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The New Insignia HD Boombox...

What station are you trying to hear? It might just be that your station's signal is really directional and doesn't favour your area. KDZR's Ibiquity stream gives me the same trouble, and I live only about 15 miles up I-205 from its towers! (For the record, even KDZR's analogue signal is nearly impossible to copy in some parts of Vancouver and Portland.)
 
Darth_vader said:
Not necessarilly. I've reliably pulled in KEX's Ibiquity broadcast on the F1HD in the truck clear up in Olympia almost every time I've gone up there with it.....70-some miles north from the tower, and behind many hills, yet!

Your results may vary, of course.....
Click to expand...
There are not many facilities like KEX. Their tower setup is one of the most efficient in the country - 196 degrees in height. Plus there's lots of water in that area. Excellent ground. I can decode KCBS with ease, and I'm about 50 miles away. Again, lots of water and a great facility. But the typical 5-to-10-kw station with their less-efficient towers is finding HD coverage very difficult more than 10-15 miles from the transmitter.

There was a station in Stockton on 1570 that was one of the 1st AM's in the area to try HD. Using a Visteon Jump radio (pretty much the only thing you could get mobile at the time) it would work up to about 3 miles from the transmitter site. That was it. The novelty wore off and I never put the Jump in my new truck, so I don't know if they're still trying or not. But that station's HD coverage was dismal.

Dave B.
 
I bought this radio today, I got a $50 gift card for Best Buy, so what the heck...

What I Like about this unit:
1) it charges my sons iPod

What I Don't like about this unit:
01) No AM
02) No tone control
03) No connection for an external antenna (I made my own, opps there goes the warranty)
04) no force analog
05) CD player doesn't play MP3-CD's, what is this 1984?
06) remove the batteries and the wall-wart connection...you lose all your station presets..ta-da it's like magic
07) all external connections are on the back of the unit, which is okay for pwr and aux, but the headphones? should be mounted on top of the unit
08) telescopic antenna is to tight, I had to lubercate it with 3 in 1 oil so it would be more giving, otherwise it would snap at a weak point if overused
09) flimsy handle, cheaply made.... I carried the unit like a baby just cradled it
10) SD card slot would be nice to add more functionality to this player, and its not like it would have been expensive to add that feature, also would have been nice if any future firmware was released
 
Who would pay $100 for a boombox when the iHome costs less? All you need is that and the $20 HD radio for the iPhone
 
RadioEngnr said:
I bought this radio today, I got a $50 gift card for Best Buy, so what the heck...
Click to expand...

What's your opinion of the sound quality? Not necessarily talking about HD - we all know what that sounds like. I'm speaking of frequency response, ability to fill a room with sound, etc. I just got one of these Altec Lansing i7's and I'm very impressed with the sound out of that little box. So it's possible. Just wonder what these sound like.

Dave B.
 
JohnnyElectron said:
Last time I checked, iPhones were not free, nor was monthly service.
HD is free, and "That's all I have to say about that" (F.G.)
Click to expand...

If someone wanted that HD boombox just for the iPod dock, they already own an iPod or iPhone.
 
My son has the iPod, I am a Blackberry user.

The sound quality isn't bad for the HD Boombox, regular CD's sound actually good
it has a fair amount of loudness without distortion in an open room enviroment
the low end is okay.
mids are spot on
highs need tweaked

in Spinal Taps terms, does it go to 11.....for this unit, yes it does,
it's only has a 5 watt audio amplifier, which I'm sure is barely class-a in its design

as for the HD side.
it runs the siport chip, thats why no AM
I actually picked up one of my HD stations 30 miles away on this unit running on batteries in a moving car with the headphone jack connected to my cars aux input jack
and the sound quality on that wasn't bad
it has great battery life, I been using this unit a few hours a day and its still going strong on ray-o-vac batteries

I received a $50 gift card for Best Buy last Christmas, so this unit cost me $55.00, which I put on my expense sheet, so this radio cost me -0-
It does support RBDS for analog FM
 
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