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| Sony XDRF1HD HD Radio Tuner | 
 enlarge | Brand: Sony
Category: CE
List Price: $99.95
Buy New: $85.88
You Save: $14.07 (14%)
New (8) Used (3) Refurbished (1) from $76.09
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 297
Color: BLACK
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 6.4 x 7.1 x 2.4
MPN: XDRF1HD
Model: XDRF1HD
UPC: 027242730304
EAN: 0027242730304
ASIN: B00168Q248
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Sony HD AM-FM Receiver August 28, 2008
Sony XDRF1HD HD Radio Tuner clearly exceeded my expectations! This receiver has an incredible tuner, especially by today's standards, when it comes to DX'ing AM or FM.
This receiver was able to pick up several long distant stations, and picked up a few more HD signals than my other unit.
You will not be disappointed!
Excellent Upgrade on Tuner August 26, 2008
I use this at work, and has really enhanced my listening. Several of my favorite stations were not strong enough in analog, but pulls in very well with digital. One annoying trait, when signal is weak, it just cuts out in digital, unlike in analog, you just receive a more signal that degrades with static.
Great Tuner August 25, 2008
Great Tuner. Receiving HD stations over 70 miles away. I really like the
low amount of processing on Hd compared to the squashed audio major market programmers think sound good. The radio has lived up to its claims.
HD is lossy compression -- what did you expect? August 23, 2008
As I write this, the Sony XDR-F1HD HD tuner is something of a bargain. iBiquity has a [...] rebate on many HD products, bringing the net cost to [...]. Even if you want the XDR-F1HD just for HD, it's a steal.
Assuming it's a good product, of course. So just how good is it? It's amazingly good - at least as far as picking up stations goes. Using an AudioPrism 6500 mini-antenna (which I reviewed and strongly recommended some years ago in Stereophile), located in a part of my condo that doesn't get good reception, 20 of the 23 current Seattle HD stations listed at [...] popped in cleanly. That's pretty good.
Selectivity is exceptional. When tuning 100kHz off-center of an analog-only station, virtually nothing comes through. This suggests the IF strip has a bandwidth no wider than it needs to be, with very steep skirts.
The manual isn't so hot (what did you expect?), but it doesn't take long to figure out, and once you've figured it out, you'll never have to refer to the manual again. Presetting the stations is exceptionally easy - much easier than with most tuners.
So what about sound quality?
iBiquity's claim of "higher-quality sound" is a bald-faced lie, and their claim that "FM stations ... sound like your favorite CDs" patently untrue. HD uses lossy compression, so (assuming the analog signal is of good quality), HD reception _has_ to be audibly inferior.
Is it? Yup. I compared the XDR-F1HD to a recently purchased Parasound T3 on KING FM, a classical-only station. The differences are immediately audible. The XDR-F1HD is slightly darker and less "airy". Worse, the sound is "flatter" and less "refined" -- it sounds as if some of the "subtlety" has been lost.
Most Seattle FM stations broadcast HD, so it was hard to find a decent-sounding one that was still analog-only. I settled on KNDD. There was no immediately obvious difference in sound between the XDR-F1HD (in analog) and the Parasound T3.
I wanted to compare analog reception with HD, but the XDR-F1HD won't let you do that. If a station broadcasts in HD, that's all you get. You can't switch to analog. Bummer.
The XDR-F1HD does, indeed "run warm". The heat is not from the tiny transformer at the back, but (I assume) the iBiquity chip. It doesn't run (what I would consider) hot, but you shouldn't install it anywhere with poor air circulation.
All this doesn't mean you shouldn't own the XDR-F1HD (or any HD tuner). It can get good reception where analog reception is intermittent or poor, and HD offers extra programming (such as 24-hour BBC, different music, etc). But the XDR-F1HD is not a replacement for a conventional tuner -- not, at least, for listeners who really care about sound quality.
The four-star rating is for the XDR-F1HD as an HD tuner. I would have given it five stars if it had the ability to play the main channel of HD stations in analog. (An S/PDIF output would have been nice, too -- the Sangean has one -- but what do you expect for [...]?)
great tuner. August 18, 2008
I've been listening to the XDRF1HD for about a month now. Yes, it's true you can receive distant stations without too much trouble. At night I picked up an AM station in HD from St. Louis (240 miles) and Lexington, Ky analog FM(45 miles) tunes in with no problem. FM Radio stations are using different processing on their digital signals, so some do sound better than others. It has to do with the way the station uses a compressor, (not compression of the bit rate)- so some stations sound denser and more "alive" than others. This technology is still rather new for station operators, so as time goes by, I'm sure they will work out the quality of programs they offer. This tuner offers more music choices with the FM-2 signals locally. It's a good buy for a radio junkie like myself, who didn't want to pay a $200 for a HD radio receiver.
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