Is a HD radio worth investing in?

That TV signal consumes more RF space on one TV channel than over 9 FM broadcast band channels, that is why. And that TV channel also does not have an analog carrier for backwards compatibility riding on that space. Sorry, not possible.

 

Anything is possible. The ******just won't do it.

 

Where is this bandwidth going to come from? Mobile broadband? Broadcast TV? Which is still in the process of repacking that spectrum? And at what cost? Streaming in High Rez is already there. Tidal for one.

 

Tidal costs money!

 

Good question - Spectrum and radio bandwidth is limited it is a finite resource, and all the bandwidth is already reserved and managed. The fact that they made HD Radio at all work is pretty remarkable in and of itself. There's no way there would ever be hi-rez digital OTA transmission.

 

There are mobile carriers and others already chomping at the bit to take over the AM and FM bandwidth. OTA frequencies are limited. They aren't going to magically grow and become limitless for your entertainment. Norway has already shut down FM and England isn't going to be far behind. We will be stuck with lossy digital broadcasts one day unless you want to pay for whatever replaces Tidal and Spotify.

 

HD is somewhat lackluster in Northeast Florida in my opinion for two reasons mostly. One is that program choices are very limited. Also, radio stations can and often do limit the bit rate of the digital HD signal such that the programming sounds like it is sourced from low-bit lossy digital files. I suppose that in automobiles, this technology can provide additional listening options, but HD signals don't carry as far as analogue ones do. I rarely listen to radio in the car, but rather plug in a digital audio player brimming with my favorite vibes. There is a very good online resource I use to find and listen to streaming radio stations. It's called Raadio Locator Radio-Locator.com . There you can find stations by city or call sign. It even tells you what program format stations are airing. If a station is streaming, which most do these days, there will be a link to listen live. It also provides a link to a station's web site, which also often features a listen live link.

 

HD Radio came as standard equipment in my 2014 automobile. For 2015 models of the same automobile, HD Radio was deleted, no longer available! From what I understand, that was pretty much the only change between the 2014 and 2015 models!

 

It can't be HiRez by design. There's only so much bandwidth available. And not enough bandwidth. And analog FM won't be going away for many years to come.

 

Only the HD transmission is digital. The non-HD broadcasts are analog. I’ve heard some HD transmissions that sound OK with decent bit rates and others with ridiculously low bit rates sounding practically like cell phone transmissions. In my opinion, just about all FM broadcasts sound awful due to excessive compression applied to audio by broadcasters. Personally I think the future of HD radio is bleak at best.

 

Streaming has rendered it obsolete.

 

Thankfully, my radio does FM and HD. McIntosh has discontinued it's HD tuner. It only comes with FM.

I think Streaming has killed HD radio. I guess it's pay pay pay...

What I liked about HD radio.

1. It's free.
2. It could get more stations.

 

Here in PHX there are 100 stations with nuthin' on. Same corporate playlists with the same crappy songs played time and again. I gave up on radio and rip my cds and play them via my Android. I have HD in my Prius and use it on occasion to listen to NPR.

 

There was one blues station that I really enjoyed on HD 2 radio. After the new year they dropped it for a lousy local talk station.

 

What killed it in home tuners, was low demand (streaming seems more popular, and these days good) and strongest signal needed for reliable reception.

 

I have a big rotor antenna on the house, not to mention a bunch of college stations within the city limits.

 

Which is ideal and recommended. And you have lots of HD station options. Many users don't realize that reliable HD radio reception means you need a consistent strong signal, and a much better antenna, especially for listeners further away from the transmitter tower site.

 

I do have some options. Some stations have 3 HD stations. And... my wife can still listen to Christmas music...

 

My local HD stations have ditched the substations I loved for ones that I don't care about also. When I visit my in-laws in Philly I still listen to B101.1's awesome subchannel 2 in my car - great 80s playlist with zero commercials. They played Christmas music over the holidays very very nice. MUCH better sound than Sirius.

 

Probably because a laptop and separate bluetooth speaker is hardly portable is it.

 

A phone and a Bluetooth speaker is exceptionally portable. That's what I use for backpacking trips.

 

As a Kitchen radio, a tabletop radio, etc., HD radio in the USA is still relevant.

If your local fave broadcaster doesn’t have an HD stream, you can still tune them in analog-ally (word?) on your new HD radio. Its' major selling point is the hiss free transmission, the additional sub-channels, the well integrated RDS service which occasionally gets album art appended to the info display. RDS also works on analog FM, as I really like being able to instantly identify a new mysterious song in real time, rather than waiting for a DJ back announcing…

I have owned the SPARC SHD-T750 Tabletop Radio for about 2 years, which is a decent mid-range relatively inexpensive tabletop radio, but it has no sleep timer and slightly clunky Alarm Clock settings and snooze function, which makes it a lacking for me as a bedside alarm clock FM radio, yet works excellently as my breakfast nook radio …

I haven’t seen a decent alarm clock HD radio that is anywhere as versatile and logical as my (ancient analog) Boston Acoustics Receptor FM Alarm Clock Radio, which has an amazing analog FM tuner (digital display).

HD radio “tends” to be about 300 kbps for the main channel and 200kbps for the secondary channel bands, so do adjust your expectations about hi-fidelity accordingly. But HD radio in the USA is a proprietary standard: DAB radio in the rest of the world is an open source standard, which broadcasts all of its channels at ~128kbps, except for BBC over DAB which transmits some channels at 192kbps (due to listener complaints about the 128kbps rate downgrade).

I wouldn’t invest in an expensive hi end HD radio tuner to integrate into a high end audio system, due to the inherent bit rates (would rather stream content at higher bitrates), but I would recommend it if you are considering a table top type radio at a relatively(?) modest budget ($99-$299?)

 

Except when you are in your car. Then HD is awesome, because it can provide two the tree times as many channels to chose from. Plus it sounds much better than does XM. And in my area, we actually get some content which is worth listening-to on a few of those additional HD sub-channels.

 

Huh? I can stream from my car practically everywhere here in California, even some increasingly remote spots, and at pretty much full CD quality (well, full enough for car use, anyhow). And I can stream anything - my own library, Spotify, internet radio, etc.

 

If you want to burn-up all of your data on you phone, then be my guest. Personally I'm on a shared data plan, and only a few hours of streaming over my phone is enough to get my phone's data completely cut-off until the next billing cycle. And that really sucks.

So I love HD radio in the car because it doesn't consume all of my data.