nearly with LOS. Even with a rat-tail antenna it'd probably come in just fine. Also, WDVI and WBEE broadcast from Baker Hill, about 13 miles away...more than close enough to get with a decent antenna. Even WROO would come in on HD. And WHAM comes in just fine on most radios during the day. Nighttime it gets a little more dicey...depends more on the radio.
BTW, I have had three different in-car HD Radio receivers, and I currently have four different home HD Radio receivers, each with the stock antenna. Obviously my experience alone cannot be used as a universal example for everyone, but you can't deny I've got the ability to test this stuff more thoroughly than the average consumer.
FWIW, with the possible exception of WVOR, in a electronics-rich/concrete-wall environment like a Radio Shack store in a strip mall, I will grant you that quality radio reception pretty much demands a decent antenna. But that's just common sense, and it's not like Radio Shack doesn't have access to somewhat-quality antennas. I've seen them on the shelves! I've convinced managers to hook them up before...and they DO work when they do that.
No, the Canandaigua manager (and the Geneva store, too) refuse to do it because Sirius satradio pays Radio Shack not only to give prominent display to satradio products, but also pays a commission for each radio/contract they sell. The aforementioned "spiffing". Since HD Radio does not one, central promoter to manage such an effort, it has suffered from lack of promotion on the storefront end. And before you say that's iBiquity's job to do that kind of promotion, I counter that's like saying it's AC Delco's job to buy ads for local used-car dealers. iBiquity supplies the parts, not the finished product. If anything it's the NAB's job, sort of.
That's funny, I listen to WXXI-HD3 every day on my drive back and forth from Canandaigua (20 miles) to Geneva (another 20 miles). Granted, in the second half of that drive, WXXI-HDn starts dropping out a lot...until about the Seneca Transfer station (i.e. town dump) it becomes unlistenable. That's true for most of the Rochester-area stations.
Something I noticed, Bob...there are TEN reviews on the Radio Shack website for the Jensen. Four are one- or two-star (bad), one is three-star (middle) and five are four- or five-star (good). Interestingly, only one person even mentions the iTunes Tagging, and not really in a positive way (they gripe that it appears too often). That's kind of surprising...iTunes Tagging was supposed to be a "killer app" and logically it really should be; one-touch shopping for a song you like while you're hearing it. Oh well, maybe it's still too new to the public psyche.
Okay, aaron - so in what is arguably an industry-wide "best-case scenario" for HD, you are able to get a full Class B signal (WXXI) in HD with or without subs - over essentially flat terrain with no interference issues - for TWENTY miles, "with a decent antenna," whatever that means. And you concede that the subs from other Rochester Class B stations perform in much the same manner - dropping out between 13 and 20 miles from the TX site. (For the sake of argument I'll concede that your two Class A examples, with very near TX sites (WVOR and WROO) will probably show HD that works.) Is this an "HD success story" from your perspective?
Let me state once more: as has been observed here and elsewhere, exhaustively, in a provable point which HD's remaining fans refuse to acknowledge. CONSUMERS WILL NOT BE BOTHERED WITH ANTENNA STRINGING, ORIENTATION OR FIDDLING. If they get it home, plug it in and don't get out-of-the-box performance - back it goes to the store for a return. Period. Which brings me to the next point.
You think that a radio (the Jensen 525i) where HALF of the RS reviewers rate it unacceptably, with one or two stars out of five, is an example of a SUCCESSFUL consumer device?
As far as the who-struck-John nature of the argument about whose responsibility it is to promote HD to the stores, I really don't know and I really don't care. It doesn't matter. Someone should have developed a strategy to make sure the retailers were educated. The Alliance and iBiquity and the NAB can all point fingers at each other or the investor group broadcasters; at the end of the day the HD system has to succeed or fail on its own merits. If it's the flop I argue it is - the blame-laying is irrelevant.
Let me state once more: as has been observed here and elsewhere, exhaustively, in a provable point which HD's remaining fans refuse to acknowledge. CONSUMERS WILL NOT BE BOTHERED WITH ANTENNA STRINGING, ORIENTATION OR FIDDLING. If they get it home, plug it in and don't get out-of-the-box performance - back it goes to the store for a return. Period. Which brings me to the next point.
