Sangean HDT-1X HD Radio Component Tuner
by Sangean America, Inc.
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List Price: Our Price: $202.43 You Save: $47.56 (19%) Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sangean HDT-1X HD Radio Component Tuner
Customer Review: Excellent unit and great customer support from Sangean
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm mostly a classical music listener. And I don't say that to be snobbish to those who listen to other kinds of music. In fact, I have very diverse tastes in music, and I like to view new equipment purchases with that mindset. However, if you're accustomed to listening to the only classical FM station in town that is always sort of scratchy sounding, you may have wondered why HD radio was only offered for vehicles in the beginning stages of HD. This unit is your answer. Despite any shortcomings, this is a great bargain, and you can't go very much wrong here.
There are a lot of things I really like about his unit. For not too much over $200-ish, you can upgrade your home stereo system to receive HD radio broadcasts. I think that's a pretty decent price for a system makeover. For the classical music listeners, you will be stunned by the CD-quality broadcasts and the silence in-between the quietest passages.
I found many features in this unit to be very helpful, not only to those who are just exploring HD radio, but to those who are a bit nerdy and knowledgeable about audio stuff. During the setup process, the Signal Strength Indicator ("SSI" on the display) was of tremendous help, since antenna placement is often tricky in certain areas. The other sort-of unique thing I've found out about HD radio is the best analog antenna placement does not always equate the best HD antenna placement. (Seattle KING-FM listeners please take note.) So please pay attention to your SSI (signal strength indicator) display during setup. Sudden fade-ins and fade-outs for HD reception may indicate you need to re-arrange the FM dipole 90 degrees or so. Crummy analog reception for analog FM may not always translate to lousy HD reception and vice versa. Experiment with your antenna!
I like a log of things about the front panel display and information. Please keep pressing the "Info" button on the unit or remote to accommodate your desire for information. Even the clock is pretty easy to set up and is practically intuitive. In that case, I almost had to refer to the manual. The instructions seemed to be pretty well written, with the exception of some typos and perhaps some assumed abbreviations.
I have a few very minor complaints about this unit. It seems to have some sort of protection circuitry to protect itself in case of a power outage or a "power bump." If you unplug the unit, you may wish to wait an hour or so before plugging it back in. If you plug the unit back in right away after unplugging it and try to get it to work, you may think it is completely DOA. Some uses may do what I did and end up writing frantic e-mails to the seller or manufacturer. I've heard of some electronics technicians refer to this as a "crowbar circuit." Note to Sangean: Please spell out this idiosyncrasy in your enclosed (and online) instructions in "plain talk" language. You may save yourself a LOT of service calls. What I do appreciate is a live voice on the other end of the Sangean toll-free number to answer these questions. We certainly don't have a lot of power outages here in Seattle, but this "bug" may cause some people to scratch their heads.
The other very, very minor complaint I have is the tolerances on the optical SPDIF optical socket. I have tried several different brands of SPDIF optical cables on the back panel socket and they didn't seem to "lock in" and stay put without slipping out with much resistance. I appreciate the built-in dust cover on the back panel SPDIF socket, but tighter tolerances of the optical SPDIF socket could have made the look and feel of this unit truly professional in that regard.
Overall, this unit is really a gem and rock solid. If you don't want to spend a bunch of money on a new receiver or preamp/tuner to upgrade your system to HD Radio, this is certainly the way to go. And thanks to Sangean for being on the cutting edge of this technology and for listening to the needs of the consumer. Those of us (especially classical listeners) who had HD radio in our cars when it was first introduced and wished it was in our homes really do appreciate your efforts. Thank you.
Customer Review: Excellent unit and great customer support from Sangean
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm mostly a classical music listener. And I don't say that to be snobbish to those who listen to other kinds of music. In fact, I have very diverse tastes in music, and I like to view new equipment purchases with that mindset. However, if you're accustomed to listening to the only classical FM station in town that is always sort of scratchy sounding, you may have wondered why HD radio was only offered for vehicles in the beginning stages of HD. This unit is your answer. Despite any shortcomings, this is a great bargain, and you can't go very much wrong here.
There are a lot of things I really like about his unit. For not too much over $200-ish, you can upgrade your home stereo system to receive HD radio broadcasts. I think that's a pretty decent price for a system makeover. For the classical music listeners, you will be stunned by the CD-quality broadcasts and the silence in-between the quietest passages.
