HD Radio - Next Big Thing or Flop?

What Are Your Thoughts on HD Radio

  • I use it and love it!

    Votes: 4 8.5%
  • I have it but don't use it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • It's a fad and will die out

    Votes: 14 29.8%
  • It's got potential

    Votes: 24 51.1%
  • What's HD Radio?

    Votes: 5 10.6%

  • Total voters
    47
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
I like the sound and the commercial free listening but out here on the west coast you get allot of drop out in the mobile units. Got tired of it and canceled my subscription. To many high bluffs & cliffs where I live. :mad:
You don't need a subscription to listen to HD radio. It's free.

Are you thinking of satellite radio?
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
Mr.M-500t

Mr.M-500t

Enthusiast
You don't need a subscription to listen to HD radio. It's free.

Are you thinking of satellite radio?
Yes I was markw,

I went to the free HD TV and HD Radio. Good nuff for me !:cool:
 
mr-ben

mr-ben

Audioholic
I bought a Sony XDR-F1HD Tuner recently, attached it to my antenna, and I've been using it for the past few days. While it sounds a little better than FM, It's not a huge difference - not like going from SD to HD television. I'm enjoying my new HD radio, but I suspect it'll never become mainstream due to the cost.
 
cwall99

cwall99

Full Audioholic
Content is an issue for me...

I live in the Detroit area, and our NPR station used to have the best mix of music on the air. Then, about two years ago, they went to this really lame all-talk format. I recently found out, though, that they have an HD radio channel that they're using to broadcast their musical library through, and so that interests me as 95% of all the music in my collection I heard first on WDET.

If I can pull in this music collection, I'll be a lot more willing to spend some money during their pledge drives.
 
B

bobyoung53

Audiophyte
Well obviously whoever posted this biased poll loves iBlock, it does not work, it jams adjacent channels especially on AM and artificially creates high frequencies on both and will jam soon if the 10 DB increase is granted by the bought and paid for FCC we unfortunately have gotten stuck with. Good LP's are high fidelity, artificially recreated digital signals are not. Analog sounds lifelike and is much better sounding everywhere and just works much better especially in radio. Most other countries with more experience with it and better systems such as DAB are giving up on it, why is an inferior system such as the junk iBiquity (how do you spell monopoly?) sells still being forced down our throats? FM IBOC is lucky if it travels 10- 20 miles, AM IBOC is so bad anyone who sells it should be thrown in jail. The FCC should enforce their own harmful interference rules but of course big bux talks as much as HD SUX.

Incidentally I take exception to one of the questions in the so called poll, to call something a fad a lot of people have to know about and have used it like the hula hoop, how many people realistically even know what IBOC actually is out in the general public? maybe .0001%, I don't call that a fad, I call that a huh??. Most people think they are already getting "radio with a boob job" right now and haven't the slightest idea they actually have to go out and buy an expensive, insensitive receiver which will probably need a roof top yagi to pull in anything farther away than 10 miles.
Have you seen iBquities new way of getting around the fact the HD won't penetrate buildings (and anything else actually)? Yup, prerecorded signals transmitted in stores and picked up on ahemm... analog receivers in stores, that'll really fool em up on the farm ayy Wilbur?
 
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yettitheman

yettitheman

Audioholic General
HD could be good.. but it is going around in the wrong way.

1: The only Aftermarket HU for a car that has HD radio built in is JVC. All other brands like Alpine, Pioneer, Clarion, ect... you have to add a $200 or so module that can decode the HD signal. Why isn't there more support for that? Why only JVC? >
2: RDS. I actually like the RDS system.. although in America it's spotty at best. There are only 5 stations out of about 15-20 I can pick up and listen to (which is about 33%) that have RDS on them... but all the others do not. AM does not (which makes sense), and the only radios I have that pick up the RDS data are found in 2000+ model year GM vehicles (any radio basically that is not a Delco radio) and certain Chrysler Radios. My Alpine, Pioneer, and JVC HU's DO NOT display the RDS data, but they can tell you what track, album, ect.. from an MP3, a WMA and iPod where as the GM radio won't even play those back!

RDS is also more prevalent in Europe. I think they have good implementation over there for the most part (unless I see otherwise).

3: FM. FM is great and all, but AM has and always will be generally longer reaching than FM. I have trouble pulling in groups of FM stations that are only 50 miles away, and yet... on nights (or when I get skip) I can hear AM radio from New York/Canada. Tell me that isn't cool. That's definitely a long ways away (about 500-600 miles or so). Don't even get me started with what I can pick up on the old Yaesu FRG-7. The main thing is that FM seems to have a bit shorter transmission distance than analog (although increasing power in any station can boost signal strength... but even distances and hills/trees/obstacles cause signal attenuation more so with FM).

4: HD is Hybid Digital, not High Definition. I think HD radio should be High Def.... otherwise call HD radio ENHANCED FM.
 
Biggiesized

Biggiesized

Senior Audioholic
The problem with HD Radio is that it isn't all digital. When the FCC started planning for the analog to digital broadcast transition, why didn't they consider developing an all digital terrestial radio system for broadcasters as well? This is in-band on-channel stuff is garbage.
 
Mr.M-500t

Mr.M-500t

Enthusiast
The problem with HD Radio is that it isn't all digital. When the FCC started planning for the analog to digital broadcast transition, why didn't they consider developing an all digital terrestial radio system for broadcasters as well? This is in-band on-channel stuff is garbage.
Do the idiots in Washington DC ever do anything right ?
 
M

mecolwell

Audiophyte
HD Radio

I am new to HD Radio, having upgraded my Processor to the excellent Onkyo Pro PR SC-885. It replaced a Classe' SSP-25, and older excellent preamp/controller.
I am a very analog guy, listening to mostly vinyl, for serious listening, and FM for casual/background. With the new HD radio in the Onkyo, I have been enjoying the sound of HD and the additional channels, which also have no ads.The Onkyo Pro is set to switch to HD Digital if there are both analog and digital available, and it takes a few seconds to do so, so it starts out analog, then to digital, and the HD sound is clearer, and, to me, sounds better. My old tuner was a fully modded Tube 60's Dyna FM-3, which sounds excellent.
So, I am happy with what I m hearing with HD radio, so far.
Happy listening, and, as always, "Enjoy".
Mike
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Welcome to the forum, Mike! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
 
J

jostenmeat

Audioholic Spartan
I just clicked "What's HD radio?"

I don't have the capability, but the couple of times I was in someone else's car, and there was classical music playing, it would display the name of the work/composer (but I don't remember if there was anything else). That's pretty cool, as I've discovered some good stuff over the radio, but many times I'm not going to sit in the car until it's over just to find out what it was. (Though I've done that on a couple of occasions).

So, yeah, that's my favorite thing about HD radio! :p
 
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