You think that a radio (the Jensen 525i) where HALF of the RS reviewers rate it unacceptably, with one or two stars out of five, is an example of a SUCCESSFUL consumer device?
As far as the who-struck-John nature of the argument about whose responsibility it is to promote HD to the stores, I really don't know and I really don't care. It doesn't matter. Someone should have developed a strategy to make sure the retailers were educated. The Alliance and iBiquity and the NAB can all point fingers at each other or the investor group broadcasters; at the end of the day the HD system has to succeed or fail on its own merits. If it's the flop I argue it is - the blame-laying is irrelevant.
No, I said 20 miles to Canandaigua, and another 20 miles to Geneva. That would mean the dropouts start at about 30-35 miles or so, which is about the distance to the protected service contour.
Okay, I'll admit...WXXI is lucky in that they're the rare NCE station that doesn't really have anyone on an adjacent channel close to home...but they do have WCNY on 91.3, and those two signals definitely affect each other's HD as you move east from Canandaigua towards Geneva. Much the same way WEOS and WRVO beat up on each other.
No, my point was that you can't read too much into website reviews...the lack of cogent details for many of the negative AND positive reviews makes them all suspicious to me. I suspect many of them are people who didn't RTFM and also had unrealistic expectations. You sure as hell can't cherry pick the ones you agree with and say it proves your case, be it positive or negative.
I don't buy it. If that's the case, then stations like WYSL and WXXI should have zero listeners, because you sure as hell can't get an AM station without an antenna these days. Not unless you're a clear channel freq and even then it's often a crapshoot. I think listeners will do quite a lot of fiddling if they're trying to get content they actively want, as opposed to flipping on a radio to get the same-old, same-old.
Well, either the HD extends as far as the protected contour - in which case we don't really need -10 dBc, now, do we, aaron? - or it doesn't. Either the HD2 or 3 drops out annoyingly somewhere within your commute or it does not. Industrywide experience largely indicates the former is typical, or the "digital power increase controversy" wouldn't exist.
As far as the RS website reviews on the Jensen go, I'm not reading anything into them. I quoted three out of eight negative reviews existing at the time of my post. I'm merely suggesting that any consumer item with this level of dissatisfaction isn't going to remain on retailers' shelves for long. It's a HUGE problem for retailers to handle returns, because they inevitably take it in the shorts on every unit that comes back. If they can reasonably expect to lose money on items they feature, they won't feature them for long. If you find the reviews "suspicious," so be it.
And as far as "you sure as hell can't get an AM station without an antenna these days," what can I say? I think that news would startle the untold millions listening daily to AM via their Bose Wave, Tivoli PAL, bedside clock radios, multiband portables, Walkmans, GE SuperRadios, or even All-American Fives from the 1950s - all using 65-year old tech known as "the ferrite bar" internal antenna.
Look, aaron, I've had lunch with you and Fybush and Freebird and I get it: you're an unabashed fan of HD Radio. Yours was the only positive comment filed with the Commission on the SatRad HD inclusion quoted by RW last fall. I totally respect your belief in HD, even as I vigorously disagree with it.
In the end we're gonna find out who's picked the wrong horse in this race. I like my odds. I'm sure you like yours.
As far as the RS website reviews on the Jensen go, I'm not reading anything into them. I quoted three out of eight negative reviews existing at the time of my post. I'm merely suggesting that any consumer item with this level of dissatisfaction isn't going to remain on retailers' shelves for long. It's a HUGE problem for retailers to handle returns, because they inevitably take it in the shorts on every unit that comes back. If they can reasonably expect to lose money on items they feature, they won't feature them for long. If you find the reviews "suspicious," so be it.
And as far as "you sure as hell can't get an AM station without an antenna these days," what can I say? I think that news would startle the untold millions listening daily to AM via their Bose Wave, Tivoli PAL, bedside clock radios, multiband portables, Walkmans, GE SuperRadios, or even All-American Fives from the 1950s - all using 65-year old tech known as "the ferrite bar" internal antenna.
