Kazaam
Well-Known Member
I always assumed it was, but am I wrong? Who here has it? How common is it in cars these days?
Recently, I've had my first exposure to HD radio (in a car) and will say that I think the sound quality on the primary hd stations is usually much better than their analog HD counterparts.
Granted, I don't know if I'm just being fooled by louder volume but i sure feel that I am hearing something better. And those additional sub-stations can be kind of cool for variety. Though, the sound quality on sub-stations can sometimes be too compressed to enjoy, reminding me of garbled SIrius satellite radio. Speaking of which, I was surprised/annoyed when I discovered that one of the big AM talk stations had a digital broadcast on their AM frequency, but it was terrible. Sure there was maybe a little background hum on the analog AM but voices were clear. But on the digital broadcast voices were garbled like early 2000s internet streams. I thought they used to claim that these HD?, erm, digital broadcasts were going to make FM sound more like CD (true in some instances, IMO) and to make AM sound like analog FM (questionable, at least in my limited experience with 1 station).
Still... I kind of do hope HD catches on. It did seem kind of nice for the most part, so long as the traditional analog is still there to fall back on (for in cases like that AM talk radio station).
Recently, I've had my first exposure to HD radio (in a car) and will say that I think the sound quality on the primary hd stations is usually much better than their analog HD counterparts.
Granted, I don't know if I'm just being fooled by louder volume but i sure feel that I am hearing something better. And those additional sub-stations can be kind of cool for variety. Though, the sound quality on sub-stations can sometimes be too compressed to enjoy, reminding me of garbled SIrius satellite radio. Speaking of which, I was surprised/annoyed when I discovered that one of the big AM talk stations had a digital broadcast on their AM frequency, but it was terrible. Sure there was maybe a little background hum on the analog AM but voices were clear. But on the digital broadcast voices were garbled like early 2000s internet streams. I thought they used to claim that these HD?, erm, digital broadcasts were going to make FM sound more like CD (true in some instances, IMO) and to make AM sound like analog FM (questionable, at least in my limited experience with 1 station).
Still... I kind of do hope HD catches on. It did seem kind of nice for the most part, so long as the traditional analog is still there to fall back on (for in cases like that AM talk radio station).