I found many features in this unit to be very helpful, not only to those who are just exploring HD radio, but to those who are a bit nerdy and knowledgeable about audio stuff. During the setup process, the Signal Strength Indicator ("SSI" on the display) was of tremendous help, since antenna placement is often tricky in certain areas. The other sort-of unique thing I've found out about HD radio is the best analog antenna placement does not always equate the best HD antenna placement. (Seattle KING-FM listeners please take note.) So please pay attention to your SSI (signal strength indicator) display during setup. Sudden fade-ins and fade-outs for HD reception may indicate you need to re-arrange the FM dipole 90 degrees or so. Crummy analog reception for analog FM may not always translate to lousy HD reception and vice versa. Experiment with your antenna!
I like a log of things about the front panel display and information. Please keep pressing the "Info" button on the unit or remote to accommodate your desire for information. Even the clock is pretty easy to set up and is practically intuitive. In that case, I almost had to refer to the manual. The instructions seemed to be pretty well written, with the exception of some typos and perhaps some assumed abbreviations.
I have a few very minor complaints about this unit. It seems to have some sort of protection circuitry to protect itself in case of a power outage or a "power bump." If you unplug the unit, you may wish to wait an hour or so before plugging it back in. If you plug the unit back in right away after unplugging it and try to get it to work, you may think it is completely DOA. Some uses may do what I did and end up writing frantic emails to the seller or manufacturer. I've heard of some electronics technicians refer to this as a "crowbar circuit." Note to Sangean: Please spell out this idiosyncrasy in your enclosed (and online) instructions in "plain talk" language. You may save yourself a LOT of service calls. What I do appreciate is a live voice on the other end of the Sangean toll-free number to answer these questions. We certainly don't have a lot of power outages here in Seattle, but this "bug" may cause some people to scratch their heads.
The other very, very minor complaint I have is the tolerances on the optical SPDIF optical socket. I have tried several different brands of SPDIF optical cables on the back panel socket and they didn't seem to "lock in" and stay put without slipping out with much resistance. I appreciate the built-in dust cover on the back panel SPDIF socket, but tighter tolerances of the optical SPDIF socket could have made the look and feel of this unit truly professional in that regard.
Overall, this unit is really a gem and rock solid. If you don't want to spend a bunch of money on a new receiver or preamp/tuner to upgrade your system to HD Radio, this is certainly the way to go. And thanks to Sangean for being on the cutting edge of this technology and for listening to the needs of the consumer. Those of us (especially classical listeners) who had HD radio in our cars when it was first introduced and wished it was in our homes really do appreciate your efforts.
Customer Review: Great tuner for $200!
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted to update to HD radio, since my favorite stations were pitching it as well as compare it to my analog tuner. My home theater/hi fi system is composed of separates (pre-amp processor, amp, DAC, etc.) vs. a Receiver. This is a good tuner to add to such a system. It offers both analog outputs (RCA) and a digital output which you can use to connect to a DAC or directly to your receiver's/pre-amp processor's digital input to help improve and/or modify the sound vs. the internal DAC built in the tuner. Whether you listen to a traditional analog tuner or an HD radio tuner, you're still listening to music that has been digitally ripped. A friend of mine who was the Engineering Director at my favorite Los Angeles classical radio station told me that his station now rips music from CD's or LP's, stores them then uploads it to an earth station in the Northern US, where it is transmitted to a satellite back to a mountaintop in L.A., where it's processed again into analog radio wave or digital (HD) radio wave. And yet, they sound excellent. This is how most stations transmit radio today, even my favorite Jazz station. So for someone to make the claim that by listening to an analog tuner, you're getting that "old-fashioned" analog sound isn't quite accurate. Another point to consider is that many radio stations use compression, to keep the volume steady (lower the high volume and raise the lower volume). This drives me nuts when I hear music playing softly, crescendo to a loud volume, only to have the dynamic impact reduced by the compression. Same in reverse when you hear loud music, then the soft part comes on loud. The Sangean unit helps to either reduce this effect or eliminate it since compression takes place in the ripping process. The Sangean HDT-1X outputs both analog and HD, so you can compare them side-by-side.
A site that reviewed the Sangean with substantially more expensive audiophile tuners is (I have to spell it because of the no U R L rules) positive-feedback dot com. Go to positive feedback online archive and look up Issue 30. It's toward the bottom of the Hardware reviews section under Sangean HDT-1 High-Definition Radio Component Tuner. You will be quite surprised at how the Sangean performed in the review.
Things I like about this tuner.
1. It's inexpensive.
2. You get "extra" radio stations in the sub-bands of each station's frequency; e.g. my old classical station who changed formats' broadcasts in HD. There are usually 1 to 3 extra stations in each sub frequency.
3. Sound in the HD is good (based on the stations I listen to); full bodied, quiet background, very dynamic, musical sounding, better than listening to mp3's or ACC's at 256k. Things like cymbals, triangles, and high pitched instruments, a killer for digital to reproduce without digital harshness, are rendered quite well. Voices sound reasonable and full-bodied. Soundstage is convincing, both deep and wider than typical compressed formats (mp3's, AAC's, etc.).