Look, aaron, I've had lunch with you and Fybush and Freebird and I get it: you're an unabashed fan of HD Radio. Yours was the only positive comment filed with the Commission on the SatRad HD inclusion quoted by RW last fall. I totally respect your belief in HD, even as I vigorously disagree with it.
In the end we're gonna find out who's picked the wrong horse in this race. I like my odds. I'm sure you like yours.
Savage said:
And that's the killer point, isn't it? Killer for IBOC, that is. For the HD to extend out and provide service to a given station's protected contour, it's hash would have to screw up analog reception of anything within +/- 4MHz well beyond that contour. In the case of AM, that hash would have to travel way beyond the protected contour as well - jamming it's neighbors at +/- 20 kHz of the main signal. And, in both cases, the interference issues would be intolerable if you could power the IBOC up - in analog or digital. The only upside is that it might annoy Castro as the fowl hash messes with reception in Havana. That's about it.
All of these digital platforms seem to involve inferior reception range without elaborate methods of reception. And, when the signal fades, the drop outs are incredibly annoying - instead of snow (TV) or static (radio), you just lose it completely. To prevent that, you'd need to pump out so much digital juice that you'll mess things up for broadcasters in adjacent markets. TV is getting away with it because there's a larger spectrum, TV's aren't generally mobile, and most people view TV via cable, satellite or fiber-optic lines. Radio is different - most radio listening is done in the car. If you finally do get an IBOC radio in the car, you'll still experience far more reception issues with HD than you ever did with good ol' analog. This isn't just my point of view; it's a fact.
It's an inferior technology - pure and simple. And, no amount of chamber-of-commerce style boosting is going to change the facts.
It wouldn't be so bad if this failure didn't screw up EVERYONE'S reception with ugly hash in the process.
aaronread said:
I'm a radio junkie who owns many many AM receivers and one HD receiver. I also receive many many AM stations on all of my radios whether they be in one of my cars with a little stick antenna or a power antenna, my living room with a little ferrite dipole or in my ham shack with 400' LW's and 160M dipoles. I receive ONE HD AM station during the day ONLY with drop outs at approx 30-40 miles that sounds like krap both in HD and in analog, WBZ. I cannot receive a 5 KW AM station in HD that booms in here in analog that is approx 6 or 7 miles away. I am also one of the probably 0.001% of consumers who will fiddle with antennas, I have never in my life met anyone who was not a DXer or ham radio operator who could be bothered with even stringing an FM dipole antenna correctly. I hooked up a 400 ft LW antenna to my HD radio and still didn't get any more AM HD stations, I also tried a 100 dollar tunable twin coil ferrite antenna with no improvement. With the stock two turn loop I got no HD at all, my Twin Coil ferrite cost more than the tuner did. HD and especially AM HD is a loser and the sooner they shut off the 50 wide Khz noise makers the sooner the AM band get get to doing what it needs to do to sound good again.
aaronread said:
The fiddlers you are describing are the folks iBiquityphiles denigrate as being DXers. The vast majority of NORMAL people have technically superior sources for information and entertainment that they really want, without having to fiddle with wires and antennas. You may have heard of the invention that millions upon millions already use to access audio and video content.
It's the delivery method that is slowly killing-off newspapers, television and radio.
Thinking HD radio is going to cure traditional radio's ills is like thinking that newspapers can be saved if only publishers used a higher quality of paper or newsprint.
Yeah, HD-Newsprint!
BRNout said:
It's not smudged. It's digital, so you need a pair if HD Newsprint digital glasses to fully appreciate what may look like smudged print to the average person. With those $200 HD Newsprint glasses, you can see clearer letters, advertisements and photographs. The publisher also has the option of placing 2 or even 3 different newspapers onto the same amount of newsprint.
vsa said:
If the $200.00 HD Newsprint glasses had normal but coke bottle thickness lenses in them you have to hold the HD newsprint 1-2" from your eyes and they'd keep dropping out of your hands. To read them at a comparable distance to analog newsprint you'd need a pair of high power $5000.00 HD binoculars.
...Seen today at Radio Shack in Davis, CA...ELVIS Presley listening to "Burning Love" on an HD radio....
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