why is HD Radio so darn expensive? is it worth it?

[evident]

I was toying with the idea of giving HD Radio a shot since I was looking to buy a radio for my bathroom, but once i started looking at the prices its pretty ridiculous how much they are!

is it worth it?

 

[boomhower]

What exactly are you talking about? The only HD Radio I know of is free. You just have to have the hardware to receive it. I have it in my car when I replaced the stereo in my car. It's nothing earth shattering. For the money a streaming device would be a better choice IMHO.

 

[Knavish]

What exactly are you talking about? The only HD Radio I know of is free. You just have to have the hardware to receive it. I have it in my car when I replaced the stereo in my car. It's nothing earth shattering. For the money a streaming device would be a better choice IMHO.

Perhaps he is talking about an HD radio receiver (?)

I can definitely notice the increase in sound quality when my car radio switches from a radio station's analog broadcast to the HD radio broadcast.

 

[evident]

Perhaps he is talking about an HD radio receiver (?)

I can definitely notice the increase in sound quality when my car radio switches from a radio station's analog broadcast to the HD radio broadcast.

yes.

The only product i can seem to get is a cheapie looking insignia ipod looking thing for $50... this brand called sangean offers some nice looking radios, but they are about $100... if i want something that can hook up to my receiver in the living room it's a few hundred bucks. if i want a ht receiver that has built in radio i have to be looking at the top range models... how do they expect this to adapt? is it dying?

 

[kornphlake]

HD radio must be targeted specifically at mobile audio, with all the streaming services and accessibility to a huge personal library of music trying to find something I want to listen to on the radio is tedious, I only tolerate broadcast radio in the car because it's always there, I don't have to remember to bring a device with me.

 

[RU482]

XM earns my money by avoiding commercials. 6hrs a week in the car, spending $6.99/mo is worth not listening to 3 hours of the same commercials a week

 

[NutBucket]

I tried XM for a while. The stations that had decent SQ were too repetitive and the stations with better content sounded worse than AM radio. No thanks. At least they finally quit calling trying to get me to renew.

As for the OP's question, I'm not sure if its worth it. I've been wanting to try it for years but haven't yet. It seems there's an Insignia component tuner you can get on ebay for about $50-$100. The Sony tuner used to be about $100 new but I think they quit making that a while ago.

 

[Throckmorton]

yes.

The only product i can seem to get is a cheapie looking insignia ipod looking thing for $50... this brand called sangean offers some nice looking radios, but they are about $100... if i want something that can hook up to my receiver in the living room it's a few hundred bucks. if i want a ht receiver that has built in radio i have to be looking at the top range models... how do they expect this to adapt? is it dying?

Yes because the electronics industry abandoned HD radio.

 

[evident]

I tried XM for a while. The stations that had decent SQ were too repetitive and the stations with better content sounded worse than AM radio. No thanks. At least they finally quit calling trying to get me to renew.

As for the OP's question, I'm not sure if its worth it. I've been wanting to try it for years but haven't yet. It seems there's an Insignia component tuner you can get on ebay for about $50-$100. The Sony tuner used to be about $100 new but I think they quit making that a while ago.

the sony tuner now goes for $400+ on ebay since they stopped making it.

I love my subscription to XM in my car. But like you said, the SQ sucks. it's funny that i dropped about $2000 into my car audio system but i listen to XM about 90% of the time, lol. I wish the SQ was better. I know a "cheap" way to try out HD Radio is to get a car head unit that supports it, but i'm not going to replace my completely functional one just to get a feature that I dont know that I will like.

 

[Throckmorton]

the sony tuner now goes for $400+ on ebay since they stopped making it.

I love my subscription to XM in my car. But like you said, the SQ sucks. it's funny that i dropped about $2000 into my car audio system but i listen to XM about 90% of the time, lol. I wish the SQ was better. I know a "cheap" way to try out HD Radio is to get a car head unit that supports it, but i'm not going to replace my completely functional one just to get a feature that I dont know that I will like.

The main benefit of HD radio is when you have stations with alternate streams... But they have to be good. Most markets have awful Clearchannel garbage so HD channels aren't going to be any better.

 

[NutBucket]

Exactly right. And a lot of stations use overly compressed digital media for their music. I hear that difference too. Its taken a long time for me to realize how wonderful analog is.