Customer Review: It Works Good!
Summary: 4 Stars
I was soooooooo happy to get my regular analog FM receiver working with the Terk FM Pro antenna that I got interested in HD radio. I bought the Sangean HDT-1X HD Component AM/FM Tuner and it worked fine except for the bright blue screen, and it has a huge ugly digital clock when you turn the unit off. Where is the button to turn that off completely? Options please! Better yet they should have put a standard display on it in the first place. The Terk FM Pro antenna almost eliminated the need for the tuner to default to regular FM. HD having to revert back to standard FM when the HD signal faded was one of the downers that I read about on the internet. Some people said it happened a lot. Although under impressed with HD, I will keep it to get good AM reception. Don't miss-understand, HD does work good but maybe I just have to get used to it. I wasn't a purist that had a problem with CD sound over albums when CD's first came out. Remember those guys? Maybe I am just used to the fuller midrange sounds from the way standard FM is mixed for transmission. I used the Terk AM 1000 antenna with the HD receive as well. The Terk AM antenna made the regular AM radio work great all by itself. But just not as clear as HD AM. For talk radio HD AM is like the guy is sitting right there in the room. It was amazing to find that HD AM gets turned off at night. For a while I could not understand why I wasn't getting any HD AM at night???? It turns out that the signal is so strong that at night it travels farther and interferes with HD AM and other AM stations in nearby towns. To compensate, supposedly the FCC made a rule that HD AM can not be broadcast at night. Ya would have thought the big brains could have figured that one out technically before they approved and set up the system "ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY." A big round of Duhhhhhhhh! for the designers please! I really am thinking that some other all digital system that is more robust will eventually take HD radio's place. But again, it is still pretty good, and maybe the bugs will get worked out over time. One thing that is not made clear is that you can scan from one main HD channel to the next. Each analog station can have up to 3 digital channels, each with less bandwidth, or one digital channel with full bandwidth. Right now it seems that each analog station has one main HD digital channel, and one additional channel with less bandwidth. Since the station up down scan button goes from one main HD channel to the next, you have to use a separate scan button to get to the extra HD channels. I read another article that made this sound like a big problem. To me it is not a problem. It actually seems somewhat logical. It is like going from one store to another. Once you get there, you have to get out of your car and go in to see what they have. But overall right now HD is good. Not great, but good. Oh one other thing HD does not mean high definition. It means hybrid digital. That means when the digital signal fades, it reverts to regular FM. It is not horrible or terribly noticeable. But it is what it is. Enjoy!Customer Review: Sangean HDT-1X Radio Scores Well in Los Angeles
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had the Sangean HDT-1X Radio for a few days now, and it's working well. I live in LONG BEACH, CA, about 25 miles from L.A., and the HDT-1X is locking into the available HD-2 and HD-3 stations just fine (approx. 25 in all, about 8 of which I like). One by one the stations I have listened to most in recent years have disappeared from the AM & FM dial, ultimately ending up on HD (let's just call it Hybrid Digital). With Sangean HDT-1X I have some of these favorites back. For example, 94.7 KTWV--the SMOOTH jazz version (HD-2) which was so popular for years and years; K-MOZART 105.1 (HD-2) CLASSICAL Music; RETRO (formerly Retro 1260 AM, now 105.1 FM (HD-3) Standards/Swing. Admittedly, the latter isn't high fidelity, but it's still much better than when it was on AM 1260 with all the buzzing and humming! Well, you get the idea.
Setting up the HDT-1X was fairly easy (my first attempt with HD Radio), and I find the dimmable DISPLAY, the programmable REMOTE, and RCA connections all work quite well. By the way, the REMOTE does NOT require the pushing of two buttons have some have claimed (once your preset stations are programmed in). Just a quick, light tap of any of the numbered keys sends you right to the preset station you want. And, unlike so many of the tiny, thin remotes out there now (with the little "bubble" buttons), this remote fits nicely in your hand and is sensibly laid out. (By the way, the same 10 preset buttons are on the unit as well.)
You can tune this unit with MANUAL TUNING (1 hz at a time), with a SEEK of all stations in your area, or with a HD SEEK button which quickly locks in only on the HD stations available. Very handy!
I recommend this unit for those hunting for lost stations living in urban areas with lots of HD programming. However, if you're after multitudes of free radio, you might consider what I'm now playing with: INTERNET RADIO. It's much more difficult to set up, and even a bit clumsier to run than HD Radio, but my goodness--dozens and dozens of stations in each genre you like! It's amazing!! Try the GRACE SOLO, just $90 (it has not speakers, but plugs into your stereo amplifier) and it really works.