Is a HD radio worth investing in?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by dead of night, Jan 11, 2017.

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  1. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    Same here. In my car we have one classical and one 50% Jazz 50% NPR station which gives pretty slim pickings on analog FM. But in Digital we have 2.5 Jazz and 3 Classical stations which usually means that at least one station is playing something good during my commute.
     
  2. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    This is really a shame because it is a technology that can deliver hi-res audio without a subscription and have many many more stations then we ever dreamed of on FM. Hopefully, car HD radio will keep this thing going.
     
  3. PNeski@aol.com

    [email protected] Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I only use internet by my Bluesound
     
  4. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Ok, but HD Radio is over air, no need for the internet or subscription!
     
  5. POE_UK

    POE_UK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Somerset
    Not sure, but the sound quality of DAB is disturbingly bad, ive only ever heard a hd radio on youtube so cant really say much about them, but again DAB is just terrible at the best of times.

    I dont think you can beat good old FM
     
    Joy-of-radio likes this.
  6. pfink

    pfink Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    HD Radio isn't hi-res.
     
  7. PNeski@aol.com

    [email protected] Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    You don't need any subscriptions
     
  8. fmfxray373

    fmfxray373 Capitol LPs in the 70s were pretty good.

    I bought a Radio Shack Auvio HD tuner and sometimes I use it for KPBS out of San Diego but the classical substation they have is ruined by the frequent talk and pitches for used car donations. I wished I lived nearer to better signals to know if HD has better offerings.
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  9. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    HD Radio is NOT HI-Rez. It is low bitrate MP3 quality. Sorry. Reality speaking. That said, the McIntosh MR 88 is far and away the best HD Radio receiver sonically speaking, and superb on Analog FM and AM too. And the rival to the super tuners of the golden age.
     
  10. feinstei9415

    feinstei9415 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    "HD" stands for "Hybrid Digital", not "High Definition"....

    And I'm another MR-88 tuner fan. Even though it's now off-the-market and was wayyyyyy overpriced, it was far-and-away the best sounding FM tuner that I've ever had (and I've had the best -- two Marantz 10B's and a Sequerra Model One)...
     
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  11. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I can't imagine why anybody would waste a dime on HD radio. Get a nice Bluetooth speaker and stream internet radio to it from stations all over the globe (plus Spotify, Tidal or other streaming services). The fidelity of most internet radio stations is substantially superior to HD radio.
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  12. Gavinyl

    Gavinyl Remembering Member

    Can I play my vinyl on it ?
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  13. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    In the car HD FM is nice because it essentially triples the number of stations which you have to chose from. But I agree that the fidelity is not great. Although I can't at all agree with you that most streaming stations sound great. I'd rate most as being pretty similar to HD FM quality, even though some can be much better than that.
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  14. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I never said HD Radio is hi-res. I said, I don't see why it couldn't be hi-res in the future. I don't believe every station is low bit rate MP3. I read that some stations come close to CD quality. All HD stations do not sound the same. If all of the stations were low bit rate MP3 I wouldn't hear much difference, would I? Also, my McIntosh can do regular FM. So are all FM stations broadcasting low bit rate MP3?
     
    Last edited: Mar 26, 2017
  15. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
  16. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Why is the picture quality of over the air television superior to satellite and cable tv? Can this correlate to audio over the air?
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  17. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Do you know why it is off the market?

    Way over priced as compared to the Marantz and Sequerra models? As someone said in another thread "Every thing is over priced."
     
  18. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Tullman, the reason an OTA tv signal is better than what you get from cable has a lot to do with how they process them down to be compatible with all customers' needs. Uncle Jerry with his coffie and cigs sitting on top of his Philco portable, for instance.
    When all signals went digital, the cable giants had to go out of their way to tell their customers they could get the same great signals from them without the need for a special tv or a new tuner box...lest they found out for themselves how much better a local hi-def signal could be.

    Also, I notice many of the members who like their HD radio service come from the bigger radio markets. Boston, for instance, is one of the most "over-radio'ed" regions in the country; getcha a good antenna, and there's probably enough stations for every bowling team. Multiply that by 3 (most HD sources offer not one but two HD side-channels), and yeah you gotcha a bounty of opportunites.

    But, down here in the small-fry markets, the opportunities are wasted. If they have a budget at all for running an "HD1" signal, it's often just a straight signal from another existing station in the building, in order for their salesfolks to brag about how much of the metro and fringe areas it reaches. Or more useless, a clone of their original signal, all the way down to the restrictive processing you're already suffering from on the original. I can imagine for these low-rent operations, it's just like they might have reacted to the early days of FM: "hey, we don't have room for the local university game on the schedule this week, the Cubs are playing...just put the local game up on the other signal." "Tell your clients they're getting twice as much market penetration, because at no extra charge their spots run on the FM as well.""Heh-heh-heh...we bought the FM license before our competitor could...now we promote the intern to 'Program Director', tell him to listen to the other guys and play the same records, and maybe we'll siphon off enough of their audience to bring our AM station up in market ranking.""Wait, he wants to sign a contract for a year to put a sermon on every week? Tell him sure...if he's willing to do it on the FM instead..."

    A few years ago we had an owner come down to the studio and ask the jock how many people had called asking about HD radio. None, sir; none of our listeners seem to be aware of it. Well it's a good thing we didn't waste any of our money developing and promoting it then...

    We really need a smiley that tears out it's hair.....
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  19. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    No doubt car radio will drive the HD Radio market. Many people take pride in the sound quality their car stereo produces. People like their bells and whistles and HD Radio gives it to them by way of running titles and artists of songs and having 2-3 extra choices per station. Some stations here have figured out they can run an advertisement banner on the display as well...wait what? More advertisement revenue?
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  20. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    You can stream from your car in most metropolitan markets now, though. I drove all over the San Francisco Bay Area streaming from Amazon Music on my iPhone and rarely encountered any issues - it even picked up Comcast wifi signals a good portion of the time, so wasn't even using LTE bandwidth (I get free wifi from Comcraps because I subscribe to their crappy cable service).
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  21. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Two problems, lack of bandwidth. And the fact that HD Radio was chosen by the FCC's technical committee as the system US broadcasters use.
     
  22. Bubbamike

    Bubbamike Forum Resident

    Bandwidth is the biggest issue with the quality of HD streams. A station only gets so much. the first stream is 96kbs, the sub streams are 48kbs. Not exactly CD Quality.
     
  23. Leigh

    Leigh https://orf.media

    According to Wikipedia, it doesn't stand for anything in particular. Quote: "According to iBiquity's website, the "HD" is simply a brand name and has no meaning"
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  24. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    An HD radio will still tune non-HD, "normal" stations, so don't worry about that.

    The HD digital part is kind of piggybacked on the "side" of the normal analog signal. Generally it makes AM sound way better, but for non-moving applications like home I don't know that FM is improved much. That would really depend on the implementation in the individual radio model.
     
  25. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Well that was my original question. If they have enough bandwidth to send a 1080i or 720p picture and audio for my tv, why don't they have enough for hi-res audio on my radio?
     
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