 

[Doppel]

I haven't even heard anybody tout HD radio in years!

 

[Gintaras]

I haven't even heard anybody tout HD radio in years!

Everything HD now...
Years ago - it used to be TURBO - Turbo Chewing Gum, Turbo Lipsticks...

Now, everything is HD....Soon, you'll get Mcdonalds HD Burger...

 

[2Xtreme21]

XM earns my money by avoiding commercials. 6hrs a week in the car, spending $6.99/mo is worth not listening to 3 hours of the same commercials a week

Call and say you're thinking about canceling. They'll offer you 6 months for $25. Rinse and repeat after your 6 months are over.

They make money on quantity of subscriptions over paying full price.

Source: Been doing this for roughly 2.5 years.

 

[Midwayman]

I tried XM for a while. The stations that had decent SQ were too repetitive and the stations with better content sounded worse than AM radio. No thanks. At least they finally quit calling trying to get me to renew.

There are channel with okay SQ? It always sounded like a 64kpbs mp3 or worse to me. Horrible artifacting all the time. I'd sub if they could provide at least 128k mp3 quality.

 

[NutBucket]

OK is relative. The content was crap so the sound quality didn't matter much

 

[Railgun]

There are channel with okay SQ? It always sounded like a 64kpbs mp3 or worse to me. Horrible artifacting all the time. I'd sub if they could provide at least 128k mp3 quality.

That's because the stream is actually lower than that. It's crap.

It's a shame about digital radio there. It runs rampant out here and, while it's quality COULD be better it's still better than fm. And tons of stations too.

 

[CZroe]

Got an Insignia desk radio HD radio for my mother for $40.

 

[SearchMaster]

I concur with most of the opinions in the thread. My car has XM/Sirius and HD radio and decent overall SQ. The quality of HD radio (in my car at least) is significantly better than Sirius and often rivals a high bitrate MP3. The problem with HD radio is that radio in general sucks these days. Sometimes the alternate streams are decent but in general, if you don't listen to a lot of FM radio now then HD radio is not worthwhile. If you listen to FM radio regularly, the SQ of HD radio is worth the price.

HOWEVER, I can't imagine that on a small bathroom radio you would even notice the difference, so unless you plan to hook it up to some decent speakers I wouldn't bother.

 

[mmntech]

I tried XM for a while. The stations that had decent SQ were too repetitive and the stations with better content sounded worse than AM radio. No thanks. At least they finally quit calling trying to get me to renew.

XM's quality declined after the merger with Sirius. Programming quality definitely, and I suspect audio quality as well so they can cram more stations in. Though it's still worth it for commercial free music. Too bad they've put all their resources behind Howard, who only does his show a few times a month now.

 

[Ichinisan]

Call and say you're thinking about canceling. They'll offer you 6 months for $25. Rinse and repeat after your 6 months are over.

They make money on quantity of subscriptions over paying full price.

Source: Been doing this for roughly 2.5 years.

That's still way more than a Pandora Radio subscription or iTunes Match.

 

[Crow550]

Eh I just use my phone and if I want local FM in HD or digital quality. Well TuneIn (unless there is a better app for local stations I missed.)

Otherwise I usually listen to Spotify Radio or Pandora.... Plus the many other streaming audio apps I have installed. Google Music for my collection. Etc, etc....

HD Radios are still a bit pricey and too few devices compared to analog radio. It's getting better.... SLOWLY.

However streaming radio is on more devices and better selection.

 

[Shadowknight]

You can get some HD radios cheap off ebay, that's how I got my Radio Shack one. I got a $10 cord to use the out-jack to run it into one of the inputs on my receivers. It's okay, but like with digital tv tuners, it's slower to tune. The radio I have seems to "hold" the last 6 HD stations I receive, allowing me to switch between them quickly, but if I go to a "new" station, there's a longer lock-time to get the signal. There is a noticable difference, but they most important thing is what stations you like listening to. Whether it's HD or FM, that (and a good signal) is more important than it being HD or not.

 

[NutBucket]

And then there the obvious differences in production value between stations. Its obvious some stations have much better sound engineers than others. And there's the stations that use low quality digital source media. Yuck.

 

[John Connor]

eBay fully activated Sirius radio FTW!

I don't always listen to low quility commercial free radio, but when I do I expect it to be free.