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Built-in HD radio tuners- a standard feature going forward?

post #1 of 9
12/15/08 at 10:35pm
Thread Starter 
Hi folks,
Last year, I bought a car stereo with a built in HD radio tuner for <$100. I really enjoy HD radio and feel like it will eventually be a standard feature in car stereos.

Recently, my ~10 year old 5.1 receiver began to crap out- it seems to have intermittent issues with DTS. I've been in the market for a low-end receiver and was expecting to find a number of them with HD radio tuners built-in. However, this feature seems to be only on high-end models.

Is this a case of the home market lagging behind in the technology adoption, or is HD radio a feature that will only be widely incorporated in cars? Has anyone heard of new inexpensive models including HD radio tuners? I'm asking this because I'm considering holding off on a new receiver for a year in hopes that these tuners will be more widely available, and I don't want to wait in vain.

Thanks for your input!
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post #2 of 9
12/15/08 at 11:05pm
I just purchased the new Yamaha RX-V3900 receiver(more of a mid-level receiver since it's over $1K) a few months ago and one of the new features was a built-in HD Radio tuner. Although I don't listen to A LOT of over-the-air radio with my new receiver, I do listen to some and I wish they HAD NOT included an HD radio tuner, since there is no way to defeat it from tuning into the HD version of a station instead of the analog, except choosing mono, which will go to the analog version, but of course is mono and not stereo. HD radio may sound good in the automotive enviroment, but on large home speakers, it sounds bad(almost as bad as satelite radio. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Sirius, but it doesn't sound that good). The effects of compression are immediately noticeable when the tuner switches from the analog station the the HD version. On most of the stations, the volume is lower and it's not as "full" sounding. And on some, it takes on the "tiny" sound of highly compressed bad internet video/music, especially with the DJ's voices and on commercials. I wish I could remove the HD Radio tuner from my receiver...
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post #3 of 9
12/16/08 at 6:04am
I have the Rx-V863 which also has HD Radio built it. I read in the manual that when tuning channels, if you tune them manually it will only tune regular FM Stereo. Try that and see if it helps.
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post #4 of 9
12/16/08 at 6:10am
Thread Starter 
Good to know, maybe an HD tuner isn't such a a good thing after all at home.
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post #5 of 9
12/16/08 at 10:08am
I bought an Sony HD tuner and sent it back.

I expected it to sound better; turns out that HD does *not* stand fpr high definition.
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post #6 of 9
12/16/08 at 10:09am
It means hybrid digital in this case. They named it that way mainly to make it SEEM like it would stand for high definition - to ride the success of the "HDTV" term.
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post #7 of 9
12/16/08 at 10:28am
HD sounded cleaner (less hiss?) to me on one local station. I would predict slow HD radio adoption though.
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post #8 of 9
12/16/08 at 10:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelJHuman View Post

HD sounded cleaner (less hiss?) to me on one local station. I would predict slow HD radio adoption though.

It sounds better in some ways and worse in others.
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post #9 of 9
12/16/08 at 11:02am
That could be Dono. I am in no way disputing your own experience. And I agree that it would be nice to have an analog/digital switch.
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